Showing posts with label retail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label retail. Show all posts

Friday, June 22, 2012

E-Commerce India - Customer Relationship Management (CRM)


Customer is the King or Queen. That is even more so in this Internet Age where customer experience can get shared easily using social media. The establishment of relationship with the customer starts the moment he includes a few items in his shopping cart of the e-commerce store.

Once the customer selects items and make payment, the order is supposed to have been captured. The order details along with items purchased, quantity, delivery address and any special instructions like gift wrapping or pre-defined time of delivery are to be provided to the fulfillment team. Based on the type of payment - cash on delivery or pre-paid - the process differs for delivery of items purchased.

The moment order is placed, the customer would be keen to receive them as per the delivery dates promised by the vendor. There must be a provision for the customer to track his orders on the e-commerce site where he purchased the items. Sites like Flipkart, owing to their own delivery services, provides that mechanism on their site itself. In cases like Indiatimes Shopping, the delivery status can be verified by using the tracking number associated with the 3rd party courier service (like Bluedart or Dhelivery) mentioned in the Order. For a customer, it does not matter how the delivery happens as long as it happens in time. For e-commerce companies, the operations to support delivery forms the backbone.

Whether the customer experience has been good or bad, it must be captured in a system for critical analysis later. The issues could be about payments, shipping or the item itself. Any immediate problems must be addressed with a sense of urgency. Customers in India (not sure about global space) are sensitive about payment issues, even if the amount involved is small. So issues like double charge for the same Order, refund of money in case of credit-card payments for Order cancellations or issues related to discount must be addressed immediately. Otherwise, the risk of losing that customer and hence his entire network of online buying family and friends looms large at the e-commerce vendor. My bad experience in shopping with Indiatimes was effectively addressed by the company.

Once the customer is happy with his overall experience on an e-commerce store, he is going to come back again. The entire e-commerce business hinges on acquiring large numbers of such customers, who provide repeat business. Hence, it is very important to keep track of such customers and provide benefits to them for their loyalty.  I have not seen any e-commerce store in India offering any substantial loyalty services. Or maybe I have not come across one so far.

But, information about new products, special discounts, pre-launch offers and clearance sales needs to be dispatched to all the customers on regular basis to keep the touch-point with them alive.

Needless to say, e-commerce companies must rely on information technology for all the above CRM needs. Customer, order, shipping, payment and feedback information gets stored in appropriate database. Huge amounts of this data can be moved to data warehouses and analyzed for business insights.

E-mail, Chat and Voice Support are the primary channels through which customer communicates with the e-commerce company. One key aspect in providing support to the end-customers is to integrate all these channels at the back-end. Irrespective of the channels I use - this could be many for an issue with the same order - to complain about an Order, it must be resolved.

If you are an end-customer - did you get that wonderful experience from that e-commerce store?

If you are an e-commerce company - could you acquire and retain customer and improve the loyalty base over a period of time through CRM?

Friday, June 15, 2012

E-commerce India - Inventory Management, Warehousing and Order Fulfillment


T S Eliot quote about beginning and end
While e-commerce store front (website) provides customer interface on the Internet, good back-end operations lead to customer satisfaction. One of the important back-end operations of e-commerce is inventory management. When the customer browses the site, selects an item and makes payment, the item MUST be shipped to the customer in time. For that the item must be either produced by the e-commerce company itself or procured from a 3rd party.

If the procurement has to happen from a 3rd party, it can be arranged in different ways:
  1. Drop-shipping
Items can be bought from the 3rd party just in time and shipped to the end-customer. In this case there must be direct connection for the e-commerce company with the appropriate vendors, dealers or publishers. In cases like Sweets and Snacks this will be the modus operandi, unless the vendor himself manages the e-commerce store.
  1. Warehouse-based shipping
Certain quantity of items can be procured up-front, stored in a warehouse and shipped to the customer based on the order.

In the second case, the quantity of inventory that needs to be maintained in the warehouse has to be controlled appropriately. If there is less quantity of inventory then there would be inherent delay in procurement and shipping. If there is more than required quantity, the unnecessary occupancy of the warehouse would lead to financial disadvantage.

The inflow (from the suppliers) and outflow (to the end customers) of goods must be tightly controlled in the warehouse to restrict any damages and pilferage. The orders taken for delivery in a day must be reconciled at the end of the day to match shipments and pending orders.

If the e-commerce company has its own warehouses, the location and number of these should be carefully selected. Any shortages or excesses and wrong locations would drain all financial resources of the company in no time.

One can also outsource the warehouse and order fulfillment operations to a 3rd party. From zappos.com experience (as mentioned in the book by Tony Hsieh), one can understand that it is risky from different perspective to outsource such operations. Needless to say, one needs to be wary about outsourcing such operations.

The last part of order fulfillment involves delivery to the end customer at his premises. This is done by:
  1. e-commerce company's own courier service (like in case of Flipkart)
  1. Private delivery service center (the likes of DHL, Bluedart…)
  1. Government courier service from Post Office
  2. Hybrid of all the above modes (typical case)

With Cash-On-Delivery (CoD) becoming an important payment mechanism the delivery person not only has to ship the items, but also collect money from the end customer. There are companies like Gharpay, which specialized in cash collection.

Also, there are local companies which specialize in delivery of certain items and one such company is Delyver in Bangalore.

There is ample scope for companies operating in this domain to expand and increase the scope of their activities. There is also talk about Amazon and Walmart setting up their own courier operations in India and becoming successful Giants in the Indian e-commerce space. Let's wait and watch !

Saturday, June 2, 2012

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.
  1. 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 :-)

Thursday, May 31, 2012

E-Commerce India - Sweets & Snacks


Quote on Pizza and Police
Everyone likes to munch a few snacks in the evening along with tea. Home made snacks still have preference, though the trend is slowly changing. When it comes to occasions, sweets are a must. I guess no other country consumes sweets like India and no wonder we are one of largest consumers of sugar. Apparently, we are also a nation of large diabetes population. Could it be anything other than direct correlation?

We love Rotis and everyone likes to make them fresh at home. Eating them out once in a while is becoming a norm, at least in cities. Not sure when the 'Italian Rotis' (Pizzas) have come into existence in India, they certainly have become popular. First there were dining outlets, then came only delivery outlets and now they can be ordered online. Isn't this evolution very natural for pizza companies? But I wonder what makes the Indian Rotis not consumable like the Italian ones - just like snacks? Or perhaps, we made the Italian Roti a snack :-)

Dominos (Jubiliant Foods) and Pizza Hut are dominant players in India from size and coverage perspective. They do have online presence and one can order their favorite pizzas from their website over Internet. With half the population in India being youth and smartphones becoming omnipresent, it is but logical to extend the service to hand-held devices.

Buying sweets on the street corner is not unusual in any part of India. Unlike in advanced countries, sweets are not just chocolates in India - there are mysore-pak, jhangri, kaju roll and hundreds of varieties more. Vendors got established and created brands from their products. They also expanded to multiple locations across the country and made more people happy during occasions. Employing a cook and getting the sweets prepared at home for occasions is slowly dwindling. 'Outsourcing' is happening at all the households as well.

I know folks who ordered birthday and anniversary cakes online for their family members, when they were travelling. Sweet Chariot is one popular cake shop online for such occasions.

Some of the online sweet vendors in India I encountered while surfing are Anand Sweets, Almond House, Madhulika, Mitha4All and Oder Your Choice.

One interesting aspect to note is that the original sweet / snack vendors do not seem to sell their products directly online. There is a 3rd party who is selling for them online. This is the case for Sri Krishna Sweets, K C Das Ghantewala or Haldirams.

If you have sweet tooth or like to gift sweets to your loved ones, you might not need to visit a physical shop in the future.

I guess there is a lot of scope for innovation and development in this space. Fresheness, quality and quick delivery are the key ! Any takers?

Sunday, April 29, 2012

E-Commerce India - Health, Fitness, Personal Care and Beauty Products Online


quote about misery and beauty by anne frank
With better education, burgeoning economy and increased disposable income, people in India are looking at health, fitness and beauty more consciously. Health is certainly a top-priority for any family member and especially the bread winner. Fitness, which was perceived to be more for the Bollywood and Cricket stars, is understood as state of mind and body for one and all. Beauty is associated with both women and men these days.

Traditionally, people were used to more physical hard work and the fitness levels were obviously high. As the options to travel and eat-out were limited, the scope to become ill has come down (or rather increased?). Consulting a doctor and a pathologist, if something is perceived to be not right, used to be a norm.

In modern days, checking blood pressure and diabetes is a child's play and no one bothers to see a doctor for the same. There are self-use devices, which can help with the task. These devices were available only outside India a few years back, but they are available even online now.

Oral hygiene and Eye Care are the terms that one learn feverishly for exams during school days and forgets them conveniently till they hear about the word 'Insurance'. There are e-commerce sites like HealthKart which offer these products online now.

Beauty and personal care products were available only in cities some time  back. But things have changed:
  • Make-up is not meant only for occasions like marriage, it's a daily need especially for corporate women.
  • Thanks to advertisements, people are conscious about dandruff and hair-fall; hair-care is a commonly used word now.
  • Who wouldn't want a smooth and fair skin? Special skin-care is a necessity for many.
  • Bath is becoming more of a pleasure activity with bath-tubs, body oils, bath-gels and bath bubbles.
  • While showing respect by touching feet is declining, ironically there are plenty of products available to pamper one's feet - like feet scrub, insoles, gels, powders and stones.

With growing needs across different segments (men, women, seniors) in the country, there was a good business case to setup online stores with the beauty and personal care products. Websites like 365Gorgeous and MedPlusBeauty offer products for medical and beauty purposes.

There is no denial that human body needs proteins, minerals and vitamins for efficient functioning of all the organs. People are taking to the gyms to improve their body fitness (maintain body mass index, reduce body fat, improve stamina) for longevity with little illness. There is increasing awareness about taking extra nutrients before and after regular exercises to reach fitness goals. There are sites like MyNutraMart, which sell these nutrient supplements online.

If I am a frequent user of certain beauty, fitness, personal care or medical products (not regular medicines, but the ones available online without prescription), there is comfort and convenience to order them online every time. Is it not?

Friday, April 27, 2012

E-Commerce in India - Buy Electronics (Gadgets, Computers, Home Appliances) Online


man vs computer - a quote by william kelly
India is certainly not a manufacturing hub for electronics. But when it comes to leveraging gadgets and other electronics, Indians are tech savvy and consume electronics to the best of its availability. Though the advancements in terms of technology usage are not at the same level as in developed countries, the interest and enthusiasm is much more.

In the new millennium, people have adopted using computers not just for work but also for infotainment purpose at home. Laptops and Notebooks have gained popularity in the households. With the evolution of such devices into convenient, easy-to-use and one-for-all-purpose Tablets, such gadgets are known to one and all. Photography is a hobby for many and travel-bugs are doubling as shutter-bugs. Featured phones are out and smartphones are trendy. Washing machines are replacing maids. TVs and Refrigerators are 'needs' rather than 'wants'.

Where would one buy these gadgets? With improvement in dealer and distributor network across India, folks in tier-3 and lower also have opportunities to buy some of the electronic items locally. There are many secret places where people get 'good deals', but the genuineness and warranty would not be available in such cases. People are shying away from such places for obvious reasons and adopting to online world for good bargains.

Online e-commerce stores have improved from payment (more payment options, less declines), shipping (remote places are no more 'remote') and policies (free return in many cases - no questions asked) perspective. Buying big & heavy (washing machine) or expensive (Laptops and Cameras) electronic items online is no more an issue. Sit at home, explore, research, compare prices and buy the best possible electronic item that fits your requirements and budget.

Here are some options to buy electronic items online.

Online Exclusive Electronic stores
Online Shopping Malls selling Electronics
Online Deals for Electronics
Price Comparison for Electronics Online
Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Sites for Electronics Purchase

Players like Apple are releasing latest products in India more or less simultaneously when they launch them elsewhere in the world.  There is plenty of choice and feast for the gadget freaks. If 'electronic' items are not sold through 'electronic commerce', what else will? :-)

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

E-Commerce India - Buy Gold and Jewellery online


stars gold digging and opportunities
Traditionally, Indians love to buy gold in the form of Jewellery. Not just women but also men wear them as ornaments on their body. It is a custom to adorn women during marriage with Gold Jewellery. The bride carries the gold along with her and that gets passed to the next generation for a similar purpose. The quest for gold had never ceased to excite people in India. No wonder, India is the largest importer of Gold in the world !

For all practical purposes, people purchase gold from neighborhood Jewellery shops in the form of ornaments or pure gold as bars and coins. This involves multiple visits to different shops and cost comparisons (making charges, wastage charges, stone charges, taxes etc) across all these shops. In modern days, gold is purchased not just for ornaments, but also from an investment perspective and to hedge against inflation. This led to purchase of pure gold in the form of bars and coins from even banks and post offices. With increase in demand, finance gurus have come-up with innovative products around gold - like e-Gold and Exchange Traded Fund (ETF).

Interestingly, gold can be purchased in different formats from different online sources - thanks to technology !


Gold and Diamond Jewellery
Yes, Jewellery can be bought online. There are online stores like Bluestone and CaratLane, which offer extensive collection of earrings, bracelets, rings and pendants. With wide range of collection and better pricing options, people are not hesitating to buy online from these e-stores. Branded Jewellery stores like Tanishq also provide online buying options.
Bars and Coins
If one is interested to buy gold for future use or hedge against inflation, then one would select this option. One can buy such gold bars or coins from traditional Jewellery stores. But they can also be purchased online from banks like ICICI these days.
e-Gold
If you are concerned about keeping the pure gold safe once you buy the same, you can even buy it online and keep it safe with a custodian. National Spot Exchange Limited (NSEL) offers the facility to not only buy the gold online but also keep it in the demat format, unless we need delivery.
Exchange Traded Funds (ETF)
If one is looking at gold as a pure investment option, buying it in paper format is not a bad idea at all. In case of Gold ETFs, a fund house purchases gold on behalf of investors money and makes it available for trade on exchange. National Stock Exchange (NSE) provides such a facility for investors and traders in Gold.
Gold Futures
If one is interested in hedging their investments against inflation, he or she can purchase gold in the Futures Market online. MCX exchange provides a platform to trade in such gold futures.

With standards and transparency available in different channels, purchasing gold online is becoming a genuine option for customers. Once the trust is established, online Jewellery stores must be laughing all the way to the bank. Retailers must be happy to get a good bargain - be it Akshaya Tritiya or Marriage !

Apparently, if lot of e-commerce customers buy gold online, then the same customers would not think twice to buy low-priced daily-use commodities like Vegetables, Groceries and Apparel online. Is it not ?

Friday, April 20, 2012

E-Commerce India - Shop for shoes and socks (footwear) online


I was sad because i had no shoes until i met a person who had no feet
Who buys shoes and socks online? That would theoretically be lot of people - students, professionals and senior citizens; does that not cover the entire population who knows about shoes and socks? :-)

Way back in 80's and 90's, wearing 'canvas' shoes for playing sports at school was a big deal. Students used to get real sports shoes only after going to college. After brands like Reebok, Adidas and Nike arrived in India, there was no stopping of students from buying these brands. Just like any other products, cities were the starting point for shoe sales, but they penetrated into smaller towns also very fast.

Now the same shoes are available online as well in India. There are dedicated online shops which sell shoes only, like BeStylish or Fashos. The latter offers 'personalized' shoe store, which you can customize once and visit every time to check-out the latest that matches your preferences.

There are shoes-only online stores which turned into full-fledge online shopping malls like Yebhi.

There are other lifestyle e-commerce stores like Jabong and Myntra which sell footwear along with apparel and other items.

Branded companies like Bata and PUMA sell their exclusive footwear in their own online stores.

I really wonder how long it takes to get a correct pair of shoes by purchasing them online? As there is a return-offer from literally all the shoe stores, I can order 5 pairs and keep the one that I like most, returning the rest. But given so many variations like color, size, design, look & feel, what is the probability of someone liking what they order in the first instance?

With success of zappos.com in USA, the model of online stores in niche spaces like shoes has increased across the globe. Zappos has soared from zero sales in 1999 to 1 billion USD gross sales in 2009 and got acquired by Amazon. If anyone is interested in building their startup into a large-scale enterprise, they should read 'Delivering Happiness' by Tony Hsieh, CEO of then Zappos. It is not about rags-to-riches story, but about encouraging proper culture in an organization, which ultimately leads to delivering happiness to customers.

Talking about the niche areas in footwear industry, it is interesting to watch Footsy Design, a company which sells socks online. They design the socks, get them manufactured and sell only online right now. A niche space and a unique model brings socks for all occasions - day or night, office or home, indoor or outdoor - and age-group.

Thanks to these e-commerce stores, I am improving on 'footwear vocabulary' - ankle boots, loafer shoes, hiking shoes and ballerina shoes. It might take 6 months for me to get a hang of this vocabulary.

While the feet are getting so much of attention and choice, what about our head? Someone should be thinking about designing well-branded hats for all those last-mile logistics guys, chasing time to meet e-commerce customer requirements. For all those faces in the crowd - Hats Off !

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Shop online for a pre-owned car anywhere in India


quote by henry ford on giving something for a dollar
Gone are the days when people call them 'used cars'; the correct term is 'pre-owned car'. No one is hesitant to buy a pre-owned car if it suits their budget and other requirements and one gets a good bargain. But where would one buy or sell such pre-owned cars?

In earlier days, the cars are usually serviced in a local car care center. The one who understands about the health of a car is the mechanic, who handles the car regularly. He also doubles as a broker who can give hints and pointers - how much would the car sell for at any given point in time? who are the potential buyers? He can bring the sellers and buyers to the table for a discussion and negotiation.

With people moving to authorized service centers, at least two channels were possible to sell or buy pre-owned cars. One is the authorized service centers opening their own pre-owned car exchanges. The other model is for a 3rd party to open an exchange to support pre-owned cars from any vendor. While both the models are adopted in the market, the latter has become popular and come online too. Check out these sites for the concept.




The passenger car brands are not far behind. Companies like Tata Motors and Mahindra have their own sites - http://tatamotorsassured.com and http://mahindrafirstchoice.com - which offer pre-owned cars purchase online.

Many of these sites also provide information about new cars, prices, reviews, insurance and dealers information.

I guess there are different models again in this domain. The retailers can  directly post their car-for-sale online in some of the sites. In a few sites, only the dealers are required to register and post the vehicles on their behalf. There are sites like cartradeexchange.com, where the cars are auctioned online.

Even if the car information is posted online for browsing by others, the buyer would need to physically see the vehicle before confirming the purchase. Obviously, this part of the transaction can only happen offline.

What next after shopping for cars online? How about setting up an online shop to buy autos, buses or even trucks? I bet those vehicles also would be sold online by 2020 if not earlier !