eCommerce in India - A blog by Darpan Munjal

When I first heard about Woot.com a few years ago, I couldn’t quite understand what’s all the fuss about. Since then I have been following this phenomenon closely, and have learnt quite a few things from this small retailer which now enjoys almost a cult like following from millions across the US. Woot is one of the very few sites that has a rare combination of simplicity and innovation – and yes, a great sense of humor!!. Here is an excerpt of a few questions from the FAQ section of Woot.com


“What is Woot and who is behind it?
Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap. It started as an employee-store slash market-testing type of place for an electronics distributor, but it’s taken on a life of its own. We anticipate profitability by 2043 – by then we should be retired; someone smarter might take over and jack up the prices. Until then, we’re still the lovable scamps we’ve always been.

Will I receive customer support like I’m used to?
No. Well, not really. If you buy something you don’t end up liking or you have what marketing people call “buyer’s remorse,” sell it on eBay. It’s likely you’ll make money doing this and save everyone a hassle. If the item doesn’t work, find out what you’re doing wrong. Yes, we know you think the item is bad, but it’s probably your fault. Google your problem, or come back to that product discussion in our community and ask other people if they know.

What are my shipping options?
Currently, your shipping options are limited. An item can ship if you order it, or not ship if you don’t. We will ship by common carrier and try to stick with the same service for most items.”


I am sure that reading above FAQs probably doesn’t give you a warm and fuzzy feeling about doing some serious shopping from this online retailer. But, it gets better. The site only sells one product a day. That’s right. The product changes every night, and there is only one product available for purchase at any given time. Products are never announced beforehand and can easily sell out in a few hours or even minutes of hyperactive buying and then the users have to wait till the next midnight for the next product to be listed – unless there is a woot-off which I will save for another discussion. The Woot model relies on the elements of simplicity and surprise – unlike the traditional online environment which is focused on expanding the product assortment. It is fun to read the product descriptions, which often mock the product being sold, and the community is encouraged to write negative posts to highlight the flaws in the products being sold.


It takes courage and leadership for an online retailer to be as transparent as Woot in educating the customers about the good things and not so good things about the product being sold. But more than this transparency and sense of humor, Woot has been able to do something that no other retailer has been able to effectively. Woot has literally turned the world of web analytics upside down, and made this analytics information available back to its own customers. Take is a look below at a typical product page, the page contains a sea of analytics information – enough to make the likes of Amazon and Overstock.com turn green with envy and more than enough to turn a casual browser into a well informed buyer. Continue reading �

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 Continue reading �

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, Continue reading �

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. Continue reading �

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 Continue reading �

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 Continue reading �

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 ? Continue reading �

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. Continue reading �

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. Continue reading �

The other day I visited a website called Kaboodle.com which is an online shopping community where users can build, maintain and share online collections of their favorite products with other users. There is even a style compatibility test on the site where users can see how compatible they are with other users in terms of their shopping habits, taste and style. Since then, I have been thinking everyday about the role online communities will play in eCommerce and then it finally struck me Continue reading �