ecommerce had a standout year in 2015 when it grew in size from 5 billion to 8 billion and pervaded every aspect of our lives in 2016 it will grow further and sink deeper into our lives albeit in a different form ecommerce is set to become more m or mobile than e commerce that means more users no doubt more users will help companies build scale but they will embrace a few changes themselves companies will go after profitable growth rather than woo customers with deep discounts in other words running on losses cash on delivery cod a preferred mode of payment for many customers will decline as more and more people familiarise themselves with using payment wallets to shop and pay bills user boom onlineoffline fusion there were 50 million transacting users in 2015 this year it will be at least 75 million says rajan anandan managing director google south east asia and india he sees more users coming via smartphones in china for example users browse on the desktop but they transact via smartphones due to quicker linkages to payment gateways companies will have their hands full as more users come on board but they will be up to the task of serving the needs of customers that will lead to the emergence of new categories of services like delivering even milk and water which vijay shekhar sharma founder paytm believes will replace the neighbourhood store you wont need to step out to shop that wont mean brickandmortar will disappear but therell be more fusion between online and offline services he adds here is a tantalising possibility of how this and then walk down to the store to pick up the product selected selflogistics will be an option says sharma sandeep aggarwal founder shopclues says the ecosystem is healthier and is maturing there will be higher adoption of mcommerce and mobile wallets a bigger user base will just be the cue for companies to reduce discounts and focus on profitable growth building scale wont be a challenge for the large players says aggarwal six of the large ecommerce players flipkart amazon india paytm snapdeal ebayin and shopclues together have about 8590 per cent of the ecommerce business in india darwinian competition for companies it will be a year of unit economics and strong focus on profitable customer acquisition revenue and margin says anandan only the fittest will survive anandan believes that unlike 2015 which saw multiple players in each category in food there were 20 plus startups for instance 2016 will see the going getting tough for smaller players i dont see any major funding squeeze but it wont be easy to get money anandan adds ecommerce will make inroads into rural areas traditional business houses such as reliance industries and tata group will enter the business more aggressively one key challenge will be logistics as there is no largescale player that covers the whole country cost