PANJIM: Even as the big ‘end of season sale’ on-line are not yet over, the year 2014 has seen millions of dollars pouring into cash registers of online companies like Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon to name the lead.
While some online companies made it big on their sales, customers to these e-commerce sites too made big savings. Discount offers on some of these sites went upto 90% and even a minimum 50% off was what one could click on.
Speaking to Herald, National Council Chairman for SME/Assocham Manguresh Pai Raikar says, “e-business is growing at a very fast pace in Goa compared to other parts of the country. One reason being, most of the population is cyber savvy. There is a small family concept in Goa and both, husband and wife work. They would like to save time and hence take help of net in ordering their needs.”
Anushka Arudra, a student, is in praise of the convenience that online sale platforms provide. “On my birthday, my father gifted me a surprise and I least expected it would take the Flipkart route. Though he lives a couple of 100 kms away, he made my day – ‘distance shortened-love expressed’,” she says.
Interestingly, the demand for online products is building and the trends too are shifting. Snapdeal, which houses over 5 million products across 500 diverse categories from over 50,000 sellers, has taken its online platform to a new high by putting up two and four wheelers for sale. And if you are looking for a new home, you can get that too through Snapdeal.
A report by consultancy firm Technopak states that there are fundamental changes in the domestic consumer’s behaviour, ‘e’ is likely to emerge as the most attractive retail channel for meeting the shopping needs of a large segment of urban consumers offer the maximum competition to corporatized physical-format retailer especially those who operate in major high streets and shopping malls in major cities.
The report also points that 2023, e-commerce shall be the dominant organized retail channel in the top-75 Indian cities (cities with population of 1 million or more), with as much as 30-35% share of total merchandise sale by value in these cities and then about 20% of total merchandise sales in the rest of urban India.
Another report by industry body Assocham suggests that e-commerce firms are expected to spend up to USD 1.9 billion by 2017-2020 on infrastructure, logistics and warehousing.
However, this would not mean that the small trader off the road is at a suicidal threat. The traditional, small, independent retail outlets to continue to account for a significant 35%-40% of total merchandise sale in the top 75 cities and closer to 50%-55% in entire urban India, according to a report by Technopak.
Andrew D’Souza says, “I don’t venture into the online shopping space as I shop more by ‘touch and feel’. I ordered a pair of shoes online through a friend from Flipkart and the product I got from them was substandard, which even had packing paper stuck to it and the sole looked more like it was hand painted black and it took me over a month to return the purchase.”
Incidentally, Manguresh Pai Raikar himself too has faced a ‘unique problem’ as he puts it, “having ordered a book online and paying in advance, the book was not delivered to me for a long time. Upon enquiry, I got a response that the book was not in stock so they forwarded an e book to me. This when protested, the company cancelled my order and placed the amount in the suspense account of the company and said that it would be adjusted during my next purchase.”
While stock inventory is a serious concern on the e-commerce marketplace, to solve this issue are companies like Brown Tape, a software solution provider and seller based out of Goa, which develops a single console for retailers selling multi –channel.
Interestingly, the company claims to have processed over 275000 orders worth 8.5 million dollars.
However, what is of importance for brand value is the quality of products shipped and keeping rogue sellers at bay and as the industry is maturing, Marketplaces are putting in place measures to tighten systems and avoid signing up sellers who can tarnish their brand image.
The steps range from physical checks to spending more on analytics to monitor marketplaces. For instance, in the case of Amazon India, internal audits with employees posing as shoppers are a regular feature.
Flipkart uses mystery shoppers and on-ground teams to monitor sellers. They have a three-tier rating/review system for sellers. Customer rating, returns and seller cancellations are the key factors which determine a seller’s rating. It evaluates new sellers on the basis of business registrations as well as a check to see if they were blacklisted at other online marketplaces.
