Track: E-Commerce as a Catalyst for Change

Abstract

ON-LINE MARKET PLACES REDEFINING MUTUAL FUND DISTRIBUTION
With the growing e-commerce trend, competition heats up among the online market place
giants. E-commerce giants look to offer new product offerings by completely redefining the
online space. An article by Shashikant Singh in the dalal street, states that a study done by
ASSOCHAM-Forrester, Indian e-commerce is growing at an annual rate at 51%. This is the
highest in the world and is expected to reach USD 120 billion in 2020. The retail sector is
also registering a positive trend of 11% CAGR and this is expected to touch USD 1 trillion
by 2020. More and more people are being added to the virtual world daily. The entrance of
technology will not only impact the traditional markets like clothes, books, electronic items
but also new markets which have remained untouched till now. Online customers enjoy
the convenience of shopping from the comfort of their homes for grocery, listening to
music. This comfort shopping which customers experience can very soon become a reality
for investors of financial services industry. With the digitalization fast catching up the
mutual fund industry, investors can choose to make investments conveniently like
shopping. This also fulfils the financial inclusion notion of RBI successfully. The initiative
assures that mutual fund products become more accessible. The aim of the paper is to trace
the growing e-commerce trend in the mutual fund industry and examine the special
strategies that need to be adopted given the unique nature of the industry, where
investment advice is a prerequisite for most first time investors. The study is descriptive in
nature. The importance of extending online market places like Flipkart and Amazon to sell
mutual funds to make these products more accessible to people are discussed.