Gokul Rajaram: Every household will start using mobile

Gokul Rajaram is Product Engineering Lead at Square. He was most recently the Product Director of Ads at Facebook, and the Product Management Director for Google AdSense. He recently joined LivSpace as its Special Advisor. Business Insider India caught up with him just when he was beginning his day in San Francisco.

1) What led you to join Livspace?
I joined Livspace because of the founding team. The team compliments each other very well, right from Anuj the founder and CEO to Ramakant and Shagufta of Space Matrix. Livspace helps one design home better; the very concept excited me.

2) What’re the unique internet trends you see in India?
Food, shelter, clothing and transportation are some of the basic necessities for people. The Internet is helping solve problems in all aspects of human life. Indian companies understand the specific needs of the consumers in India and are designing products accordingly.

US based e-commerce giants like Amazon are competing with Indian companies because they are many untapped opportunities here in India with the growth of Internet.

3) What are the current challenges for Indian e-commerce companies?
One is definitely logistics - the ability to transport goods from the warehouse to the drop location. One has to ensure last mile logistics. The second is payment - there is a lot of cash on delivery (COD) in India as compared to other payment channels like debit and credit cards or the use of wallets. The third would be how to encourage the merchants, i.e. the sellers to sell more products online.

Demographics and the usage of mobile define the gap among e-commerce sites when it comes to fashion and other product verticals.

4) What is India’s e-commerce population like?
A large section of the online population is in the age group of 18 to 25. They are also the largest users of smartphones. These people increase the mobile engagement of buying products online. In years to come every household will start using mobile to engage in online shopping.

5) What are the current product innovations you’re planning at Square?
We at Square are looking at consumer friendly solutions in the payments sector. We are currently building products which will enable easier payments methods through debit and credit cards.

Image credit: Indiatimes