The overlooked barriers to India’s next ecommerce boom cycle

There’s a lot riding on this year’s festive season for ecommerce. Industry leaders are betting that this will be the year that the sector shrugs off its recent tepid growth numbers, and returns to its prepandemic health.  

Once used to 20%+ annual growth, ecommerce slowed to just 10–11% in 2024, hit by inflation and weak real wage growth, according to a Bain & Co-Flipkart report.

“Recent fiscal and monetary policy interventions are expected to drive a rebound in e-retail growth, especially from the festive period of 2025, on account of revival in the consumption cycle,” the report said, its optimism stemming from the new income-tax slabs that have left a lot more cash in the wallets of shoppers. And this was even before the GST reforms that are likely to make many products much cheaper.