Retailopia | Ecommerce News

G ood 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, sel...

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 spec...

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. 

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.  

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. 

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.

For people obsessed with shopping more than ever and for those who are proud of their bargaining skills, online retail stores or the new generation e-commerce sites have given them a reason to rejoice. With a modest entry into the Indian retail market, many of the e-commerce websites have already managed to garner great turnovers, drive sales and make revenues.

A mazon, the giant in e -commerce is now ready with its new tactic to gain more customers. Some time before the idea put forward for “ local registration ” was one such preceding move to create an output that aimed at well planned establishment of the company in the mobile market . Yes, it succeeded in its attempt and came up with “Amazon local register” . However this time what the company renders is not the conventional style – the introduction of new mobile types or stores, but a technology that could obviously contribute to a multidimensional trustworthy money transfer mechanism.  Recently the system came to the mobile payment market, taking companies such as square and PayPal here. The label is a combination of a secure card reader, which must be purchased for US$10, and a free mobile app. Together, they offer a platform that allows businesses to accept credit and debit card payments using smart phones or tablet. The introductory fees for sign up on or before of 31 is 1.7...

A mazon , which has been sometime involved in the battle of ebook prices     was expected to prepare itself for uprooting the created discrepancies in the cool functioning of the system, whilst the recent news of Amazon ’s cancellation of the preorders from Disney has worsened the present situation which is a sign of Amazon’s direct entry for a dispute with the publisher Disney . Despite the heat it has taken up from the authors and publishers in the ebook pricing fight , Amazon doesn’t seem to get deprived from the battlefield or there are no clues of any attempted compromises. The e –commerce giant   is not even a bit shook   or is ready to reform the present aggressive strategy   which it has adopted   recently. Whereas the company might be feeling a little stung as it has the need to explain itself to the customers to gather up   the required support and hence to polish its fame.

Amazon , the giant in the e-commerce market is trying to stay unique as always and hence strengthening itself backing out other opponents by winning the customers through its unbeatable customer supporting services. The vice president and principal analyst of the Forrester research, madam Julie was quite deadly astonished and rather excited when she tweeted the amazing experience of shopping in Amazon enabled through the fire service. The US m-commerce is thereby firmly expected to move on a rather faster pace to increase the expected sum of $100M in the end of 2014 ‘whilst the new battleground for retailers is the MOBILE MOMENT - the point in space and time when a customer pulls out her phone to get something that she needs immediately needs and in context `says Julie. The mini sprout ups in the various other countries by Amazon representatives have also recently extended Amazon’s hold up in other countries on which a favorable number of customers rely hence strengthening the shar...

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It is often said about Bombay that the most magical of stories find its roots in this charming city. It is a place which witnesses a co-existence of 12 million people from all walks of life. The poor and the rich, the big and the small, the old and the young – this city houses them all. Amidst all of them, one group of people who have been an integral part of Mumbai’s culture are the city’s famed  chaiwalas , or tea vendors. Mumbaikars have always loved their tea, and that is the reason why thousands of  chaiwalas line the streets everyday to serve the city its favourite drink. Everyone loves a sip or two, be it executives discussing strategies while puffing on a cigarette or labourers taking a break after toiling hard in the summer sun.

Here is a list of Best Online Shopping Sites in USA .  This is the list of  2014 Online Shopping E- commerce Website in United States of America. Hottest U.S. Internet and Mobile Retail Sites in 2013, 2012, and 2011

Amazon India has shown its muscle power to Indian Ecommerce giants Flipkart and Snapdeal. Yes you read it right. In just 8-10 months of time, Amazon has shown that they are the world leader when it comes to Marketplace model. They have tied up with thousands of Dealer/Merchant and bringing them on-board across 20 categories. They claimed to have over 15 million products in Amazon.in, while Flipkart and Snapdeal have 10 million and 4 million respectively.  

Open Source Ecommerce Platforms Open-source e-commerce softwares provide entire web store application or part of a web store like shopping cart. These softwares have features such as shopping cart functionality and product catalogs that enable store owners to set up, run and maintain online stores.  Typically, Open-source e-commerce softwares are available for free, however, other fees may exist for varying types of memberships.  Small size companies where transaction volumes are low adopt open-source software and it has been a mainstream activity for almost more than five years. But many large enterprises are wary of adopting open-source e-commerce for large-scale and midsize e-commercesites , because of concerns over reliability in supporting large transaction volumes. Scalability and security are the major bottleneck for large-scale transactional sites.

AMAZON .in is a flagship of the largest online retail store; Amazon.com. The parent company is an international e-commerce company that has its operations in many countries and it ships some products from one country to another. It started off as an online bookstore but entered into many other products category very soon. Amazon seller services private limited is the affiliate in India which operates Amazon.in and manages the operations of Amazon.com in India. The vision of company is to create the biggest market place for its customers who can buy anything from this market that too at affordable prices and having total quality guarantee.  

You might have a great website, selling great products, but if you don’t have a compelling visual experience online, you might soon be struggling to keep up with your competitors. Visual Innovation According to Kissmetrics, 93% of consumers place visual appearance above all other factors when shopping online. So how does this affect online retailers? Well, the same as product placement and store layout does in bricks-and-mortar stores. As always, it is a case of fight or flight for retailers, with global competition and technological changes confirming the need for visual innovation on eCommerce sites.  

With the advancements of today’s technology, online is becoming the norm for many shoppers. In a recent survey in Britain, 29% of respondents stated that online shopping is the ‘best tech development of our time’. They mean it as well with eMarketer forecasting that the global eCommerce trade is expected to increase by 20.1% this year to reach $1.5 trillion, and with 70% of shoppers claiming to prefer online over real world shopping .

Did you know that a s many as 50% of sales are lost because potential customers can’t find what they are looking for, and an estimated 75% of shoppers never scroll past the first page of search results? Research shows that images are the most important factor in the online shopping experience, more important even than price. When we shop we scan many items in a way that allows items of interest to catch our eye through the tracking of subtle factors such as colour, shape and position.

Online shopping can be a pleasurable experience for shoppers, especially when they find that must-buy item. But when they can’t find what they are looking for? Absolutely frustrating – both in the eCommerce space and when those pesky car keys go missing. This is why a proactive approach to visual search and display is becoming more important for online retailers in the do-or-die world of eCommerce.