Retailopia | Ecommerce News

Chikankari Embroidery is back in fashion as many designers started using lucknowi chikankari embroidery on their collection in Lakme Fashion Week 2013. Many celebrities looked stunning in the show. Thanks to all designers and support staff for organizing such a wonderful event.  These events always leave a mark on normal people who want to  dress like celebrities but the challenge is they have to shell out lot of money to buy designer heavy chikankari embroidered Anarkalis, Kurtas, Kurtis. 

Tell us about your start-up journey (eShack)? When and how did you get the idea of starting Beer business? ’ The idea of eShack came to my partner (Ashwajeet Singh) and I while we were in Bangkok for my fathers 50th Birthday. We were drinking beer from Beer Towers and playing Beer Pong when we realized the potential of these products in India and that’s how we came up with the idea. With e-commerce roaring in the country we though why not put the products up online and thus eShack happened.

We all saw the first ad from Flipkart that came in early 2012 during IPL time. The concept of the ad was well designed.  It was a new marketing campaign with a tagline of ‘Shopping Ka Naya Address.’  Also, It was well received by TV viewers. We don’t know how much impact made on Flipkart revenues but the cost of running TV commercial is huge.  There is no evidence as such how much Flipkart has spent on airing these commercials during April –Dec 2012, but it can be close to 100 Cr on TV commercial only. Other players like ebay, Yebhi, Jabong also not behind. They also followed the footstep of Flipkart to reach out to end customers. There is no doubt that e-commerce companies spending heavily on marketing channels.

ToyTasting is one of the largest non-media house YouTube channel in India. The channel was founded in Jan-12, by Richa Dikshit, formerly an investment banker with Merrill Lynch.  ToyTasting created a niche by focusing on making  videos on toys . After the initial success of ToyTasting, Richa launched Yellow Giraffe to cater to the growing demand for  toys in India .

Guys – Snapdeal is a marketplace, they don’t keep inventory[items]. They work on dealer network. SnapDeal is just a broker/transaction portal. Snapdeal lists items on its website and don’t do proper check with their dealers. Recently, I have encountered with two such incidents. I don’t know if you guys have also experienced the same. My Success Rate with Snapdeal is 0%

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