I was introduced to eCommerce in 2006 in Melbourne when I bought a Handycam from eBay...from then onwards it has slowly become a buying mode for household / personal needs - be it Groceries, baby toys and diapers, Apparels & shoes, Fridge, washing machine, hard drives, furnitures and books offcourse! - the total value of my eCommerce purchase since 2010 is around 3.5 lacs INR - if not more!
We all have seen the Indian eCommerce industry grow leaps and bound in the last 2-3 years...presently Flipkart is valued around USD 12 Billion dollars, Snap deal around 6 Billion dollars and so on....
I personally had a chance to get involved in eCommerce while working for a retail conglomerate and I was awed at the complexities it had and at the same point of time the endless possibilities that we could provide to the customer through this channel...
Today eCommerce is no more a game where you build amazing websites - it has moved out to smartphones, the strategic focus now pans across the bandwidth i.e. providing amazing customer buying experience to amazing fulfillment / delivery experience - the whole idea has not only evolved technologically but also emotionally...
Picture Courtesy: All the eCommerce websites that have been mentioned.
Today, consumers look beyond convenience & discounts, for the following features :
Today customer needs have changed, they now want to step up and get more emotionally connected with the ecommerce experience....the experience revolution that shopping malls gave the consumers in the start of this century is happening a decade later...but this time it's just from the flick of their fingers!
So, what's in store for the future of eCommerce in India?
Though most of the eCommerce organisations are bleeding at the moment and the focus is more on customer acquisition; but moving forward, say in next 5-6 years, there will be only 3 or 4 major players left in the whole eCommerce field in India. Major consolidations across catalogues and across different offerings will happen and the end winners will be those who stay focused on the customer need and they only will become profitable over a period of time...
We all have seen the Indian eCommerce industry grow leaps and bound in the last 2-3 years...presently Flipkart is valued around USD 12 Billion dollars, Snap deal around 6 Billion dollars and so on....
I personally had a chance to get involved in eCommerce while working for a retail conglomerate and I was awed at the complexities it had and at the same point of time the endless possibilities that we could provide to the customer through this channel...
Today eCommerce is no more a game where you build amazing websites - it has moved out to smartphones, the strategic focus now pans across the bandwidth i.e. providing amazing customer buying experience to amazing fulfillment / delivery experience - the whole idea has not only evolved technologically but also emotionally...
Today, consumers look beyond convenience & discounts, for the following features :
- More options across the price bands across different catalogues
- Same day delivery - if not within next 4 hours delivery !
- High quality experience guarantee - not only for the product but the whole experience i.e. packaging, delivery, home trials, hassle free & no question asked returns, customer support, ease of payments
- Value add services like:
- priority consumers getting the first option to shop for New season launch,
- all monthly updates on new products, or
- priority members only offer!
So, what's in store for the future of eCommerce in India?
Though most of the eCommerce organisations are bleeding at the moment and the focus is more on customer acquisition; but moving forward, say in next 5-6 years, there will be only 3 or 4 major players left in the whole eCommerce field in India. Major consolidations across catalogues and across different offerings will happen and the end winners will be those who stay focused on the customer need and they only will become profitable over a period of time...
