ITV

Category: e-commerce

  • ShopClues.com hops on as official e-commerce partner of Chennai Super Kings

    ShopClues.com hops on as official e-commerce partner of Chennai Super Kings

    MUMBAI: ShopClues.com has come on board as the official e-commerce partner of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) team.

     

    The tie-up with this Indian Premier League (IPL) team will provide a robust edge to the ShopClues.com brand identity during the IPL season, which kicks off on 8 April, 2015.

     

    Through the official partnership, ShopClues.com will place its logo on the leading side of the cap, helmet and hat of the CSK players. 

     

    ShopClues.com co-founder and chief business officer Radhika Ghai Aggarwal said, “Our marketplace caters to mass India and there is nothing that appeals more to our target market than cricket. Keeping this incontrovertible truth in mind, we chose to partner with CSK, which has been the best performing team in the Indian Premier League. Through this association, we wish to leverage the combined brand synergies to create greater engagement with our customers, both existing and potential.” 

     

    ShopClues.com will use the CSK association in all its communication across media including in-store, POS, other ground activation, digital and all other new emerging media, using the team’s logo. The company will also be purchasing and selling CSK merchandise through its website.

  • Snapdeal ropes in Aamir Khan as brand ambassador

    Snapdeal ropes in Aamir Khan as brand ambassador

    MUMBAI: E-Commerce venture Snapdeal has appointed Bollywood actor Aamir Khan as its new brand ambassador. The company will launch a new brand campaign Dil Ki Deal featuring Khan in its latest TVC.

     

    The campaign is an extension of Snapdeal’s philosophy of creating life changing experiences for its buyers and sellers by helping them meet their aspirations and fulfilling their dreams.

     

    Through the new brand campaign, Snapdeal aims to highlight the fact that how with the wide range of products available on its platform, it is not only making people’s lives simpler or better but is also a medium that they can use to express their love for their dear ones.

     

    The ad film features Khan, as an observer, an onlooker and also a consumer himself. He not only witnesses how wishes of people around him are being fulfilled through Snapdeal’s varied product offerings but also receives a Dil Ki Deal himself.

     

    Talking about selection of the brand ambassador Snapdeal senior vice president – marketing Sandeep Komaravelly said, “Aamir Khan is undoubtedly one of India’s finest and most loved actors. However, his persona goes beyond his acting prowess. He cuts across audiences and appeals to every consumer. These are the attributes, which enthused Snapdeal to associate with him. We truly believe in the power of emotions and are sure that with Aamir Khan as the face of the campaign, it will receive a warm uptake amongst consumers.”

     

    Khan added, “I was quite amazed to see how Snapdeal as a platform is so empowering to both the seller and the buyer. Also, their emphasis on quality control, reliability, and competitive pricing is most impressive.”

     

    This campaign marks a shift from Snapdeal’s earlier communication around the value a consumer derives by shopping on the platform. Keeping that tangible benefit alive, the brand is elevating this positioning to build an emotional connect with its customers and the Dil Ki Deal campaign is the first step in the direction of bringing this proposition alive.

     

    Speaking about the new campaign  Komaravelly said, “With our previous campaigns, we have established the USP of Snapdeal being a destination that offers the widest assortment of products at great value. Building on that tangible benefit, we feel Snapdeal today has evolved to take the next step in its communication journey and lay emphasis on the emotional fulfilment it enables for its consumers. Shopping for loved ones is a very emotional and fulfilling experience. Snapdeal’s latest ‘Dil ki deal’ campaign showcases the same and rides on some such emotions of love, care, joy and fulfilment.”

     

  • Flipkart eyes one lakh sellers; aims to up seller base in Bengal

    Flipkart eyes one lakh sellers; aims to up seller base in Bengal

    KOLKATA: E-commerce marketplace Flipkart has set a target to have one lakh sellers hawking their products on its portal as the company is eyeing to ramp up the number of categories of items for sale and connect with more vendors from different parts of the country.

     

    Moreover, when it comes to the eastern region, West Bengal has the largest seller base in the east for Flipkart. With around 10 – 15 per cent M-o-M growth in the seller base, the state is poised to become one of the key seller hubs for product categories like home décor and furnishing, jewellery and leather accessories in the region going forward, said Flipkart senior vice-president (market place) Ankit Nagori.

     

    The company, which ships around 80 lakh items per month, has 30,000 active sellers of which 10 per cent are from Bengal. Flipkart is also planning to have more vendors from Siliguri and Durgapur in West Bengal.

     

    The platform had recently ventured into home décor and furnishing. “There are a couple of factors that will contribute to the growth in vendors. We are expanding our product categories and we are also expanding to new geographies in the country,” informed Nagori.

     

    When queried on the company’s expansion strategy, Nagori said that Flipkart was looking to make a headway into small towns such as Kundli, Tirupur, Panipat, and Pondicherry to source sellers.

     

    Flipkart offers support to sellers in the form of training programmes and working capital.

    “This year, handloom, home and local artifacts will emerge as prominent categories from this region. We are confident that we will see more sellers from these categories to join us and reach out to a wider range of customers nationally,” Nagori said.

     

    The company has also tied up with government bodies such as the Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises, Directorate General of Employment & Training and Development Commissioner for Handlooms to enable more artisans to explore the online platform and boost their topline and bottomline.

     

    Talking about West Bengal, Nagori said that the company plans to have several focused seller engagement initiatives in the state. Among the products sold by sellers within eastern region, apparels, jewellery and leather products see a majority of demand – almost 60 per cent – by Indian customers. While the market demand for other categories like home décor, furnishing and handicraft products is estimated to grow by 30 – 40 per cent in 2015.

     

    “West Bengal is well-known for its unique range of home décor, handloom, and clothing and handicraft products. With thousands of local artisans/entrepreneurs in this region, Flipkart’s primary focus will be to educate and empower these sellers, and help them understand the benefits of selling to the customer directly via the online platform. We see huge potential for sellers from this region and as this is one of our key markets, it is important that we support and nurture them. With a current seller base of over 3000 sellers from this region, we expect this number to double in the year 2015,” he said.

     

    “This year handloom, home and local artifacts will emerge as prominent categories from this region. We are confident that we will see more sellers from these categories join us to reach out to a wider range of customers nationally,” he concluded.

  • Effect of 4G rollout on the e-commerce industry

    Effect of 4G rollout on the e-commerce industry

    4G i.e. fourth generation is an advanced version of 3G that facilitates its users with mobile broadband internet access. The technology provides wide area coverage and high speed to mobile as well as laptop users. Offering peak upload rate of 500 mbps and peak download rate of 1gbps; 4G supports HD streaming. 4G network can ensure optimal use of HD phones. With its WiMAX LTE technology, 4G provides path-breaking speed and impeccable connectivity to its users. A game-changing internet technology, 4G network is slowly becoming the ‘Next Big Thing’ that provides immediate access to everything from around the world at your fingertips. 

     

    With 4G taking the Indian market by storm, the demand for smartphones is taking an upward swing. The 4G rollout is further influencing the sphere of e-commerce immensely. Online retail firms have to confront logistics as well as connectivity hindrances in order to serve their patrons efficiently. These issues can be solved with 4G internet services. By providing cutting-edge speed and connectivity, 4G is helping online firms to tackle their problems easily. 

     

    Escalated speed and enhanced connectivity provides users with a compelling and satisfactory browsing and shopping experience. Usually it is seen that potential buyers leave a particular site when they are just going to finalise their purchase. The reason being – connectivity problem or slow internet. With 4G, customers can quickly make purchases without having to face any such hassles. This is thus, indirectly boosting the sales of e-commerce companies. 

     

    With 4G for mobiles as well as laptops, e-commerce companies can be unperturbed about the size of images or videos. Even on smartphones, users can enjoy the same experience as on a laptop or PC, due to higher connectivity and speed offered by 4G. Another situation will justify the sturdy role that 4G is playing in the realm of e-commerce. Many a times, it happens that online shopping websites hang or the speed of internet dips while making payments or while checking out. This leads to reduction in the confidence level of customers, leaving them in a dilemma of whether to purchase online or not to take the chance. This can result in dwindling sales for e-commerce companies. With 4G at hand, buyers are able to make instant purchase decisions and check-out in a hassle-free way. 

     

    In order to gain maximum advantage of the fourth generation internet technology, the market is witnessing various e-commerce firms going the mobile-way. In short, for better results, e-commerce firms are turning to m-commerce. With 4G on mobile, people are preferring to use their handheld devices to fulfill their day to day needs. Hence, e-commerce firms are coming up with ground-breaking designs and models to utilise the lucrative mobile space efficiently, making scores of firms turn to the m-commerce platform. 

     

    4G, the improved and enhanced version of 3G, is metamorphosing the entire domain of e-commerce, making transactions instant, thus delivering reliable and constraint-free experiences.

     

    (These are purely personal views of iSpyPrice.com founder and director Suresh Sharma and Indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • Goalsquad.com aims to score big; targets Indian fans with sports merchandise

    Goalsquad.com aims to score big; targets Indian fans with sports merchandise

    MUMBAI:  Last year saw the popularity of Indian football reaching new heights thanks to the advent of the Hero Indian Super League (ISL). While there has always been a moderate fan following for the game in India, it is largely towards the European Clubs.  

    Trying to cater to this segment for various official and authentic club merchandises is a new entrant in the e-commerce shopping space- goalquad.com.

    The venture was started by two Mumbai based brothers, Aashay and Rushang Shah out of their own financial capacity. The Shah brothers have been a part of their family business in real estate and hospitality for the past ten years. Their main aim was to offer Indian fans with official merchandise on a single hassle free platform. 

    Speaking to Indiantelevision.com, Aashay Shah says that the idea for this concept began in mid 2013 and by the time the duo got in touch with all the clubs and license manufactures, it took about seven months for the supply chain to commence.

    “It also took us time to convince the clubs that we were serious about our business and would want to buy in bulk the various category of products,” says Shah.

    The first of its kind website in the country was born in January 2014.

    Initially the clubs were hesitant and discussed with the Shahs their business initiatives and investment plans including their other business segments. The particular business strategy to be followed was to purchase quantities in bulk orders so that the cost benefit was passed on to consumers. 

    “Football websites like Manchester United do sell products online but when a single product is bought and the duty and shipping costs are added, the price increases five to six times the cost of the product,” explains Shah.

    The idea was born when the brothers sighted a gap to sell official football merchandise in the e-commerce category, which was picking up and decided to venture in the territory where products sell better than in physical stores. 

    The venture has seen an investment close to Rs 1 crore and much of the sale money gained is invested back into marketing and buying of the inventory. Shah says that over the next three years there would be a total investment of Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 crore. He also hopes to break even towards the end of 2016 or by 2017.

    While counterfeit products largely remain a worry, Shah is undeterred as he pins hope at cracking at least 20 per cent of the entire market gamut. Mentioning a Star Sports report released three years back he says that there was around 80-90 million football viewership in the country. Shah intends to target 20 per cent of this market, which would be a substantial number of 15 – 20 million. He feels this number has increased now because of a growing population as well as popularity of the game soaring in India. 

    The website has merchandise from Clubs such as Chelsea F.C, Manchester United F.C , Arsenal F.C, Liverpool F.C among others. The venture also recently introduced its NBA line of merchandise and has also got Mumbai City F.C of the ISL on board. 

    The various products include glassware, football, stationary, key chains, badges, flags and clothing among others. The price range begins from below Rs 500 and stretches upwards of Rs 2,500 depending on the products. The brothers are now in touch with the various ISL teams to get their merchandise on board, whose cult following is yet to begin.

    For Shah, the ISL, its grassroots programme and the few star players have been positive triggers for the growth of the game in the country. While the website is targeted at the age group between 14 and 45, it has also noticed traction from female buyers who largely purchase products for their male counterparts. “I see a lot of school going girls buying Barcelona merchandises because of their star quality players. Messi and Neymar products are huge sellers for them,” says Shah.

    A key challenge for the firm remains the heavy custom duties, which are the standard 30 per cent, besides the Octroi tax in Maharashtra.

    For now, close to 10,000 to 15,000 unique visitors log onto the website in a month. As part of its marketing campaign, it has tied up to sponsor various community based events such as that of a youth league it recently sponsored in New Delhi.

    On social media, the website is trying to build virtual communities where football news and videos are shared on its pages. On twitter it runs a football fantasy league, which is linked to the official Barclays Premier League. As part of the contest a prize is handed every month to the manager of the month which has around 250 players. Shah looks at spending between Rs 15- Rs 20 lakh on the marketing for this year alone.

    The total team strength is around 10 including a social media marketer, a purchase and account manager, a customer care executive besides three people in despatch.

    As part of the expansion plans, the website will soon launch their own app, which will allow customers to easily browse through products besides providing football news, highlights and score update. It also plans to expand to cricket and tennis products and in the near future, thus becoming a full-fledged fan merchandise store selling only authentic and official merchandise.

  • News Corp acquires Indian tech media company VCCircle

    News Corp acquires Indian tech media company VCCircle

    MUMBAI: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the VCCircle Network, which includes VCCircle.com, Techcircle.in, VCCEdge, VCCircle Training, in addition to a premium-content driven conference business.

     

    VCCircle.com is a company focusing on private equity, venture capital, and M&A related information and analysis of the Indian investment ecosystem. It tracks M&A, venture capital, private equity, investment banking, and emerging companies and sectors, and was the first such website in India to launch a premium subscription-led offering.

     

    Terms of the acquisition, which is expected to close in March, were not disclosed.

     

    “This significant investment is a sign of our faith in India’s future and our enthusiasm for working with and building up emerging talents in the country. India is an increasingly meaningful part of our portfolio, which is itself increasingly digital and global,” said News Corp CEO Robert Thomson.

     

    “For the past decade, we have built a strong franchise with proprietary data, information, content, and networking capabilities around India’s digital business world. Being a part of News Corp will now allow us to accelerate our already aggressive growth plans,” said VCCircle Network founder and CEO P.V. Sahad.

     

    VCCircle Network is owned by Mosaic Media Ventures Pvt Ltd and has about 100 employees across India, with its headquarters in Noida. Sahad, and the management group, will become part of News Corp’s India team. Sahad will report to News Corp senior vice president, strategy Raju Narisetti.

     

    The VCCircle acquisition builds on News Corp’s recent digital investments in India. In November, News Corp acquired a 25 per cent stake in PropTiger.com, Indian online residential real estate platform. In December, News Corp acquired BigDecisions.com, which aims to help Indian consumers make smarter financial decisions through interactive, decision-making tools powered by sophisticated algorithms and data. News Corp also has a presence across India through its Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal and HarperCollins Publishers businesses.

  • Myntra app ranks number one in fashion shopping category

    Myntra app ranks number one in fashion shopping category

    MUMBAI: Riding on exponential growth in e-commerce, online fashion platform Myntra on 6 March shared that 90 per cent of its traffic is being generated through mobile devices.

     

    The online platform further stated that close to 85 per cent of this traffic is driven by Android, iOS and Windows platforms. Moreover, over 50 per cent of the mobile traffic is coming from Tier II and III cities.

     

    According to a recent study, India ranks second in consumers accessing the internet for online shopping through mobile devices, after China. With over 150 million smartphone users as of 2014, and penetration of mobile phones expected to reach 45 per cent with whopping 520 million users by 2020, mobile is radically transforming consumer’s shopping behaviour.

     

    Myntra e-commerce platform head Prasad Kompalli said that mobile for them is more than just another channel. He believed that its value proposition is best delivered and experienced through the mobile app. 

     

    “This medium allows us to redefine fashion shopping by offering deep personalised experiences in discovery, content consumption and transactions. In India, mobile is fast becoming the default device for accessing internet across geographies and demographies. This is why, in a short span, we are witnessing such a surge in business from mobile platform,” Kompalli said.

     

    Myntra launched its mobile app in May 2014 and within a span of nine months, it has become one of the fastest growing shopping apps with over six million installs. With high quality fashionable imagery, simplistic and clutter free layout, the Myntra apps are designed to make browsing convenient enabling shoppers to maneuver through the 1,60,000 products from over 1,000 brands with ease.

  • Future of retail in the age of e-commercialisation

    Future of retail in the age of e-commercialisation

    The India retail industry accounts for over 10 per cent of the country’s GDP and contributes to around eight per cent of the employment. This space is undergoing transformations due to scores of e-commerce firms gaining huge popularity. In such a scenario, it is the brick and mortar companies that are gradually feeling the heat waves of the rising competition level in the Indian market. The truth is, the future of Indian retail holds value both in offline and online retail, especially in impulse categories like fashion jewellery and accessories.  

     

    Over the last decade, the Indian retail industry has grown phenomenally with a remarkable shift towards organised retailing formats. It is gradually shifting towards a modern concept of retailing, which is a seamless blend of online and offline formats. This concept is called ‘Omni-Channel’ retailing, which focusses on employing all kinds of shopping channels like internet, brick and mortar, television, direct mail and radio among many others. Merging the two formats of online and offline retailing is to blend technology with smart merchandising and imbibe community building, customer engagement and targeted marketing in their operations. For instance, to tackle the queue problem at its stores, customers have the option of shopping online and opting for home delivery or store pick up at WalMart. Customer friendly tactics such as this have helped WalMart to be counted among the top five online retailers in the US with estimated revenues of $10 billion in 2013 from the online segment alone.

     

    It is predicted that the Indian retail market will grow by seven per cent over the next 10 years, eventually becoming a whopping $850 billion industry by 2020. Coming specifically to traditional retail, a growth of five per cent is expected in the same and is estimated to reach a size of $650 billion (76 per cent). Organised retail is likely to develop by 25 per cent and reach a size of $200 billion by 2020. Since the last five years, Online Retail, both direct and through marketplaces has had a roller-coaster ride in metamorphosing itself from being at a nascent level to becoming the most promising sector in India.

     

    For the future growth of the industry, retailers are also set to embrace Targetted Marketing to augment their operations and keep themselves on par with global standards. Targetted Marketing aims to make the promotions, pricing and distribution of the products and services easier and more cost effective. It envelopes all the aspects of marketing and involves breaking a market into segments and paying more attention to the ones that are of paramount importance for the company. For instance, firms can create e-mail campaigns and send to a specific set of customers depending on who the company wants to target. In order to know their target audience, companies can use various nifty tools like social media. These have helped marketers and SMEs track the target audience in real time through the fan pages of other companies. Besides this, they also provide an in-depth graphical data about every person who is connected with the page. Targetted Marketing is the mantra for finding the target audience that will help the retail sector survive cut throat competition. Innovative thinking and technology aided growth strategies are what will separate the lions from the lambs when it comes to this ever-evolving industry.

     

    (These are purely personal views of Youshine founder Ashish Sood and Indiantelevision.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views.)

  • Indian mobile shopping purchases on the rise: MasterCard survey

    Indian mobile shopping purchases on the rise: MasterCard survey

    MUMBAI: Purchasing patterns in the country are seeing a change. While visits to the kirana store continue, online purchases made through mobile phones in India have grown by more than 100 per cent over the past two years. This indicates a steep upward trend in e-commerce propelled by expediency, reveals the MasterCard Online Shopping Survey 2014, which covered 14 countries across Asia Pacific.

     

    China continues to lead the chart among mobile shoppers with 70.1 per cent of the respondents polled having used the device to make online purchases. India (62.9 per cent) and Taiwan (62.6 per cent) follow next with Thailand (58.8 per cent) and Indonesia (54.9 per cent) rounding off the top five.

     

    Some of the key takeaways of the report:

    -India ranks second with 81.2 per cent of respondents accessing the internet for online shopping while China leads with 86.6 per cent.

     

    -95 per cent of Indian respondents with a mobile phone have access to the internet through it (up by 20.2 points since 2012)

     

    -The number of Indian respondents, who have made at least one purchase in the last three months, has increased from 70.9 per cent in 2012 to 94 per cent in 2014.

     

    -The major factors impacting online purchases include the security of payment facility (86.8 per cent) followed by the price or monetary value of items (86.6 per cent) and convenient payment methods (86.2 per cent)

     

    MasterCard South Asia area head Vikas Varma said, “Digital payment solutions like mobile banking apps and digital wallets will go a long way to further enrich the purchasing experience for the evolving consumer. The survey shows that there is a strong need to provide not only secure, but also convenient payments solutions as consumers move to a more digital and sophisticated lifestyle.”

     

    Furthermore, in India the top three reasons for driving smart phone shopping were the ability to shop on the go (47.7 per cent), the growing availability of apps that makes it easier to shop (45.3 per cent) and convenience (38.1 per cent). Mobile phones/mobile gadget apps topped the list of items purchased through smartphones (28.8 per cent), followed by tickets for cinema and movie theatres (26.7 per cent) and clothing/fashion accessories (24 per cent).

     

    For online transactions, the most common payment methods used are debit cards and cash. New mobile technologies are also gaining traction among consumers in the region, with mobile banking apps having the highest awareness-familiarity levels (38.3 per cent) followed by in-app shopping (28.7 per cent) and digital wallets (24.4 per cent).

  • Regal Entertainment Group partners with MovieTickets.com

    Regal Entertainment Group partners with MovieTickets.com

    MUMBAI: MovieTickets.com has entered into an agreement with US based motion picture exhibitor Regal Entertainment Group. Through the deal, MovieTickets.com will offer its ticketing solutions across all 572 Regal Cinemas theaters with 7,356 screens, including its three main brands: Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theatres, and United Artists Theatres.

     

    “Our new relationship with Regal, the largest theatre circuit in the United States, establishes MovieTickets.com as the leader in the advance movie ticketing category, based on both screen count and number of movie theatre chains served. The addition of over 7,300 screens significantly boosts our footprint in the domestic marketplace and magnifies the opportunities for us on a much broader scale,” said MovieTickets.com CEO Joel Cohen.

     

    “Regal is excited about our relationship with MovieTickets.com. Our partnership with MovieTickets.com means greater access to the magic of movie-going at Regal and added convenience for our customers,” added Regal Entertainment Group CIO Dave Doyle.

     

    In a joint statement, MovieTickets.com co-founders and co-chairmen Shari Redstone and Mitchell Rubenstein said, “We could not be prouder to join forces with a leading exhibitor of Regal’s caliber and offer moviegoers around the nation unparalleled ticketing choices and services. As the founders of MovieTickets.com, it’s especially meaningful to see us take a leadership position with such a significant addition.”

     

    MovieTickets.com will begin deployment of its service across Regal Cinemas, Edwards Theatres and United Artists Theatres today, with the roll-out continuing through the end of this month. With the addition of these theaters, MovieTickets.com will be providing advance movie ticketing to over 28,000 screens worldwide, becoming the largest online advance movie ticketing platform in the world.