drivers the etailing growth story in india is both real and sustainable it is poised to lead to rapid growth of not only the etailing players but also give rise to new opportunities for stakeholders across the etailing value chain supply side imperatives there are five key supply side imperatives that online retailers will need to proactively manage effectively serving tierii and tieriii demand the changing aspirations of youth in tierii and tieriii cities will drive growth this is evident from the fact that online retail players snapdeal and jabong receive majority orders from beyond top 10 cities the etailing ecosystem needs to develop robust last mile reach to cash in on the demand from tier ii and tier iii cities managing preferences of indian women a recent survey report released by google in collaboration with forrester reveals that women are far more active buyers than men in tier i cities they outspend men online by two to one most purchases by women are in high involvement categories such as apparel fashion baby care and jewelry these categories need different business models than low involvement products like books and electronics ensuring high levels of customer engagement ensuring high standards of customer engagement along all dimensions is essential this entails delivering a seamless and wow shopping experience meeting expectations of product delivery timelines quality and price ensuring that the image of the delivery personnel is in line with product image and facilitating hassle free returns and payments the recent experience and customer reactions post several dhamaka days where etailers fell short of providing a wow experience which has become the new normal corroborate this insight robust information and payment management robust information management is a two way street at one end it forms the backbone of providing a wow online experience this includes the ability of the etailer to customize or show relevant content basis a customers profile previous interactions and preferences providing real time order information and updates ensuring availability of multiple and secure payment methods on the other end it helps the etailer to manage the customer basket better as well as provides an opportunity to cross sell and upsell basis the customer profile and history smooth mobile platform to increase penetration mobile commerce is driving the market in india as per industry sources of the over 70 million mobile internet users there are 20 million mobileonly internet users in india half of these or 10 million use smartphones to access the internet another interesting statistic is that one fourth of women in tier one cities make purchases via mobile this means that not only do etailers need to up their game to provide a smooth mobile platform they also have to be geared to manage the complexity arising out of the nature of mobile purchase which is smaller ticket size and higher frequency of purchase the authors prabhjit didyala is managing director strategy for accenture in india and kiranjyot kaur is manager strategy for accenture