Indian online shopping space is now changing its orientation in terms of targeting, marketing, offers promotion, customer acquisition strategy and more. Earlier a new etailer will introduce an amazing offers and heavy discount while stepping in the market but now the focus is on USP (Unique Selling proposition) and the right customers to target (for niche category etailers). Let’s see what are the changes observed by the deal hunters of FreeKaaMaal:
Discount:
Imagine a site giving around 90% of discount on a product (or most of its products) but at a rate of unsatisfied customers being around 80% with a poor rating on their shopping experience. Lets say another site in the same category is giving approx 60% of discount on a product or most of the products with a rate of satisfied customers being 95% with a good shopping experience, out of these site, which one would you prefer to shop from? Hence the ‘tadka’ of discount to provide a delicious shopping experience is not useful until and unless a good product (quality) is delivered at the door steps of the customer. The customer these days wants value for money, they are ready to buy a product at a reasonable price but they wish the best out of every penny they pay.
The other reason is the high cashburn of the well funded shopping sites for which they have clearly stated the fact that they would not be able to sustain these heavy discount tags in the longer run. Hence they are shifting to factors other than discount like fast delivery, excellent customer care, easy return, emotional touch and much more.
The ghost of App:
The number of sales coming from mobile is about 70%+ for many sites, this include the mobile version of the site+App of the site. Taking this as groundbreaking data for going only app is absurd and stupid. Shoppers use app to shop mostly when they are not at home or at office or while commuting. Can a 9:16 screen gives a 16:9 experience? Myntra went only app and the sale dipped drastically, Flipkart was planning to do so but eventually delayed its plan. Mr. Kunal Bahl, CEO of Snapdeal said that it is a foolish idea to go only app and the decision of Myntra to be only on App has actually raise the customers on his site in fashion category.
Imagine, if app would be the best for an ecommerce company then Amazon would have been the first to become an App only company. App is a great channel of generating revenue but using it as the only revenue generating steam is actually a bit stupid.
Less coupons More Offers:
Disagree? By looking at various sites and the exclusive coupons provided by them we can easily conclude that a lot of coupons are present, however, the game on the basic ground says that the number of coupons which were present earlier do come but at a low frequency. The exclusive and promotional coupons are now focused on, instead of coupons for nearly all products. Awesome offers according to general shopping behavior are highly preferred by etailers these day. The deals are made in order to fulfill the need and the feeling of saving money while shopping. This deal and offer concept is nearly similar to the Walmart strategy where the products are at a lower rate that the market. Instead of heavy discount on a single product or an array of product, Walmart research on customer behavior analysis while making a purchase and use the finding to give offers and deals which fulfill the need of the shoppers at a reasonably low price.
Delivery:
The focus from heavy marketing, introducing celebrity faces, multiple heavy sale events are now shifting to the very basic essence of the online shopping – delivery. While 1 day delivery is a common and a by default ecommerce feature in China, Indian etailers take it as an exclusive feature. Imaging Snapdeal.com investing the crores of rupees, which it invested in Aamir Khan to promote its ‘Dil Ki Deal’ campaign, in one day delivery for products worth above lets say Rs499. However, after analyzing the need of a faster delivery, it had to take GoJavas onboard.
Customer Care:
If the error rate is 1 in 10,000 orders, and the customer care is not good then the loss of the company will be very heavy in the long run. An unsatisfied customer compel other shoppers to not to buy from the site it had a bad experience and for a industry which majorly runs on word of mouth, it is very bad for the business. All the major sites promote themselves as a customer caring site and thus gaining the trust factor which is in fact the token of the heavy revenue in future. Easy returns and fast refunds are new in league in India.
User Interface:
It do matter how a site look upto a point but when it come to paying something to buy some product, customer looks for a better navigation and ease of use rather than a beautiful site without a proper product listing. Snapdeal developed its UI in such a way not to beautify but to be able to clearly present the information to the customer.
Value for money:
90% of the shoppers do not want loot prices, they do not want cheap priced products as well, what they want is the best product in their budget range. The money paid should bring a product which would satisfy the customer to the deep of his/her heart.
India holds an immeasurable limitless potential in ecommerce domain. If focused properly, the ecommerce site can break the unimaginable numbers in sales and in shoppers.
