Retailopia | Ecommerce News

What is in the name? Everything. People know you by your Name, people reach you by your Name, and people spread word about your Name. Your Name is your brand identity, your business identity and lot of times, part of your identity. You would want people to notice it, to like it, to talk about it. It has to be interesting for somebody to notice it in the first place. It has to be engaging for someone to like associating with it. It has to be simple and non-embarrassing for someone to recommend it. So important, yet do not start with the name, get the vision and mission of your business first, and let the brand name flow from it. We are talking specifically about domain names here. Ideally you should get YOURBRAND.com (or YOURBRAND.in); second option, buy it from the current owner; third option, change your brandname. Whatever the options, please don’t make avlblname12.com your BRAND.

Have you ever heard of tyre shop coming right at your doorstep? Founded recently in February 2013, now you can buy tyres online with TyreOnWheels.com and get them fitted with India’s First Mobile Tyre Fitting Service at your doorstep without even stepping out. There are three things they encouraged in their business – customer service, wider selection of products, and better price. The founding team of TyreOnWheels.Com has a 30 year long experience in the tyre industry.Recently, Retailopia had a one to one with Rajat Malhotra who is the co-founder of the company.

Which things should we buy online? Ofcourse everything. But why everything not getting sold online. We are reaching a stage where almost whatever you can think of will get sold online. Those days are not that far. Typically,  people are worried about Price, Packaging, Delivery, Quality of Service etc.  Would you like to buy guitar online if someone will guarantee you about aforementioned. Here comes Guitarstreet.in – Co-Founder and Head Operations, Utkarsh Apoorva. So, what was the impetus behind this venture? GuitarStreet's foundation dates back to the time when I bought my first Guitar. Not knowing where to purchase it from, I asked some friends and eventually spotted an old store in Chandni Chowk in Delhi. I wasn't aware of the large music stores at CP. Finally, me and my father spotted the store we were looking for, and bought a Givson. The store had very limited options and almost no guidance for making an informed purchase. Fast forward a few years, ...

You have taken a decision on what you want to buy online, but which site? Jabong, Flipkart, Tradus, Naaptol , there are plenty of others. If you are loyal to any particular online store, you will buy from that, it may end up charging you more. If you are smart, you will go through each and every website and search prices that is very cumbersome and time consuming Process. But if you are smarter, you can do one more click and search price on Pricesbolo . It is a Price comparison site. This is basically Price Search Engine with kick ass UI.

Starting and successfully running an online retail company is not a joke. It requires  lot of courage, passion and hard work to synchronize the entire supply chain - from getting right partners to reach out to the end customers. In this journey, many have sleepless nights to get their business going. We have talked with many young entrepreneurs who see lot of potential in selling online. But at the same time, they have shared some of the challenges that they have gone through or still going through. Here are few tips from those who have already “Been There, Done That”.

If you have a content-driven Web site, how can you make money off your traffic? or If you are an online merchant, how can you get people to your site to buy your products? One popular option that serves both of these functions is an affiliate program. and here comes Dezyna. Dezyna is founded by Ankit Arora. Before starting dezyna, he was in Silicon Valley, California where he worked as an engineer at an  Electronic Design Automation Company. After returning to India, he started an online skill school called courseon.com. He loves entrepreneurship, creating code, and is also a marathon runner. He holds a Masters degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Southern California. We had a talk with Ankit to know more about Dezyna.

Furniture shopping has just become easier with Mebelkart.com - an online portal dealing in Furniture and Home Decor items. Started by industry experts from the IITs and BITS-Pilani in 2012, it intends to organize the entire Furnishings and Home Decor space in India by providing customers with a transparent pricing model, better designs and more options at one place. Proud to have become the “biggest online dealer in the bean bags segment” , the co-founder of Mebelkart, Ranjeet Vimal, shares his story and aspirations with us.

Are you looking to buy some famous and popular things from their localized cities. Now you can get it from Shopatplaces. The team at shopatplaces is dedicated towards bringing things that are popular. For e.g. Lucknowi Chikankari , Kolhapuri Chappals etc.  We had a talk with Zuhaib, Founder of Shopatplaces to know more about how they are currently doing it and how their plans for future. What is the concept behind Shopatplaces? Zuhaib: Shopatplaces is an e-commerce site which delivers Authentic Products from Places Famous for them to the clients’ home. We can be summarized by the tagline, ‘Famous Products. Best Buys.’

Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart announced today the launch of ebook application on Flyte digital store. To woo the customers company has offered  4000 free ebooks to download. Currently, total number of ebooks are close to 70,000. If you compare between the price of ebooks available on digital store is little less than physical books. From our sources we got to know that they are soon coming up with Windows app too.

KaiseDiya.com is a Hindi name. It means by asking " What is the cost" from a seller. It is an online grocery store in Mumbai. started by Sachin Pikle.  He comes from a technology and eCommerce consulting background. He has handled various eCommerce assignments with both global and Indian retail giants like Walmart, Future Group and others in the last few years. Previously he has been associated with global Banking and Insurance majors like Westpac, J.P. Morgan, American Express and others. Sachin Pikle holds a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Mumbai University and has over 15 years of diverse industry experience. We had a talk to know more about his current venture KaiseDiya.com

Live Sports365 E-Retail Pvt. Ltd (www.sports365.in) is India’s first professionally managed sports and Fitness Company. The group runs one of India’s finest e-Commerce stores which offers more than 8000 products from 100 brands, both national and international. Sports365 is your one stop shop for sports equipment online. From badminton racquets, sports shoes and apparel and cycling gear to fitness products like yoga mats and so on Sports365 is your one stop shop for sports equipment online. The institutional business unit offers turn-key solutions in terms of sports infrastructure, apparel and infrastructure to corporates, schools and colleges, sports clubs and academies, residential properties, fitness centers and hotels. Sports365 is the coming together of management professionals with a passion for sports and accomplished sporting icons.  (The leadership team comprises of Sekhar Reddy and Mahesh Bhupathi.) We are also supported by Yuvraj Singh, Dipika Pallikal, Lara Dutt...

The story of discount coupons in India is in its infancy and is all set to grow to huge proportions as the online and retail industry grows. It is at this stage, that one needs to look at and address certain areas in coupon promotion to create a standardized and level playing field to avoid needless controversy in the future. Discount coupons in India are distributed directly by the merchant to customers and through affiliates and partners as well. By giving discount coupons to affiliates and partners the merchant accesses the user base of the affiliate and partner and converts some of the users as well. The partner and affiliate provides access to the merchant to a larger base for a reward or commission. Despite appearing like a win-win situation there are a few discrepancies in the process. These discrepancies are best solved right now before the market matures.

Internet Retailers are spending a lot of money on Advertisements on  Electronic and Print media to get more and more customers. Many of them are successful in getting traffic to their websites, but eventually not turning them into buyers. Typically, Industry average for conversion is close to 1-2 % of the total traffic. Can we make it to 4-5%?  How can you convert first time visitor to your customer? What are the best practices for any online retailer to get more conversion? Below is the check list:

Acquiring an online customer cost close to INR 1500 to many Internet retailers. This is a huge cost considering the order size, etailers receive. The cost can be justified only through multiple repeat purchases.  This is an area companies should look to reduce acquisition cost or increase sales. New etailers are mushrooming every other day and customer loyalty is hard to achieve in India. Tier-1 companies are seeing huge demand so they are comfortable at this point in time but not for much longer time. 

It’s almost 5 years and we saw huge traction in online buying. Industry is new. But players are many. In-store retailers are also making an appearance on Internet. Investors have already put money in e-commerce. In 2009 – USD 105 million, In 2010 – USD 111 million and In 2011 – USD 908 million. Nobody is willing to miss the bus. The result – we have hundreds of etailers evolved within no time.  Many of them have received huge funding from common investors. Top lines of many tier-1 retailers are growing multifold year on year but bottom line is getting a hit.  Reason is Intense competition and every company is trying to grab the customers resulting in huge marketing cost and upfront discount. This is the driving force for many investors to Consolidate – join the two firms into one. The benefit – it will lower down the fixed cost and improve operational efficiency.