India ecommerce story strong, to hit $35 bn by 2019: Nomura

New Delhi: Indian ecommerce sector's growth looks strong and is expected to reach USD 35 billion by 2019, says a report.

"The growth of India ecommerce remains strong, tracking our expectations of reaching USD 35 billion by 2019," Nomura said in a research report.

The report, however, noted that the focus needs to move towards the roadmap to profitability, where "some progress is visible but a lot is still in the works".

It further said that there are areas where significant progress needs to be made and that include diversification of categories, less discounting, improved logistics and benign legislation like GST. On these fronts, there are "still works in progress and remain big areas of investment", the report said.

According to Nomura, the festive sale season kicked off with a bang for Indian ecommerce players, but still is lower in comparison with China and the US.

In China, Alibaba during its 'Singles Day' on November 11, 2014 sold goods worth USD 9 billion, while in the US, during Cyber Monday (Monday after Thanksgiving) and Black Friday, sales of around USD 3 billion each were recorded in 2014.

In comparison, the quarterly expectations for India's holiday sales are closer to USD 4 billion.

Typically the festive season (October to December) accounts for about 35-40 percent of annual sales for the ecommerce firms.

According to Technopak, ecommerce in India recorded around USD 7 billion in annual sales in FY15, and is expected to generate about USD 10 billion in FY16, leading to sales expectations of around USD 4 billion for the ecommerce firms this festive season.