The Hindu Business Line : The ‘e’ in retail

Malathi, a student from Chennai, who had been reading Frederick Forsyth, took to his style and wanted to read everything he’d written. A hunt for those titles in stores nearby didn’t yield any results so on her friend’s suggest ion, she checked out an online shopping mall. To her surprise, she found the entire range there. That’s when she decided to buy all her books online.

From Canon’s latest DSLR Powerhouse camera to a four-pin mini-USB cable for digital cameras, Anand, an engineer from Mumbai, buys almost everything online. He argues that online malls provide the best deals when it comes to gadgets and one can find even those things that aren’t available in the store. Vikrant, an engineer from Bangalore, bought a peculiar telescope online, and that too for Rs 8,500. He’s sure he would not have found it elsewhere. Harini, a Chennai, architect, was delighted when she first booked movie tickets online and realised how much time and energy she could’ve saved had she done it earlier.

Drawn by the facility offered by the Web and the diversity of products available on it, today’s Net-savvy Indian has started making online purchases like never before. Twelve years after it started, e-tailing – the online version of retail shopping – has finally come of age; and with the online community growing in strength, there’s now a larger platform for retailers to scout for potential e-shoppers.

That which was initially confined to the sale of books and music has today cut to a wider proposition. Today, you can buy anything from a stereo system to an iPod, not having to step out of your seats. Not only are they ready to serve you 24 hours a day, but they also do it in a trouble-free manner.

E-tailing accounts for about 10 per cent of the overall e-commerce market. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Indian Marketing Research Bureau (IMRB) report, the e-tailing market was worth Rs 850 crore in 2006-07 and it is expected to grow by 30 per cent, touching Rs 1,105 crore in 2007-08.

Globally, the market for online shopping has increased by 40 per cent in the last two years, according to the latest Nielsen Global Online Survey on Internet shopping habits.

As a matter of fact, industry body Assocham has pointed out that the volume of products sold online are expected to grow by 150 per cent in 2008. Additionally, the increasing PC and Internet penetration is helping accelerate the share of e-commerce in India.

Convenience

It’s true that one misses out on the entire shopping experience consisting of going out, having a snack and chit-chat, but even the die-hard shoppers will sometimes want to buy from the comfort of their chair. It is still a great experience to walk into the market, identify new products, taste them, touch them, feel them and buy them, but security and convenience in online shopping don’t always go hand in hand. There’s a probability of ending up with a defective product at times, and getting it exchanged could be tougher. The biggest advantage of online shopping, perhaps, is pricing — be it in online direct retail or in online auction-based sites — they can offer much better deals and bargains offers compared to retailers in stores. “Operating costs don’t grow with sales, and hence online shops offer cheaper rates,” notes K. Vaitheeswaran, Chief Operating Officer, IndiaPlaza.in.

“Though lots of people believe that convenience is the biggest driver in e-tailing, it still remains a fact that ‘impulse’ acts as a major catalyst. And impulses are driven by the fact of the best deal/price available for a product that one is looking for,” says Arindam Nag, Portal Head, StoreGuru.com.

Online shopping allows one to look for deals at many stores, local and remote. It is probably the best bet when you know exactly what you want. It saves having to trudge around the shops and there are even sites that search for the cheapest price on offer.

Sites such as CompareIndia.com allow one to get the best buying advice, read about the latest and upcoming product launches, locate dealers in the neighbourhood, learn more about product usage, and much more. “In fact, we have helped sell many electronic products through best price listing – in January alone, 300 mobile phones were sold by trusted dealer Hello Zone in Dadar, Mumbai – a significant number for a dinky store dealing in mobile phones,” says Sharmistha Dey, Editor, CompareIndia.

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The ‘e’ in retail