there are around 400 million internet users in india but less than onefifth of them use the platform for online shopping or transacting any business ecommerce is about 20 billion and growing faster than offline retail but its largely a metro big city phenomenon in a recent report from bain company in partnership with google and omidyar network titled unlocking digital for bharat the research pointed out that around 50 million new users shopped online only once and did not return however the report concluded theres significant potential if new users coming online become eshoppers as well in an email interview arpan sheth partner bain company talks about challenges of growing ecommerce making internet more relevant for new users and more edited excerpts advt why is it that only a small percentage of the population even among those who have mobile internet transact regularly on internetthese are people who are consuming content on their mobile devices but havent crossed the barrier to make an actual transaction online as yet the biggest reasons being lack of trust in getting the right products quality delivery online need for touch and feel especially relevant for categories such as apparel relative convenience of offline channels and very importantly uncertainty of grievance redressal for instance what should be done if a product is to be returned or will my money be refunded if the transaction failswhat challenges do users face and how are these being addressedusers face challenges at different points of the digital journey first for people who are not yet online basic internet awareness affordability despite recent data price drops lack of relevant content or reason to come online are key challenges additionally there still exist dogmas and cultural barriers that dont allow women to access the internet these include fear of bad influences and absence of perceived need there is work being done on this through different approaches for instance the governments efforts in investing in internet access in rural areas bharatnet innovative ideas developed by startups to enable wifi access and programmes targeted at promoting digital literacy amongst rural women advt second once online the challenge is to keep users engaged with relevant content as they get familiar with the internet and eventually move towards a transaction research shows that as users spend more time on the internet the share of transactors increases substantially in this space too there is meaningful progress in the public sector a good example is iffcokisan a government initiative that provides relevant crop and weather related information to farmers in 11 local languagesand finally there are challenges that make users unsure of whether to make an online purchase such as lack of touch and feel options convenience of offline lack of trust in productquality and not knowing what to do if something goes wrong an unsatisfactory first transaction makes the barriers even harder to overcome some ways these are being addressed include building an increasing omnichannel presence in relevant categories and building consumer confidence