By Naeem Khan

What excites the world most about Indian markets? The size and numbers. Over 1.3 billion or over 17% of the world’s population. 63% of this burgeoning number are in the age group 15 – 60 years. India attained economic freedom only around two decades back with the markets being opened up to foreign investors. The economic boom that followed has only served as a strong reminder to large corporations that India is here to stay. Constantly growing GDP, hovering between 6% to 8% growth has further strengthened India’s case. After all, such growth numbers are but a distant dream for mature and saturated western economies.

Come the decade of 2010 and India saw wealth creation like never before. The new age economy driven primarily through garage start-ups in Koramangala, Bengaluru and shared office spaces in high rise Gurgoan, saw the birth of the Indian wealth creation dream. Over the decade India has produced a slew of ‘ Unicorns’, start-ups that were valued at over a billion USD. And as India saw the creation of these behemoths, technology became the buzz word. Smart Apps, complex algorithms and customer acquisition through digital means became the norm.

But this is akin to what I call the ‘supermarket’ syndrome. When a small town becomes big and bigger, the supermarket selling you everything under the sun becomes the favourite hangout joint. Grandmas and their very uppity ‘cell phone’ generation granddaughters line up with equal fervour. As the magic of the supermarket wears out and as the succeeding and demanding generations get money to spend, they begin to look for exclusivity. This is where, I believe, Indian E-com stands. The decade of ‘everything for everybody’ apps or ‘Supermarket’ apps will see a decline in the decade of 2020. Generation Z demands exclusivity, demands more.

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Travel apps will not be able double up as holiday booking apps, grocery apps will not be able to fulfil your need for specialty cheese or rare ribs. We’re looking at a decade of specialisation, of divergence rather than convergence in business concepts.

In simple terms evolutionary economics is at work. The pre-Covid model of mass aggregation will have to push into rural India to get their market acquisition numbers up. Urban India will demand the next avatar of E-com. One that will segment markets and build products and services that will meet the demands of this exciting yet challenging segment.

It’s already happening. Urban mass movers like Uber and Ola had to redefine their markets and services post the lifting of the Covid lockdown. Urban cab aggregator services across the globe had to deal with a steep 70% to 90% fall in their businesses. From being your ‘friendly neighbourhood cab’ to being ‘a sanitised, safe cab’ was the correction in messaging that was made. Add on driver training on hygiene and sanitisation, supervisory control to ensure these SOPs are followed, and you have a brand-new service product from Uber and Ola. One that goes way beyond their tried and tested convenience positioning.

The point to be made however is that it shouldn’t take a ‘once in a century pandemic’ to wake us up to changing market dynamics. The pandemic is a tragic anomaly, changing consumer trends are not.

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This is the reality that has to dawn on new-age entrepreneurs as well as established giants. Recognition of changing markets is the first step towards conquering them.

The author is the founder and chief executive officer at Foodys. Views expressed are personal.

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