eCommerce Blog

While we were wrapping up the last minute shopping for our trip back to India last week, my daughter insisted that we go to Toys’R’us store –she wanted to buy that new Barbie she had seen with her friend few days ago. As we were walking down the aisles of the store, it reminded me of my childhood. I used to love toy cars a lot and every time I used to go to the market with my parents, we would go to the Toys store almost as a ritual. The store was probably less than 700 sq feet in size and yet, these toys were like hidden treasures – hard to find and it was up to the store owner to show the toys he thought we might like. None of the toys had any price displays on them and store owner would “tailor” the price depending upon which customer he was talking to.  The total assortment was probably less than couple hundred toys. And yet, as a consumer, it was hard to find what you were looking for, not to mention that comparing prices across different stores was almost impossible. On the other hand, my 4 year old daughter even knew the exact location of that Barbie in the 50,000+ sq feet Toys’R’Us store!

The organization and maturity in the retail sector is inevitable in India. As the retail sector gets more organized, there will be more and more consistency in the assortment as well as the user experience across various stores. However, the retailers must demonstrate one aspect to be really successful Read the rest of this entry »

So you have built a decent looking eCommerce website, pumped up the marketing spend and you are getting good amount of visitors on the site. However, you are facing a problem that most of the newer online retailers face initially – your conversion rate is extremely low. You are baffled why majority of the visitors are not purchasing anything on the site and you ask your head of marketing to look for the answers. Although having a good marketing plan and execution is necessary in bringing visitors to your site, a lot of times, the answer lies within how your website is designed. Here are the top 10 blunders in eCommerce design that can cause the conversion rate to go south -

Blunder #10: No “About Us” page or privacy policy

Educated consumers look for certain things on a site they might do business with. Are there privacy polices? Do they have a return or exchange policy? How about shipping costs and timelines, are they posted? Are there any real sounding testimonials and pictures of the warehouse or sellers that let me get an idea that this company is for real, especially when dealing with newer online only retailers? Although it is reasonable to assume that most people don’t read such things as the policies and the like. But the fact that they are there builds confidence in the customer, that yours is a serious business.

Blunder #9: Where is the price?

Nothing irritates a visitor more than to read all the excellent product description and sales copy, only to read it all and still have to ask the most important question… how much is it ? Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I flew back to Chicago from Delhi and although I cant really say that I enjoyed any part of that 14 hours + flight, I did get a lot of time to think about the cultural differences between American and Indian consumers. For retailer to be successful in India, it is important to take into account these differences and customize the offerings to better meet the motivations and preferences of the Indian customer.

First and foremost, Indian customers love to touch and feel the products before making the purchase decision. This is one of the major disadvantages for an eCommerce environment where the touch and feel aspect is almost missing from the shopping experience. Read the rest of this entry »