2017 was the year that put bharat online two months into demonetisation the hinterland was forced to go online there was an explosion of digitalpayment options to help the transition the forced digitalisation of mass economy slackened as new currency notes came pouring in and atm queues got shorter yet indiansespecially those in small towns and rural areashad got a taste of the digital a large number of them may have returned to cash but they had signalled their huge digital appetite thats why the war between indias biggest eretailersamazon and flipkartgot more intense greedy for the vast potential of online commerce both started priming their pumps with billions of dollars according to a report by financial services firm morgan stanley online retail in india is estimated to grow over 1200 to 200 billion by 2026 up from 15 billion in 2016 that will be 12 of indias overall retail market the number of indias online shoppers has crossed the 90million mark this year a growth of over eight times from 2013 when online shopping began to take roots here says a bcg report ecommerce may have become the default shopping mode in big cities but it is just a tiny segment at mere 24 of indias retail sector just 8 is controlled by organised retailers such as big bazaar such a vast opportunity it became obvious could not be left to just a handful of players thats what drew reliance jio to the war zone indias biggest businessman mukesh ambani is forcing his way into eretailmuch like his disruption of the telecom sectorwith a revolutionary model thats going to upend the business of eretail lording over the tiny 24 of indias retail ecommerce giants amazon and flipkart wait eagerly for close to a billion buyers in the hinterland to come online come they will but when that will depend on the spread of smartphone and internet and how soon the consumer behaviour shifts the bcg report says though 70 per cent of nearly 90 million online shoppers in india are influenced by the information they glean from internet only 16 per cent of them actually end up buying online unlike most other markets only 5 per cent of purchases accounting for 16 per cent of the value are made after consumers followed a mixed pathway using online and offline touchpoints this means that purely offline pathway remains dominant accounting for 78 per cent of purchases and 58 per cent of value jio is in no mood to wait like amazon or flipkart if offline buyers take time to come online or mix and match the online and offline jio has a strategy to lure themit has decided to take online to offline if 2017 was the year of the online 2018 will be the year of the offline offline is the new online the fears of the death of the brickandmortar retail in the west may not be the immediate future of indian retail ecommerce might take a decade