The Discount Game Mr Sinha says apart from the convenience, price plays an important role in attracting customers for shopping online. Despite an internet user base of around 30 crore in India, only an estimated 3 crore transact online, he said. According to a recent PwC survey, almost half the shoppers buy online because of better deals. The pricing strategy of e-tailers have helped the industry to grow exponentially, with PwC estimating that e-tailing has grown at an annual rate of 56 per cent between 2009-2014. But the combined losses faced by e-tailing companies as a result of their discounting strategies now stands at almost Rs 1,000 crore, PwC says. Giving a peek into the financials of the industry, Mr Sinha said "Not only Jabong, I think none of the big e-commerce players are making money today. Many of them are operationally profitable but the marketing and costs are not breaking even today. " On its part, the sales of Jabong have doubled to $600 million in 2014 from $300 million in 2013. For this year, the overall e-commerce growth rates are also expected to be even stronger. Mr Sinha expects the overall e-commerce sector, excluding ticketing and travel, to grow about 68 per cent this year and the fashion segment at 170 per cent. And according to estimates, the Indian e-commerce sector, excluding travel and ticketing, is expected to grow from $4 billion to 40 billion in 4-5 years, he added.