Tata Group has agreed to pick up a 68 percent stake in online grocery store BigBasket.

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Chinese internet giant Alibaba, which owns nearly 30 percent stake and a few other investors including the Abraaj Group, would be exiting BigBasket as a part of the Rs 9,200 crore deal.

Tata's foray into the e-commerce space is a testimony to the ever expanding e-tail pie in India and now even large conglomerates want a share of it. Furthermore, the outbreak of the COVID pandemic has exacerbated the consumers' need for safety and convenience, leading to a spike in e-commerce sales.

According to a 2020 report by Bain-Flipkart, the Indian e-tail market is poised to reach nearly 300-350 million shoppers over the next five years.

The report also points out that the e-tail market's gross merchandise value could be anywhere between $100 million and $120 million by 2025.

So, with large conglomerates throwing their hats into the ring and the democratisation of the shopping landscape, where is the e-commerce sector headed?

To discuss this, CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan discussed with Sanjeev Aggarwal, Senior Managing Director and co-founder of Helion Venture Partners; Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak Advisors, and Angshuman Bhattacharya, Partner & Leader - Consumer & Retail, EY-Parthenon.

Sanjeev Aggarwal said, “In general the online retail has gained critical mass and it is slated to be a $ 100 billion industry. I think three sets of players are slugging it out, one is the founders who are home-grown who has started this trend, the second is global majors like Amazon and Flipkart and then are the Indian majors who are just making a foray like Reliance. It is great news for consumers because there are so many choices that a consumer have now.”

Arvind Singhal said, “It is the single biggest opportunity today for the large companies who are looking into building a portfolio of new businesses which could be $ 20, 30, 40 billion. You cannot do that in fashion, you cannot do that in any other category but food and grocery. In that context, it is good news, somebody, as capable as Tatas has started to now look at this sector with far more seriousness than what they probably should have done some years ago.”

Angshuman Bhattacharya said, “The convergence story is finally playing out and I think it is no longer online versus offline, it is online and offline and multiple channel convergence. There is a deeper recognition by larger businesses and conglomerates that the future of really distributing consumer products lies in a fully conversed omnichannel model.”

Watch accompanying videos for more.

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)