In an exclusive interview with Freshly Mynted on the sidelines of an event late last year, Myntra’s Chief Technology Officer, Shamik Sharma emphasized that Myntra maintains a strong focus on cities and towns beyond Tier II. Not surprising, since the spurt of internet in users in Tier III cities and rural India is taking the country by a storm.

According to a recent study, the share of rural internet users is expected to increase from 30% in 2014 to 50% in 2018. What is even more remarkable is that almost 80% of rural internet users will access internet from mobile devices! With e-commerce firms spending anywhere between $950mn – $1.9bn on warehousing and logistics (2017 – 2020), we believe it will drive better connectivity in towns beyond Tier II and reduce delivery time. The higher affordability of 3G and 4G smartphones has given rise to more orders from Tier II and III cities. Therefore if you look closely, internet users in rural India is growing faster than in urban India.

As rightly said by Dr. Subho Ray, President, IAMAI – newspapers might not reach every village, but there is mobile connectivity in almost entire India and people out there are watching the world in their handheld device.