1

E-PULSE FOR E-RETAIL VENDORS

The present E-Pulse is the compilation of inputs from various industry sources.

This E-Pulse addresses following key questions for B2C E-Commerce Vendors;

What makes Store-In-Store concept a success for E-Retail Vendors?

What makes Amazon the biggest in E-commerce market worldwide?

What Site Features Indian E-retail Vendors need to focus more on?

What E-Product Categories Internet Buyers Order For? Pay For? In India

www.eStatsIndia.com

1

STORE IN STORE CONCEPT IN E-RETAILBUT IS IT A NEW CONCEPT?

The advent of Store in Store or creating an independent store within a store is not new.

In case of horizontal e-marketplaces each e-store becomes an independent entity and profit making unit over a period of time. This concept was first initiated originally among content based websites. This was done because scalability was imperative in case of websites that were content centric to diversify their online presence.

E-content vendors started scaling up their content sites by diversifying and specifying content silos or segments within a site. This came to be called SIS (Site-in-Site).

Similar to this is the advent of Store-in-Store in case of E-Retail sites.In E-Retail the advent of SIS could also be aligned with scalability.Amazon Inc. Smartly Incorporates the idea of Store-In-Store onto their online e-retail site worldwide. The E-stores or “Stores in Stores” specializes in offering a particular product category to its buyers via product specific e-stores.

Indian E-retail Vendors are scaling and diversifying into multiple product categories. To gain traction and attract potential Internet Buyers the E-Retail Vendors have started incorporating the concept of SIS on their websites.

Flipkart.com did so quite recently with Puma. Earlier snapdeal.com did so with GAP. Soon high margin product categories online like Fashion and Apparel and accessories will see more of such SIS being undertaken by many other lead E-Retail vendors.

The whole concept shall be a win-win game for both the lead brands in question. In India online E-retail vendors will offer Reach & Penetration to lead brands and on the other hand such lead brands offer their premium and other highly popular and branded wares to E-Retail vendors.

Worldwide also this concept is not new in this space. How this will pan out in India will be evident in coming next few months. That the vendors are not leaving any leaf unturned in meeting competition head-on is what making the game interesting to watch going forward.

www.eStatsIndia.com

1

WHAT MAKES AMAZON THE BIGGEST E-COMMERCE PALYER IN THE WORLD

1. E-Retail Vendors Must Have a Mobile Site

Mobile seems to be gaining traction with the Smartphone’s slowly gaining over Windows based platforms for access of E-Retail websites. Apart from issues like spectrum and infrastructure etc. other issues like low ARPU and ROI needs to be addressed by E-Retail vendors.

It will be interesting to see how mobile and other high end mobile devices will pan out the next year or so in the E-Retail marketplace in India. It will be a bit of a challenge to reach certain threshold of profitability in the rural pockets and other tire II and tier III cities for E-Retail Vendors.

Sensing immense potential in m-commerce, Flipkart had launched its first Android-based mobile application in September last year to allow smartphone users to buy products online. It launched iOS-based application in December.

2. Easy repeat purchases through one-click payment method like Amazon

Data from a Rackspace survey also found that mobile is helping to drive an increase in impulse buying, particularly for clothes and music, so it’s important that retailers make the checkout as simple as possible so they don’t deter these impulse purchases.

3. Consistent design across mobile site and apps

4. Big calls-to-actionMobile Calls-to-Action (CTAs) on E-Retail sites need to be big, colorful and obvious so customers can’t miss them. These should prompt the users straight to the checkout process.

Amazon ticks all these boxes and the Android app leaves you in no doubt what the next step is: ‘Buy now’.

5. One Shopping basket across all platformsAmazon’s shopping basket is designed so that it synchronises across its desktop site and mobile platforms.

So if you add a DVD to your shopping basket on the desktop site it immediately adds it to the app as well. This makes perfect sense, and fits with the way people research and switch between channels.

www.eStatsIndia.com

1

It’s a feature that is quite easy to miss, but is a great example of offering the customer a consistent experience across different channels rather than viewing desktop and mobile in isolation.

6. Predictive SearchAmazon recently came top of a consumer survey for its on-site search as it offers predictive search across all its platforms.

Amazon also scored well for the relevancy of results, the number of filter options and the fact that misspellings are corrected.

Predictive search and spelling corrections are great tools to offer mobile users as it reduces the amount of form filling and frustration at having to re-enter search terms.

7. Barcode ScannerTo make searching for products even easier, Amazon’s mobile apps have a barcode scanner that allows users to immediately find the product details and cost – assuming Amazon stocks it.

This helps E-Retail, vendors in offering lower prices than offline retailers, so shoppers know they can scan an item in-store and more than likely buy it cheaper from Amazon.

8. Apps on all platformsFor many retailers their mobile strategy doesn’t really extend any further than iPhone, even though Android has more than 50% market share globally.

Part of that is because iPhone shoppers tend to be worth more than Android shoppers, but also because it is easier to design apps for iOS. This obviously gives it a huge reach among mobile shoppers and greatly improves the user experience. E-Retail Vendors must have Apps on all platforms to gain traction among their potential users.

Amazon for example; has apps for platforms, as well as Blackberry and Windows Phone.

9. Great Product PagesDesigning attractive yet persuasive product pages on mobile is a fine art, as you need to give consumers the information they need to make a purchase without making the screen appear too cluttered.

One of the most important features is user reviews as research shows that a massive 88% of consumers ‘sometimes or always’ consult a review when making a purchase, and 60% were more likely to purchase from a site that has customer reviews on.

www.eStatsIndia.com

1

Amazon also cross-sells products that are frequently purchased together with that item and has a ‘Customers who viewed this item also viewed’ tab.On top of that, it also includes a product description, several large images, shipping details, stock levels and social sharing buttons.

www.eStatsIndia.com

1

10. The Personal TouchWhether it’s on the app or the mobile site, if you have an account Amazon welcomes you by name when you arrive on the homepage.

This not only personalizes the shopping experience and improves the customer’s perception of the brand, but as security concerns are still a major barrier to purchasing on mobile it may go some way to reassuring consumers that buying on a Smartphone is the same as buying on a desktop.

The personal touch also extends to product recommendations, which can occasionally be slightly obscure but generally match the shopper’s interests and previous search history.

Amazon displays product recommendations on the homepage of its mobile site and apps, which is a great way of giving shoppers a shortcut to items they might be looking for and also encourages impulse purchases. 

11. Multi-Product Retailing on E-Retail SiteThe huge range of products that Amazon stocks makes it a dominant force in the E-commerce market space worldwide and it has had the same impact on mobile.

Amazon’s mobile site and apps have become a natural first point of call for purchase, particularly distressed purchase, and this then becomes a self-feeding cycle. 

The user needs one item in a hurry so they turns to Amazon and have a good experience. They then come back for the next item even when they’re not in such a rush.

Above Qualitative Inputs Sourced from our own analysis & eConsultancy.com

www.eStatsIndia.com

1

WHAT SITE FEATURES INDIAN E-RETAIL VENDORS NEED TO FOCUS MORE ON?

Easy Sign-Up Process

Many E-Retail Vendors still adopt a lengthy Sign-up process on their E-Retail sites. An easy Sign-up process to attract new subscribers is an imperative that E-Retail sites can’t do without.

Double Opt-In Process Is Yet To Kick Up on E-Retail Websites

Single Opt-in process is a major bottleneck at times on E-Retail sites. In India most of the E-Retail sites are still stuck up with it. Only a handful of 14% of E-Retail sites have adopted the Double Opt-in process and all the rest are still using the Single Opt-in process.

Shopping Cart Abandonment Program Implementation

Most of the E-Retailers lack seriously in this area. They need to quickly adopt the shopping cart abandonment program on their websites. This calls for sending out Programmatic emails.

Shopping cart abandonment is an important issue for all eTailers; when the customer comes to the website, explores it, likes the products and puts product in the cart, however eventually the customer doesn’t buy anything!

According to the ‘Salecycle’ report, almost half of all cart recovery emails are opened and over a third of clicks lead to a purchase back on the website. Only 30% of the E-Retailers have adopted the cart abandonment program and the rest 70% are still lacking.

Customer Re-Engagement Programs

Customer targeting to re-engage them makes them feel importance. This is another great way to gain traction for E-Retail websites. More than half of the E-Retailers are not focussing on this strategy at all.

They need to align their focus to re-target all such potential fallout customers to re-engage them. This is also a time and money saver for them vis-a-vis initiating a fresh engagement with an entirely new customer.

www.eStatsIndia.com

1www.eStatsIndia.com

1

WHAT E-PRODUCT CATEGORIES INTERNET BUYERS ORDER FOR? PAY FOR? IN INDIA

Table 1: Internet Buyers Doing Online Ordering in E-Retail Product Categories

E-Retail Product CategoriesOnline Ordering

ByInternet Buyers

PCs, Laptops, and Tablets

15% to 20%

Washing MachinesMobile services and internet connection

Health, Life and motor insuranceEntertainmentRestaurants

Auto AccessoriesBaby Care and pet Food

Books, Gifts and Online coursesPerfumes

Apparel, footwear and accessoriesCosmetics

Health food drinks, Nutraceuticals and sports nutrition

Consumer goodsSource: eStatsIndia.com Analysis, BCG

Table 2: Internet Buyers Making Online Payment in E-Retail Product Categories

E-Retail Product CategoriesOnline Payment

ByInternet Buyers

Air Conditioners

18% to 20%

PC and Mobile AccessoriesOther Consumer Durables

EntertainmentBaby Care and Pet Food

Books and GiftsApparel, Footwear and Accessories

Source: eStatsIndia.com Analysis, BCG

www.eStatsIndia.com

1

__________________________________

Contact

eStatsIndia.comInternet Research & Consulting New Delhi, IndiaM: +91 9810474007 __________________________________

Research Analysts

Amita SharmaVikram Bhardwaj__________________________________

About eStatsIndia.com

EStatsIndia.com provides business research insights and intelligence to the digital media and market space covering Internet, E-business, online marketing, digital media, new media, telecommunications and other related emerging technologies.

We are a Go-To-Market destination for latest filtered research reports and data cuts covering worldwide markets.

You can subscribe to our digital media database, forecasts, trackers and other regular research outputs syndicated reports and customized reports as per your choice. Our advisory and consultancy services further compliments, our Business Information Research Services making us a 360 degrees research service agency. ___________________________________

To know more about subscribing our research products and services;Call +91-9810474007, or email at; vikram@estatsindia.com

www.eStatsIndia.com