Surprises are always fun. Imagine giving flowers to your Mom on ‘Mother's Day' or springing a surprise on your dad on Father's Day...
Be it a birthday, wedding anniversary or a weekend outing, at the click of a mouse you can get the job done.
Most youngsters today prefer to transact online rather than drive to a store. Wirefoot, which tracks trends in online transactions for companies, says its research reveals that India's online retail market is less than 1 per cent of organised retail trade; Nonetheless, the market registered average growth rate of 40-50 per cent year-on-year in 2010 and is expected to touch $4-5 billion by 2015.
According to the Internet And Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Indian online retail market is expected to reach $597 million by end of 2011. The data clearly indicates that traffic on e-commerce portals is on the rise, but where is the customer? How many enquiries actually get converted into orders?
Wirefoot says its focus is to help online businesses in India. “We only provide consulting and advisory services; we are not into software development,” says its Founder and CEO, Ankur Dinesh.
The company's core business is in developing analysis of significant industry trends, developments and best practices which are, in turn, used to assist customers to execute various online initiatives.
Dinesh says that most clients seek advice when they find that they are unable to convert the traffic to the site into actual deals. “Our primary focus is on understanding the needs of the business and helping the promoters of such e-commerce portals chalk out the right strategy to convert visitors into actual customers.”
A number of factors tend to drive users to a site, but all visitors may not end up clinching a deal, possibly because of the difficulties faced while paying, limited number of options in the deal, special conditions on the deal, not enough details on the product and so on. Another major factor is that the same deals are offered at different Web sites at different prices. Notwithstanding such issues, a number of retailers such as Bata.in, Snapdeal, Fashionandyou, Sosasta, Dealsandyou, Taggle, 99labels and timtara, among others, launched their online format in 2010.
Currently, online retail's major categories include cameras, computers, home and kitchen appliances, flowers, toys, and gifts.
The potential category is expected to be in the area of food and groceries and Online Insurance. Wirefoot believes that India's online retail market will evolve gradually and continue to outgrow offline retail by percentage. The competition is expected to be intense over the next three to five years.
“This will enable online retail to reach to a significant volume and value by 2015. Studies show that by 2015 India will have 30 million online buyers and consumers adapting to e-commerce sites, compared with the 2.5 million online buyers at present,” says Dinesh.