ITV

Category: e-commerce

  • Livspace hops on as design partner for Great Online Home Festival

    Livspace hops on as design partner for Great Online Home Festival

    MUMBAI: Livspace has come on board as the exclusive design partner for the Great Online Home festival (GOHF), an initiative of GroupM. The festival is presented by Magicbricks and powered by Google.

     

    As the design partner for GOHF, Livspace will offer interior design to new homes listed on GOHF platform as well as existing homeowners. GOHF will bring together the best home deals in India including real estate, home decor and home care. The nine day festival began on 18 July.

     

    Livspace will offer exclusive deals on complete home design service, as well as modular kitchens and wardrobes. The focus will be on making good home design accessible to the Indian homeowner, while making the interior design process fun, simple and exponentially less time-consuming. As a homeowner, you can also get all your design queries answered, by joining Livspace interior designers on Google Hangouts everyday between 7 – 8 pm from 18 – 27 July.

     

    Livspace has also launched its new mobile app for Android users, with an iOS version to follow soon. The app allows users to discover thousands of new shop-able looks on mobile. In the coming week, app users will also be able to chat with their designer in-app.

     

    Livspace CEO and co-founder Anuj Srivastava said, “We are thrilled to be featured as the exclusive design partner for the Great Online Home Festival, a one of its kind event which is reflective of the rising trend of the home market moving online quickly. Millions of users will experience online end-to-end home design for all their rooms, kitchens and wardrobes, like never before. Inspired by the fact that over 50% of our traffic comes from the phone, we are also excited to announce the launch of our mobile app for Android, with iOS soon to follow. With the innovative Livspace app, you can discover, save and share thousands of looks for your home on the go.”

  • eBay India launches #SheMeansBusiness campaign

    eBay India launches #SheMeansBusiness campaign

    MUMBAI: eBay India has launched a unique campaign titled #SheMeansBusiness in partnership with Yourstory.com. 

     

    The campaign invites all online women entrepreneurs to share their success stories, so that other women entrepreneurs are inspired to take advantage of the growth in ecommerce.  

     

    Online women entrepreneurs across platforms can send their stories in the form of a write-up, a video or an audio, which will be judged by a jury. Six shortlisted women entrepreneurs not only stand a chance to share their stories with the world through www.yourstory.com but also stand to benefit from free listings on www.ebay.in during the festival season from September-December 2015.

     

    The campaign will be open to all online women entrepreneurs irrespective of the platform they currently trade on. Women entrepreneurs can share their stories starting today till 15 August, 2015.

     

    “eBay India has been encouraging and supporting women entrepreneurs for over a decade now. We have over 5000 women sellers listed on ebay.in and through this campaign, we want to further encourage and support women entrepreneurs from across India to realize and fulfill their dreams and take their businesses to a global customer base,” said eBay India head of marketing Shivani Suri.

     

  • Animesh Sharma joins Exclusively as chief technology officer

    Animesh Sharma joins Exclusively as chief technology officer

    MUMBAI: Snapdeal has appointed Animesh Sharma as chief technology officer of the recently acquired Exclusively.com. 

    Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal said, “We are very happy to have Sharma on board. He comes with 13 years of leadership experience in building scalable technology products, as well as talented engineering teams. Technology is at the backbone of companies like ours and we are confident his rich experience in building technology platforms from scratch will complement Exclusively’s business expansion plans. At Exclusively, he will be driving the technology and product functions to make it the most preferred online shopping destination for premium fashion in India.”

     

    Sharma added, “I am very excited to be a part of the enthusiastic, dynamic and vibrant team at Exclusively. The company’s vision to transform the premium online lifestyle shopping experience in India is quite inspiring. I look forward to building a highly scalable and innovative technology platform with the team.”

     

    Prior to this, Sharma was working with Wize Commerce (formerly Nextag) for almost a decade where he served as vice president – engineering. He was responsible for managing all aspects of engineering, services and live site operations along with leading a team of 100+ engineers across multiple verticals. During his tenure at Wize Commerce, he was instrumental in building and managing some of the most critical technology modules – travel, store and mobile application.

  • Flipkart to take app route; says 70-75 % of its total traffic comes from mobile app

    Flipkart to take app route; says 70-75 % of its total traffic comes from mobile app

    MUMBAI: After taking the only app route with e-tailing platform Myntra, the Bansals are now gearing to make even Flipkart an only app platform by September, 2015.  

     

    Online shopaholics will now have to squeeze in the Flipkart app somewhere in their congested phone memory if they want to use attractive discounts and shop from the rapidly growing venture. Customers will only be able to shop from the app as is the case now with Myntra. It must be noted that post going only app way Myntra has witnessed a 10 per cent drop in sales.

     

    In a statement Flipkart spokesperson asserted, “India is gradually transitioning from a mobile first to a mobile only country. At Flipkart, we have been following a mobile first approach and 70-75 per cent of our total traffic is already coming from our mobile app. We are constantly experimenting with various aspects of our service to create the best shopping experience for our users on our app. Meanwhile, we continue to offer both desktop as well as mobile option for our customers.”

     

    Mobile is driving the internet penetration in India and till December 2014, India had 173 million mobile phone internet users. The figure witnessed a growth of 33 per cent if compared to the 2013 analysis and is expected to grow by CAGR 21 per cent from 2014 to 2019. 

     

    The key factors that will drive the growth of mobile are:

     

    .  Increasing investments by telecom operators in data infrastructure.

    .  Push for favourable regulations from industry bodies.

    .  Falling handset prices.

    .  Economic growth of the country and financial stability of middleclass.

    .  Increase in mobile screen sizes and quality of display.

    .  Improving quality of curated online content.

     

    As per Google play store analysis, Indians keep social media in the top spot in their priority list followed by shopping platforms, when it comes to downloading of apps. With over one billion downloads, Whatsapp leads the tally of most downloaded free apps followed by Facebook messenger. Flipkart is currently placed on the fifth slot, with over 10 million downloads on Android. Its US based competitor Amazon India holds the 13th spot.

     

    In terms of web search google.co.in tops the list of most visited websites in India followed by facebook.com. Flipkart which is speculated to take its website off holds the fifth place over Amazon.in which is placed seventh. They are the only two shopping websites to have a presence in the list of top 10 website searches in India.

     

    At this point of time, India approximately has over 300 million internet users out of which 66 per cent come from Desktop PCs and Laptops, 55 per cent comes from mobile phones (it is estimated to grow by CAGR 21 per cent), and 11 per cent from Tablets.

     

    Android dominates the mobile platform with mammoth 91 per cent market share, iOS holds 2 per cent share where as Windows occupies 6 per cent of the marketplace.

     

    An e-commerce expert said, “The number of smartphones is already higher than number of computers, moreover people spend more time on mobile phone compared to PCs and laptops. Besides that, from an app, wide variety of consumer insights can be acquired which can emerge as an effective factor when it comes to marketing. So there are a lot of factors which signifies the positives of apps and why players are taking the only app route.”

     

    According to the expert, it could be to subtly force consumers to download the app. “It could be that once they reach their target they might have both: the app and the website. They have already experienced it with Myntra. They certainly have a plan which might result in a temporary drop of their sales but in the long run will be efficiently effective.”

     

    India is the fastest growing smartphone market. It currently has over 200 million online shoppers dominated by travel category. The number is expected to witness huge growth as various players are starting different interactive initiatives to popularise the medium in rural India.

     

    Key challenges for Flipkart if they go only app way:

     

    .   Making consumers download the app.

    .   Not letting customers shift to competitors.

    .   Having adequate backend facilities to ensure smooth running of the app.

    .   Making proper use of the acquired consumer insights.

     

    The only app route can also open up opportunities for joint marketing and monetization avenues between the venture and telcos. What remains to be seen is if the only app formula will bring in another source of revenue for the venture. 

  • Printvenue completes three years; celebrates with ‘Triple the Joy’ campaign

    Printvenue completes three years; celebrates with ‘Triple the Joy’ campaign

    MUMBAI: Online printing portal Printvenue is celebrating its third anniversary with ‘Triple the Joy’ campaign. The company, as part of its third anniversary will offer special discounts along with cashback offers and wallet cashback to customers with MobiKwik as its wallet partner.

     

    The company has carved a phenomenal growth trajectory for itself in the last three years. With only five business-oriented products and a team of 12 initially, it now features more than 700 items across various categories, with a team of 100+ members. Printvenue has recorded 25X times overall growth since its inception, be it in terms of products, designs, services or employees. It has further managed to spread its wings in the international shores of Singapore and Australia.

     

    Printvenue intends to achieve 20 per cent share in the Rs 3000 crore online printing segment. Apart from this, it also aims to add more than 1,000 products to its categories. This will help Printvenue in providing more options to its customers and the ease of personalisation at a click.

  • Kyazoonga plans big to capitalize the $10 billion e-ticketing market

    Kyazoonga plans big to capitalize the $10 billion e-ticketing market

    MUMBAI: After missing out on Rio 2016 Olympics ticketing by a whisker, India budded international ticketing giant Kyazoonga has invested over Rs 100 crore to sign a multi-year deal with the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), the official T20 championship in West Indies. Kyazoonga will provide complete proprietary ticketing and accreditation solution, as part of the association.

     

    The deal underscores the company’s global ambitions where it is making a mark by displacing established players and disrupting legacy practices and systems. The company ticketed the CPL last year as well and the experience enthralled the venture to go for a multi-year deal, says Kyazoonga co-founder & CEO Neetu Bhatia.

     

    CPL CEO Damien O’ Donohoe had earlier said, ‘We have been extremely pleased with the technology, operational and system capabilities and the quality of service that Kyazoonga has brought to CPL’s ticketing programme. Having worked with other major ticketing service providers in the world, Kyazoonga felt like a breath of fresh air when they were able to quickly set up ticketing operations across multiple countries in the region and successfully overcome all the challenges that come with a geographically and culturally diverse ticketing market.  We are delighted with the deal that will help us grow the tournament bigger and better. The team from Kyazoonga never ceases to pleasantly surprise us with their positive, technology-driven approach to come up with solutions.”

     

    “The experience of cricket is different in Caribbean Island. It is fun filled, passionate and people love the tournament. Shah Rukh Khan recently invested big in the tournament, Hero came in as the title sponsor and most importantly there are quality players playing the game. So, overall I feel it’s a great tournament, which will get bigger and better with time and that’s why we signed this long term deal,” adds Bhatia.

     

    The CPL, a highly popular league with a wide array of international cricket stars, continues to expand and grow stronger. The league has a six team format with representation from the six main cricket playing countries – Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados, St. Kitts and St. Lucia. Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) recently bought Trinidad & Tobago team. In the Indian subcontinent, Sony Six and Sony Six HD will telecast the matches live.   

     

    The ticketing industry in India is growing fast, thanks to the growth of internet. As per analysis, the e-ticketing gate revenue in the country is over $10 billion. Reportedly, India with over 300 million internet users has already dethroned US to become the number two country in terms of consumption of internet.

     

    But, the e-ticketing penetration is restricted to a mere 20 per cent which signifies a huge scope of growth and possible emergence of a cluster of new e-ticketing ventures. Every month India is adding 5-6 million internet users and a mammoth 650 million users is estimated to be online by 2020 – of which 250 million will shop online – spending over $50 billion as per a recent Bain report. The report also suggests that mobile phones will dominate 70 per cent of the total number of internet users.

     

    Rural India, where internet is yet to witness total emergence also contributes highly to the ticketing revenue, asserts Bhatia.

     

    She further says, “Our experience with Raipur was highly encouraging. We generated over Rs 9 crore per match which proves that e-ticketing can grow immensely irrespective of geography and demography.”

     

    Goods and Service Tax (GST) can play a vital role in the growth of this industry also. “We need one tax policy and GST can bring that. I have seen people cancelling or shifting events because of tax irregularity and hence with GST we can avoid that,” opines Bhatia.

     

    Kyazoonga introduced professionalized e-ticketing in sports and entertainment to India in 2007 and has continued to democratise access to some of the largest events in the sub-continent such as the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, the Sachin Tendulkar Retirement Test, several IPL teams since the first season, Bryan Adams India Concert Tour, Guns N’ Roses India Concert Tour and the annual Jaipur Literature Festival among others.

  • Home cooked food at click of a button…

    Home cooked food at click of a button…

    MUMBAI: Food is emerging as one of the most interesting territory in the online business world (e-commerce). If international brands like Dominos, McDonald’s and Pizza Hut amongst others had expectations of running a monopoly when it came to home delivery or accepting orders online, they must rethink and re-strategize. One who stays out of home misses home cooked food, or food cooked by home chef and it is this consumer behaviour which has laid the foundation stone for the startup Cyberchef.

     

    Just after completing her Masters in Marketing and Strategy from Warwick Business School Neha Puri (CEO and founder) teamed up with her brother Anuj Puri to start Cyberchef.

     

    The concept of Cyberchef is different than the local tiffin service providers as it delivers food, selected online by customers and then prepared by home chefs at their residency, which then is handpicked by the venture and delivered at the customers’ doorstep. Based on the demand placed by customers, orders are given to these home chefs, who then have adequate time to prepare the meal.

     

    The venture started its operation in Gurgaon and has so far roped in 55 home chefs who prepare different cuisines on a daily basis. Launched a month back, the startup delivers more than 450 orders per week in Delhi-NCR.  

     

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com Neha Puri says, “We have a number of repeat customers which proves that they are satisfied with our service and that’s a huge encouragement for us.”

     

    In terms of marketing strategy, flyers and road shows are the areas where the venture aspires to explore. Cyberchef has already organised number of road shows in NCR to generate awareness. Apart from that it has associated with many grocery joints to explore joint marketing opportunities.

     

    Hygiene and quality of food are the major criterion for a chef to be a part of Cyberchef. “We are very particular about hygiene factor, so before roping in any chef we visit their house and inspect the cooking arena. Also we do surprise visits and chefs are aware of that so they always keep it clean and tidy. Chefs don’t need to have any professional training or certificates. What they need is just the culinary art needs to be accepted by customers,” asserts Puri.

     

    The venture follows a 60-40 revenue model where 60 per cent goes to the chefs and 40 per cent comes to the organisation. For now sales is the only source of revenue for Cyberchef. “With the help of our marketing we want to enhance our sales, also rope in corporate contracts where we will be serving orders to mass. We have already started party orders where we take bulk orders for party.”

     

    The venture has expansion in its pipeline and Mumbai and Pune are the locations they are targeting. “We already have 20 chefs registered with us in Mumbai and we are getting more entries, Mumbai is next and then we will go to Pune once the monsoon settles. Post that we are looking towards Bengaluru. We sense good opportunities in all these places. In the next two years, I want Cyberchef to be a leader in the food space and have presence in over six cities,” Puri concludes.      

  • Dance meets fashion with VoxPop’s ‘ABCD 2; collection

    Dance meets fashion with VoxPop’s ‘ABCD 2; collection

    MUMBAI: Here’s a treat for all dance lovers and ABCD fans! You can now get your hands on the official apparel range of Disney’s ABCD2 all at a click of a button. VoxPopclothing.com, the leading t-shirt e-tailer has launched a stylish collection of t-shirts and tops inspired by the biggest opening film of 2015 Disney’s ABCD2.

     
     
    VoxPopClothing.com’s ABCD2 collection is available in all bright colours with a splash of movie’s elements and the stars themselves. The range includes cool t-shirts for men and tank tops for women which reflect the mood of the movie with trendy designs to suit your personality.

     
    Pricing has been positioned to make the collection accessible to a larger audience starting at INR 599 onwards. The collection is exclusively available at http://voxpopclothing.com/

     

  • Snapdeal partners Microsoft for online store

    Snapdeal partners Microsoft for online store

    MUMBAI: Snapdeal and Microsoft have inked a partnership to launch the official Microsoft online store on Snapdeal. The brand store on Snapdeal will enable consumers in India to enjoy the global Microsoft store experience, while purchasing a range of Microsoft products. 

     

    Merchandise available on the brand store will include the full range of Microsoft products such as phones, tablets, PCs and software.

     

    “We are pleased to be partnering with Microsoft in opening their online store on Snapdeal. This unique, self-contained store built by Snapdeal will allow users seamless accessibility of Microsoft’s unified portfolio of phones, tablets, PCs and Microsoft software, all from the comfort of their homes. We work closely with our partners to enhance our mutual operating environments. With this initiative, we are taking another definitive step towards building India’s most impactful digital ecosystem,” said Snapdeal SVP, electronics and home Tony Navin. 

     

    The store has been curated keeping in mind the finer nuances associated with the Microsoft brand. The layout of the store has been customized to offer an integrated Windows customer experience. The store enables Microsoft to manage product selection, promotions and launches as per need/requirement and basis the analytics shared by Snapdeal.

     

    Microsoft India group OEM director Sharlin Thayil added, “Increasingly consumers are going online to shop for a number of things, including mobiles, tablets, laptops and software. We therefore see tremendous opportunity in delivering Microsoft products and services through our online store to these customers. Our latest store on Snapdeal will help us reach more such customers and offer excellent choice, value and service that customers expect from Microsoft stores.”

  • Snapdeal strengthens m-commerce biz with Letsgomo acquisition

    Snapdeal strengthens m-commerce biz with Letsgomo acquisition

    MUMBAI: In a move to strengthen its leadership in the m-commerce domain, Snapdeal has acquired mobility solutions company Letsgomo Labs.

     

    Letsgomo Labs provides end-to-end mobility solutions to businesses that are looking to harness the power of mobile. Founded by Manav Kamboj and Vikas Banga, the 76 member team with expertise across mobile technologies, design and strategy; consults businesses right from building mobile strategies to conceptualization of applications and mobile sites to implementation and hosting. The company also works with leading e-commerce companies to help them strengthen their mobile capabilities.

     

    With the acquisition, Letsgomo team will focus on strengthening the organisation’s mobile technology capabilities. Mobile is one of the key growth drivers of e-commerce in the country and building a robust mobile commerce platform has been a key focus area for Snapdeal.

     

    It may be recalled that in April this year, Snapdeal also acquired m-commerce company Freecharge. The company claims that 75 per cent of the orders on Snapdeal come via mobile based transactions. The recent acquisition of Martmobi – a mobile technology start up, was also a step towards further strengthening Snapdeal’s mobile platform.

     

    Snapdeal co-founder Rohit Bansal said, “Mobile is one of our key focus areas and in a span of just two years, the medium has proved to be one of the biggest growth drivers for the company. Delivering a great user experience across varying data connections and numerous handsets being used in the country is the guiding principle for our mobile initiatives. Over 75 per cent of our sales now come through mobile platforms and Letsgomo team becoming a part of our family will further propel our efforts in this direction.”

     

    Letsgomo co-founder Kamboj added, “Snapdeal is focused on building strong mobile capabilities and we are truly excited to be a part of the Snapdeal family. We strongly believe that new age technology innovations will happen here. Mobile will continue to drive e-commerce in the country and how companies utilize this platform will be a key success determinant. We look forward to building world class mobile technology at Snapdeal and set new benchmarks for the industry in this space.”