Creating E-Business In India: Is Success A Cakewalk Yet?

Is e-commerce really flourishing in India? Like it or not, capturing the Holy Grail of the fast-expanding and dynamic e-commerce market has been quite a challenge for the country. In spite of the fact that India has been home to many innovative tech ventures, success in the e-commerce segment has always been plagued by internal and external challenges even decades after the sector opened up for consumers. This is, indeed, a harsh reality even though Indians are now at the helm of new business ventures and are instrumental in creating new technology platforms worldwide.

The country’s economy hasn’t exactly been in a shambles. In fact, India has had a decent growth chart that has made the country look like a powerhouse of opportunities. A market of 1.2 billion people with considerable Internet penetration can only assume that the days ahead are promising. But that is not exactly the case.

In a highly populated country, which has a dominant population that speaks, uses and transacts in one language, creating successful e-commerce platforms must have been a cakewalk. But for a few businesses like Jabong, Flipkart, Snapdeal and others, India is still grappling with problems before e-business becomes an accepted model.

For a country which traded silk, gold, diamonds, spices and all the utility and exotic goods it possessed in the past to the extent that it turned into a British colony for two centuries, trade is in the blood of the people. Resources, too, are unlimited here. However, this knowledge doesn’t hold water when it comes to e-commerce.

And the reason? The ‘e’ world is of recent origin and has been a defining factor in the new world where touch screens define the ‘touch and feel’ of a seller-buyer equation. Older generations who hold the treasure of knowledge are kind of novice when it comes to e-business. And the new generation has no direction to create businesses in the new way. Beyond this, consumers in this space are still not able to decide whether they will remain loyal to this emerging mode of business.

But the dichotomy doesn’t end here. Traffic woes in cities and chaotic situations on the roads, as well as absence of parking space, plague our shopping experience. Still, the shops remain full with the constant inflow of customers.

E-business is a relief in that sense, but what eludes success is the trust factor. The authorities have not tapped the potential of e-commerce in India to make it a pleasant experience for the consumers to put their money into it and be assured of a good deal.

The global tech slowdown also affects the consumer behaviour. Although the IT sector, with its low-cost, high-quality enterprises, can hold a lot of promises for the future, it is facing some serious hurdles in terms of growth potential.

Apart from the government’s role in creating a framework for the e-businesses to flourish across the country, there are other factors that must be put in place simultaneously. Without much effort on the part of the government, mobiles have turned into a lifeline for people across the spectrum, irrespective of income groups. In fact, while the government has been pumping thousands of crores into sanitation programmes, attempting to build toilets in villages, and is yet to see success in spite of widespread campaigning, mobiles have silently made their way into villages, irrespective of literacy levels.

This being the potential of the market, creating and sustaining an e-business should be the result of a simple study of consumer trends and behaviour on the Internet. A focused study that can be alternated with both Internet-based and physical surveys can provide most important indicators to the future.

To clinch the competitive edge India has over other countries of its size and with similar challenges, the country needs to improve its infrastructure and must focus on areas like telecommunication and connectivity. It is also interesting to know that the ‘A’ list cities, such as the metros, are not among the high revenue drivers for e-business.

To train one’s eyes on the B and C category cities, targeting them for the growth of a business model that’s operating online, is a challenge that needs to be overcome with new practices. History has taught us that plastic money is not mandatory for e-commerce transactions. Hence, we have a solution in the form of cash on delivery (COD) – an exclusive to India introduced by Flipkart that sought to address this problem efficiently.

These days, global fashion and food trends have been defining e-business where FMCG goods are sold online. This could be another potential area of decoding consumer pattern.

The market has been hotting up with the entry of Amazon, which has tasted irresistible growth in India and introduced single-day delivery a few months ago. Flipkart, too, has come up with similar services. But the competition has just begun and the players have laid out their strategies. Now, one needs to see if the consumer will have the best of both worlds.