Nikesh Arora IIT BHU Alumni Quits Soft Bank

Nikesh Arora ,an IIT BHU Alumni, highest paid Indian and president of Soft Bank, quits today. "Masayoshi Son, Chairman & CEO of SBG, had been considering Arora as a strong candidate for succession. Son's intention was to keep leading the Group in various aspects for the time being, while Arora wished to start taking over the lead in a few years' time. The difference of expected timelines between the two leads to Arora's resignation from the position of Representative Director and Director of SBG with the expiration of the term of office and his next steps," SoftBank said in a statement.

“I was thinking of handing over my job as CEO when I turn 60, but thought maybe I’m still a bit too young, and still have energy to continue,” the 58-year-old Mr. Son said.

Mr. Arora said he will remain as an adviser to SoftBank. “This will allow me to think about my next move,” Mr. Arora said.

Alibaba plans direct entry to India. Do Flipkart and Amazon need to worry ?

Good news for consumers especially for those who are ordering from Alibaba (China) and wait for their products to arrive after 45 days . Many of Indian online consumers order directly from Alibaba as the cost advantage is huge (almost as low as 20% - 30% of the price you get it from Flipkart and Amazon) .  They get their products from Aliexpress (Alibaba logistics arm) after 45 days.

" We buy electronics items quite frequently from Alibaba and the prices are very low compare to Indian online retailers", said a frequent buyer from India.

Many traders get their product directly from Alibaba after paying import duty and still it is quite cheap. They sell these products on Indian marketplace like Flipkart and Amazon. 

If you see the math, it is quite simple . Flipkart and Amazon charge approximately 20% commission from the sellers. Sellers add his markup price on top of delivery charges , transaction charges plus market place commission, import duty from China, seller from Alibaba also get charged substantial commissions.  

In this entire ecommerce game , many middle men are involve and Rs 100 worth of good finally get sold at Rs. 700-800. 

With Alibaba entering into Indian Market, we assume this gap is going to shrink and consumers will save some money .

Gujarat Government Imposed Taxes for Ecommerce

In a recent development , Gujarat govt has decided to impose taxes on ecommerce companies for the goods entering to the state. Though the tax slab and the amount hasn't been decided. 

This came as an amendment of the current bill passed in the Gujarat state assembly. The bill amended the present Act of 2001 that did not cover ecommerce transactions. As per the government the previous bill affected the local traders as the goods on ecommerce websites  were sold at a much cheaper price as no taxes were levied on these goods.

While presenting the bill , state Finance Minister Saurabh Patel said, "Due to the recent development in the field of online purchase, web-based software applications or through tele-shopping platforms, which does not attract any tax under the present Act, local businesses were adversely affected. "

As per the bill, the word importer as specified in the present Act, now also covers those who bring or facilitate to bring any specified goods for consumption, use or sale in Gujarat from any part of the country using online platforms. Further, such importer is now liable to collect the tax from the person (consumer) for whom the goods are brought and pay it to the government in a prescribed manner, as per the bill.

Flipkart: Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori Venture into Healthcare Startup

Ex-Flipkart duo Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori joined together to startup a new venture and this time it is healthcare. Mukesh Bansal was head of commerce in Flipkart and Ankit Nagori was chief Business officer . Both of the them are next in line after Sachin and Binny Bansals in Flipkart. They are pooling $5M to startup this healthcare , fitness and sports venture . Company will be formed in next month and launch of Mobile app will be in next year. 

Commenting on the new venture Ankit Nagori said, " The spending towards healthcare, fitness and sports will be close to 7-8% of Indian GDP . Our aim is to touch and improve billions lives. We will keep focus on other ventures into Education and skill development also."

"We have a good relationship with Flipkart and we discussed with all key stakeholder what we want to do. There is lot to do in India to improve and organize businesses. We are looking at 10 years horizon for betterment of these businesses. " said Mukesh Bansal. 

Mukesh Bansal and Ankit Nagori left Flipkart , almost a months ago in February post as a part of restructuring process where Binny Bansal taken charge as CEO of Flipkart. 

SnapDeal goof up delivery became HUL Marketing Opportunity

Snapdeal Goof up 

Recently, Snapdeal goofs up delivery of Samsung galaxy duo mobile phone. The phone Mr Laxminarayan Krishnamurthy   wanted to gift his wife on her birthday. Instead of samsung mobile he has received an old kitchen soap. Imagine a customer reaction.  See what he has written on his facebook wall and the post got viral and till now it has got 20,524 shares on Facebook. Imagine how many people the post might have reached. The rough estimates of the reach could be around 40 to 50 lac people. (just an estimate)

Nothing much to say about Snapdeal, when you see mouthshut reviews and customer complaints.  This is not new. We have earlier faced the similar issue with Snapdeal where they were not able to deliver a printer and in another instance they have sent a defective tricycle for my kid.   

Read More : Buying From SnapDeal : Think Twice. 

Apologies, From Flipkart : Mail Sent to All Customers

Flipkart has sent a mail to all its customers. It's good. Flipkart has learnt post Mi3 debacle where lot of customers would like to buy the product . Flipkart has started communicating to customers. It is like Narendra Modi Style. Communicate with your Audience . Always be in Touch. Below is the mail Content.

Dear Customer, 

Yesterday was a big day for us. And we really wanted it to be a great day for you. But at the end of the day, we know that your experience was less than pleasant. We did not live up to the promises we made and for that we are really and truly sorry. 

Flipkart Big Billion Day Sale - $100 million -10 hours

3 weeks effort of big billion day sales by Flipkart has come to an end on same day within 10 hours of its launched . Orders - over 300,000 , Sales - $100 million in 10 hours. Flipkart has achieved its target and reached a mark of $100 million well before 1 day and put a full stop and not expecting order. Sachin and Binny Bansal , Co-founders of Flipkart confirmed in Media.

Big Billion Day - War is Personal among Flipkart Amazon Snapdeal

It is getting personal now between Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. All heavy weights of Ecommerce players are fighting a tough battle and this time it is Big Billion Day. While Flipkart has launched big billion day sale on diwali festive season from last 3 weeks. the big billion day campaign is hijacked by amazon.in, yes. the domain of bigbillionday.com redirecting to Amazon.in. Snapdeal is also not behind . You can see the adverts floating around it. This is a very intense war. Funding is huge for all three and all of them want to be bigger than other two. 

Ecommerce Battle in India is Getting Tough

With the novel government polishing the present India predominantly in economy and defense, India is eagerly encrypting the changes on it whose outputs are expected to be the unbeatable assets for future. The recent reports claimed on the economic growth evidently are the optimistic benchmarks for the anticipated hike in development succeeding shortly. Within this short time, the influence of economic growth spread out   so far has brought various changes in the e- commerce sector too. The unexpected emergence of the great entrepreneurs of the country and their successful step in to the e commerce battle field are the so called boosts for the growing e commerce.

Mobile has taken over Web on e-retail in U.K.

Mobile Devices driving Sales

Tablet and Smart phones have taken over web when it comes to selling online (e-retail) in UK. Over 52% of traffic is coming though mobile devices. In terms of Sales, 36% of sales come through mobile devices (out of which 82% comes through Tablets and 18% through Smart Phones). According to Quarterly Bench marking Report (May 2014 to July 2014) done by U.K. e-retail association Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG)  and Capgemini. The report captures online traffic and sales of top 40 U.K. retailers.