Flipkart and Amazon continue to rule the Indian e-commerce market

Flipkart and Amazon continue to be the most popular e-commerce brands in India with tied score of 92 for the July-September period, according to the latest RedSeer E-tailing Leadership Index (ELI) report.

The story is still the same with local poster boy, Flipkart having an edge in tier-II and tier-III cities and towns and Amazon making the cut in metros. Interestingly, both e-tailers saw a slight decline in their overall scores going to 92 from a score of 95 in the previous quarter, which could be because of the festive season that sees much bigger volume of orders and returns impacting metrics such as customer satisfaction.

Other e-tailers such as ShopClues, Paytm, Snapdeal and eBay India also witnessed a sharp decline in their overall scores during the period. Snapdeal’s ratings fell by six points to 73, while Paytm also saw a 12-point decline in its score, coming in at 65. Paytm took a hit on metrics such as brand recall and customer satisfaction.

Surprisingly, Snapdeal continued to hold on to its third position despite it's rough patch of past few months. According to RedSeer, some consumers still recall the company as a major online shopping destination given that in most of the past five years Snapdeal spent heavily on marketing.

RedSeer surveyed 7,500 online shoppers in 30 cities from July to September, tracking prices of various items across India’s top five e-commerce firms, which include Paytm and ShopClues, analyzing at least 30 different parameters to arrive at the rankings.

The rivalry between Amazon and Flipkart is getting intense by the day given that the two rivals are extremely well-funded and are investing heavily in their respective businesses. While Flipkart got a major boost this year with two massive rounds of funding, Amazon too continues to up its game with investments coming in regularly.