My bad experience with Indiatimes Shopping, an E-Commerce site in India

I know this post is very lengthy. But please do read for your own benefit !

 

I looked at so many e-commerce websites in India and done shopping on a few of them. I always used to think that all the sites look alike (is it not as easy as search, select and pay) and its very different to differentiate the services in the e-commerce domain. I felt that to be the reason for not much of competition in each of the domains (books, gadgets, apparel etc) and hence a few players.

I read "zappos.com - Delivering Happiness" book and wondered how Tony Hsieh could create so much impact through the customer service while focusing on selling only shoes online !

I was wondering how big guns like Futurebazaar can compete in a market growing with new entrants.

I knew that e-commerce is a long term game and it took eight solid years for Amazon to break-even. My initial impression was 'what was he doing for so many years apart from expanding the coverage and product base?'

Apart from Internet penetration the other major enablers for e-commerce adoption are credit-cards usage and trust. I was thinking earlier about 'trust' in the form of payments and delivery.

The thread that runs through all the above thinking is about 'customer experience'. I had a first-hand experience to understand about what could go wrong with customer experience in an e-commerce company.

Being an avid reader, I was greedy on my part to be tempted on a '30% more discount only for 3 days' offer by Indiatimes Shopping site. I went to the site on third day and browsed through the catalog.

I found multiple versions of a book and thought of them as different editions or paperback / hard-cover or indian / foreign editions. I wanted to check them all individually, but the site was inaccessible on every other request.

I selected the three books I wanted and went to 'check-out' option to review and confirm my order. To my surprise I found no option to navigate back to the main site and leave the check-out process in the middle. I personally feel this is restricting the user to not abandon the shopping cart. But I guess no one would like this option, given a choice.

I provided the payment details and got the 'Verified by Visa' page from payment gateway. I provided the code, which was verified and the redirection to the site was happening. As the Indiatimes Shopping was down (or probably not able to sustain high loads) at that time, it showed me an error page. This is a classic case of 'hung payment' when the user would not know whether his payment was through or not !

I checked the status of my order status through 'My Order' tab. It showed that my order is captured. The status column said 'Created'. I had to wonder what that really means ! Surprisingly, the 3 books I selected to buy earlier are still present in the shopping cart !

I haven't got a transaction SMS from the credit card provider. Usually these SMS messages come even before the re-direction to the site happens. I was puzzled that there was no message yet on that occasion.

I called up the voice support number that was provided on the website in each of the header pages. I got an 'invalid number' message !!

I was happy to find a chat option on the website and initiated chat. I got a welcome message and after a few seconds, I got an automated message saying that all the customer executives are busy. I was advised to leave a message, which I promptly did including my contact details. I never got a response from their support team through any channel - phone or e-mail.

I waited for an hour and checked my order status and it has not changed at all. I did not receive any SMS messages, phone calls or e-mails on the issue.

I found another number on their site and called-up that number. My order was verified and I was told to wait for an hour or so to see any change in status. I had no better option but to wait. Apparently, this is no toll-free number. I call up to raise a complaint about their system and pay for it too !

I provided my feedback on the site with all the details. I got an automated e-mail that the feedback is received. I haven't heard from their feedback team yet.

I waited till evening and checked the status of the order. Nothing changed. I thought I shall try to place the order again. As the items were still hanging in the 'Cart', I went to 'Check-out' process and tried to provide the gift coupon code. Surprise - no discount was allowed on the code !

I raised a case against my order. Yes, they have an option to report a case against an order. Not sure, if there is anyone looking into the cases at all - there is no response yet !

I called them again at about 6 PM in the evening and here is the conversation I had with the customer executive (CE):

CE	Thanks for calling Indiatimes Shopping. How can I help you?
Vijay	Hi. I placed an order with Indiatimes Shopping. My order seems to be captured but the items are still hanging in the shopping cart. I have not received any confirmation of my order. Can you please confirm the order?
CE	Give me your order number please.
Vijay	Here it is…
CE	[ does something for a few secs ] Sorry sir. All our systems are down currently
Vijay	So, what happens to my order?
CE	Sorry sir. All our systems are down currently
Vijay	Let me know how you can help me. Can I speak to one of your seniors? I have no complaints about YOU, but I just want to give my feedback about the system.
CE	Sorry sir. All of them are busy right now.
Vijay	So, what do I do now?
CE	You can call us after half an hour sir. Or much better, you can call us tomorrow.
Vijay	But the offer closes tonight.
CE	Sorry sir. All our systems are down currently.
Vijay	Ok then.
CE	Is there anything ELSE I can help you with sir?
Vijay	Yeah, Sure ! Can you get me a scoop of Coconut Ice-cream with Cone from Natural's? [ Click … ]

Except for the last statement the rest of the conversation is verbatim that happened with the customer executive. It's an understatement if I say 'It's heights of worst customer experience' !

I later got a couple of transaction alert notices from my credit card providers. I guess it happened through transaction reconciliations at later point in time. I don't know why it's duplicated. Now my money is taken, but there is no response or order-change status from Indiatimes. Apparently, I noticed this delayed response and delivery from this vendor from others' experiences shared on Internet.

I tweeted to them on twitter and got a cold and canned reply 'We regret your inconvenience…'.

As you could see, no unit of the customer service department functioned effectively and the lack of integration among all these units - online chat, feedback on website, order complaints, call center, twitter - was quite obvious. If the entire system had unexpected load, they could have at least devised a pro-active plan to deal with customers without losing their image.

Two lessons from this experience:

1. For all those entrepreneurs venturing into E-Commerce domain, remember that 'customer service' is the key. With all the experience I had at this shopping site now, I would not dare shop at their site in the near future - even if they give me 90% discount. Integrated functioning of the entire customer service department (and also with other departments) is quite important. Having no physical retail outlet, the website and the people over the phone becomes the 'face' of the company.

2. For all those online shoppers, beware of all the typical problems while shopping online. Share your experiences with others so that they would benefit while shopping on e-commerce sites; also, this would help the trustworthy companies to surface to the top.

If anyone has any other good or bad experiences, I would be happy to listen. Please do share  your experiences with one and all for their benefit.

If anything happens to my order, I will let you all know :-)

Digital Education in Schools and Online (Internet) in India

Nobody denies that education is the key to improve standard of living in a society. Not just talks but there is a lot of action around education ecosystem in India.

Right to education enactment is going to bring education to the poorer masses. Government, on their part, apart from running public schools, supports mid-day-meal schemes through public-private partnerships in many places.

Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are bringing enough change in society through positive contributions to education domain. Distribution of computers and volunteers from corporates teaching kids in rural areas, has brought smiles to many a people's faces.

Non-Government and Non-Profit Organizations are providing a helping hand to educate the folks in rural areas.

The emphasis is more on primary and secondary education as there is a huge school drop-out during school education. Private schools are able to apply the technology better and make a difference. Companies like Educomp and EveronnSystems have brought technology to the classrooms and re-inventing the way subjects are taught in the school. Extensive use of audio-visual aids, especially the animated content, helps student visualize and remember the concepts much better.

Tutions, which are meant to support certain students in their areas of weaknesses have become commonplace. They have become similar to schools in terms of operations and management. There is no comfort and convenience for students who attend these tuitions, as the work load has only increased. With this background, many websites have evolved for online learning- tutorvista, meritnation, extramarks and learningnext. These sites provide extensive study material and online assessment modules, which help students to prepare themselves in chosen subjects of their class, at their own pace. Most of these sites offer modules that are packaged and available for purchase online marking an era of e-commerce in education in India. There are sites which offer online tutoring service as well.

I happened to watch the meritnation advertisement in TV, which prompted me to write on this topic. Their site includes student material for both CBSE and ICSE boards and relate to the school curriculum of these boards. They seem to offer lot of personality improvement tests as well, which includes testing aptitude, skills and interests.

Personally, I prefer that students learn all fundamentals effectively at school and the rest throughout life from books, Internet, social interactions and travel. But the access to wonderful content through any means - TV, Radio or Internet (even through subscriptions like in case of meritnation) - can never be discounted.

With the evolution of personal gadgets (smartphones and tablets) and communication technologies, education in schools and on the Internet is going to change forever in not so distant future !

E-Commerce India - Groceries Online

With growing economy, the lifestyle of people is also changing. There are more working couples in India than ever before. With fast-pace in work and life, retail shops are cropping-up in each locality for the benefit of families. There is more variety of food and beverages available in the shops now. Brands from India and abroad have invaded the markets (like Britannia, HUL, P & G, ITC, PepsiCo and Coke). Most of the products that we use on day-to-day basis belong to one top brand or the other - except for a few Indian Dals and Pulses, Rice and certain Spices. Can you count how many brands touch your everyday life?

Why would I have to go a super-market, walk across the busy shops, lug around the trolleys with packets, wait in queues for billing, only to buy all standard branded items? The Retail biggies in India like Futurebazaar (Kishore Biyani fame) and Reliance Fresh (Ambanis') forayed into online sales of daily-use items in the beginning of this decade. In the second round, there are many e-commerce companies entering into this domain again, the latest being http://bigbasket.com. With more e-commerce buyers in India now (about 10 million), the opportunity seems more realistic this time around.

As an end-user, I find it very comfortable to order these items online. I would want to save time and money if I find all the required items available, quality is good and the service is reliable. Would you not be interested?

Online Music in India

When I was going to school way back in 80's, one priceless possession for all of us at home, was a sony tape-recorder cum radio. It's a small 'boom-box' type device, which is a fond object of one and all at home. We siblings used to follow laborious process to get songs of our interest recorded, to listen to them in this boom-box, when we come back from school. We sit together, list out all the songs of our interest, go buy an empty tape cassette, go to the recording guy and sit with him to identify if he can record all of these songs and go back after a day or two to get the recorded tape. Once recorded, we used to listen to that till the tape gets wrangled and unusable.

In the Internet Age, the above process is unthinkable. iPods and other MP3 players have changed the world completely. The songs are all available over the Internet for free. There are sites like http://gaana.com,  http://saavn.com, http://musicindiaonline.com and http://raaga.com, which allow streaming of songs over the Net. I can create my own playlist and play all those songs repetitively as long as I have a network connection from my device. A broadband connection, with unlimited download capacity, is quite common these days, which makes my song-listening experience enjoyable all the time at home.

I still want to keep that sony tape-recorder as it would become an expensive vintage item soon :-)

E-Commerce India - Online Classifieds

If I want to sell my old furniture (want to buy new ones), books (finished reading all of them), baby products (cycle, stroller, toys) or even jewellery (got bored of them), where would I go and sell? Is it the prerogative of only the tradesmen to buy or sell goods? How would ordinary citizens like me sell my old or unwanted items (in good condition though) for a reasonable price?

In olden days, probably a physical marketplace would have addressed my issue. A similar marketplace - now present online - helps me buy or sell any items with a few clicks. http://olx.in is one such site in India, which offers the post-a-classified-ad service for free. I can buy or sell items ranging from CDs to books to Cars.  It brings together buyers and sellers for all sorts of classifieds - buy/sell, jobs, matrimony, etc. The site only brings the buyers and sellers together, the payment and delivery needs to be sorted out by the buyers and sellers themselves.

I should try to buy/sell something on this site and check-out the service. Can I find a buyer for my short-stories ? :-)

E-Commerce India - Are marriages made in heaven?

Marriage is an important institution across the globe and the way it works in India is different and unique. Arranged marriages are a norm in this society and love marriages are an exception. We were all brought-up in the world where 'marriage broker' arranges for a marriage between two parties - bride and groom. He is a person who goes from place to place seeking information about available brides and grooms. He could find a match between suitable candidates in the capacity of the network he could build over a period of time.

In the internet age, matrimony websites have taken over the traditional 'business' of fixing a match between bride and groom. The candidates can post their profile on websites like http://bharatmatrimony.com, http://shaadi.com or http://jeevansaathi.com. Registered candidates can browse and search for their potential partners, interact with them through messages or even get access to their phone numbers to talk to them.

Now, does it matter if the bride is of Indian origin residing in USA and gets married to groom working in Australia. The reach is vast and the 'arrangement' online gives a better chance for the candidates to understand each other better. Does that mean we are moving away from the traditional 5-minute chat between girl and boy before marriage? Maybe, a change for better is always welcome.