Comments on: ecommerce in India – The Real Challenges?

By: Hope & Progress – My experience with iglobul « My experience with iglobul

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:39:42 +0000

[...] with rage. But what happens next is the confrontation with the brutal facts of e-commerce problem (you can read on this here) and hope of great [...]

By: Hope & Progress – My experience with iglobul « Indian Shopper

Hope & Progress – My experience with iglobul « Indian Shopper — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 06:50:39 +0000

[...] with rage. But what happens next is the confrontation with the brutal facts of e-commerce problem (you can read on this here) and hope of great [...]

By: Fullner

Fullner — Sat, 30 May 2009 03:12:10 +0000

Very informative !

By: Anshul

Anshul — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 06:05:01 +0000

Nice Analysis. here are my views
- You can even get the rate of 1.8% which IRCTC gets, but convincing that you will have high volumes might require you to present your balance sheet showing figures in crores. Definitely not for a startup. I have talked more about it in Part 2 of the series.
- Logistics is definitely to be given to a logistics provider, its the last thing you want to do in-house. But the problem is assured and reliable delivery. When you have pricy items, you would not take chances and pay high for good service. It includes the cases where your delicate, bulky, costly item (think a laptop) should not reach even with damaged packaging. In comparison, books are easy to deliver, even using regular post. The whole point of this series is, why not new items are being sold apart from what’s already selling since long?
- Some of the vendors may have a catalogue, but then there will be no uniformity. I mean Canon and Nikon might not have same type of digital catalogues. Warehousing might be a neccessary evil if you want to have current availability and pricing on the website.
- Customer support can be handled in-house very easily. You can start with one operator with an email account, phone and excel, and still maintian that quality of service. This area doesn’t require you to depend on someone external hence is not a barrier.

By: kidakaka

kidakaka — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:17:35 +0000

I dont agree with some of the issues that you have pointed out.
- Some of the domestic payment gateway offer charges like (2.5% Axis Bank). As long as you can convince them that you have high volumes
- Logistics can be given to a logistics provider, they charge you something like 25-30 Rs. per delivery, of course the weight of the package needs to be factored in, but as long as you include that price in the product itself (ala Flipkart), I dont see this as being a prblem. One real bugbear is that some of these logistics providers do not deliver in out-of-reach places, so care needs to be taken with those deliveries
- Most of the vendors do have a product portfolio. It also depends a lot on the engagement model, if the vendor is going to dispatch those products, then he definitely will have a digital catalogue. If we are going to dispatch, then a host of warehousing questions are raised!!
- One issue that should be brought up is customer support and grievance redressal systems need to be setup as the business grows. The owner can handle the complaints only for a certain point of time

By: Kaddy

Kaddy — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:02:55 +0000

wah kya article hai… bahut ache!!

By: Anshul

Anshul — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 17:22:36 +0000

@kasi
Customer trust is not something to solicit, you have to win it. If system is not ready to take the responsibility, customer is not to blame. Part 3 of the series has more views on this.

@Swanand
Purchasing by viewing images can be decieving. Touch and feel do not matter always, especially for branded products. But still there isn’t any expected growth in this space.

@chica
Good customer service can’t be replaced with anything. Those will master the art will be always lead this space.

By: chica

chica — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:13:03 +0000

As a consumer I’ve been very satisfied with the e-commerce sites I’ve frequented. Flipkart.com and Picsquare.com. Flipkart has free shipping.. that makes me very happy
Picsquare has been very good at customer service. I had a few problems with my orders, but they worked on it and definitely have repeat business from me.

I think startups have to make sure that their customers come first. Timely delivery of good products and the customer will be happy. It won’t matter much then how good the web site looks and such.

By: Swanand

Swanand — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:34:11 +0000

Again a lovely post and I completely agree with what you have put here. I think the only other thing that I would like to add is

Mindset: The Indian consumer primarily likes to shop by touching and feeling objects of interest. For e-commerce to succeed there has to be a drastic shift in the mindset whereby they are not only accustomed but comfortable by making purchases by viewing images.

By: Kasi

Kasi — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:52:54 +0000

Apart from what you mention about problems from the company’s point of you…we have issues at the customer side…it is customer trust that is missing in the whole chain.

I don’t think Indian customer trust goods delivered from virtual source by an unrelated delivery boy… the question that haunts before ordering is “whom to approach and how to settle when something goes wrong?”.

Alas there is nothing to blame them…because our system is not ready…no-one will take responsibility when something goes wrong.

As you know Travel occupies more than 80% of our e-commerce where customer knew what he is getting on the spot (while booking and while receiving-traveling-lodging). He has someone to talk to while receiving so don’t mind booking it…even if it cost a little more.