As we plan to open sales through e-commerce, we are watching many sites for their style of working, why are they so popular, etc. etc. We have learnt from all this study that Indian sellers have a lower reputation than their foreign counterparts. But as we get more inside into this study we see that even reputed international e-market places who have come in India for business are fooling their buyers.
Big names are spending 3,00,00,000/- a day on advertisement through print, television and internet media. But whatever they are advertising is neither real nor unreal. If one terms this as cheating, it may not be said as incorrect.
The advertisement shows a specific watch in the picture, gives its brand’s name too but does not gives its item /design number and says this watch is for 299/- just for today. But when you go to their app or site, the same watch shows for 899/-. However if you search in the site for the brand name, you’ll see the brand also has a watch for 299/-. So, they are neither right nor wrong.
Now we see our Indian site. The title song from the movie Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hinduatani ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmH0BQhH7UA ) aptly describes most of Indians mentality. An Indian e-market store was selling an international brand’s bag for 489/- which turned out to be fake, please underline FAKE, not replica. That brand does not produce that design even. They had just used its name and put up at their site to lure buyers. Many get fooled.
If i take up the non branded garment category selling kurtis, sarees and all, i see that they are much (25% – 65%) cheaper in local markets. I tried to find out the reason and saw that these sites take commission of 20% on this segment. If big players do not keep monopoly, i tell you that mobiles, for which they charge the seller the minimal (2%) are available at 2% – 12% lower locally.
Private sites are not behind e-market sites. A private Indian site selling surgical goods charged 50/- above MRP, and mind it, it was not shipping charge as the price included the shipping. Actually the price on its site was 599/- and the buyer paid the same but when the parcel arrived, the MRP on the box was 549/-.
When contacted, the helpline person told that the new price was 599/- and the product dispatched was either from the old stock or its label might have come off revealing the old price. The company got itself rid from this matter that the customer was not overcharged than the price given on the site.
Closely examining the buyers to these sites show that the age group is 16-28 (around 80%) and 55-75 (around 20%). This shows that the buyers are either immature or are too mature. An immature person will gain experience from trial and error whereas people between 55-75 are having some or the other disability, so they wish to buy from the comfort of their homes. Many of them have weak knees which prevents them to walk 1-2 kms. to buy a product either in the local market or malls. The other thing is that many e-market sites sell versatile products which are not available in malls. Its my experience that i get more varieties of pens that can be found in my entire city on a single stationery site.
Talking to the young generation shows that many of them spend money which they have not earned. Its not saying that all the youth is getting hefty pocket money. The youth which has just joined a good company is paid almost 25 times more than the pocket money he used to BEG his parents. Its also not that the parents were poor, they wished their child to understand the value of money.
Now if the family is well off, the parents don’t ask their child for their salary. It ends up in their pockets which they don’t know where to put it into. Their buried feelings and desires to show their peers that they too can spend on clothes and clubs and all, funds and moves the wheels of country’s economy.
Though 7-30 days return policy is there on almost every site, the young generation rarely use this facility. The returns which are just 2% -4% of the site’s sales can even come down if the product is of some use to this generation. These boys and girls believe in presenting / gifting the goods to their friends on occasions to get rid of them, its seldom that they call or mail these sites for exchange / refund.
When asked on this, a frightening answer was received. This generation prefers to black list the site which sells them goods not up to their expectations on 2 occasions rather than questioning the person on the other side of the helpline. I term this as frightening because its very bad for a site. All their ad campaigns and promotions will go in vain if they have some unsatisfied buyers because word of mouth is still the best form of advertisement in India.
So, be aware buyer.
And beware site owners, your wrong doings will affect all other sites too.
krishna chikan 