Indian e-commerce players geared up for the festive season

Indian e-commerce players are all geared up for the festive season. With just a few days left for Diwali and the festive rush at its peak, TOI logged on to the top websites to look for the preparations being made for e-shoppers. In unison, all big e-commerce players noted that the festive season is the best time for them to share and enjoy the emotional bond.

Talking to TOI, managing director FabFurnish.com Vaibhav Aggarwal says, "We understand that there are emotions involved in the customers' mind while buying something special for their homes. We do want to be a part of these emotions and want to give the best."
"Festivals are the essence of Indian culture. Starting Eid, we are presenting a new flavor of shopping which continues till Christmas. The subtle nuances of creating 'unique' and unconventional gifting range for today's upwardly mobile buyers have prompted us to come up with this assortment of special gifts," says K Senthilnathan, head of StraightLine.in, a B2C initiative of mjunction, a joint venture of Tata Steel and SAIL.

Festivals push the economy to a new level and added to that is the emotional bonding. A portal that delivers some of the top global brands, Rock.in is experiencing the rush for the first time this year. "With the onset of the festive season we have seen an incline in sales. We have observed an increase in both, the number of transactions as well as the average basket size. With e-commerce, consumers from Tier II cities like Kanpur or Varanasi can buy the latest fashion from London or Paris and have it delivered free of cost and that has been the trend we are seeing. This choice was not available a year ago," says CEO, Rock.in Suraj Sharma.

"With only 5% of India having access to organized retail, premium product availability is an issue. On the other hand, internet penetration is already 100 million plus households and will be over 350 million by 2015. This leaves a huge opportunity for both e-shoppers and e-retailers," he adds.
Another new player in the segment is Jabong.com. This is the first festive season for the company which went live on the e-space in January. "In our first year itself we have received an outstanding response from our target audience and are expecting that the festive collection will witness great picks. We see the buying trends of Indian customers have changed enormously since the past few years. Youngsters, these days, hardly get any time to go out and shop. Online portals have successfully redefined shopping, easing out the hassles associated with it and at the same time giving an opportunity to sift through various brands and collections at one go without actually stepping out of the offices or homes", says co-founder of Jabong.com, Manu Kumar Jain.

On the role played by Tier II cities in the overall turnover of an e-commerce entity, Jain says that the trend is very fertile and is expected to see a higher wallet size. Best of the brands are not available in general retail and e-commerce can bridge that gap. "We received an overwhelming response in both Tier I & II cities. A wide range of product assortment available pan India and access to over 700 brands and 50, 000 products have brought an excitement amongst the shopaholics. This is a positive sign," says Jain.

When the size and handling capacity is put to test and mere clicks are generating revenues for these e-players, TOI contacted Flipkart delivery in Lucknow and a source revealed that the number of packets they deliver in the city has almost doubled in this festive season. This is one of the best festive season for the e-players as the market has started accepting e-shopping and has increased their wallet size considerably. "I don't face any problem while delivering Yebhi consignments. People understand that quality won't be compromised by these e-commerce giants," says a lady Yebhi.com delivery champ, on condition of anonymity.

"Online shopping has come to mainstream consumer consciousness. Online shoppers benefit from the variety, deals & convenience of home delivery. For the many outside the top cities where modern retail has penetrated, online shopping provides access to brands which are not available in their city or town. eBay India census 2011 identified buyers from 3,311 Indian cities which are shopping online. Online buyers are buying everything from the latest laptop to a bean bag," says head category management, eBay India Abhimanyu Lal.

As compared to last year, key products with a significant increase in purchases are tablets & tablet accessories, home theatre & accessories, digital cameras, Bluetooth devices, 3D LED TVs, smartphones, dual SIM phones, and furniture. Product categories such as exercise & fitness products, footwear and watches have also almost doubled in transactions this festive season.
"Transaction size has come of age in Indian e-commerce. We are seeing people buying complete bedroom sets, worth Rs 60,000 or more in the online space. Customers are smart now and can choose wisely on the various options. They are definitely inclined to purchase products but want superior quality at the same time," says managing director, FabFurnish.com Vaibhav Aggarwal.
Aggarwal claims that over 10-12 pictures of a single product clicked from different angles gives a 360-degree view of the product and negates the 'touch and feel' syndrome.

Creative director, Zansaar.com Nikita Bhargav too feels that the market has adapted to buying online. "'Touch, feel & buy' is not precisely a modern India mantra. The internet savvy youths are more inclined towards buying products that cannot be found in every shop round the corner. Once trust base is established, customers don't think twice while shopping."

"It's great to see good responses from cities like Lucknow, Kanpur, Varanasi. Analysing the responses that we receive, I perceive that there is a potential market for home decor category as people today are ready to invest for something that is unusual and different", adds Bhargav.
"Sales go up starting September and remain high during the winter season. Vishwakarma Puja marks the beginning of business day and it lasts till April end. Around 80 % of sales are from cosmopolitan cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi. We receive a good number of orders from Army Cantonments. Most of the sales made through our eBay store are from small cites like Ernakulam, Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Ahmedabad, Jabalpur and Dehradun," says Operations Manager at KraftInn, Pramathesh N Borkotoky. KraftInn deals in handicrafts and is based out of Assam.

To give a feel of desi culture, e-commerce players are coming up with innovative ideas like language settings. Although it is expected that one will know basic English while surfing the internet, e-shopping website Yepme.com welcomes every customer with language selection option which enables a user to select English, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil options. Isn't that a whole new experience for a shopper?



Source: TOI