eCommerce Blog

Recently I got an invitation from an old colleague to join Plaxo. I thought to myself – I don’t need another social network to maintain professional contacts, I already have LinkedIn! Within the next 3 days, I suddenly started receiving Plaxo invitations from my other LinkedIn contacts – it almost felt like some sort of evil spam! As much as I hate to sign up for a new site I don’t intend to use, my curiousity got the best of me, and I indulged in accepting the invitation to see what all the hype was about. Moments after clicking through the registration process, I realized how easy Plaxo made to import contacts from my other sources – Gmail, Outlook and most surprisingly from LinkedIn!!

These are the initial signs of what is changing in the digital world. Information created by users is following them from one site to another. This is particularly timely now that the users have started feeling the “network fatigue” that comes from maintaining multiple social-networking profiles, e-mail accounts, blogs, address book applications and the like. Things are changing, really changing in the social web. Initiatives such as Dataportability group are all about making the web more free flowing in terms of user data – most of the key players such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Yahoo have already signed up. If things pan out the way they are Read the rest of this entry »

During the past several months, I have connected with several intelligent and knowledgeable individuals through this blog – individuals who are passionate about doing something big in the interent/online space in India. If you are a regular reader of this blog, chances are that you have thoughts or opinions about the online/internet industry in India that might be helpful to others. I am inviting you to reflect upon your personal experiences and beliefs in this space by becoming an author on this blog. Since this site is not expected to reach profitability until 2068, you may not receive a monetary incentive to contribute – but then again, we are not all here just for monetary incentives. There is a bigger reason for us to be here – to connect, share and contribute.Submitting your article to this blog is very simple. Just click here to register and you will immediately receive a welcome email with a link that you can use to begin submitting articles to this Blog. Please keep the following guidelines in mind when submitting the articles -

1. You are welcome to write about any topics such as Web 2.0, eCommerce, technology, entrepreneurship, trends. The only restriction is that it must somehow be related to the internet space – so you can’t write an article about your pet (unless, your pet’s name is Ajax or Click or if you are thinking about selling pet food online!)

2. Excessive plugging of a company or site is not allowed. You can mention a company or a site and include a link to it, as long as it helps the point you are making in the article. However, you can’t write articles to specifically promote a particular business or a site.

3. This blog has special next generation profanity filters which will automatically detect any foul language and will not only reject your article, but will also destroy your computer, your keyboard, and possibly burn your fingers. So keep the profanity to a minimum for your own safety.

4. Other than that, anything goes.

Regular authors will be featured on the “About the authors” page along with their detailed profile – which will put them on a fast track path to worldwide fame. Ok, I exaggerated a bit – you may not become famous, but it will certainly help you connect with other like minded individuals within the industry.

So let’s celebrate the entrepreneurial spirit by actively contributing and learning from each other’s experience. There is a tremendous opportunity and potential for internet businesses in India, and everyone can win and co-exist by helping build a better digital eco system.

Click here to contribute to the blog

At least that’s what I felt after attending the Web innovation conference held in Bangalore this week. I don’t understand why folks spend so much time slicing and dicing what web 2.0 means. I could hear some people even talking about Web 3.0 – some of the gifted ones even offered a glimpse into Web 4.0!!  Now, come on! Isn’t that a bit too much? We are not talking about a software release which comes in different versions with a predefined set of features. We are talking about evolution of the internet economy here. Don’t get me wrong – I definitely think Web 2.0 is a beautiful thing and the power of communities has a huge potential for the new economy. But that’s exactly my point – people need to think about the applications of this concept, as opposed to getting hung up around the text book or Wikipedia definitions of Web 2.0. Ok, enough with my ranting – it wasn’t all that bad. There were some decent speakers as well – like Rohit from Techtribe who offered some good insights into the dynamics of online communities.

It would be great to see more businesses in India that are built around the power of online communities. A lot of people feel that online communities may not be a good fit for the Indian culture, but I strongly feel that the communities can be very successful if the right incentives are offered to them.  I am posting the slides that I used for my topic at the conference – “the future of eCommerce”. eCommerce is definitely an area
Read the rest of this entry »

My daughter will be turning 5 in a few days and unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to celebrate the birthday with her because she is currently in Chicago with her Mom. So I was talking to her on the phone, and asked her what would she like for her birthday present. She thought for a few seconds and then asked me inquisitively – “Daddy, how are you going to get me a present? You are in India, remember?” Smart question, I thought. But few seconds later, came an even smarter response from her. “I know!” “How about if you order it on your computer and, like before, I will get it in that brown box from Toys’R’Us .com“. I thought to myself – wow my little daughter is growing up. She may not understand what eCommerce is but she does understand that you can do something in the computer, and few days later a brown box is waiting for her in the front of the house! She almost believes that Toys’R’us has deputed little magical Santas inside every computer, and they are able to send exactly the toy children wish for!!

What really impressed me was the fact that she remembered Toys’R’Us.com and could associate it with someone who could help in meeting her birthday wish. This got me thinking about how online retailers in US have been able to create a unique enough differentiation for themselves where customers know exactly what these retailers stand for. There are some retailers in US that are still struggling with this, but at a broad level, most of the retailers (online as well as traditional) have found a unique proposition for the customers. Whether it is the largest assortment (Amazon.com) or value for money (overstock.com) or discount electronics (Newegg.com) or Jewelry & Gifts (Bluenile.com) or upscale household category (William-Sonoma) or a great service experience (Zappos.com), there is a lot of differentiation. If a 5 year old can recall Toys’R’Us when they are thinking of toys, imagine how easy would it be for a grown up to do the same across various categories. Then I thought about the Indian context and I tried really hard to think about all the unique things that the online retailers in India stand for. I thought about product assortment, pricing, categories, service and after trying really hard, I wasn’t able to come up with any meaningful differentiation that really sets one retailer apart from other. True, there are some retailers that offer a bigger assortment than others – but more or less all other dimensions are similar across most of the online retailers.

Then I thought, what is it that Indian customers think about before shopping at one retailer vs. other. I also asked this question to a lot of individuals who I know have been online shoppers for quite some time. The results of this “unscientific” study were very disturbing Read the rest of this entry »

The other day, I met someone at a conference who mentioned to me that he was planning on starting an online retail venture in India. He said he has already begun the software development for the platform and one of his friends is a great SEO person so marketing should not be an issue. Is there anything else critical that he should plan for, he asked? Although his level of planning (or lack thereof) didn’t give me a lot of confidence in his venture, it did give me few ideas for topics that I should write about in my Blog.

Although technology plays a critical role in building an eCommerce operation, just focusing on a technology platform without careful planning of other factors is a recipe for failure. I have heard a lot of people say that successful eCommerce companies require a strong technology orientation and should therefore, be led by a technology team. Although a technology leadership can certainly help, having a strong technology foundation doesn’t obviate the need for traditional factors that make a retail business successful. Customers don’t buy products in an online store just because they love the technology. At the end of the day, it comes down to having the right mix of products, at the right price, coupled with a strong execution and end to end experience that is difficult for other competitors to copy. No doubt that technology can and should play a key role in all above factors. However, one must remember that technology is like a foundation of a house, it is a necessary component, and if poorly designed, it can destroy the house. However, Read the rest of this entry »

The online retail environment in India is eerily quiet. The overall online pie is still very small. Broadly speaking, Indian consumers aren’t shopping online. The distributors or local vendors still look at the online channel as a drop in the bucket. New online retailers are slowly emerging – however Indian ecommerce just can’t seem to hit its stride. What does this all mean? Is online retailing not for the Indian market? Are the cultural preferences of Indian customers so unique that ecommerce will never achieve a mainstream status? Although the current state paints a very somber image for eCommerce in India, it reminds me of the time when we went on a vacation to Florida, only to find out that the area was about to be hit by a category 3 hurricane. Standing in balcony of the hotel room, I could feel an uneasy quiet. Wind was calm however I could feel something big was about to happen. Two years later, I find myself standing on the verge of another perfect storm – a storm that will change the face of online shopping in India.

It is not a mystery anymore that the retail industry is going through a significant organization in India. Some would argue that this opens up more exciting options for consumers to shop in a physical store, which would further impact the adoption of online shopping in a negative way. Fair argument, however, I would like to share some specific reasons why I strongly believe that a reverse phenomenon is inevitable – organization in physical retail will fuel an explosive growth of online ecommerce in India.

Why has eCommerce adoption been slow in India?
Before we look at the factors that will drive an explosive growth in eCommerce, it is important to look at why eCommerce hasn’t taken off so far in India. Read the rest of this entry »

US based online shoes retailer Zappos.com was mentioned in this story that it has reached 6 million paying customers.  Although this is a major accomplishment, what is even more amazing is the fact that three fourth of shoppers who make purchase on Zappos.com are repeat customers. This got me thinking – how many retailers use “repeat customers” as the metric to measure success. Most of the online retailers that I am aware of think of Revenue or Gross Profit or EBITDA or net-profit as a proxy for measuring success. These metrics are certainly better than the dot com days in 2000 when online businesses were happy with just measuring the online visits – primarily because they didn’t have any real sales to report on anyways. However, are these metrics telling anything about how the customer’s purchase experience has been on the site? I would argue that these metrics are lagging indicators of performance. In other words 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 »

I finally experienced it – the unevitable reality of staying in Delhi – a power cut! Sitting in the darkness, waiting for the generator to pickup, I thought – imagine you are asked to play a game of darts in a room that is pitch-dark. You throw the darts in all possible directions, hoping that atleast one of them will hit the bullseye. When the lights are switched on, you find out that although a couple of darts came close, most other ended up far away from the target. This sounds like a pointless exercise – however, the reality is that a lot of companies do this to their customers every day.

Most of the online retailers continue to focus on a “one size fits all” approach where they throw all kinds of offers and promotions at the customers, hoping that the customer will accept atleast one of them. This approach certainly works to some extent and can result in some moderate sales however, this is like throwing darts in different directions and then, later drawing bullseye around them, to feel good about one’s actions. Read the rest of this entry »