Eye-popping discounts grip Google's Great Online Shopping Festival

The buzz about the 3-day Great Online Shopping Festival (GISF)is gaining momentum as expected. Online shoppers are spoilt for choice. Most ecommerce bigwigs are creating attractive GISF landing page to grab maximum eyeballs. Some of the deals and advertisements on the Google Shopping Festival Page are not only bizarre but also offer eye popping freebies and discounts. Consider this- while Jabong is offering discount as huge as 90% others like Big Bazaar is offering 14 minutes of free shopping.

Jabong, top apparal ecommerce website is offering almost 90% discount on some of its products while Mantra is offering a flat 50% discount on some of its products.

Amazon, the Ecommerce frontrunner is offering fabulous deals on electronic, tablets and TV. For more details, check out Amazon GISF Page

Others like Fab Furnish is offering Rs 5000 gift voucher on purchase of certain products. Branded store like Shopper Stop has also jumped into the bandwagon. The store is offering a flat discount of 15%-20% during the sale period.

Snapdeal meanwhile is offering 40% discount on few apparel brands and close to 30% discount on few home furnishing brands

For more details on the deals on offer, check out the google shopping festival page

Google has tied up with close to 450 players for this event. The shopping festival which will commence on December 10th and will feature exclusive launches from brands like Motorola Nexus 6, HP, Lenovo, Tata Housing, Karbonn, Van Heusen, Asian Paints and great deals on exclusive designer collection from Pernia's Pop Up Shop.

India shoppers opt for direct debit to cash for eshopping;Jabong most popular:comScore

Indian shoppers are most comfortable using direct debit option for online transaction when compared to other mode of payment. According to comScore, in the quarter ended October 2014, most Indian shoppers used direct debit option for online transaction, followed by credit cards(Visa). Cash on delivery was the third most preferred option used by online shoppers.

In comparison shoppers in Japan were most comfortable using their credit card followed by cash on delivery, for online shopping. Very few shoppers preferred direct debit as transaction option. For instance, 46 percent of Indians used direct debit option compared to Japanese (5%)while 27percent Indians used Visa brand against 39% Japanese. In comparison, 11.2 percent Indians used cash option as against 18.8 percent Japanese shoppers (source:comscore mastercard study 2014).

In the ecommerce website category, in terms of userbase, Jabong came across as the most popular website. According to comScore, in October 2014 Jabong had 26264000 unique visitors, 65% up from last year (October 2013), while Amazon had 24156000 unique visitors, 59% up from previous year while Flipkart and Snapdeal clocked 22393000 visitors and 20993000 visitors respectively, up 59% and 88% from previous year.

The other popular sites in the India ecommerce landscape were ebay, myntra, shopclues, homeshop18, book myshow and zovi.

Although for websites like zovi and shopclues, unique visitors were slightly less when compared to the top five ecommerce companies, however the percentage increase in unique visitors were highest at 339% and 202% respectively when compared to top sites, signifying higher user activity in the current year.

Tug of War: Retailers Vs Ecommerce Service Providers

Top retailers who are also member of the Indian Retail Association of India are up in the arms against their digital counterpart as they are not able to match the competitive pricing of the etailers such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeals and the like.

Why this hue and cry? Is the anger justified? I don’t think so. E-tailing is a game changer as industry players are giving traditional retailers a run for their money. Most ecommerce companies save on the warehouse (inventory cost) and operations cost and pass on the benefits to consumers. In comparison big retailers incur substantial operations cost and pass these on to the consumers.

The adage “If you can’t beat them, join them” holds good even today. Instead of knocking the doors of North Block Mandarins and lobbying for policy change, the big retailers should read the market (consumer) sentiments and expand their reach by taping online customers through ecommerce. Such a move will not only benefit big players but also improve the level of competition in the ecommerce industry.

Taking cue from the market some of the big retailers such as Future Group, Aditya Birla among others are either tieing up with existing etailers or planning to provide digital shopping experience to customers. Others should follow suit.

Numbers say it all! The e-commerce sector, pegged at about $4 billion, is expected to grow to $15 billion in two years. Brick-and-mortar stores account for the bulk of India's $600-billion retail market, the majority of which is unorganised. The e-commerce sector's share remains only three-four per cent. This year, investments in this sector has risen to Rs 20,000 crore, four times the amount last year.

For news and views on Ecommerce follow this space.

Ebiz like Flipkart, Snapdeal attract customers thru innovative mkt deals

Most ecommerce companies are becoming ‘app’ savvy marketeers lately. The big guys in the industry have realised that in order to grab marketshare, they have to nudge their new found consumer base to move over from tablets and desktops to mobile phones. Its convenient, easier, faster and reaches many. Flipkart, one of the fastest growing etailer has announced a special discount sale only for its mobile application users.

Last month Amazon had announced a similar sale for its ‘app’ users.. The forthcoming flipkart 5-day sale will commence on December 8th.

In order to encourage its customers’ to use the mobile app during the sale period, the Ecommerce bigwig is providing vouchers worth Rs 1200 for every app download.

To make the advertisement more sticky, it will also announce lucky winner during the ‘big app shoping days’ lasting 5-days.

Not to be left behind, to grab eyeball and clicks, Snapdeal has launched its “season of 9s” where it is selling products at Rs 499, Rs 999, Rs 2999, Rs 4999, and Rs 9999 and Rs 29999.

These innovative strategies ahead of the festive season will most certainly get traction for these etailers.

Indian Ecommerce Business: Weekly Report

Weekly Ecommerce Business Report

The endeavour is to provide a comprehensive update of the happenings in the Ecommerce marketplace in India.

News at a Glance:

Amazon in talks to buy Jabong for $1.2 billion
World's biggest online retailer Amazon is upping the ante against India's e-commerce poster boy Flipkart by reportedly initiating the acquisition of fashion portal Jabong.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Amazon-in-talks-to-buy-Jabong-for-1-2-billion-Report/articleshow/45296822.cms


E-commerce players gearing up for Google's online shopping festival
Many online sites are gearing up for a surge in business with a fortnight of discounts during the ongoing Google-led online shopping festival followed by Black Friday and Cyber Monday next week.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/services/retail/e-commerce-players-gearing-up-for-googles-online-shopping-festival/articleshow/45302793.cms



'E-commerce companies far superior to Dotcom ones'
The quality of companies this time round is far superior to that in the past. Also, the e-commerce model today is a proven one. In developed markets, we see almost 30% of the retail sales happening online.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/45302965.cms?curpg=2&utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Online Grocers Come up Trumps in India's E-Commerce Boom
Put off by snarled city traffic and a shortage of parking, more Indians are shopping for groceries online, helping e-tailers like Bigbasket.com and Localbanya.com turn in profits while supermarkets are struggling.
http://cooks.ndtv.com/article/show/online-grocers-come-up-trumps-in-india-s-e-commerce-boom-626726

Ecommerce Turns Hot
Domestic e-commerce scene is all set to turn hotter with Indian e-tailers latching on to American retail concepts of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales luring local ‘shopoholics’.Though the online shopping space is already engaged in a discount war, e-tailers are hoping to take it to the next level by bringing in the US phenomenon that offers mega discounts.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/141128/nation-current-affairs/article/black-friday-grips-online-shoppers

Alibaba Spearheads Chinese Investment into India’s e-Commerce Market
Jack Ma, founder and chairman of the Alibaba Group and the richest person in China, has indicated that Alibaba is looking to invest more in India as it continues to expand its services.
http://www.india-briefing.com/news/alibaba-spearheads-chinese-investment-indias-ecommerce-market-9436.html

E biz hots up; Amazon looks to buy Jabong,Alibaba shows interest in Snapdeal

The Indian Ecommerce Market is abuzz with the news that the global ecommerce leader Amazon is looking at acquiring Jabong.com promoted by Rocket Internet while the new poster boy--China's Alibaba is keenly look at investing in Snapdeal, as I write this blog (quoted in VC Circle).

Amazon was in news this July when it announced a $2billion investment in Indian Ecommerce business sparking major speculation in the business circles. The Amazon deal is expected to be to the tune of $1.2 billion.

Facing stiff competition from ecommerce bigwigs like Flipkart and Snapdeal lately, Amazon is looking at strengthening its foundation in the country. Given the current scenario, inorganic growth seem the only option available for the ecommerce major.

According to a report in VC Circle, Amazon is interested in keeping Jabong as a separate property post the acquisition, which would be on the lines of Amazon's acquisition of Zappos in the US.

As for Alibaba, it is a little to early to comment.

Deal or no deal, it is certain that the Indian Ecommerce Market is hotting up. Going forward the industry is going to witness mergers and acquisitions. The fittest will survive while a large number of 'me too' outfits will shut shop. Watch this space for more.....

China's Poster Boy Jack Ma's intent to grab a chunk of the Indian ecommerce pie can make way for other biggies

The inevitable has happened. Finally Jack Ma has gone public with his intent of being seen and heard more in India (read more visits, more press interaction, hobnobbing with the e-railers, and greater presence in the indian ecommerce industry).

Good for our retailers(small scale traders)...if Ma can tweak technology a bit, make things easy for Indian suppliers to sell products on Alibaba good..... rejoice. However is that all that meets the eye? Is he is planning to buy a stake in one of the Indian Ecommerce success stories.

For one, our bigwigs need strategic alliance, expert knowhow and funds to remain afloat amid cut throat competition. We have been witnessing the big war between the biggies (read flipkart, snap deal, Amazon, and the likes).

What can our ecommerce players learn from Alibaba? Well to start with they can learn:
-How to stay ahead of competition
-How to remain profitability year-on-year
-How to innovate and realign with the exiting market conditions
-How to make consumers feel like a king

This list is endless. Following Jack Ma's lead, we may expect big announcements from other popular etailers across the globe as Indian consumers cannot be ignored anymore.

However currently we are waiting to hear about movers and shakers in the ecommerce industry. Mergers and Acquisitions no more look like a distant dream. Last but not the least....don't forget, Alibaba is scouting for Indian talent. Soon we may hear some shaking news....