E-Commerce India - Infibeam Books

There are various options to buy books online in India. One popular books e-commerce site is http://infibeam.com. This is one of the pioneers in books e-commerce domain, headquartered in Ahmedabad. I can browse books (and many other items as well) by category, add to shopping cart and make payment for order fulfillment.

I found these three aspects interesting in Infibeam, not noticed in many other sites.

1. There is an explicit link to 'Indian Authors', which gives me easy access to books by each of the Indian Authors. I wonder how could this simple but effective lead be missed by many other sites.
2. For some of the books, the delivery is available in multiple countries ! Here is one such listing for a book - "This product ships to United Arab Emirates, Australia, Belgium, Bahrain, Switzerland, China, Germany, Spain, Finland, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Thailand, South Africa."
3. There is a link called 'new & used', which leads to a list of vendors who can deliver this particular book, which is new or used (as the name says). Obviously, Infibeam has business tie-ups outside India and works like a 'marketplace' as well.

Differentiation in product / service is essential in this growing e-commerce Indian market.

E-Commerce India - Renting books and just books

If I am a book lover, I would want to browse through a bookstore - online or offline - and buy the ones I like. Sites like http://flipkart.com, http://infibean.com and http://indiaplaza.com help me with that. On the other hand, if I want to sell books, I can chose to sell them online on sites like http://olx.in. What If I want to rent books online? An old but eternal concept of book library has been brought online as http://justbooksclc.com.

It follows a hybrid model with a combination of online and offline store fronts. There are physical outlets open in south India in places like Bangalore, Mysore and Hyderabad. Each book is tagged using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), which looks like a sticker pasted on either ends of the cover. There would be a kiosk, which can be self operated, in each outlet. Once I take a membership, I am issued an RFID card, which represents my identify and helps issue or return books at the kiosk.

The best part is that I can borrow in any of the outlets of JustBooks in any of the locations, and also return them in any other JustBooks outlet. Is this not called 'convenience'? I can even browse the catalog online and request books to be delivered home? Can we call this 'heights of convenience'? I can check-out book reviews, know who is reading what and even suggest books to be bought by JustBooks! If you are keen, you can apply for JustBooks franchise also.

Books, affordability & accessibility

I was checking out http://indiaplaza.com once to see why it has not become as popular as http://flipkart.com thought it was running for longer time. I did not find the user interface to be very professional. I think in all the e-commerce or any other web-based services, the user-experience (UX) is the key. The fundamental principle from UX perspective is that the user should be able to conduct the operations with minimum clicks and with intuitive navigation mechanism. From that perspective there is no other site better than facebook.

Coming back to indiaplaza, I found a book 'Making it on my own' offered at 50% off and ordered the book by paying through credit-card online. The cost of the book was Rs. 63 and interestingly the shipping was free ! I wish many other important and useful books also get as affordable and convenient-to-order as this one. The day, when all the books would be available in an interactive digital format, is not far off !

E-Commerce India - For the book lovers...

If I want to buy books online, I tend to go to http://flipkart.com. That is the de facto site for me to browse books and buy them - if I find ones of my liking. No more going to the book-shops. Saves me irritation from driving in traffic and also time. I can enjoy the luxury of browsing books according to my whim and fancy, without having to move across sections in the physical book store. Hopping from one book to another relevant one through recommendations is a boon to book lovers.

There is no doubt that brick-and-mortar book stores had negative impact after the online ones have become popular.

Publishers have nothing to lose as their sales have increased rather.Customers like me are having fun with browsing all the books online - definitely the beneficiary in the whole game ! Isn't that not the crux of any business - making customer happy?