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Amid celebrating comics, pop-culture, gaming and entertainment, the sixth edition of the Delhi Comic Con 2016, which came to a close Sunday at NSIC Grounds in South Delhi’s Okhla, strived massively in taking shelter under the digital umbrella following poor cellular range.
In their defence, Maruti Suzuki Alto’s sponsored convention gave rise to a ‘cashless Comic Con’, where the Electronic Data Capture (EDC), an ATM machine and Paytm edged out notes and coins. To provide further aid to Comic Con fans, they had a ‘Bookmyshow’ stall installed, where customers could cut purchase receipts from shops that lacked EDC devices or mobile POS (point of sale terminals). For those who did try to get one, failed, as their application did not get processed by banks.
A key drawback is the average time to load a page on a mobile phone —It takes 5.5 seconds in India— compared to 2.6 seconds in China, 4.5 in Sri Lanka, 4.9 in Bangladesh, according to a recent report by Akamai Technologies, a global content delivery network services provider.
While metrics for measuring accurately, the performance, are available within the convention industry, Business Standard asked the founder of Comic Con India, individual stall owners/artists and enthusiasts of Comic Con if and how demonetisation posed a hurdle in the successful execution of the event.
With 145 stalls spread across the 15,000 square metres of open space where network disturbance has always been an issue, it is understandable why shop owners admit having suffered a decline in sales.
“Our sales have dropped as customers with large bill amount opted for online payment gateways, but they lose interest in buying products after waiting for a considerable period of time for transaction to break past poor service,” said Pallavi Kumar, marketing in charge of online clothing Green Rock Store.
While first day slugged off somewhat smoothly, the second day being a Saturday saw a surge of audience participation in the event. However, the last day on December 11 of the most popular pop-culture occasion in India, as always, witnessed thousands of fans thronging through the gates of NSIC ground.
However, what was probably not anticipated was a possible partial server crash as several people complained of insufficient reception to either pay through Paytm or swipe their cards.
“I could not buy some things I desired to as Paytm refused to work on my phone despite several attempts and swipe machines were not readily available in every stall-corner,” said Zeeshan Khan, a first time visitor to Comic Con.
On one side, where shop owners hoped for cash, but preferred Paytm over transactions through ‘Bookmyshow’ stall as they would save 9% on total bill amount that would otherwise be deducted, on the other; customers refrained from forming extensive queues outside the stall, especially on Sunday.
“Even though we installed a fixed-line connection worth Rs 10,000 for three days as there is network issue particularly in this section of the ground, we ended up losing some customers,” said Raj Mohan, visual marketing in charge of online footwear store Sole Threads.
The chronicles of widespread downfall in sales across different segments in Comic Con was a plight that most store owners had already undergone in Bangalore Comic Con, that was held on November 12-13 i.e four post demonetisation. Moreover, during that period, most incurred profits by accepting old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Only this time, the organisers in an attempt to host the best Comic Con in Delhi overlooked obvious loopholes such as poor network strength that has always lingered in that specific area.
Jatin Varma, founder of Comic Con India told Business Standard, “For trivial things cash becomes a necessity, as I faced delay in shipment of printing flexes because while vendors would accept cheques, wholesalers demand cash.”
Consequently, store owners with most products priced below Rs 300 such as postcards, mugs, notebooks, faced minimal obstacles as they received payment in liquid currency.
Barring a few setbacks caused by demonetisation, Comic Con Delhi 2016, nevertheless, managed to keep spirits high for new and veteran fans whilst making an effort to keep business as smooth as possible.
