E-commerce V/S Traditional Retail: The choice of consumers!

E –commerce which means the business of retailing conducted over the internet. It is the platform which binds organization with their customers and help organization to reach customers where they are. Where in traditional retailing we have to wait for customers to come to us. However, the traditional retailing is being seriously threatened by the growth of e-commerce in many industries like fashion, electronics, home &furnishings etc.

People largely prefer to go online for best deals and offers, as for them offline shopping is just a browsing element. If we talk about apparel stores, these stores which incur cost and expenses is being desecrate. People come over these stores to check out things and buy that particular thing online .Offline shopping has reached its maturity, sales have not grown in great proportions and expansion is slowed. Customers have more choices and reliability power of making decision related to where to spend their money has been shown up.

It has been argued that online will change the face of retailing permanently, making offline shopping obsolete. At times people used to prefer these stores to shop their requirements but  today, we can find anything we want online and likely to find the best deals over there.  Retail is certainly going through massive changes and technology is the main driver behind those changes. Big players like Flipkart, Jabong, and Amazon are ruling the Indian Market by giving tempting offers and prices to attract customers so why would someone like to spent his or her money over the irrelevant prices? E-retailing sites have taken a significant advantage of the fact that Indian consumers are price sensitive as they offer huge discounts, more variety of products and an amazing feature known as COD (Cash on Delivery). And with this comfort zone the customers like to shop online and the retail stores are getting affected and are facing high degree of competition.

Author: Simran Aggarwal.

E-commerce V/S Traditional Retail: Survival of the fittest!

E-commerce – selling goods (physical or digital) or services via the internet (via a computer) or mobile phone or tablet. One day you will see something on TV, click your remote and be directed to the website that sells the shirt the actor is wearing. Catalog retailers have been one of the winners in the E-commerce wars.

While Radio didn’t kill live performances or books, TV didn’t kill radio, and the internet didn’t kill TV – each new technological improvement did force the purveyors of the old to adapt. Who is the next bricks-and-mortar retailer to embrace online technology and grow their business? Personally, I prefer to try something on or to hold an item in my hand before buying. While I welcome the innovations of E-commerce, I hope my favorite stores manage to adapt and stick around.
Both E-commerce and Traditional retailers keep trying to improve their game to capture the attention of the customers. Some companies keep trying various ways to customize the customer experience. This can be a workable strategy, or a never-ending wild goose chase. How a store or website looks and functions is important, but beware of innovating too far ahead of your customers. An online example is re-marketing or re-targeted ads – ads that follow you around the internet after you browse and online merchant. I find re-targeting a waste, as they often chase me long after I have bought from another online merchant, store or brand.

One thing that is still missing from the online shopping experience is the personal touch. Customer reviews and “chat with a rep” features help, but you also can’t try clothing on when shopping online. But there is often a trust factor with customer reviews, which some people don’t trust. Let’s face it they can be gamed. Also, some are still loath to trust their credit cards to the whims of the internet and problems of identity theft.

According to me, retailers whether online and offline, need to manage growth wisely.

Author: Ayush Aggarwal

Is E-commerce overshadowing the Traditional Retail?

Internet has changed the life of every person and business market in this world. It has become an integral part of our life. The development of new technology and their features have forced the people to use it. Internet is being used in every aspect of our lives. We carry out our bank operations, day to day transactions and reservations of tickets through this technology. Electronic commerce is one of the important operations of computer networking. E-Commerce is described as the process of buying and selling of product, service and information via computer network including internet. Nowadays everybody purchase products online because the prices are low as compared to retail shops and we can just sit in our home and order our required items which we get delivered at our doorstep.

The growth of E-Commerce is affecting the traditional retailers or we can say that they are hurting the offline stores especially the clothing and gadget industry. Flipkart, Amazon, Jabong etc are some of the websites which provide online shopping. Both the customers and the business are getting benefit from it. Some of the major benefits of E-Commerce are: Convenience and Easiness, Customers can access these sites anytime as the sites are  24*7 open for any query and feedback, Wide variety of products are available at one place, Full information about the product are mention in the site.

Since E-Commerce has grown, Indian Markets are now shifting the customers from Indian retailer to online shopping. Traditional market is hit by this growth of E-Commerce and developed a fear of being retained in the market for the coming years. Traditional retailers’ margin has almost vanished and consequently they are unable to earn even the exact cost being spent by them and also are at the stage of incurring abnormal losses. On the basis of today’s scenario we can predict that with this pace of E-Commerce, retailers have to shut down their markets and had to choose another way of earning.

Author: Divya Dattani

E-commerce: One of the best things that could happen to India!

A world without e-commerce seems incomplete to majority of us. From recharging your phone to buying furniture online, from buying nail paint to chemical solutions, everything seems to have taken an online existence.

E-commerce industry provides many growth opportunities as it is relatively new to the traditional retail markets. Fresh graduates are using the e-commerce route to fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams is a relatively contemporary drift. Since few firms in the industry are earning abnormal profits, these profits are attracting the new firms into the industry, the entry barriers are low and expected retaliation from the existing firm would not be serious. New entrants would bring new capacity, the desire to gain market share and substantial resources. Scope of innovation is huge with these resources, and even if the resources are not huge, the company can make things work on a small scale.

According to experts the average cost of a click is in the region of Rs. 13-15. So to generate some 50 clicks, a company has to incur a cost of Rs. 700. Again on an average for every 100 clicks only one person buys a product. And the cost to get that one person to buy the product can scale to Rs. 2500 and up. Those are huge numbers for any e-commerce site to stay in step. As per the industry estimates, Indian market for e-commerce has grown four folds from around USD 4 billion in 2010 to USD 16 million in 2015.

The online companies make it affordable for the customers to buy their products. When a customer purchases an item from a retail shop, odds are that its been marked up at least 3 times, once it changes hands from factory to brand, brand to shop and finally from shop to your shopping bags, bringing the purchasing price to some ungodly multiple of the item’s actual cost usually between 2X to 5X. Online stores keep a hefty margin for themselves while still undercutting brick and mortar competitors on price; because their stores are build on bits and not bricks.

Taking an even more aggressive approach, e-commerce companies are providing free shipping and free returns which in case of traditional retail is not very commonly seen. Asking a customer to factor in some uncertain variable transaction cost is never a good way to do business and asking them to pay for return is even worse. Though retail shops do have a provision for cash payment as well swiping their credit and debit cards but they still lack the number of options like internet banking credit and debit cards, mobile wallets and many more, provided by the e-commerce companies which makes transaction easy. Apart from making the transactions done by mobile wallets, hassle free, the customer gets the double assurance when they get the messages confirming their transactions from the company and the mobile wallets. Consumers realize that there’s no reason to trek out to the local strip mall anymore.

Another nail in the coffin of the retail market is the recent trend of subscription, it is usually associated with the catch phrase “set it & forget It”. The foundation of this model is reoccurring revenue, where customers sign up to receive a monthly shipment for a set monthly fee. This is attractive to companies because it creates steady predictable revenue.

Traditional retail stores have become a store for the fit lifters who check the fitting and size in a retail store and then order online. With the advancements in the ecommerce and technology, soon traditional retail stores wouldn’t be able to pay off their costs and debts and eventually close up.

Author: Anuj Duggal

E-commerce V/S Traditional Retail: The Battle of Glory!

E-commerce has made a radical impact on the business sector by providing internet enabled market for all manufacturing sectors across India. It has changed the traditional process of business and has removed the drawbacks of the market and thereby has helped to add a new dimension to the business by increasing revenue and profit. There is a cut-throat competition among all e-commerce players to give the best deal to the customer at reasonable prices.  The tremendous advancement in technology has lead to sale of wide variety of products like electronics, clothing, furniture, fashion accessories etc. E-commerce has seen an unprecedented growth leading to huge profits as the youth of today has an access to technology at click of the button. The growth has also led to availability of genuine and branded products with an option for quick delivery so that they can satisfy their consumers with efficacy.

On the other hand, we have the traditional retail system which refers to a process of selling goods or services to customers through multiple channels of distribution to earn profits. In layman terms, it means the old and usual ways of selling and offering goods and services to consumers. These services of retail are outdated as no consumer is attracted by traditional methods but some people prefer these in context of buying clothes to see how they fit them. According to me, the future of traditional retail seems to be in the dark because E-commerce has picked up the market and has also enlightened the minds of consumers since it is an upcoming industry with a bright future with a huge potential to become behemoths.

Author: Sanchit Malhotra
  

E-commerce: The need of the hour!

For most of us, a life without e commerce may sound impossible. Be it shopping, ticket booking or sending gifts to relatives and friends, E commerce websites are offering everything to form the basis of our daily activities.

Big players like Flipkart, Jabong, and Amazon are ruling the Indian Market. Although E commerce has taken the entire country by storm but have left the Indian Retailers in a bruised state fighting for their survival. These companies are making a significant dent in the retail business taking advantage of the fact that Indian consumers are price sensitive as they offer huge discounts, more variety of products and an amazing feature known as COD (Cash on Delivery).

The offline retailers and local brands are showing concern because their business is badly hit and to extent there is fear among these people about their future in the coming years. The booming e-commerce industry has affected the footfalls at the retail stores and the slowdown isn’t only blamed for this but the sales have evidently been shifting online since 2013. The margin has almost vanished at almost all the offline stores and the small and regional ones are feeling the pain. To survive in the market, these online websites have forced the injured retailers to tie up with various online portals to sell their private labels online but on very less margin.

The future of the Indian Retailers cannot be predicted but as per the scenario, the fight between the local retailers and E commerce is going to continue for a long period of time and hopefully profiting the consumers from this WAR!

Author: Shikhar Bansal

E-commerce:The Undefeated and Reigning King!

Over the past few years, drastic changes have taken place in the field of selling. Internet and Information technology have changed virtually every aspect of sales and marketing.  Earlier we had to go to the retail shops to buy products but the scenario has changed, by simply using our mobile phones we can now order products or can demand any service required.

With the passage of time the methods of trading have evolved from physical face to face meeting to online trading. E-commerce is the business model for the new millennium. It can be define as buying and selling of goods and services or transmission of data over an electronic network primarily the internet. The benefits of e-commerce include: its around-the-clock availability, the speed of access, a wider selection of goods and services, accessibility, and international reach.

Small scale retailers are facing huge competition, as a result of which they have to shut down their operations. Price comparison sites are making things very tough for physical retailers with no online presence and physical retailers who do not have websites, are faced with a painful e-commerce choice. E-commerce firms are confronting resistance from all stakeholders of modern retail—from consumer goods makers and distributors to offline retailers—as they try and grab a larger share of the consumer’s wallet by dangling attractive discounts.

In order to protect themselves from the competition, retailers have to change their traditional way of selling. Assistance should be provided by the government so that retailers can easily carry their operations. Retailers should join hands, form a coalition and release their own online retailing application, providing doorstep delivery to the customers giving stiff competition to the e-commerce retailers.

Author: Arpit Mehra

E-commerce: From where to what!

The world is getting globalized due to the emerging trends in the market with the up gradation of technology. As the technology is getting advanced, the human efforts are getting reduced. Now human has the technology named “internet” through which he can perform any task and this has led to the birth of E-commerce which is the way through which a person can do business without even having to locate a store. It is a virtual way of doing business. It has gained huge popularity and now everyone is trying to be available and serve customers over the internet and this has been possible due to the birth of E- commerce.

Due to the competitive era numerous businesses have introduced themselves in the e-world and giving each other neck to neck competition. For example – the online clothing sites such as Myntra, Jabong etc are giving tempting offers and prices to attract customers.

The growth of E-commerce and the factor of ease and doing shopping at home by customers have lowered down the business of retail stores. The traditional way of shopping by visiting different stores have been replaced by the customers because of the generation of the idea ” why to roam around when you can shop it at home” and this has literally controlled the customers from approaching the stores and do shopping the traditional way . As per the facts, around 60-80% of the customers shop online.

With the availability of attractive prices, variety and ease at a single place why would someone like to roam around the market to look for them. And with this comfort zone the customer likes to shop online and the retail stores are getting affected and are facing high degree of competition.

Author: Kuljinder Kaur

E-commerce: All that you need to know!

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the internet protocols. Internet is the major factor of e-commerce as nowadays almost 80% of the houses have broadband services, 3G and 4G services on mobile phones which helped e-commerce to grow.

E-commerce is growing more and more and getting better in the coming days because many big companies are investing in e-commerce business such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon, Myntra, Jabong, EBay, etc  which are flourishing  day by day through providing affordable prices and better services to their customers. Slowly and steadily it is expected that in the near future the customers can buy all the household stuff on internet as some companies are to experiment this scenario also and some new websites have been launched that provide even fruits and vegetables at customer’s doorsteps (such as Grofers). This is how E-commerce is expected to grow in recent years.

KEY DRIVERS IN INDIAN E-COMMERCE:

1. Maximum growth of Smartphone users.
2. Rising standard of living as result of fast decline poverty rate.
3. Availability of much wider product range.
4. Increased usage of internet classified sites, with more consumers buying and selling of second hand goods.
5. Evolution of big companies on internet such as, Zomato, Saavn, makemytrip, bookmyshow, etc.

Though the e-commerce sector has seen tremendous growth and is expected to grow a lot but it is not same for all the websites available on internet.

Dedicated e-commerce companies in India are changing the game for the traditional retailers and to tackle this the traditional retailers need a fundamental understanding of customer value and a rethink of traditional retail supply chains that are not designed to handle large assortment at low cost.

FIGHTING THE E-COMMERCE:

Nowadays, it’s like a war between e-commerce companies and traditional retail. Traditional retailers can take some of the following majors to fight e-commerce industry:

1. Understand and build relationship with empowered customers.
2. Move away from products on shelf to building customer experience in a multi-channel format including e-commerce.
3. Rethink supply chain from scratch.
4. Rethink role from a provider of location for products to an orchestrate of multiple channels of product movement.

Author: Rishab Verma

E-commerce: An insight to the reality.

E-COMMERCE is where buying and selling of goods takes place over internet or computer network globally, also where buyer and seller don’t directly meet. It can be anything like buying or selling of clothes, electronics, utensils or it can be online transfer of money or Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) etc. It is performed globally and has been able to serve people throughout even in the remote areas of the world. It has given a platform to the people worldwide to come and perform trade to any corner of the world with an ease. Today people have a wide range of options for their product and it has also made them more aware and known about the product. Some shopping sites like Flipkart, Jabong etc and travelling sites like http://www.makemytrip.com and movies sites like http://www.bookmyshow.com have not only saved time of the customers but have also provided the facilities at discounted price.

Today most of the people even buy their property online lying back on their couches which was considered to be one of the most difficult tasks. In this way E –Commerce have made people’s life easier but at the same time also have stolen the market of local traders, retailers and wholesalers.

“Just like every coin has two sides”,similarly E-commerce also has some advantages and disadvantages. E-Commerce as a boon provides customer satisfaction as products are sold at competitive price and helps company in brand creation by providing 24×7 base services. On the other hand, E-Commerce as a bane- it is very difficult to predict the competitor strategy as the medium or platform given to perform is very fast to predict the environment.

Today E-Commerce on one side have been successful in providing products and service to customer footsteps but on the other side it has stolen the market and jobs for local traders and businessmen. In country like India e-commerce has majorly affected both these aspects.

Author: Shubham Singh