Comments | mekin: Online shopping scene hotting up in India

mekin

Online shopping scene hotting up in India

Feb 15, 2007 11:59

More merchants & retailers going online:
FutureBazaar joined the ranks of Fabmall (now called indiaplaza)- retail chains that also offer an online shopping experience.

I have always maintained that for success in Indian markets the online offering needs to be supported with a good offline presence.
Shaadi & naukri are good examples of the above ( Read more... )

futurebazaar, "comparison shopping", india, bechna, ultop, shopping, indiacompare

Comments 17

hi anonymous February 15 2007, 09:11:41 UTC

hi, interesting analysis .... are you interested in the retail industry in general or this is one of your passing thoughts that you have penned down....cheers....

Re: hi mekin February 15 2007, 10:52:50 UTC

I work in a comparison shopping company.
I am quite excited with the offline retail boom in India & am closely following it to understand how it unfolds.

Given those 2 interests & that I am an Indian, I'd say I have a lot of interest in the retail industry.

mannu February 15 2007, 10:33:30 UTC

>I have always maintained that for success in Indian markets the online offering needs to be supported with a good offline presence.

I have to agree.

Slightly off-topic, but I also think that self-service generally doesn't work in India. The Indian consumer likes to be served.

mekin February 15 2007, 10:58:47 UTC

>Slightly off-topic, but I also think that self-service generally doesn't work in India. The Indian consumer likes to be served.

Do you have particular instances in mind ?

I see a blurred space - big bazaar is a good example of a successful place with little service.

mannu February 15 2007, 11:06:17 UTC

Barista vs. Coffee Day. I'm implying that Coffee Day is more successful (even though it came later), but that might just be an impression.

mekin February 15 2007, 11:10:24 UTC

I think CCD (Cafe Coffee day) is more successful than Barista, but I think its more because of
1. wider distribution - I have found CCDs in Goa, Indore, Jaipur, Bhubaneshwar, Jamshedpur. Cant recall the same for Barista. You might argue that for Bangaloreans both have existed, but then CCD is a more familiar brand given that a lot of bangaloreans come here from other places.

2. Better coffee - though i dont like neither.

Bechna Price Comparison Shopping anonymous February 15 2007, 16:59:20 UTC

Hi Mekin ( ... )

Re: Bechna Price Comparison Shopping mekin February 16 2007, 05:32:52 UTC

Hi Deepak,

Your site is a good start & I hope you are able to learn a lot & keep changing as you figure out what works in the Indian comparison shopping space. Wish you luck.

I think you need to be able to get users from mediums other than the internet. SMS is a great channel which has seen very high adoption in india.

As you mention there arent enough online stores. You mention 150-200, but I dont see more than 5-7 on your site for most searches.
But a lot of sellers are not going to come online in a hurry, so I guess you will have to go that distance.

Re: Bechna Price Comparison Shopping anonymous February 16 2007, 23:13:00 UTC

Hello Mekin,
Very good points in your analysis on Online Shopping in India and how India is different. I am optimistic that the postal network, consumer payment concerns and consumer trust will change in a couple of years.

DoP recently announced an investment of Rs6000 crore to revamp the postal network and private carriers will push along infrastructure improvements. I am confident the delivery systems will step up to meet the increasing consumer demands.

Consumer trust with online shopping is bound to come about with time. Only recently have people started trusting Online shopping even in the US. A survey conducted late last year by JuxtConsult found that there are about 2.2 million active shoppers online. This is only 5% of India's Internet Users but a 40% increase from the year before. And I expect this rapid growth to continue over the next 5 years ( ... )

umang February 15 2007, 17:36:19 UTC

Potential advantages of having a strong offline network include:
- Simplify inventory management & delivery of goods: these become much less expensive

IMO, An offline network increases the costs of inventory management and supply chain logistics.

mekin February 16 2007, 05:38:29 UTC

What you say is true for a new company, especially a company which starts in the online space.

When I wrote that I was talking of companies that already have a very strong network offline.

There are good examples of offline companies that leveraged their offline presence when they went online. Barnes & Nobles is a well know success story, now a lot more such chains use this model.

Managing offline inventory & SCM are very expensive, but for companies already doing that successfully, adding another source of customers is almost no additional cost.

umang February 18 2007, 13:06:39 UTC

Right. After the foray has been made into the online space, why should the company have any remaining physical presence? It can increase its profitability by leaps and bounds migrating completely.

online shopping anonymous February 16 2007, 00:06:06 UTC

Hi Mekin

Thanks for coming by onto www.iqbalgandham.com, always nice to know you have real readers and not spambots.

I went through alot of the sites, but still am not convinced that comparison is being done well. Some compare between products, still to find a website where I can type in 80GB ipod, and it lists me all the prices from ALL websites online, maybe I'm being too picky.

ecommerce is wide open in India to someone who can do it correctly, and has the marketing muscle to turn it around. I also dont believe this will be existing players, they just do not have the thought process, they will just throw up a website and imagine thats all there is too it, on the blog I mentioned endless.com, now that's a website.

Iqbal Gandham

Re: online shopping anonymous February 16 2007, 03:30:28 UTC

Here u go...not much. But its a start.
30 GB IPOD http://www.bechna.com/shop~search-30gb%20ipod.html
80 GB IPOD http://www.bechna.com/shop~search-80gb%20ipod.html

Re: online shopping mekin February 16 2007, 06:28:44 UTC

Hi Iqbal,

Thanks a lot for the comment. As you rightly said :
> always nice to know you have real readers and not spambots. You bring up good points, but then these comparison shopping sites are just startiung out, I think it'll take a little more while to understand user needs or even imitate successful ones in the US ( ... )