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Tag: E-commerce

  • TV advertising stares at a stressful quarter amid low market sentiment

    TV advertising stares at a stressful quarter amid low market sentiment

    KOLKATA: Television advertising is expected to bounce back this year, courtesy a power-packed live sports line-up. While the January-March period has been exceptionally good for the industry, there has been a sudden reversal since then – IPL 2021 has been halted midway, partial lockdown has been imposed in several states, and the augury of a third wave of the Covid2019 pandemic have raised the question whether the year will pan out as initially forecast. It is for certain that this quarter will be under stress, experts said in a virtual roundtable organised by Indiantelevision.com.

    One of the major talking points at The Television Ad Room, moderated by Indiantelevision.com founder, CEO & editor-in-chief Anil Wanvari, was how the spend on IPL would be reallocated. As the cricket festival is a high-profile media event, cancelling it would result in a massive setback, Madison Media Sigma CEO Vanita Keswani acknowledged. However, it should be taken in true spirits by the advertisers and stakeholders involved due to health and safety concerns.

    Undoubtedly, monies will have to be switched around, plans for upcoming launches and campaigns will need to be recalibrated, panelists concurred. In this highly volatile situation, planners have to be more agile than ever, Keswani noted.

    Policybazaar brand marketing head Samir Sethi agreed that the suspension of the IPL will be tough for brands that planned around the league, albeit the safety angle should be considered. Now, advertisers will have to look somewhere else to make up for the loss of eyeballs. Nonetheless, it would not be possible to fully compensate for the loss due to the mammoth viewership of IPL.

    “We went in with the mindset that what if there is a cancellation. We had a Plan B early on and ensured to be nimble to switchover. Half the event is gone – which is the good news, because there’s exposure for brands to that extent,” OMD India CEO Priti Murthy said.

    Moreover, this May is a month when advertisers don’t want to go aggressive on media. Looking at the market reality, the spike in cases, lockdowns in different states, suspending IPL could be a blessing in disguise; otherwise, advertisers would not have been able to pull out easily. Hence, they can now look at more digital-led, content-led campaigns, Murthy added.

    While a pre-planned strategy can be more focused on content-led high impact digital marketing, Keswani is of the view that the roles of TV and digital are intertwined, not exchangeable. The television spend for IPL will not go totally into digital but can be fragmented and dispersed. However, a lot of the brands may not want to put the same amount of money in the quarter.

    Already, many businesses have decided to go slow and want to look at the next quarter. In addition to that, consumer sentiment is also not right in the present scenario.

    Following the outbreak of the pandemic, several brands had pulled out of advertising entirely last year, but 2021 will not repeat the trend. Although many categories will be affected, this year will see work in motion. For example, auto, luxury FMCG, consumer durables will be affected but essential FMCG, e-commerce will continue to grow.

    “Businesses have figured out a way to operate in this volatile environment. Spends are not going to be completely pulled back in any category. There will be recalibration and rethinking but things are going to keep moving,” Policybazaar’s Sethi commented.

    Yamaha Motor India Sales marketing head Vijay Kaul added that if a brand has already invested money in a regular platform, it’s also not good to hold back. In case of the IPL, it would be wise for brands that have already carried out launches not to stopper their advertising spends and lose the momentum they have gained. There will be a rejig in terms of switching to digital, he agreed, but the brands will back it up with TV too.

    For Yamaha Motor, both TV and digital are the preferred modes of advertising. But with the IPL off the table now, the kind of money that they had set aside may be reallocated to subsequent quarters. While the brand will not pull out of media, it will be cautious with its ad budget given the unpredictability of the situation. However, the two-wheeler maker may double its spends in the festive season again if the current state of affairs improves.

    While every business is differently affected, they will continue to spend depending on the nature, dynamics of business, Sethi said. But brands will try to be very careful when spending big bucks. Big-ticket launches may get delayed in the next one-two months, events like sale days may get postponed, he noted.

    Despite the momentary headwinds, TV advertising will grow this year, at a double-digit rate, experts asserted.

  • Amazon India steps up to help small businesses amid Covid surge

    Amazon India steps up to help small businesses amid Covid surge

    New Delhi: As the country battles the devastating onslaught of the novel Coronavirus, Amazon India has rolled out a slew of measures for small and medium businesses to help them wade through the crisis.

    The e-commerce major said it will waive 50 per cent of the ‘sell-on-amazon’ or ‘referral fee’ from 1-31 May for sellers who have had an average monthly gross merchandise sale (GMS) of Rs 10,000 or below across January, February, and March 2021. It will also reimburse storage fees and long-term storage fees charged for keeping sellers’ products at its warehouses for merchants based out of non-serviceable pin codes.

    “Never has it been more important to stand with small businesses and we wanted to do our part to help our sellers tide through these tough times. We hope our initiatives, which include fee waivers, policy relaxations, and vaccination support, will be of help to our sellers at this time,” tweeted Amazon India vice president Manish Tiwari.

    Amazon India has over 8.5 lakh sellers on its platform. It has recently announced its decision to cover the Covid2019 vaccine costs for its eligible sellers and their dependents.

    The etailer said it will temporarily relax the claim windows for various types of reimbursements that the sellers file for 30 days. It will also take steps to mitigate any negative impact on sellers’ performance metrics due to defaults caused by the pandemic and the resulting restrictions in several states, on the sellers’ account health.

    “We are also working to relax our policies regarding late shipment rate, order cancellation, and returns to better support our sellers during this period,” said Tiwari in a blog post.

    India on Sunday recorded a massive surge of 3.92 lakh new Covid2019 cases and as many as 3,689 deaths from across the country. While the government has announced the beginning of phase-3 of the vaccination drive, the process remained suspended in several states due to a shortage of vaccines for the 18-44 years age group.

    Amazon India said the lockdowns and curfews announced in different states to tackle the situation continues to impact its businesses, even though the e-commerce companies have been allowed to operate. The government has allowed the delivery of only essential items like groceries and medicines.

    Amazon India works with more than 10 lakh small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) including sellers, delivery and logistics partners, neighbourhood stores, enterprises, developers, content creators, and authors in the country.

    “Our number one priority right now is to help save lives and extend support communities across the nation including our employees, sellers, delivery associates, other partners, and their dependents in this time of crisis,” said Tiwari.

  • Lenovo elevates Shailendra Katyal to lead India business

    Lenovo elevates Shailendra Katyal to lead India business

    NEW DELHI: Lenovo has elevated Shailendra Katyal to managing director of its PC and smart devices business group (PCSD) India and site leader for Lenovo Group in the country. The appointment comes into effect 1 May 2021.

    Katyal will take over from Rahul Agarwal, who has decided to move on after 20 years at the technology company.

    “I am confident in Shailendra’s success thanks to his extensive experience in Lenovo and in the industry. I would also like to thank Rahul for everything he has done to maximise Lenovo’s growth over the past two decades,” said Lenovo Asia Pacific president Amar Babu.

    Katyal is currently executive director at Lenovo India PC and smart devices group, leading the consumer business. He first joined Lenovo in 2011, and has held roles in marketing, consumer PC and tablets, home and small business, as well as e-commerce.

    Prior to joining Lenovo, he spent a decade building iconic FMCG brands.

  • E-commerce may become a major growth driver for FMCG in 2021

    E-commerce may become a major growth driver for FMCG in 2021

    NEW DELHI: If there is one business which has distinctly gained during the unprecedented Covid2019 pandemic, it is e-commerce. And this gain has occurred across product categories and sectors. Building on this advantage, there would be only more traction for e-commerce in the coming year. What will particularly be more noticeable is the entry of a whole lot of new players, both big and small, democratising the e-retail marketplace. However, this expanded and democratised e-commerce marketplace would co-exist with the physical brick-and-mortar retail spaces. These kirana stores significantly enough would forge partnerships with online delivery services while also digitally upgrading themselves with the help of the latter. Therefore, apart from the regular retail formats, there would be more tie-ups with different brands on e-comm platforms.

    The extraordinary growth of e-commerce

    In a report, the Indian e-commerce industry has been projected to grow by 40 per cent in 2020 as compared to 23 per cent in 2019. In fact, it has even been reported elsewhere how during the Covid2019 months, a decade of growth has been registered within just a few months this year. And in terms of cross border growth, the country’s e-commerce sector has been ranked ninth globally. Around the festival season in the second half of the year, major players such as Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and Snapdeal made sales worth $3.1 billion in the first four to five days of the festive season sale. And this growth has not remained confined to metros and big cities. An online player reported that 70 per cent of its orders were received from tier-2 and tier-3 towns during Diwali. Once we have seen the last of Covid2019 which is expected in 2021, these figures would grow to become even more impressive. In fact, the e-commerce penetration in the country is expected to cross 10 per cent in the coming five years from the current four to five percent.

    Emerging new players are intensifying competition

    While Covid2019 did pose a stupendous challenge to many small players in the early phases, several of those same affected players soon enough turned this adversity into an opportunity by upgrading themselves digitally and even recasting their product portfolios. While staying at home, a new generation of entrepreneurs called ‘homepreneurs’ has emerged, offering competition to existing players. This will only get bigger and a more competitive retail marketplace including both online and offline will emerge in the coming year.

    Kirana stores taking the digital leap

    At the same time, demonstrating massive momentum on the b2b front, several new players as well as existing players reinvented their business processes by forging links with other players and bigger and stable e-commerce businesses. Many new e-commerce start-ups have come up helping kirana stores or mom-and-pop stores digitize and expand their operational footprints. A cash and carry store had offered digitisation services to kirana stores promising complete digitisation in a span of 24 hours. So a vigorous drive for development of e-commerce platforms for local retailers and grocery stores underpinned by digital payment mechanisms has been underway. This trend is expected to continue in the present year democratising the marketplace further.

    Contactless delivery of ready-to-eat and packaged food to acquire permanence

    During Covid months, the trend towards partnerships between online delivery behemoths and FMCG companies including food brands has been a notable phenomenon. Also, the tie-ups between local food businesses and local e-commerce startups for final delivery of products have been equally noteworthy. In light of Covid-dictated explosion of cloud kitchens and food delivery apps, the near-institutionalization of highly-sanitised kitchen environment, double-layer packaging of food products, deployment of all-round safety gear equipped-delivery personnel, and contact-less delivery services would acquire a more permanent feature. The ripple effect of this new delivery culture would be seen even for the delivery of packaged food for final consumers.

    Trends in shopping spend across categories

    According to market research, in terms of average spend by online shoppers, electronics and accessories (39 per cent) had emerged as the largest product category followed by mobile and accessories (12 per cent); fashion, including apparel, footwear, and accessories (10 per cent); and appliances such as TV, washing machines, refrigerators (nine per cent) in the aftermath of Covid2019 outbreak. However, a management consultancy white paper has revealed that food, grocery, consumer electronics and apparel will be the top e-commerce product categories contributing to sales in the coming five years. Then based on a report by Goldman Sachs, online grocery and fashion/apparels are set to be the biggest drivers of incremental growth in e-commerce in the country.

    M&As and investments to impact domestic e-commerce space

    The last few months have seen considerable investment by foreign social media behemoths such as Facebook into domestic giants such as Reliance Industries which could allow the latter to play a bigger role in the e-commerce market. Then Reliance retail buying out Future Group has been another significant development.  

    Therefore, while 2020 was a year of crisis-driven instant improvisations and restructuring in a broadly subdued business environment, the coming year would see more stability and consolidation of the e-market space. Essentially, 2021 will see businesses adopting more of an omni-channel approach.

    (The author is director, Bikano. The views expressed here are his own and indiantelevision.com may not subscribe to them.)

  • Meesho raises $300 million in fresh funding

    Meesho raises $300 million in fresh funding

    KOLKATA: Social commerce platform Meesho has raised $300 million in a new round of funding led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The latest investment values Meesho at $2.1 billion.

    The start-up will use the new fund raise to strengthen its talent pool across verticals — tech, product, and business, among others. It saw participation from existing investors — Prosus Ventures, Facebook, Shunwei Capital, Venture Highway and Knollwood Investment.

    SoftBank Investment Advisers managing partners Munish Varma said, “Globally, SoftBank has always been excited to back founders that provide unique solutions for the local market. By using the power of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Meesho has created a platform for many small business owners to sell to the next cohort of internet users.  We look forward to being a part of this journey.”

    Meesho aims to simplify e-commerce for all small businesses in India. It will help the company to build a platform which is pro-small businesses with policies and tools to help even the smallest of sellers to list and do business on Meesho. This will empower small business owners to reach customers through all online channels.

    In the past year, the platform has seen tremendous growth across small businesses and entrepreneurs seeking to move their businesses online, Meesho founder and CEO Vidit Aatrey said.

    “With the new round of funding, we are extremely thrilled to have SoftBank onboard. We are focused on expanding our vision — from helping aspiring women entrepreneurs to creating Meesho as a single ecosystem that will enable all small businesses in India to succeed online,” he added.

    Over the last six years, Meesho has successfully enabled over 13 million individual entrepreneurs to start their own online businesses with zero investment, bringing the benefits of e-commerce to more than 45 million customers in the country. Till date the company has delivered orders from 100K+ registered suppliers to over 26,000 pin codes in more than 4,800 cities, generating over 500 crore in income for individual entrepreneurs and serving customers in more than 4,500 tier-2 cities and beyond.

  • What the second Covid2019 wave means for Maharashtra

    What the second Covid2019 wave means for Maharashtra

    New Delhi: The unabated increase in the number of Covid2019 cases has once again threatened to stall the pace of the financial and entertainment capital of the country. As Maharashtra reported 57,074 positive cases in the last 24 hours, the Shiv Sena-led coalition government has announced strict restrictions all over the state, including Mumbai, till 30 April.

    The rules, which come into effect on Monday, include a night curfew from 8 pm to 7 am and a complete lockdown over the weekends from 8 pm on Fridays to 7 am on Mondays. Except for essential services, everything will be closed on weekends.

    The government has banned any kind of gathering of five or more throughout the day. Industrial operations and construction activity will continue, however, all the malls, restaurants, bars, gyms, sports complexes, auditoriums, and places of worship will be closed. Schools, colleges, private classes too will remain shut except for students of Class 10th and 12th. E-commerce will be allowed from 7 am to 8 pm for home delivery only if the staff is vaccinated, or else the establishment will be fined Rs 1,000.

    Cinema halls shut, shoots to continue

    The state government has permitted the film and television shoots to continue under strict guidelines, to enable the entertainment industry to get back on its feet. However, it will have to battle the severe consequences of complete closure of theatres, cinema halls, and multiplexes which were already working under 50 per cent capacity since mid-March.

    The restrictions could land a serious blow to the entertainment industry, which not only faces an imminent loss of theatrical revenues but an impending threat to its revival plans. Another lockdown could compel filmmakers and production studios to reconsider their intent to release films in cinemas this summer, which may ultimately head to streaming. However, it can’t be denied that certain curbs are required, with film personalities engaged in active projects falling prey to the deadly virus. Actors Akshay Kumar, Govinda, TV host Aditya Narayan (part of the current season of Indian Idol) were among the increasing number of celebrities who tested positive on Sunday.

    Cinema halls, which were already struggling to lure audiences back to theatres, could face an uphill task, as the sudden surge, is likely to make the public apprehensive about cinema-going. Advertising in cinema halls will also take a beating, as the restrictions come into effect. It may also slow down consumer spending during the weekends, due to the closure of malls.

    Maharashtra accounts for the largest percentage of screen share for companies like PVR Cinemas, which has 140 screens in the state. 

    Meanwhile, the television producers and broadcasters were left guessing how they would keep shooting their episodes with curfew being imposed between 8 pm and 7 am. Additionally, there was a lack of clarity whether they would be able to film on Saturdays and Sundays with Thackeray declaring a total lockdown. For some time now, the former have been beseeching creative professionals in television channels to not insist on plugging in wedding and mass gathering scenes in episodes on account of the increasing cases in the state. Apparently, the Indian Film and Television Producers Council (IFTPC) is slated to seek clarifications from the government.

    Vaccination, IPL provides a glimmer of hope

    The ongoing vaccination drive has provided a glimmer of hope. As many as 3.44 crore people have been vaccinated in the country so far. On Sunday, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said the state’s focus is going to be on the vaccination drive and it would need 25 crore vaccines for its people. “At a time like this, when cases are rising, ‘life first and work later’ needs to be the priority,” he urged people.

    But how long it will take to vaccinate enough people to decelerate the rise in infections, no one can say. Till then, it remains certain that the entertainment industry might keep hemming and hawing for the coming weeks, as the government deliberates upon its next step.

    On the bright side, the return of the fourteenth edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) to the home ground is likely to boost the morale of the advertising industry and provide an uptick in revenue. The Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) has maintained that it will stick to its initial schedule and is confident of pulling off the matches in Mumbai’s Wankhede stadium, despite ten members of the ground staff testing positive. Mumbai is slated to host ten matches of the cash-rich league. However, Hyderabad is being discussed as a backup venue option. A few players including Axar Patel also tested positive on Sunday. 

    Lockdown on the weekends could possibly prove to be a boon in disguise for the television industry, especially while the IPL is underway, as the daily streaming and TV viewing could go up during the two days when people will have to remain at home. A significant number of IPL matches are scheduled on weekends.

    Biggest single-day spike ever

    India breached a grim milestone on Monday, with 1.01 lakh Coronavirus infections being reported for the first time in the country. Ten states contribute to 90 per cent of the total cases, led by Maharashtra which currently accounts for around 58 per cent of the total Covid2019 caseloads  in the country. The active number of infected cases in the state stands at four lakh, while the fatalities have mounted to 55,656.

  • How Amazon, Flipkart performed in 2020

    How Amazon, Flipkart performed in 2020

    KOLKATA: The stringent lockdown during the early phase of the Covid2019 pandemic brought about sea changes in consumer behaviour in India. E-commerce was one of the sectors which emerged as beneficiaries thanks to first time online shoppers and increasing online payment. Among the leading players, both Amazon and Flipkart grew substantially.

    While Amazon started the year 2020 with a substantial lead on penetration, Flipkart has closed in by December. Both etailers grew reach, as more consumers shifted online during the age of social distancing. However, Flipkart’s 20 per cent growth left Amazon’s five per cent growth, although on a much larger base, looking low, a report from Kalagato said.

    Moreover, e-commerce penetration has deepened across the board. Interestingly, the highest growth was seen among older customers of 45+ age group and the 35–45 age group to a lesser extent. The former category has the potential to unlock further growth for the sector, as it still remains the most under penetrated segment. Data from the research firm also showed that this is the cohort where the gap between Amazon and Flipkart is the biggest.

    From the transacting/paying customers, Flipkart performed better in the year. While the Walmart-owned online retailer started 2020 on a stronger footing than Amazon, the platform has come out on top through the pandemic as well, the report added. Amazon grew transacting reach by 1.5X, while Flipkart doubled it during the year. The growth was sharper among females, tier-3 towns and older customers.

    Flipkart with higher open rates and time spent also led in average transaction value per customer at 12 per cent higher order values on average than Amazon, and a whopping  30 per cent lead during the festive period – October 2020. But an Amazon customer orders 30 per cent more frequently than a Flipkart customer, highlighted the report. The better loyalty of Amazon customers have been attributed to holistic bundled service including Prime Video content.

    The report added that Flipkart would need to work on greater reach and desirability, whereas Amazon needs to move its inactive base into transacting customers. Moreover, the entry of Reliance Industries with Ajio and JioMart and the Tata Group with TataCliq and its investment into 1MG and BigBasket has made the competitive e-commerce space more complicated.

  • Amazon celebrates Holi with #KhushiyanDelivered campaign

    Amazon celebrates Holi with #KhushiyanDelivered campaign

    KOLKATA: Amazon.in launched #KhushiyanDelivered – a digital led campaign to celebrate Holi and salute the spirit of delivery associates, sellers, and customers across India. The campaign unfolds with a digital film that captures how the e-commerce giant is serving its customers and the important role of delivery associates in this journey, across India.

    The video is an ode to all delivery associates who work every day to deliver ‘khushiyan’ to customers and captures the love and effort that goes behind the packages which add joy to the festivities. Through this campaign, Amazon aims to spread positivity, appreciation and encouragement among the delivery associates who continue to fulfil the promises of millions of customers across India.

    Amazon India vice president Manish Tiwary said, “#KhushiyanDelivered is our digital campaign to thank our millions of customers, delivery associates, and recognise the efforts of all our small and medium business sellers as well. We encourage our customers to extend their heartfelt gratitude to all delivery associates across India as they continue to deliver happiness and colours of joy through the year.”

    Additionally, ahead of Holi, Amazon.in has launched a specially curated ‘Holi Shopping Store’, a one-stop-shop, to help customers deliver khushiyan to their loved ones this festive occasion. The Holi shopping store offers an array of specially curated products by sellers ranging from Holi colours and pichkaris, fashion and beauty essentials, kitchen and cleaning equipment, Puja articles, food and beverages, TVs, devices, speakers, cameras, accessories and much more.

  • #Forecast2021: E-commerce industry set for a massive uptick

    #Forecast2021: E-commerce industry set for a massive uptick

    NEW DELHI: Remember the good ol’ days when we could go to the corner store and buy essentials without fear of catching some newly fangled disease? All that changed with the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus. Lockdown was imposed, and only a minimal number of mom and pop stores and modern trade outlets were allowed to open with a specified in-store limit. This led to the quick adaptation of digital medium by people for fulfilling their daily needs. The adaptation was so fast and in such huge numbers that many of the companies did not have the infrastructure ready to cater to such a high need. For instance, online grocery players were working overtime to deliver orders, yet in the early days of the lockdown, there was a delay of nearly three to five before one’s order reached their doorstep. Local kirana that always dealt in ‘cash only’ quickly adopted e-wallets to ensure that business works as per routine.

    It seemed like the Covid2019 pandemic poked a hole in time and the global e-commerce industry just sped through it, landing in an era that was yet to arrive. Several industry leaders, observers and think tanks pointed out that the digital adoption which would have otherwise taken five years was achieved in a matter of months. While the Indian side of it struggled to find its foothold in the initial few months, it managed to attract a swarm of takers, both in terms of investors and consumers, throughout 2020. According to a Goldman Sachs report released in July last year, the e-commerce growth rate for 2020 is expected to be 18 per cent. It also estimated growth rates of over 33 per cent and 28 per cent in 2021 and 2022, respectively. 

    The report further suggested that online grocery is going to be the biggest driver for e-commerce in India, accelerating with an 81 per cent annual growth rate. This was proven throughout the lockdown when people developed the habit of ordering groceries online. Coming close on the heels will be fashion, mobile & electronics, general merchandise, personal care and home furnishings, as indicated by the marketing industry. 

    This has given a huge boost to the e-comm players who are now thriving with a bigger and active community than before. Their bellies are filled with investments from global giants and investor presentations are shining with the bright future of this domain in the Indian market.

    The silver lining is that e-commerce has also spread vertically and horizontally in the non-metro regions. The number of pin codes has increased and these players are covering more ground than ever.

    As part of their omnichannel strategy to cover more ground, e-commerce players are adding and will continue to add kirana stores and local shops to their network. Amazon and Flipkart have been the torchbearers of this rapid expansion.

    “E-commerce players are also looking to increase the number of consumer touchpoints to gain higher customer mindshare. In the next five years, over 60 per cent of e-commerce volumes are likely to come from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, making it imperative for e-commerce businesses to build their seller base and delivery reach in smaller towns,” Starcom CCO Rajiv Gopinath interjected[L1]  added.

    Headless commerce

    Many experts have mentioned that people are moving towards headless commerce. This would mean a lot of investment in technology and the integration of different functions to create a seamless experience. A result of this would be the reshaping of retail stores, a drive-through model of shopping and experiential showrooms for the sake of enhancing user experience.

    Logicserve digital founder and CEO Prasad Shejale highlighted, “Headless commerce is evolving, and we will surely see more of that soon. We will also see more and more adoption of virtual or e-trial rooms and cashless payments. Buying online and picking up in-store (BOPIS) is also a phenomenon that might soon become popular.”

    “While the infrastructure for it is in its infancy, we can expect auto-checkout, curb-side pickup, order-online-pickup-offline and tap-and-pay experiences to become the norm in the coming months,” 22feet Tribal Worldwide president Preetham Venkky suggested.

    This will also result in 2021 laying the foundations of a touch-free world. 

    Digital  transformation for the retail industry means automating and digitalising their existing systems, adopting DevOps (a set of practices that aims to shorten the systems development life cycle) for modernisation and sustenance, and using cloud and everything as a service added Gopinath. “Digital ecosystems that combine their core e-retail business with sticky customer services, such as video streaming, gaming, booking and payments, in a single platform, will grow.” 

    While the integration of technology in e-commerce has been going on for a few years but the pandemic has given a huge fillip to its adoption. Try-n-buy, cashless payments, personalisation and applications have all become a part of online shopping.

    The platforms are investing to ensure one-on-one communication with customers and offer personalised offerings.

    For years, the allied beneficiary of e-commerce growth is the logistics and warehouse category. However, the next step in their evolution is the digital transformation of these two categories.

    dentsu Asia Pacific (APAC) chief data & product officer and dentsu Programmatic – south Asia CEO Gautam Mehra opined that warehouses will be centralised and home deliveries will pick up sharply. “In the automotive segments, real estate is a huge cost for dealerships, this will definitely come down. With VR headsets and a car in the parking, one can turn a mall activation into a dealership with a test drive option.” 

    The rise of online shopping has led to greater digital spends over the last couple of years, a trend which will only gain further traction. If e-commerce volumes rise, it is conceivable that investment is focused on digital advertising to facilitate the path to purchase, particularly in the channels that are closest to consumer decision-making.

    Brands will advertise heavily on e-commerce platforms. “Brands are responding by investing more in e-commerce advertising. Marketers are looking to create an optimised combination of media used for advertising in order to maximise ROI,” shared Gopinath.

    The industry will continue to advertise heavily in 2021 as well; digital and TV being the preferred channels. TV advertisements are ideal to raise awareness among the masses and build brands, which e-commerce embraces. In Shejale’s view, television will remain a popular medium among the masses and TV ads will continue to generate higher advertising demands in the immediate future as well.

    In order to tap into this massively viable growth environment, brands will have to focus primarily in four areas: smooth, expected and fast user experience; value addition over marketplace offerings; digital experience befitting the brand; and last but not the least – better customer service (than marketplace), suggested Venkky. 

    Clearly, e-commerce players and its various stakeholders will have a lot to contend with this year. As consumers’ buying behaviour undergoes a sea change, with preferences tending to simpler, more interactive, and quicker ways to shop, the forward-thinking e-tailer will be wise to keep the aforementioned pointers in mind.

  • Festive season spurs growth for Titan in Q3

    Festive season spurs growth for Titan in Q3

    NEW DELHI: The third quarter of FY21 pushed lifestyle giant Titan on an impressive growth journey after a stunted performance for almost six months in the wake of the Covid2019 crisis. The festive season, headlined by the Hindu festivals of Dussehra and Diwali, prompted the jewellery division to cross the threshold of recovery into the growth phase. Two other divisions, namely watches & wearables and eyewear also moved closer to full recovery. 

    The jewellery business announced a 15 per cent growth in the 30-day festive period and a similar growth overall in Q3, excluding the sale of raw gold of around Rs 334 crore. The quarter also witnessed a well-rounded recovery with improvement in walk-ins and pick of sales in metros. CaratLane delivered growth of around 39 per cent. 

    Watches and wearables recorded a recovery rate of 88 per cent in Q3. The recovery was led by e-commerce channels, showcasing an absolute growth of over 30 per cent. The company scaled its omnichannel capability by up to 80 per cent. 

    Eyewear section had a recovery of around 92 per cent compared to the same quarter last year. Other businesses had a revenue recovery of around 80 per cent. 

    New ventures

    Titan also launched a slew of initiatives through the year that were positively received by consumers. In the high-value studded jewellery section, ‘Moods of the Earth’ collection was launched for fashion-forward women. Zoya customer experience zones were opened as shop-in-shop in four Tanishq stores. In the plain jewellery section, the division added 24 Tanishq stores on a net basis. 

    Titan launched the latest line of smartwatches TRAQ, and two premium collections for the festive season – Titan Grandmaster and Raga Moments of Joy. Fastrack also launched four major collections in the period. 

    For the eyewear section, eco-lite stores were introduced, which require lower investment and improve the profitability of the franchisee. A made-in-India IndiFit collection called Titan Crest was also launched.