WINTER INTERNSHIP PRESENTATION

Submitted By: Saurav Kumar PGDPC- 18

Acknowledgment
I have taken efforts in this project. However, it would not have been possible without the kind support and help of many individuals. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to all of them. I am highly indebted to Professor Ramola Kumar for her guidance and constant supervision as well as for providing me the opportunity to work in the corporate world and to learn the corporate culture. I would also like to express my gratitude towards Mr. Mrutyunjay Mishra, Mr. Shyamanuja Das for giving me their valuable time and teaching me the deep insights of Market Research field. I cannot complete this project without thanking the co-workers of JuxtConsult for it was their kind support that acted as the wind beneath my wings. Last but not the least I would like to express my gratitude towards Ms. Rupanjali Lahiri for her wise advice and suggestions which helped me in completing this project.

Companys Introduction

Introduction
Starting in year 2005, Juxt has progressed rapidly to become a leading force in both syndicated research and online research space in India. Besides pioneering highly robust large scale syndicated studies, Juxt is the only research company in India offering the complete 360 market research solutions online. It owns one of India's largest and most info-rich consumer and internet user panel, GetCounted, and is leveraging internet as a medium to conduct all kinds of market research. It also plans to start conducting surveys on mobile phones soon. Juxt assists and advices both online as well as offline marketers in effectively tracking and measuring their marketing efforts and performances, using a series of proprietary models and methodologies Brand MomentuxTM, Ad ConnectTM, Web Box OfficeTM, Website User Friendliness (WUF) Index, SABUC, FIRSE.

Services rendered by the company

Other than syndicated reports that Juxt brings out around all possible aspects of marketing decisions in regular interval there are five different kind of customized study engagement JuxtConsult typically enters into with a client (in the same order of preference as follows): 1. End-to-end research: Understand yJuxts objective, work closely with you in preparing the questionnaire, program & host the online questionnaire, tabulate the data, analyzing the data & prepare report. 2. Survey programming till tabulated data submission: Receive a pre-designed questionnaire from you, program & host the online questionnaire, clean the raw data & tabulate the data on specifications received from you. 3. Survey programming & sample collection: Receive a predesigned questionnaire from you, program & host the online questionnaire, provide you clean raw data files. 4. Pure sample collection: Receive a online questionnaire link from you, collect the sample and provide you the clean raw data in SPSS/xls format. 5. Survey programming: Receive a pre-designed questionnaire from you, program & host the online questionnaire in Juxts server or provide you the files to host it wherever you are interested.

Experience of providing online samples for market research:

Juxt is a pioneer in the syndicated and online research space in India, it is been helping marketers unravel the Indian consumer landscape and measure and track their offline and online marketing and brand building performance since 2005. Juxt initially collected sample from various sources on the Internet like (display advertising, emailers and Google AdWord based advertising) almost two years from its inception and quickly realised that a panel is abetter solution. In year 2007 it started developing its proprietary panel GetCounted and in the year 2010 it developed the access panel India Research Panel. Juxt has conducted few thousand online studies from its panel on behalf of its esteemed clients), which includes not only Online Marketers, Offline Businesses but also Market Research and other sampling companies across world.

Types of sources(s) for the online sample that are provided:

Primarily through Google SEM campaigns and member referrals, but we have also bought display and pay per click ad inventory from ad networks, affiliate networks, free mobile recharge sites, and email marketing & permission based marketing websites etc. All members accounts are activated through double opt in process and understanding & signing of Juxts terms and conditions and privacy policy.

Primary advantage of Juxts sample over other sample sources in the marketplace

Juxts method is been more of acquisition than retention of the panel, meaning, we dont provide individual incentive to each and every respondent and provide only Daily, Survey wise, Monthly, Quarterly and Annual Sweepstakes to the panel members. This naturally creates a situation to weed out the professional survey fillers and enhances the voluntary participation. Moreover, in a country like India where most of the product and service penetrations are low, it helps us in not measuring the same people again and again and brings fresh sample to each of the studies.

Sample sources is a panel or database, used solely for market research

GetCounted is a pure active panel not used for any other purpose than Market Research. However, Juxts access panel, India Research Panel members do receive a variety of content (news and entertainment) and are provided various activities (free sms, ability to buy mobile recharge etc.) in their respective websites from where they are sourcesd.

Sources groups that may be hard-to-reach on the internet

The difficulty is relative depending on what we consider as hard to reach. The detailed profiling and the large size of the panel help us reach almost all kind of TG defined by marketers including some of the TG that is hard to reach on a face-to-face survey scenario. However, if the hard to reach means the real HNIs (someone who has a portfolio of Rs. 250,000,000 investment and Rs. 25,000,000 per annum to invest) is not possible to reach through any method, including Juxts panel as they dont fill surveys.

The panel is a good medium to conduct Gen Pop surveys and some of the other targeted segment wise surveys e.g., self-employed professionals, businessmen, women, doctors, senior employed professionals etc. However, Juxt always suggest clients to collect some of the hard to reach samples in India appointment/snow balling based face-to-face recruitment and survey method.

What are people told when they are recruited?

Juxts advertisements on the Internet read: Share your opinion and stand chance to win regularly, which brings people to Juxts panel website www.getcounted.net Juxts mailers for the access panel typically read: Hi, Juxt is a reputed market research company that regularly conducts surveys on behalf of its clients that include consumer product and service companies, market research companies, institutions and noncommercial organizations to better understand needs of consumers like you for designing and delivering appropriate products & services. The feedback collected actually helps companies in making things better for people like you create better product and services, price them to your need requirements, maintain quality standards, and promote the products and services efficiently and effectively to you. If you are interested to participate regularly then please click on the following link and sign up. www.getcounted.net?rfr=<sourcesiteid>&emailid=[email] Thanking you, With regards, Team GetCounted PS: You have received this mail because you have signed up with <sources website> to receive mails regularly. In case you are not interested to receive any more email from us then please unsubscribe by clicking on www.juxt360.com/unsubscribe/index.php?emailid=[email]

If the person receives a referral mail from a friend then it reads: Hi <Name>, Look what I found on the Internet. Juxt is a reputed market research company that regularly conducts surveys on behalf of its clients that include consumer product and service companies, market research companies, institutions and noncommercial organizations to better understand needs of consumers like us for designing and delivering appropriate products & services. The feedback collected by them actually helps companies in making things better for people like us create better product and services, price them to Juxts need requirements, maintain quality standards, and promote the products and services efficiently and effectively to us. I have already joined the panel and provided consent, if you are interested to participate regularly then please click on the following link and sign up. www.getcounted.net?rfr=friend&fid=[email]&emailid=[email] Thanking you, With regards, <Friends name> PS: You have received this mail because your friend <friends name> signed up with us and wanted to send this mail to you. In case you are not interested to receive any email from us then please unsubscribe by clicking on www.juxt360.com/unsubscribe/index.php?emailid=[email]

The typical write up on Juxts panel page goes as: The GetCounted Panel is a JuxtConsult initiative to provide Indian consumers a platform to voluntarily provide their opinions, feedbacks & personal preferences on current happenings, products and services bought, or intended to be bought, through online surveys. These surveys are initiated by us for Juxts clients that include consumer product and service companies, market research companies, institutions and non-commercial organizations to better understand needs of consumers like you for designing and delivering appropriate products & services. The feedback collected actually helps companies in making things better for people like you create better product and services, price them to your need requirements, maintain quality standards, and promote the products and services efficiently and effectively to you. Check following links for further understanding: Why GetCounted?: http://getcounted.net/YGet.aspx How do you benefit?: http://getcounted.net/benefits.aspx How does it work?: http://getcounted.net/work.aspx

Annual panel turnover/attrition/retention rate and how is it calculated: Juxts Average YTD rate of attrition over last 3 years is around 35% We measure panel attrition rate by calculating: (End Head Count-Star Head Count) YTD panel attrition rate = 12 month average head count Where, End Head Count as anyone who participated, joined, or updated profile within the last 12 months This creates a huge pressure on regular acquisition to the panel, which made us focus on the access panel route to avoid huge expenses on regular attrition. However, annual request for un-subscription has always stayed sub 0.01%.

The opt-in process:

All new panel members go through the standard double opt-in process. While signing up everyone is asked to fill basic profile information followed by reading and accepting the terms & condition and privacy policy. Thereafter, a validation email is sent to the email address used as log-in id for activation of the account. In case of some of Juxts access panel providers we are also using mobile validation by sending out a unique code as sms to the mobile number provided to us for activation of the account.

Procedures to detect fraudulent respondents at the time of registration with the panel
There is no way we can very confidently claim that we confirm the identity of the person as claimed by her/him in the registration. The current method of telephonic validation process that we have implemented only covers 30% of the joining, when we call up the person after 1 week of joining and ask to confirm the identity we have found out that 100% of the member turnout to be who they claimed to be. However in case of sub 0.1% members there are discrepancies in the information supplied by them during registration like age, asset ownership, monthly household income etc. We consider that to be a normal situation of respondent honesty or dishonesty. However, there are technical solutions implemented not to allow the same person to create multiple log-in id from the same IP address using different email ids, run a bot to create multiple log-in.

The profile data collected and updated There is detailed registration page used in GetCounted to capture following fields about the panel members as mandatory fields before they double opt-in and activate their account (other than these there are lot more fields around their Internet Usage and Household Details captured as optional fields which makes them eligible for the Monthly and Quarterly Sweepstakes. Additionally, we also mine the unique profile data captured from various surveys against their unique id into a mother database for future use and incidence calculation and other possible research products.

Personal Details 1. Gender: 2. First Name: Last Name: 3. Date of Birth: 4. Which of the following your mother tongue? (Please circle the language in the grid below) 5. Please indicate your most preferred language of reading as 1 and second preferred language as Native State 6. Community 7. Caste 8. What is your Religion? 9. What is your highest level of education? 10. Which of the following best describes your Marital Status? 11. Do you stay in a village (rural area) or a town/city (urban area) 12. Which of the following category of occupation do you belong to? 13. How far is your village from nearest City/Town 14. Approx population of your village 15. Type of house you live in 16. Land owned by you/ your family Contact Details 17. State 18. District 19. City Other City/Town 20. Block/Tehsil (Please Specify) 21. Village (Please Specify) 22. Nearest City/Town Address : 23. Pin Code 24. Contact No. Res 25. Mobile No. (+91)

ECONOMIC STATUS 26. Vehicles owned in the household (Choose all that apply) 27. Vehicle you drive most often 28. Which of the following indicates your monthly household income (Total income by all members of this household put together)? 29. Credit card (individually owned by you) Which of the following documents do you have? 30. Voter id 31. Passport 32. Ration card 33. Driving License 34. Has anyone in your household taken any of the following loans, which are currently running?(City) 35. Has anyone in your household taken any of the following loans, which are currently running? (Village) 36. Which of the following things you have inherited?

ABOUT THE CHIEF WAGE EARNER OF THE HOUSEHOLD: 37. Are you chief wage earner of your household? Yes/No 38. Which of the following members are staying with you? 39. How many earning members are there in your household (family members sharing the same kitchen)? 40. How is the Chief Wage Earner related to you? Relationship 41. Out of the following options of education, which is the one that applies to you/your 42. Out of the following options of occupation, which is the one that applies to you/your 43. Marital status of Chief Wage Earner 44. Age of the Chief Wage Earner (in years) 45. Land owned by Chief Wage Earner 46. Preferred language reading of Chief Wage Earner

In case of the access panel India Research Panel the following fields are managed at all partner site level for profiling. Personal Information 1. First Name: 2. Last Name 3. Marital Status: 4. Gender: 5. Date of Birth: Contact Information 6. State: 7. City: 8. Area: 9. Pincode: 10. Address Line 1: 11. Address Line 2: Professional Information 12. Education: List a. Others (Education) 13. Occupation: List a. Others (Ocupation) 14. Industry: List a. Others (Industry) 15. Income Range (Annual): 16. Company name: 17. Job title: Mobile Information 18. Brand: 19. Mobile Model: 20. Connection Type: Asset Ownership: 21. Two Wheeler

22. House 23. Music System 24. Computer 25. FJuxts Wheeler 26. TV 27. Ipod / Mp3 Player 28. Credit / Debit Card 29. None of the above

Size and/or the capacity of the panel

As on date (i.e., 31st March 2012) the active panel base in GetCounted is 1,45,000 members who has participated in at least one survey, updated their profile over the last three months or referred someone to join the panel. If we consider the historically active base over a 12 months period then we have close to 11,00,000 members. The break up of these members as follows:

However, in Juxts access panel we have close to 2,500,000 (at least 100+ from 700+ towns in India) active members over the last 12 months. In the access panel the distribution is more skewed towards word of mouth or referrals followed by email invites. Emailer Inventory: 25% Referral: 75%

Sampling process
Using the available profile fields targeting is possible and we have created mechanism to randomly select certain number of respondents meeting the target criteria depending on Juxts historic response rates. Juxts state of the art emailing engine (Epsilon) also provides us ability to exclude respondents basis their past participation records. We have successfully implemented black out periods and also recontacted the same respondents from a particular survey for follow-up studies, however, we have experienced that depending on the incentive offered the success rate of re-contact is never more than 15 to 20% in Juxts panel. We have the ability to manage sample/respondent invites in batches, by geography (urban/rural, town classes, towns, area & PIN codes). Time zone is not applicable as Juxts panel is Only India specific. The controlling abilities are built with both legacy systems coded by Juxts technology team as well as systems available to us through Juxts state of the art emailing engine (Epsilon Dream Mail)

Research Done

Clients

Online Players

Marketers

Research and Others

Work Done

About E-Commerce Industry:-

Introduction:
Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, is the buying and selling of product or service over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. Electronic commerce draws on such technologies as electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least at one point in the transaction's life-cycle, although it may encompass a wider range of technologies such as e-mail, mobile devices social media, and telephones as well. Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business. It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment aspects of business transactions. E-commerce can be divided into:

E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogues, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall" The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts and social media Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data E-mail and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established customers (for example, with newsletters) Business-to-business buying and selling The security of business transactions

Forms:
Contemporary electronic commerce involves everything from ordering "digital" content for immediate online consumption, to ordering conventional goods and services, to "meta" services to facilitate other types of electronic commerce. On the institutional level, big corporations and financial institutions use the internet to exchange financial data to facilitate domestic and international business. Data integrity and security are very hot and pressing issues for electronic commerce.

Impact On Markets And Retailers:

Economists have theorized that e-commerce ought to lead to intensified price competition, as it increases consumers' ability to gather information about products and prices. Research by four economists at the University of Chicago has found that the growth of online shopping has also affected industry structure in two areas that have seen significant growth in e-commerce, bookshops and travel agencies. Generally, larger firms have grown at the expense of smaller ones, as they are able to use economies of scale and offer lower prices. The lone exception to this pattern has been the very smallest category of bookseller, shops with between one and four employees, which appear to have withstood the trend.

Distribution Channels:
E-commerce has grown in importance as companies have adopted Pure-Click and Brick and Click channel systems. We can distinguish between pure-click and brick and click channel system adopted by companies.

Pure-Click companies are those that have launched a website without any previous existence as a firm. It is imperative that such companies must set up and operate their e-commerce websites very carefully. Customer service is of paramount importance. Brick and Click companies are those existing companies that have added an online site for e-commerce. Initially, Brick and Click companies were sceptical whether or not to add an online ecommerce channel for fear that selling their products might produce channel conflict with their off-line retailers, agents, or their own stores. However, they eventually added internet to their distribution channel portfolio after seeing how much business their online competitors were generating.

E-commerce in India:
India has an internet user base of about 137 million as of June 2012. The penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States and the United Kingdom but is growing at a much faster rate with a large number of new entrants. The industry consensus is that growth is at an inflection point with key drivers being:

Increasing broadband Internet (growing at 20% MoM) and 3G penetration. Rising standards of living and a burgeoning, upwardly mobile middle class with high disposable incomes Availability of much wider product range (including long tail and Direct Imports) compared to what is available at brick and mortar retailers Busy lifestyles, urban traffic congestion and lack of time for offline shopping Lower prices compared to brick and mortar retail driven by disintermediation and reduced inventory and real estate costs Increased usage of online classified sites, with more consumers buying and selling second-hand goods. Evolution of the online marketplace model with sites like ebay, Infibeam, and Tradus.

Market Size And Growth:

Indias e-commerce market was worth about $2.5 billion in 2009, it went up to $6.3 billion in 2011 and to $14 billion in 2012. About 75% of this is travel related (airline tickets, railway tickets, hotel bookings, online mobile recharge etc.). Online Retailing comprises about 12.5% ($300 Million as of 2009). India has close to 10 million online shoppers and is growing at an estimated 30% CAGR vis--vis a global growth rate of 8-10%. Electronics and Apparel are the biggest categories in terms of sales.

Future Trends:
India's retail market is estimated at $470 billion in 2011 and is expected to grow to $675 Bn by 2016 and $850 Bn by 2020, estimated CAGR of 7%. According to Forrester, the e-commerce market in India is set to grow the fastest within the Asia-Pacific Region at a CAGR of over 57% between 2012-16. India's e-tailing market in 2011 was about $600 Mn and expected to touch $9 Bn by 2016 and $70 Bn by 2020 estimated CAGR of 61%.

Infrastructure for eCommerce in India:

eCommerce Site Development eCommerce Hosting Service Provider

There are many hosting companies working in India but most of them are not efficient and good for eCommerce hosting purpose. Because they are providing much less secure and threat protected shared hosting. eCommerce demand highly secure, stable and protected hosting.

Marketing:
There could be various methods of eCommerce marketing such as Blog, Forums, Search Engines and some online advertising site like Google adwords. India got its own version of the Cyber Monday on 12 December 2012. Google India said it had partnered with many of e-commerce companies including Flipkart, Snapdeal, Homeshop18, IndiatimesShopping, and MakeMyTrip. Cyber Monday is the term coined in the USA for the Monday coming after Black Friday, which is the Friday after Thanksgiving Day. Google said that, this was the first time, when an industry wide initiative of this scale was undertaken to offer users an incentive to gain from deals that they can find on the web on a single day.

Funding:
As of 2012, most of the e-commerce companies are yet to start making money. However, due to their growth prospects, many venture capital firms such as Accel Partners have invested considerably. In one of the biggest fund raising, Flipkart.com, in August 2012, raised about 822 crore (US$149.6 million). Entertainment ticketing website BookMyShow.com raised 100 crore (US$18.2 million) investment by Accel Partners.

Costs Involved in Setting up eCommerce Business:

Website development and maintenance cost Hosting and Data Security Cost Marketing Costs Warehousing Cost Product delivery cost Payment Gateways charges Trust Building costs Customer Acquisition

Unique To India:
Some of the aspects of Indian e-commerce that are unique to India (and potentially to other developing countries) are:

Cash on Delivery as a preferred payment method. India has a vibrant cash economy as a result of which 80% of Indian ecommerce tends to be Cash On Delivery. Direct Imports constitute a large component of online sales. Demand for international consumer products (including long-tail) is growing much faster than in-country supply from authorized distributors and e-commerce offerings.

Models of e-commerce in India:

We can have a look at the classifieds model, which seems to be broken through and through for the India market. We Indians do not like to sell our used stuff, and well do not want to buy it as well. That cultural shift will take time, before it happens. We can look at the plain-vanilla ecommerce model, which seems to be running on books, surpluses, and deep discounts. Personally as a consumer that is my behaviour online. We are a pedestrian city country, where you can walk in and see what you buy pretty easily. The shift away from stores will take time that will depend on more fundamental urban planning decisions taken in my opinion. Those are going to be closely linked in how this plays out. We can look at the marketplace model, which seems to be based on the seller using this as the primary or secondary model of getting orders. From what I gather very few sellers look at this as a primary way of selling, there clearly is enough demand on the ground not to focus on the online yet. This is fundamentally going to take more time, even if online shops continue to try to replicate physical behaviour.

Then there are the Deals sites, which seem to be fewer in number and at the pace things are going all of them are going to be ecommerce sites with deals platforms in them. The super set business plan will become the sub set! This is a relatively young market and for the looks of it, things have just started off. Its a fact that when the Samwer brothers reach a market, there is some data indicating their moves. They are calculated and from the looks of it the game is on.

eCommerce in India Inflection Point or Bubble?

Last few months there has been lot of activity in the eCommerce space. New Startups have got funded and several of the existing ones have morphed their business models Just In Time, to focus on eCommerce. Previously majority of the share in the e-commerce market was contributed by Online Travel (MMT, ClearTrip Etc), Ticketing (Book My Show) and Classifieds (Naukri, Carwale). Emerging eCommerce (E-tailing) categories include Apparel/Accessories (Yebhi), Fashion (F&Y, Exclusively.in), Mobiles/Computers (LetsBuy) and Consumer Electronics/Books/Music and Videos (FlipKart). Per IAMAI, size of E-tailing market is estimated around $600M currently, growing 30% YOY. To scale and grow into real businesses, eCommerce startups will require Ability to assess/predict Product Demand accurately Cost effective Customer Acquisition strategy High Click 2 Conversion Ratio Repeat Sales and Loyal Customers Deep Customer Profiles are a must to achieve all of the above. Am sure even scrappy Startups will have to spend serious amounts of cash (tens of millions of dollars) to address business critical issues like Inventory Financing, Logistics and Customer Support. With Brand Penetration, availability of mature Mobile Payment systems, improved Logistics/Delivery to third and fourth tier towns and Broad Band Internet User Growth, eCommerce in India will grow at a healthy pace.

INTERVIEW: Harish Bahl, Founder & Chairman, Smile Group

Harish Bahl is probably one of the most sought after names in the business of ecommerce in India now. After launching FashionAndYou.com and DealsAndYou.com as a part of the portfolio of ecommerce verticals under Smile Group, Bahl has now ventured into footwear ecommerce by launching BeStylish.com. Following this, AlooTechie caught up with Harish Bahl to understand his views about the ecommerce business in India, Smile Groups strategy in the Indian ecommerce play and future plans for BeStylish.com.

Why another ecommerce venture from Smile Group? I think its a logical extension as we fundamentally believe that there are multiple formats of eretail and they all co-exist. Even in mature markets there are the regular deep-inventory players, flash sales models and group buying models and they all co-exist. And they are all to service a separate need. Our other two ecommerce models FashionAndYou and DealsAndYou stand more for impulse based purchase. This business stands for the consumers need based purchases. The first generation of ecommerce in India was for the electronically delivered products and services like travel etc. The second generation saw what is regarded as the synonym to internet that is Deals. The strongest reason for people to experiment with online buying, at that time, was a deep discount. Now when they have become comfortable in online transactions, consumers are also looking for good experiences and fulfilment of need based shopping and that is what BeStylish aims at delivering. Even in the physical retail world, there is a market for the fair price shops and there is also a market for the deals section on an outlet. So Smile Groups retail portfolio is basically based on that model and each business complements the other.

Smile Groups ecommerce portfolio has deals, fashion and now shoes. Speaking about ecommerce as a business in India, is verticalisation the way forward? I think the verdict is not yet out. One can always ask why not one Amazon that gives you all versus vertically special brands. There are two parts to my answer even in mature markets, it is not only Amazon. There is Groupon, LivingSocial, Zappos and all co-exist. Secondly, I think in developed markets, the basic infrastructure and the ecosystem is a far higher level in the maturity curve to do a more horizontal play. In US, the supply chain infrastructure including the courier company, logistics, warehousing, payment options everything is at a maturity level. The bulk of retail happens through organised retailers and that means that their technology readiness to adopt ecommerce is high. There are specialised companies who will give you a plug in play solution for logistics, warehousing etc. And almost all internet users have credit and debit cards and the failure rates are multiple times lower than what we see here. The whole ecosystem is matured enough to have a horizontal ecommerce play whereas in India, it is still difficult to have a horizontal ecommerce play and every vertical need of commerce needs a deep focus and investment. From a consumers perspective, a consumer is equally unforgiving irrespective of whether he is Indian or American. He is not bothered about the problems that are there in the backend of the business. So my fundamental belief is that one needs to focus and become a category killer in one segment and then diversify. And speaking about categories, as far as Smile Group goes, we are not touching any niche and shallow categories. All categories that we operate upon are multibillion dollar verticals and our perspective is to build and focus on those categories.

Do you feel that the inflection point for ecommerce has come in India? I have been saying this for almost four five years now and I will still stick to my statement. There are les sellers and more buyers. Three years back, the inflection point was still there but if you as a consumer wanted to buy anything apart from travel, you had no options on the internet. This brings us to the debate that do you first create the mall or do you first get the customers? So I still think that the inflection point is not somewhere ahead, rather, we have left it behind. The moment we got options for the consumers to buy, they adopted it. When we started FashionAndYou, it took us no time to reach the first day to ship thousand products and soon we became a company doing more than Rs 100 crore of turnover. We have launched DealsAndYou which is also relatively doing well. So this shows that the consumers are ready. With BeStylish.com, we have already sold more than 100 shoes in the first day of launch and we are yet to launch a marketing campaign. I believe that if the inflection point for retail is there in India, then the inflection point for e-retail also exists. What was the idea behind BeStylish and taking Shailen Amin as partner? Shay (Shailen Amin, CEO and co-founder, BeStylish.com) and I became friends four and a half years back. Two days later we were driving to Jaipur and besides being a mergers and acquisitions (M&A) guy, he kept telling me that he has had enough of buying and selling companies. After that, whenever we met, he kept on discussing with me several ideas in the fashion retail space. And when I decided that I want to get into it, it was the first call that I made to Shay. I said that we still dont have the funds and it is still an idea and he replied that he will be doing this in any case now. So that was my reason for taking him as a partner. For me it always has been the person and the entrepreneurial attitude in him or her. My other two partners Abhishek Lal and Prasad for this venture are also big shoe lovers and carry more than 40 years of combined experience in shoe design and retail.

How do you see BeStylish evolving from here? We had this option of becoming a fair price retailer for multiple categories within fashion retail or pick one category and be the best in that. We opted for the latter and chose shoes. If I am able to give great customer experience to a consumer, I am sure that when I replicate the same in newer categories, we wont have to re-establish the loyalty. Reason to take up shoes was that we are all very fond of shoes and shoe as a category is one of the most emotionally attached thing in your wardrobe. It a very engaging category and one builds a relationship. So it fitted our goal to build an engaging relationship with our customers. If we can build customer confidence in such a high-involvment category, then we can diversify in other categories as well very fast. But right now, our focus and passion is to become the largest shoe retailers in India and be the most loved destinations for buying shoes. Moreover, the feet itself has a lot to cover and we will be bringing in socks, polishes and so on so forth. Attaining scale is imperative to us in whatever we do.

INTERVIEW: Sachin Founders, Flipkart

Bansal

and

Binny

Bansal,

FlipKart is an online book store primarily serving Indian consumers. Flipkart was started in 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, both alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. Flipkart is an Indian e-commerce company based on Bangalore, Karnataka. Initially Flipkart used word of mouth marketing to popularise their company. A few months later, the company sold its first book on flipkart.com John Woods Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. Flipkart is among the top 20 Indian Web sites and has been credited with being Indias largest online bookseller with over 11 million titles on offer. Flipkart store started with selling books and in 2010 branched out to selling CDs, DVDs, mobile, phones and accessories, cameras, computers, computer accessories and peripherals, and in 2011 Pens & stationery, other electronic items such as home appliances, kitchen appliances, personal care gadgets, health care products etc. Further in 2012, Flipkart added A.C, Air coolers, School supplies, Office supplies, Art Supplies & life style products to its product portfolio. Flipkart offers multiple payment methods like credit card, debit card, net banking, e-gift voucher and Cash on Delivery. The cash-ondelivery model adopted by Flipkart has proven to be of great significance since the credit card and net banking penetration is very low in India. From a two member embryonic idea to a 4,500-member company, the Flipkart story is not just about stupendous success and mind numbing numbers. Much more than that, its about redefining customer experience and breaking online shopping inertia.

When was flipkart.com founded? Flipkart.com was founded on 5th Sept 2007. The website was launched on 15th Oct 2007. Could you tell about founders? Sachin Bansal (26) and myself, Binny Bansal (25), started flipkart.com. We are computer science graduates from IIT Delhi from the 2005 batch. Sachin worked at Techspan for 6 months and then at Amazon India for one and half year. I worked at Sarnoff India for one and half year and then at Amazon India. We quit our jobs in September 2007 to begin our startup journey. How many days it took to launch the service? It took us about a month and a half to start a basic working website with 50,000 titles. We have now grown our catalog to over 1 Lakh available titles. Whats the total team size? Primarily, there is only Sachin and myself. We also manage a small team which takes care of our back-end operations. and cureently we have 4500 member team size. What made you to start something on your own? We started flipkart.com because we ourselves felt the need for a good online book store. one this time E-commerce sector is startup in India so we believe that we can make a difference here for online shopping. We wanted to create something which has a long lasting value and which we can be proud of. Also at this point in our life we can devote our entire time and energy to flipkart which is very important for any startup. What are the biggest challenges you have faced while launching the service? One major challenge was to get tie-ups with the major book vendors as we did not have an off line book store. We have somehow managed to persuade them and now most of the vendors are supporting us. and second major challenge was to get the approval for the credit card payment gateway. We did not want to use CCAvenue as their interface is really confusing. So we had to convince Axis

Bank for the payment gateway and that was not easy given the fact that we are a self-funded startup and we do not have an offline presence. What are your future plans for flipkart? Do you want to go beyond books and offer other products as well? Currently we are completely focussed on books. We want to be number one in books first, get a big customer base and then look at the possibilities of offering other products. Could you give me an idea about the market size for online book stores in India? Market size for online book shopping in India is expected to be between Rs. 20-25 crore for 2007-2008. Market size of whole of book industry in India is estimated at 4000 crores and is growing at a very quick pace. How are you marketing the service? Marketing on a small budget is very difficult. A large part of our marketing is built into our low prices. We believe that if we keep prices low and keep the customer happy we can generate a lot of positive word of mouth which has much better ROI than spending that money on regular marketing techniques. But, we do have to reach out to people somehow and hence we are experimenting with pay per click online advertising. We are also going to start a marketing campaign in Bangalore targeted at people working in IT companies. The current goal is to reach as many enthusiastic online book shoppers as possible. How are you building trust? How can a first time visitor trust your service? We have clearly defined and listed our shipping and return policies on the website. Also, we think free shipping adds a lot to the trust factor. We also have a page on which we address the issue of secure online payments. All this coupled with an interface that quick, clean and user friendly, and the positive reviews on the web from our early adopters builds trust for our service.

Do you have any off-line presence? We do not have an off-line presence and we do not plan to have one in the future either. What is flipkarts USP compared to other online book stores in India? Flipkart.com USP is simplicity, convenience and customer service. We have made searching and browsing for books as simple as possible. And there are a lot of features lined up for the future which would help you in selecting books based on your interests. And one of our major goals is to maintain very high standards for customer support. The lack of customer service is one of the major reasons for the slow E-commerce growth in India. We want to change this perception and get people to embrace E-commerce due to the many benefits it provides. If possible can you share some statistics till date?(books sold and number of visitors, etc) We cant share exact statistics at this point but we are growing at the speed that we had expected when we first started out and we also met the goal that we had set for the first 3-4 months. Finally, what are your suggestions for wanna be entrepreneurs in India? Take the plunge. The timing could not be better. And very importantly do not go at it alone. Have at least one co-founder.

E-commerce in India Present and Future by Mukesh Bansal founder Myntra.com

Today, the market place is flooded with several e-commerce options for shoppers to choose from. A variety of innovative products and services are being offered spoiling customers for choice. Online shopping is no more a privilege enjoyed by your friends and family living in the US or UK. Today, it is a reality in India. In the last couple of years, the growth of e-commerce industry in India has been phenomenal as more shoppers have started discovering the benefits of using this platform. There is enough scope for online businesses in the future if they understand the Indian shoppers psyche and cater to their needs. Changing the game Indian e-commerce industry has evolved over a period of time with innovations that have changed the rules of the game globally. Cash on delivery (COD) is one such example. In a country where credit card penetration is much lower than other developed markets and where ecommerce companies are still working hard to build trust among shoppers, introducing cash on delivery has been one of the key factors for the success of the segment. At present, COD is the preferred payment mode for close to 55-60% of all online transactions in the fashion and lifestyle segment in India. COD is here to stay owing to its convenience and its cultural affinity and will be a major part of payment mechanisms for at least the next four to five years. Executing COD efficiently and painlessly for the customer is critical to the success of any e-commerce player in the country.

Delivering experiences Besides COD, e-commerce players need to focus on customer experience as a means to build trust and confidence. Customer experience encompasses every interaction a customer has with your service from placing an order to interacting with your customer service team, to the actual delivery experience. Providing a great delivery experience is one of the core aspects to delighting customers. This doesnt necessarily mean constantly pushing the frontier on faster deliveries. Being a day behind the fastest in the market isnt a big deal, but trust, consistency and reliability are more important. The more faith the customer has in your delivery service, the more likely he is to buy again. Delivering a good experience is critical not only to ensure repeat purchase from a customer, but also for building a good brand image and word-ofmouth publicity. Growing the base Online shopping has seen a lot of traction in the last 12-18 months. India has almost 130 million online users at present, out of which as many as 10% are engaging in online transactions. The online user base is expected to cross 300 million in the next 2 3 years and a larger percentage of people are expected to transact online by 2015. This large base will provide vast scope for e-commerce businesses to establish themselves in India. Growing opportunities Cities beyond metros are in the limelight for all the good reasons. On an average, almost 50 55% of our business come from tier 2 and tier 3 cities and I believe this ratio is similar across other ecommerce companies in the country. With metro markets reaching saturation, I believe tier 2 and 3 cities are going to be the biggest drivers for ecommerce businesses in India in the not so distant future. Building a robust supply chain is critical to efficiently fulfilling orders from these cities and tapping their full market potential.

The e-commerce industry is growing at a rapid pace and changing the dynamics of the retail industry. In the coming years, e-commerce is expected to contribute close to 8-10% of the total retail segment in India. This growth is bound to continue provided e-commerce companies focus on innovating, building strong technology infrastructure and delivering the best customer experience.

INTERVIEW: Abhay Pandey, Managing Director of Sequoia India Capital

Abhay Pandey, managing director of Sequoia India has spent years in the market looking for businesses that will create value. He has looked after real estate and infrastructure investment banking at DSP Merrill Lynch. He has also worked at McKinsey & Company. Today, as a MD of Sequoia Capital India, his mantra is to roll up his sleeves and be an active investor. "There is a lot of exuberance around sales, but no one has been focused on building profitable businesses or even the seeding the seeds of profitability. I do believe that all these businesses will be loss-making for a very long time," he adds. Any mistakes that have been made at Sequoia so far? The biggest one, based on current marketcap or current situation, would be makemytrip.com. You could argue flipkart.com is a mistake. We saw it when it was a very young company, it was probably a few million dollars of marketcap. Why did not you bet on flipkart.com or makemytrip.com? You can get them all right. You see many situations, you are not convinced for different reasons of market. All these companies, in their early stages, do not look pretty. They keep making losses for several years. Flipkart.com is still hugely loss-making. Do you not believe in the Indian e-commerce story, do you have reservations and apprehensions because that seems to have been the darling of investors over the last 24 months? I do not say we are not believers of e-commerce business. We believe that the e-commerce business in India is a lot tougher than what people believe. There is a lot of exuberance around sales, but no one has been focused on building profitable businesses or even the seeding the seeds of profitability. I do believe that all these businesses will be loss-making for a very long time.

China's leading ecommerce company 360Buy has about USD 4-5 billion of revenues and makes losses. So, we are very far away from there. We will be loss-making for quite some time, but atleast you should start seeing some semblance of how the margin structure is changing and moving towards profitability. If you do not see that and we are not seeing that yet in India, it is a worry. That is what investors started worrying along twelve months back that we are all getting carried away by sales growth and the excitement in China in particular and we should temper down that excitement.

Taking On Cash On Delivery For E-com Vendors: Gharpay

For a company that started on a motorbike (mind you not a garage) being tethered to ground realities of doing business in India would come naturally. So when Hyderabad-based Gharpay (ghar stands for home in Hindi) started around a year back it had a clear roadmap of tapping on to the explosion in e-commerce transactions while bridging the financial infrastructure gap in the country. A big proportion of the countrys consuming population has the money and a wishlist to buy products through the internet but do not have the means to strike the transaction (read: plastic money or even internet banking systems). Gharpay handles cash on delivery (CoD) for retailers(mostly online but also some offline ones too). It essentially offers a cash payment collection network from the customers doorstep to retailers. How Does It Work Users buying, say, a mobile handset from an e-commerce site, choose the CoD option. Once the transaction is confirmed, a Gharpay executive arrives to collect the cash. He has the invoice printed out and collects the amount. The mobile arrives later, either by the delivery employees of the e-commerce site or courier executives. The typical amount collected by a Gharpay agent is Rs 1,800. Gharpay is not a logistics provider and hence does not bring you the handset before collecting cash. The reactions to our start-up range from astonishment to surprise to delight in the fact that finally somebody is doing what we do. Online companies are delighted we are addressing their problem with offline payments, says Arpit Mohan, co-founder and CTO, Gharpay. Although e-commerce was pioneered in the developed world, the CoD model of payment system is more a jugaad borne out of structural issues in doing business in an emerging market like India. But to be fair, its not just an Indian phenomena and has already achieved success in China, where around 60 per cent of the e-

commerce transactions are offline. This concept also holds a lot of potential for emerging markets. The Beginning And Status Report In October 2010, ex-BITS Pilani students Arpit Mohan and Abhishek Nayak (now CEO) were discussing the sudden growth of e-commerce in India when they came across the issues in payments. As students, we had undergone personal experiences with online shopping that ended badly since we did not have a credit card. There was no CoD option available, says Mohan. Considering that there are just 200 million plastic cards in India today, we wondered what happens to those customers who dont have credit cards. That is the crowd that we decided to target those who dont have the power to pay online or dont have bank accts, he said. Mohan and Nayak hired a payment executive and set up Gharpay in Hyderabad in January 2011. The company literally started on a motorbike, says Mohan. Three months later, more batch mates from BITS-Pilani, one of the top engineering institutions in the country, joined the firm. Gharpay began by delivering tickets and collecting cash for Redbus.in, a fast rising online bus ticketing provider. In March, Gharpay started exploring offline retail market for CoD and soon bagged Chennaibased Nathella Jewellery as a client. Gharpay says the offline store CoD business works on need to provide security to consumers who dont want to carry large amount of cash to pay for a high value purchase like a jewellery. Phanindra Sama, CEO and founder of bus ticketing site Redbus.in, has mentored Gharpay through its initial years, offering the start-up a place to work and free advice. Sama shares, A solution like Gharpay is much needed for ticketing companies in India. This is a great set of entrepreneurs, who are extremely level-headed. Though it is an operations-heavy business, the team is doing a good job. By being a common service provider to many companies, they can leverage economies of scale and volume.

Armed with an undisclosed seed fund raised in August this year from the founder of Sierra Atlantic andangel investor Raju Reddy besides venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, it is now steadily scaling up an operations-heavy business from scratch as it prepares to go pan-India. With some niche but prominent e-tailers such as Ferns N Petals, Dealsandyou.com, ThinkVidya.com,MeraEvents.com, and Ayojak.com, it has set itself a nice platform to expand further. Today, Gharpay reaches 550 pin codes in seven major cities DelhiNCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune and Vishakapatnam. It currently handles 1,500 collections per week with a team of 50 people on ground. And, next year, it is targeting a massive 2,000 collections per day. Those living in Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh will be connected by early next year and Gharpay plans to reach a total of 15 cities by the end of the fiscal. Challenges Surely it cant be a bed of roses as handling cash is a risky business. A complete verification check with the police is conducted before hiring a payment executive. Debt collectors, payment executives and managers at banks and credit card collection agencies have been roped in to bring in trustworthy employees. Ghost customer checks are also intermittently conducted and employees undergo intensive training. And, of course, the company has insured all its executives. Another big challenge for expansion is quality of service, a key deterrent for retailers to outsource CoD. Most e-tailers including Infibeam.com or Homeshop18.com, decided to invest in logistics to ensure that customer service standards remain high. But Gharpay has strict turnaround times less than eight hours, and an executive will call up a customer within 24 hours of a transaction. A business model like Gharpays is extremely manpower intensive and difficult to scale. But the start-up has expanded from two cities in June, 2011 to five by August and seven by September. Today it employs 63 employees and has offices in Hyderabad, Chennai, DelhiNCR, Mumbai, Pune, Vishakapatnam and Bengaluru. Seed capital providers Reddy and Sequoia Capital help the founders with running its business and growth strategies. However, attrition at

lower levels is an issue and multiple benefits are offered to executives as a retention strategy. The most critical aspect in the business is efficiency and Gharpay has turned towards technology to tweak its engine. It is developing a proprietary application that enables managers to re-route orders faster. The aim is to get a manager to handle 150 people using technology. It is also testing a mobile device that will allow its executives to take print-outs at the doorstep. The device is currently in the pilot stage. Competition Today, online shoppers use net banking, mobile payments and prepaid cash instruments like Itz Cash Card or Oxigen. However, all of them ride on existing payment instruments. There are also offline models, where a provider ties up with several offline retail stores that have kiosks and customers can drop off cash for bills, products or a service. Accepting cash from customers on delivery of goods, like Gharpay does, extends the target market beyond the urban elite. Cash on delivery is a preferred option for many customers, even those with bank accounts, as it is more comfortable and does not change their behaviour, says Mohan. He does not plan to expand into logistics and warehousing, which is a different ball game altogether. Gharpay has positioned itself in a gap that has neither been filled by courier companies nor by e-commerce vendors completely. Courier companies are not being used by e-commerce vendors for cash management due to poor service levels, says Mohan. Online retailers throw a perspective on whats important for them. The main issue for an e-commerce company is keeping track of the package. Until it is shipped, you have visibility but after that, there is no information coming forth. But the quality of courier companies is improving day by day as they address the challenges facing ecommerce in India, said Vishal Mehta, CEO of Infibeam.com. Many, like Infibeam.com, prefer to build their own workforce to deliver goods and collect cash. Already 50 per cent of our transactions are cash on delivery and this is expected to increase. When you think of enhancing the last-mile customer experience, you

have to offer a choice of payments. Cash on delivery and package delivery are accretive in the long run as they save on payment costs, according to Mehta.

Big Question: Why Indian e-commerce firms have stumbled?

It shouldnt surprise anyone that 87 of the 193 e-commerce companies founded in the 10 months to October have gone bust. In 2011, India crossed what many people in the technology business saw as the magic number100 million Internet usersand entrepreneurs and their funders alike believed the country was finally ready for ecommerce. The advantages of e-commerce are many. Theres price, with products costing less than they would because several intermediaries in the distribution channel have been disintermediated. Theres convenience, with customers being able to shop at their convenience, and from the comfort of their homes and offices (or even on the move). Theres range. And theres access, especially in a country such as India where several products arent as readily available as they are elsewhere, online and offline. Still, there are strong reasons why Indian e-commerce companies have found the going tough, and will continue to. Successful e-commerce companies elsewhere can take for granted the buying efficiencies that are part of the territory, the willingness of customers to pay electronically, and the presence of effective and efficient delivery systems. Thats not the case in India with few e-commerce sites being able to strike good deals with the makers of branded goods (not surprisingly, several sites are replete with branded shoes, a category that seems to

be on permanent sale). The Indian e-commerce sites that have succeeded have done so by offering customers the option of paying cash when the product is delivered. And the most effective way of delivering something is to do it yourself. All this means profit margins in the business are slim (in the low single digits). Really successful e-commerce companies do all that the successful ones do and, in addition, manage to build a strong brand. Several Indian e-commerce companies have been trying to do this, largely through TV advertising, but since even the large ones havent managed to address the three basic issues, it would be premature to see how they have done on this count. Net-net, there will continue to be more failures than successes in this area.

A Light Of Hope For Indian eCommerce Industry: Online shopping touched new heights in India in 2012
People turned to the Internet to buy everything from diapers to books, houses and even groceries this year, pushing e-commerce revenues in the country to $14 billion with the possibility of even higher earnings in 2013. Factors like spiralling inflation and slower economic growth failed to dampen the online shopping frenzy as more and more companies opted for selling wares through the internet route, offering innumerable options and discounts to buyers. "Increasing Internet penetration and availability of more payment options boosted the e-commerce industry in 2012. Besides electronics, customer traction grew considerably in categories like fashion and jewellery, home and kitchen and lifestyle accessories like watches and perfumes," Snapdeal vice president (marketing) Sandeep Komaravelly said.

While travel still comprises a significant portion of the e-commerce market, other segments are catching up fast. "Apparel, books and lifestyle categories (beauty, footwear and health) will drive e-commerce," HomeShop18.com founder and CEO Sundeep Malhotra said, adding that relatively stable and growing domestic economy will also be major growth drivers. "The coming year looks promising for the industry." According to Peppercloset.com owner Sumeet Arora, e-commerce segment has doubled to $14 billon this year from $6.3 billion in 2011. This figure is likely to reach 38 million by 2015. So, what can one expect in 2013 from the thousands of e-commerce websites. "More personalised offers, loyalty programmes and better customer care is what most e-commerce companies would focus on to offer customers a richer, more relevant online experience," an industry analyst said. According to HomeShop18.com, an innovation that will "revolutionise" e-commerce in India is cost optimisation through warehouse and logistics management that will enable companies to do profitable business. While players like eBay and IndiatimesShopping have been around for a while, one saw many more portals mushrooming in 2012. An important entry in the Indian market was that of one of the world's largest online retailer -- Amazon.com. The website launched the desi version as 'Junglee.com'. India also got its own version of 'Cyber Monday' on December 12 this year as 'e-tailers' like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Homeshop18 and Makemytrip, partnered Google India to offer discounts for online shoppers. Celebrated on the Monday after Thanksgiving, the term 'Cyber Monday' was first coined in 2005 as a marketing term and has grown as a phenomenon over the years in the US.

According to analysts, factors like growing Internet penetration, increasing spending power, availability of multiple payment methods like credit/debit cards, cash on delivery, combined with faster adoption of smartphones and tablets are contributing to the growth of the sector. "Mobility most likely will be the trend to look forward to the next year. Mobile commerce would be huge as more and more people access Internet through tablets and smartphones. Most companies are looking at enhancing their mobile presence," Malhotra said. According to a study by IMRB International and IAMAI, there were an estimated 137 million Internet users in the country as of June 2012. Of this, while 99 million were from urban parts of the country, the remaining 38 million were from rural India. The next year is expected to see increased participation from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. "With a gap of demand and supply in physical retail category, online shopping is set to grow in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. The introduction of cash on delivery has helped gain the trust of consumers in these markets and get rid of the apprehension of using credit cards online," he said. According to him, there is a rising demand for books and health and beauty products from these cities, but tier 2 markets score highest on kids and baby items and home appliances. The year also saw acquisitions and consolidation activities picking up pace as dozens of online shopping portals set up shop. Among major deals, Snapdeal acquired Esportsbuy.com, Flipkart acquired letsbuy.com, Madeinhealth was acquired by Healthkart, Yatra.com acquired Travelguru from Travelocity Global, Fashionandyou acquired UrbanTouch and Myntra.com bought SherSingh.com "Acquisitions and consolidations will continue...its just the begining and will continue happening over the next few years. Bigger players

will acquire smaller players and more investments will flow into the segment," Arora said. Despite the fact that most of these e-commerce companies are yet to start making money, growth prospects for these companies remain high and there seems no dearth of investors. According to experts, in 2012, the e-commerce companies in India raised over $500 million (about Rs.2,743.3 crore). In one of the biggest fund raising by an Indian e-commerce firm, Flipkart in August this year raised $150 million (about Rs. 822 crore) from four investors. Entertainment ticketing website BookMyShow.com also saw Rs. 100 crore investment by Accel Partners, while Yebhi.com raised funding from Fidelity Growth Partners India and Qualcomm Ventures. While "one will not see obscene valuations", investors would continue to make small investments and 2013 will be a year of growth and consolidation, Arora said. Online retail has also seen an heavy overlap with social networking due to aggressive marketing on such platforms. "As smartphones and tablets continue to proliferate, companies will need to embrace multi-channel commerce strategy in 2013," Purehomedecor.com owner Sandeep Jaglan said. While consumers will be spoilt due to choice, players will have to sweat it out to differentiate themselves from the competitors. Komaravelly of Snapdeal believes that personalisation would emerge as a key focus area in 2013. "The ability to customise and personalise shopping experience for customers will become a critical differentiator. Social and mobile platforms will see increased customer adoption in the coming year," he said. Elitify.com Founder and CEO Amit Rawal agrees. "The market is overcrowded with companies that are competing for the same pie and have very little differentiation in their product offering," he said.

Differentiation is centered around beating the other in marketing and competing on prices, both of which are not sustainable trends for any industry, he added. "So the only way forward is consolidation of players that can create synergies both in terms of operations and product offerings," Rawal said. Marketing campaigns by major players like Flipkart and Jabong have also made e-commerce a household phenomenon, especially in the big cities, say experts. Social media would also become crucial as more brands use social data to not just popularise their brands but also personalise experience for customers on their websites. Some experts are of opinion that cash on delivery, which is at present the predominant payment mechanism, will become less popular and give way to usage of debit/credit cards. "Given the various disadvantages like longer cash cycles for retailers, collection challenges etc, cash on delivery will become less popular and cards will start becoming more ubiquitous," Malhotra said. With more lucrative deals, loyalty plans and newer products hitting the online shelf, netizens can shop to their heart's content. 2013 surely promises to make customer the king for e-commerce companies.

My Learning and Experience

My experience in Juxt was and is still enjoyable. My job was to go through a detailed study of the eCommerce industry in India. I studied it in detail, right from its emergence in India, Forms to its impact on markets and retailers, and the distribution channels. Its market size and growth since 2009 till date and its future prospects. From marketing of eCommerce websites and the products and services provided by them for the Indian population. I also came to know aspects of eCommerce that are unique to India, especially the mode of payment, by introducing the Cash On Delivery System.

Work I did
Therefore I had to make a database of the branded ecommerce websites and the companies that own and run it. Detailed information about the companies and personal cum professional information about the companys founders to owners to CEOs to other people that hold a higher position in the hierarchy of the company. I made a database of more than 300 websites that serve Indian population. I had to do an online research about the ecommerce websites and the people and collect various information about them such as, the website, the company owning the website, name of the person and the designation that they hold in the company, the corporate office location, and the contact number, and at last the most difficult piece of information to find out: The official and personal email and also the personal mobile numbers of the company owners. I had to make a database of their linkedin accounts. My job was to conduct a market research to collect data using primary sources as well as secondary sources of data. For ex. Talking to people over telephones and contacting them through emails or else getting connected through linkedin. I got the opportunity to talk personally to few of the founders and owners of some of the companies, who shared their experience and knowledge of the eCommerce industry in India.