E-commerce needs to earn govt’s trust; must be vocal about aligned goals towards $5 trillion economy

The government is already in the process of formulating the e-commerce policy.

Even as the Narendra Modi-government envisions India to become a $5 trillion economy, India’s e-commerce sector, which is likely to grow from $24 billion in 2017 to $84 billion in 2021 — as per a report by Deloitte India and Retail Association of India earlier this year, there is a need for the industry to stress about their contribution and goals aligned with those of the government in achieving the target GDP, according to Raghava Rao, Co-Chair, FICCI E-Commerce Committee; and VP, Finance & India CFO, Amazon Seller Services.

“While there is no imbalance between the industry and the government but there is always an opportunity to do better. If we want to do more and become a $5 trillion economy, this is how we have to do. Industry has a responsibility to be upfront and vocal about how their goals are aligned with the goals of the government that includes driving towards $5 trillion economy, job creation, etc., and that is exactly what industry is doing,” Rao told Financial Express Online on the sidelines of an event organised by industry body FICCI on Wednesday.

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Indian e-commerce sector, which is dominated by large players including Amazon, Walmart-owned Flipkart, Snapdeal, etc., over the past few months has been facing heat from traditional players against alleged irregularities in the business model, regulatory violations, price control, deep discounting etc., impacting their businesses. However, e-commerce businesses have claimed level playing field between them and other businesses they work with along with creating employment, empowering small enterprises, improving customer experience, etc.

“The industry needs to earn trust with the government by calling out that there are doing the same thing that we are doing which are driving towards financial inclusion, exports growth, job creation etc. This process will build trust. It is already happening but we need to do more of it since you need stability in any new environment,” said Rao.

The government is already in the process of formulating the e-commerce policy to set-up framework around cross border flow of data, e-commerce business model, the security of user data, operating as a marketplace entity, deep discounting, preference to select sellers etc.