 "Shopping spree minus glitches this time?")
Festival season is when retail outlets, online and offline, have offers and discounts on their wares and lenders offer lower interest rates.
It typically begins with Ganesh Chaturthi and peaks around Diwali-Dussehra, continuing till Christmas. Many consumers plan big-ticket purchases around this period. For instance, cars, two-wheelers, mobile phones, household appliances such as televisions, air conditioners, and furniture. People also shop for apparel and jewellery, for themselves as well as for gifting.
Last year saw big e-commerce entities trying to outdo one another in offering discounts, cash-backs, exclusive brands and the like during the festival season. But, this was accompanied with numerous complaints related to technical glitches like website crashing, transactions not happening, wrong delivery or non-delivery in some cases.
Will this year be different? How are the online retailers gearing up? What can you expect? What are some of the steps these players are taking to ensure smooth transactions?
While e-commerce websites have offers and discounts round the year, during festival season they will focus more on marketing and improving their back-end operations.
Paytm, for instance, has set aside Rs 500 crore over the next few months for both preparation and marketing during the festival season. "We will spend on promotions and also beef up and scale up our supply chain and warehousing. We will also spend a big part on improving delivery and service capabilities," says Saurabh Vashishtha, vice-president (VP).
Home and kitchen appliances will be a focus area. There will be special delivery partners, instead of the regular ones, as these are large-sized products. Currently, Paytm is offering discounts and cash-back up to 20 per cent off on home appliances, up to 70 per cent off on kitchen appliances, and 15-20 per cent on mobiles and electronic gadgets.
Another category the website is focusing on is apparel, where the focus is on ethnic wear. "We are working directly with weavers and manufacturers to get the best possible prices" Vashishtha says.
Another category which did well during Eid was dry fruits and sweets, for gifting. This category will be extended before Diwali.
About possible glitches, Vashishtha says, "Last time, the systems were not geared to handle the huge volumes. This time, we have taken care of it. We get 1.5 million of traffic per day and our technology platforms are built to handle these."
Snapdeal, which saw an increase of 15 times in traffic during Diwali last year, is expecting it to be a bigger success this year. The e-commerce entity is upscaling the platform to manage the increased traffic, says Idi Srinivas Murthy, senior VP, marketing. "We are strengthening all aspects of business operations, including logistics, supply chain, financial and technological support, to make Diwali shopping as seamless as any other day on Snapdeal. We have also launched faster last-mile delivery solutions and a refreshed user interface."
Adding: "Additionally, we are developing a host of solutions for our 150,000 sellers to help them pre-empt demand and stock-up on inventory in preparation."
For eBay India, ethnic products will be a major focus this festive season, with an over-the-top 'Indian' look in the home decor category. eBay will tie-up with various premium brands in the fashion categories and is also looking at tie-ups with credit and debit card services.
To address glitches, it provides training to its merchants in inventory management and on-time delivery, along with assisting them with special service programmes like Powership, a logistics management service. "We also have other services like PaisaPay & eBay Guarantee, to ensure the buyer is not paid until the customer receives the products and, hence, payment refunds are not stuck in the pipeline in case of returns,'' says Shivani Suri, head of marketing.
Droom, a marketplace for automobiles, will offer discounts of Rs 2,000-50,000 on various kinds of automobiles. It is also planning to offer a different deal on each day during Navratra for automobiles. It is also working with payment wallets and banks to make some deals available to a wider customer segment, says Sandeep Aggarwal, founder and chief executive (CEO).
"We also plan to offer rent-a-plane schemes during Navratra. Customers can rent 9-15 seater aircrafts for a few hours," he says. Recently, the website added this category of plans to its website and small aircraft starting from Rs 45 crore are available, too.
He expects fewer technical glitches. "Due to improvement in technology, payment systems have become more mature, payment failure rates have gone down and incomplete orders as a percentage of total orders have also gone down. Mobile wallets have become popular and these have a zero failure rate. Cash on delivery has become sophisticated, as courier companies have deployed technology and trained their staff to inform customers before making a delivery. E-commerce players too are addressing issues like customer service," Aggarwal says.
Offline comparisons
Customers who are price-conscious can compare the prices of a variety of goods on websites like Junglee.com or mysmartprice.com. Such websites list prices of both e-commerce websites and popular retail chains. There are also reviews and ratings by other customers, and the address and contact details of local sellers in your locality. You can call the seller before going there to buy.
Neeraj Jain, CEO and co-founder, Zopper, an app-only marketplace for offline stores, says India is a price-sensitive market and people spend a lot of time looking for the best prices. "Even people buying offline want to compare prices but don't want to visit multiple stores," he says.
Driving loyalty
This year, with the drive to increase cashless spending, one can expect aggressive cash-back offers on using certain cards. Also, bundled offers within and across categories might help e-tailers cross-sell product lines, says Deepak Chandnani, CEO, Worldline South Asia and Middle East. "Cashback offers are no more an innovation but expected by shoppers for online transactions. This year, e-tailers should try and come up with innovations centred around driving loyalty. The e-commerce industry has relied largely on deep discounting for customer acquisition. But, to retain customers, e-tailers need to drive innovative loyalty schemes."
For instance, Zopper is offering an extended two-year warranty on electronic gadgets, instead of the regular discounts. Other incentives include exchange of old products in return for discounts on the new ones, says Jain.
It typically begins with Ganesh Chaturthi and peaks around Diwali-Dussehra, continuing till Christmas. Many consumers plan big-ticket purchases around this period. For instance, cars, two-wheelers, mobile phones, household appliances such as televisions, air conditioners, and furniture. People also shop for apparel and jewellery, for themselves as well as for gifting.
Last year saw big e-commerce entities trying to outdo one another in offering discounts, cash-backs, exclusive brands and the like during the festival season. But, this was accompanied with numerous complaints related to technical glitches like website crashing, transactions not happening, wrong delivery or non-delivery in some cases.
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Will this year be different? How are the online retailers gearing up? What can you expect? What are some of the steps these players are taking to ensure smooth transactions?
While e-commerce websites have offers and discounts round the year, during festival season they will focus more on marketing and improving their back-end operations.
Paytm, for instance, has set aside Rs 500 crore over the next few months for both preparation and marketing during the festival season. "We will spend on promotions and also beef up and scale up our supply chain and warehousing. We will also spend a big part on improving delivery and service capabilities," says Saurabh Vashishtha, vice-president (VP).
Home and kitchen appliances will be a focus area. There will be special delivery partners, instead of the regular ones, as these are large-sized products. Currently, Paytm is offering discounts and cash-back up to 20 per cent off on home appliances, up to 70 per cent off on kitchen appliances, and 15-20 per cent on mobiles and electronic gadgets.
Another category the website is focusing on is apparel, where the focus is on ethnic wear. "We are working directly with weavers and manufacturers to get the best possible prices" Vashishtha says.
Another category which did well during Eid was dry fruits and sweets, for gifting. This category will be extended before Diwali.
About possible glitches, Vashishtha says, "Last time, the systems were not geared to handle the huge volumes. This time, we have taken care of it. We get 1.5 million of traffic per day and our technology platforms are built to handle these."
Snapdeal, which saw an increase of 15 times in traffic during Diwali last year, is expecting it to be a bigger success this year. The e-commerce entity is upscaling the platform to manage the increased traffic, says Idi Srinivas Murthy, senior VP, marketing. "We are strengthening all aspects of business operations, including logistics, supply chain, financial and technological support, to make Diwali shopping as seamless as any other day on Snapdeal. We have also launched faster last-mile delivery solutions and a refreshed user interface."
Adding: "Additionally, we are developing a host of solutions for our 150,000 sellers to help them pre-empt demand and stock-up on inventory in preparation."
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For eBay India, ethnic products will be a major focus this festive season, with an over-the-top 'Indian' look in the home decor category. eBay will tie-up with various premium brands in the fashion categories and is also looking at tie-ups with credit and debit card services.
To address glitches, it provides training to its merchants in inventory management and on-time delivery, along with assisting them with special service programmes like Powership, a logistics management service. "We also have other services like PaisaPay & eBay Guarantee, to ensure the buyer is not paid until the customer receives the products and, hence, payment refunds are not stuck in the pipeline in case of returns,'' says Shivani Suri, head of marketing.
Droom, a marketplace for automobiles, will offer discounts of Rs 2,000-50,000 on various kinds of automobiles. It is also planning to offer a different deal on each day during Navratra for automobiles. It is also working with payment wallets and banks to make some deals available to a wider customer segment, says Sandeep Aggarwal, founder and chief executive (CEO).
"We also plan to offer rent-a-plane schemes during Navratra. Customers can rent 9-15 seater aircrafts for a few hours," he says. Recently, the website added this category of plans to its website and small aircraft starting from Rs 45 crore are available, too.
He expects fewer technical glitches. "Due to improvement in technology, payment systems have become more mature, payment failure rates have gone down and incomplete orders as a percentage of total orders have also gone down. Mobile wallets have become popular and these have a zero failure rate. Cash on delivery has become sophisticated, as courier companies have deployed technology and trained their staff to inform customers before making a delivery. E-commerce players too are addressing issues like customer service," Aggarwal says.
Offline comparisons
Customers who are price-conscious can compare the prices of a variety of goods on websites like Junglee.com or mysmartprice.com. Such websites list prices of both e-commerce websites and popular retail chains. There are also reviews and ratings by other customers, and the address and contact details of local sellers in your locality. You can call the seller before going there to buy.
Neeraj Jain, CEO and co-founder, Zopper, an app-only marketplace for offline stores, says India is a price-sensitive market and people spend a lot of time looking for the best prices. "Even people buying offline want to compare prices but don't want to visit multiple stores," he says.
Driving loyalty
This year, with the drive to increase cashless spending, one can expect aggressive cash-back offers on using certain cards. Also, bundled offers within and across categories might help e-tailers cross-sell product lines, says Deepak Chandnani, CEO, Worldline South Asia and Middle East. "Cashback offers are no more an innovation but expected by shoppers for online transactions. This year, e-tailers should try and come up with innovations centred around driving loyalty. The e-commerce industry has relied largely on deep discounting for customer acquisition. But, to retain customers, e-tailers need to drive innovative loyalty schemes."
For instance, Zopper is offering an extended two-year warranty on electronic gadgets, instead of the regular discounts. Other incentives include exchange of old products in return for discounts on the new ones, says Jain.