Flipkart, India’s largest online marketplace, officially introduced #FlipTrends2015, a comprehensive and in-depth view into how Indians shop online.This study across 50 million Indian shoppers analysed consumer buying preferences between January 1st and December 14th 2015 and offers a detailed analysis into what trends dominate the online retail space today.

Rising mobile internet penetration and availability of a wide variety of brands and products at affordable prices across the country at the touch of a mobile screen have truly made 2015 the year of e-commerce in India. According to #FlipTrends2015, electronics and mobiles have emerged as the top performing categories. Delhi NCR tops the chart as the most online shopping savvy city in India, closely followed by Bangalore, Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.

Commenting on this, Ankit Nagori, Chief Business Officer of Flipkart said

2015 is truly the year of the digital Indian consumer. The data taken from FlipTrends, an analysis of over 50 million registered Flipkart shoppers in 2015, shows that Indians are taking to shopping online at a very fast clip. What is particularly gratifying to note is that Flipkart is taking the lead in introducing the ease and convenience of online shopping to millions of Indians in Tier-2, Tier-3 towns, and in rural areas. We continue to stay committed to fulfilling our goal of transforming commerce through technology in the coming years.

Key takeaways of the survey

  • Electronic accessories, mobile, lifestyle accessories & women apparel are consistently the top performing categories across all regions.
  • The study shows that 69% of the online shoppers are male, this gender clearly dominates the online retail space
  • While Delhi NCR emerges as the most e-commerce savvy metro, Southern India has a significant presence with Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai featuring among the top 5 cities that shop the most online along with Delhi NCR and Mumbai
  • Among the Tier-1 cities, Pune is the leader followed by Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Lucknow. Bhubaneshwar is the only city from East India to feature in this list.
  • Mangalore has emerged as the top Tier-2 city of digital Indian shoppers followed by Mysore. The hill town of Dehradun is third in the list followed by Salem in Tamil Nadu and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.
  • The e-retail space is largely dominated by consumers falling between the 25-34 years age group. More than half of the consumers shopping online are office goers closely followed by students.

You can have a look at the complete list in the #FlipTrends2015 info-graphic below

FlipTrends_Overall

In a pioneering effort that redefines the shopping experience of Indian online fashion shoppers, abof has introduced 3D trial room to Indian fashion shoppers. In the first couple of months since launch, it has already resulted in achieving 95 percent accurate product fit for consumers. Consequently, for the products that have this feature enabled, the return rates are close to zero. In addition, being the first e-commerce fashion player in India to use the technology, the conversion rate for products available with 3D trial is 400% higher than the industry norm.

With Indian e-commerce market being predicted to be worth $50 billion by 2020, the biggest challenge for the fashion e-commerce players is their struggle to provide appropriate size recommendations for customers.

With 3D trial room, which is enabled for most of the women’s apparel, abof.com’s customers can virtually try products by inputting just three basic body measurements. The tool allows users to visualize the garment on a customized 3D avatar-type model and get the right size recommendation. In addition, the tool also allows users to layer garments providing a complete outfit view.

Prashant Gupta, President & CEO, abof.com said

We take great pride in being India’s first fashion portal to launch such advanced technology – our 3D trial room. Technologies like these are amongst the world’s best and can significantly upgrade online shopping experience for our customers across India. With 3D trial room, we aim to simulate the on-ground buying experience of checking appearance and fit.

A pan-India survey conducted by abof.com showed that the quick and user-friendly 3D trial room has helped personalize shopper’s experience thereby vastly improving customer experience. The tool is extremely engaging as it allows women to try out various looks, thereby doubling the average time spent by a consumer on the website. Customers have also begun to purchase higher priced products such as evening dresses more confidently using this tool.

Vikram Bhat, Chief Product Officer, abof.com said

The average return rate in the apparel industry is 20% with the most common reason being unsatisfactory fit. Moreover, in a recent survey of users who have never shopped online for fashion, we discovered that more than 50% gave size concerns as the biggest barrier to shopping online. Therefore, we decided to provide a user-friendly tool based on 3D technology to address the issue of fit visualization and size recommendations. Shopping with 3D trial room has helped our customers to see what works for their body shape and thus make more informed purchases.

This technology has been deployed in a few global markets like UK, Brazil, and Far East. It took a few months to adapt this technology for Indian women body shapes. But the effort seems to have paid off in terms of higher consumer engagement, and better fit and size recommendations.

Powered by the leading online fitting technology company, Metail, the 3D trial room has helped to unlock the wide range of data that has helped in constantly designing and creating a better fit garments for the customers.

Tom Adeyoola, CEO, Metail said

We are thrilled to be working with abof to bring the best customer experience to their shoppers. It is crucial for consumers new to online shopping to feel confident in their purchases and we believe that the Metail Experience delivers an unparalleled personalized solution whilst solving a fundamental worldwide problem of not being able to try on clothes online. We are excited about bringing this feature to the Indian market with abof and being part of their future online.

About abof.com

www.abof.com is a go-to online destination for the best in fashion shopping, news & trend watching! www.abof.com has got the most trendy and celebrity-inspired apparel, footwear and accessories that belong in every fashionista’s wardrobe in India. If one wants to get famous, abof assures fast deliveries of the best in branded clothing! Start Shopping Now!

Expert members within IEEE, the world’s largest professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, believe that a shoppers’ eyes & heart will be a window to their wallet. Retailers will begin to harness eye-tracking technology and heart rate monitors for brick and mortar stores in order to gain a better understanding of their customers’ shopping preferences.

Eye-tracking technology will allow retailers to identify where their customers’s eyes go in certain aisles or departments within the store, which will better inform them on where to merchandise certain products. In addition, heart rate monitors could help retailers recognize the level of customer excitement towards a product. Retailers can monitor which products are causing the most excitement, and, if leading to sales, can have a better understanding of which products they should more-heavily promote.

Christopher James, IEEE Senior Member said

Changing heart rates in a retail setting can usually be linked to changes in emotion, with an increased heart rate being indicative of excitement. In order to monitor changes in heart rate properly, the customer would really have to ‘connect’ with the merchandise to show changes that are discernible beyond normally physiologic fluctuations associated with day-to-day life.

3-D Printing: Reinventing the Way we Shop

IEEE experts also believe there are vast opportunities for 3-D printing. As this technology becomes more advanced, customers will no longer need to go to physical stores to buy an item. Customers will be able to buy an item directly on a company’s website, as usual, but once the transaction is confirmed, the company will send a file or barcode allowing the customer to print the product directly from their personal 3-D printer. Products could include clothing accessories, automotive parts or musical instruments, just to name a few.

George K. Thiruvathukal, IEEE member and professor of computer science at Loyola University, Chicago. said

3-D printing is becoming more applicable for a range of products and will continue to push the boundaries for a number of industries, including retail. We are still in the early stages of 3-D printing and although there are still many barriers to mainstream consumer adoption, there are great opportunities that this technology could lend towards education and the Do it Yourself [DIY)] movement, such as promoting the ability to create and innovate.

M&M: Mobility and Merchandise

Electronic payment technology is quickly becoming a preferred option for purchasing items. Technology companies are making it easier for customers to make electronic payments through their cell phones, which are beginning to be integrated by major retailers.

Kevin Curran, IEEE Senior Member and reader in computer science at the University of Ulster, Ireland said

Many components that enable NFC-smartphone electronic payments have been steadily falling into place. Millions of consumers are becoming familiar with the idea of electronic payments and now it is becoming a common use case for individuals to use their phone’s fingerprint authentication sensor to make payments – the phone really is becoming the modern wallet. As near field communication [NFC] technology becomes standard in more phones, so will the availability of electronic payments with retailers.

Your [Purchase is] Only a Day Away…

Until consumers are able to print their own products on a regular basis, one-day delivery will become commonplace. The market is still in its infancy with companies currently testing and developing processes. Receiving purchased products via the Internet will become even more streamlined, with more major retailers being able to accommodate deliveries within a few hours. Based on data about shopping habits, retailers will be able to gauge which products are purchased most often by region and can secure inventories appropriately so that delivery time can be optimized.

Tom Coughlin, IEEE Senior Member and founder of Coughlin Associates stated

Top online retail companies have pioneered the use of flying autonomous drones to deliver products to customers. Although this technology is still in the development phase, drone deliveries could allow fast delivery of time-critical items to remote locations. Greater use of unmanned aerial vehicles will depend upon resolving safety concerns, and will likely cost more than delivery through conventional channels.

IEEE Future of Retail Interactive Infographic

IEEE developed an interactive info-graphic, which includes the technologies listed above as well as further considerations, to showcase what the future of retail will look like both physically and digitally over the next few years. You can view the info-graphic by visiting IEEE Transmitter

[Image Credit* – IEEE]

From exclusive mobiles to laptops, apparels to toys; every category of item is available online. Discounts, Cash back and Easy Buy & return policy is driving the growth of e-commerce in India. Not to forget, exclusive tie-ups that brands have with e-tail companies which becomes a unique proposition of the e-commerce company.

However, when we think about e-commerce, only B2C companies like Flikpart, Snapdeal, Paytm, Amazon etc. comes to mind. Either you have Horizontal Players [as mentioned above] or Pure play vertical players like FirstCry, BabyOye etc. that cater to the ever expanding B2C segment.

Just imagine this random scenario – You as a Business owner want to buy a particular product in bulk but via the online route ? The options that come to your mind are very less & the resistance shown would be enormous since the capital required to buy in bulk would also be more !!! In a nutshell, in order to buy in bulk; you require higher capital, greater risk appetite & need to have faith on the seller/re-seller and the distribution model.

A typical B2B distribution model can encompass as many as half a dozen channels – distributors, resellers, retailers, in-house sales, dedicated agents and representatives, and independent agents. And, in many cases, can have as many layers – the publisher or manufacturer may distribute to a bevy of national and international distributors, who supply regional distributors, who provide product to independent sales agents, who service accounts that may have their own distribution systems to service the end buyer [Source – DigitalRiver]

However in the year 2014, IndiaMart – the undisputed leader in the B2B segment came up with the idea of Tolexo to solve this important problem for businesses. Tolexo is India’s online store for Business & Industry. It has the largest collection of products for offices, factories & businesses.

Tolexo is an IndiaMART Intermesh Ltd subsidiary that aims to leverage it’s expertise in the B2B segment by connecting buyers with sellers and providing supplementary services like Marketing, Brand Building, Product Fulfillment, Shipment etc.

Tolexo : Products Catalogue

Tolexo is the ultimate destination for Business Goods & Supplies, which transforms the way businesses buy these products. It offers consumer shopping experience for the largest collection of products needed by businesses, factories, offices and laboratories.

Tolexo has already served customers from more than 800 cities & towns across India. In order to maintain high level of customer satisfaction, Tolexo has rightly invested into it’s back-end infrastructure which has ensured friction-less e-commerce 🙂 E-commerce eco-system comprises of Buyers, Sellers [Merchants] & Products. Tolexo has more than 10,00,000+ essential products for business and industry, with more than 5000 sellers & 7500 brands.

Tolexo also provides Last-Mile delivery to it’s esteemed customers and has a very friendly ‘Cancellation & Refund Policy’.

Some of the prime categories on Tolexo are listed below:

[Source* – Tolexo]

Tolexo : Product Fulfillment

When we purchase any product online, one thing which we are concerned about is the timely product delivery. As mentioned above, risk becomes much higher in the B2B segment. Tolexo not only bridges the gap between the Buyer [Business Owner] & Seller [Merchant on Tolexo] but also provides supports to the merchant via Packaging, Logistics  etc. which play an important role in customer retention [apart from quality product :)].

To achieve this, Tolexo does inspections, ensures quality packaging and it has partnered with most of the top courier and logistics partners and communicates shipping status to customer at each stage of shipment. It’s logistic partners are FedEx, Gati, Blue Dart and Delhivery.

When me & my wife started selling Home-Made chocolates online, we gave prime importance to product packaging since that plays a crucial role in the product life-cycle.

Tolexo : Customer Service

Like other e-commerce companies, once the order has been placed customer can track of the product online as the updated status of shipment at its each stage from order is placed to processes to ready to ship to dispatch to deliver.

Tolexo_Customers

For this review, we called up Tolexo Helpline Number – 91 8282 8282 82 & the response was immediate. We asked them queries about certain factory products and posed questions about bulk-buying etc. The customer-care department did not disappoint us 🙂 Similar queries were sent to Tolexo Customer Support email which were answered in less than 24 hours.

Tolexo : Cancellations & Refund

At numerous times, we place an order for a product but plan to return the product due to some un-solicited reason. This is where the “Cancellation & Refund Policy” plays a very important role in ‘Customer Retention’. As per Tolexo’s Cancellation & Refund policy, it guarantees 100% MoneyBack if the issue not resolved in maximum 30 days via same mode.

Tolexo allows return of products for 3 days from delivery in all the following cases:

  • Product is used/worn or altered
  • Physical damage to the box or to the product
  • If sealed package of branded products is open
  • The packet was empty / some item or accessory was missing
  • The product was defective,
  • Significantly different from the description given by the merchant [wrong size, colour, quality or material related issues]
  • You changed your mind due to any other reason

Customer Testimonials section does indicate that they consider Customer Service, Last Mile Deliveries, Ease in Refund etc. core to their business !!

Tolexo : Design, Interface

Tolexo website has an simple & intuitive design. Searching for products across any category was very easy & we did not encounter any issue. The page-load time was also very less. It is also available on Play Store that ensures that it does not loose it’s customers and they can buy products in bulk even when they are on the go 🙂

The entire buying process was seamless which was a delight for us. They have a rigorous merchant selection process which ensures that they have the best merchants on their platform.

Closing Thoughts

Our overall experience on Tolexo was good. As mentioned by Sahil Barua, co-founder, Delhivery in this interview “B2B is an entire different ball-game and requires Logistics expertise”. Considering that the big-daddy of e-commerce – Amazon also ventured into B2B segment via AmazonBusiness [Source], Tolexo needs to pull up it’s sleeves & fill in the gaps where-ever required 🙂

If you are a business owner & have used Tolexo, please share them in the comments section !!

FreeCharge, India’s leading digital payments platform, have announced that it has crossed 5 million mark in mobile wallet users, a 4x wallet user base growth in less than four weeks. With this momentum, FreeCharge continues to set new records in terms of building user base.

It was the fastest to reach 1 million mark within a week of the launch. Customer roll out of the FreeCharge Wallet was initiated on 25th September, making this wallet the first in the country to achieve the milestone of 5 million users within 30 days of customer roll out.

FreeCharge

FreeCharge Wallet has seen over 40% of growth from new use cases from Snapdeal and Mumbai metro and expect the numbers to grow with new merchants getting added. The FreeCharge Wallet witnessed great response during the Snapdeal Diwali sales.

Thrilled with the achievement, Govind Rajan, COO, FreeCharge and CSO, Snapdeal, said

5 million users in less than 4 weeks, reflects our focus on the user experience. What delights us is not just breaching the 5 million mark, but the quality that underpins it. With an average of > 5 transactions per user, it is not just the fastest quantity but best quality as well. The FreeCharge app was rethought from the ground up to sharpen focus on habit commerce. All payment transactions are now a tap away and can be finished in under 10 seconds.

The growth is fundamentally driven by user experience and we are scaled up thus far without any advertising. FreeCharge Wallet is currently being used by Snapdeal and FreeCharge customers and will be soon extended to many other merchants. We are focused on creating Habit commerce and making payment transactions smooth, swift and secure for consumers and merchants. We foresee digital payments as a game changer in online commerce in near future.

The core of the design philosophy at FreeCharge is centred on design that helps build habit. The ease of use on FreeCharge platform allows consumers to complete all transactions in less than 10 seconds. Customers are Auto enrolled and this helps in repeat transactions even faster with just 1 click. With a great user experience consumers transact with a high degree of Frequency on FreeCharge.  On an average consumers transact over 5 times a month and an average of over 50% of the users transact every month on FreeCharge.

FreeCharge is compliant with leading industry standards like PCI DSS, making it the quickest and most secure wallet. FreeCharge wallet is powered by cutting edge technology. It is a robust and flexible platform that leverages enabling technologies such as HCE, NFC, QR code and BLE to create a most intuitive consumer experience. FreeCharge’s aim is to build habit commerce and through its partnerships, FreeCharge is set to generate the most compelling consumer experience.

About FreeCharge

FreeCharge is India’s leading digital platform for recharge and utility payments which provides prepaid, post-paid, DTH and Electricity bill payment for almost all Indian service providers. FreeCharge was founded in 2010 by Kunal ShahSandeep Tandon and had received funding of over $120 million in the last 4 years. In the largest acquisition in the consumer Internet space yet, Snapdeal acquired FreeCharge in Apr’15 resulting in India’s largest m-commerce ecosystem.  For more details, please visit FreeCharge

Zoho has announced the launch of Zoho Inventory, its cloud-based inventory and order management software for retailers and businesses that sell online. Zoho Inventory automates inventory and fulfillment tasks to ensure the right products are in stock at the right time, in the right locations and that orders are filled quickly and efficiently. The new software also streamlines companies’ back office and front office operations by integrating with Zoho’s online accounting software, Zoho Books, and its customer relationship management application, Zoho CRM.

Users can get a 14-day free trial account of Zoho Inventory here.

One of the most challenging tasks for business owners is inventory and order management. Having product available to meet customer demand at the right time & at the right location is critical to any product-selling business. Conversely, rising inventories means wasting assets that can sap much needed cash from a growing company. In order to reach the right balance and optimize business, companies need to adopt just-in-time inventory practices.

Raj Sabhlok, president of Zoho Corp. said

Inventory and order management is important to companies of all sizes. SMBs, in particular, can reap significant rewards when they automate those functions; but many still use a spreadsheet – or pen and paper. Zoho Inventory efficiently manages inventory and orders, optimizing them to dramatically increase revenues and profitability for any company that sells online or off.

Zoho Inventory Highlights

Manage online and offline orders

Zoho Inventory offers a centralized inventory from which users can manage both online and offline orders and stock levels across multiple channels. In turn, business owners can expand their reach and avoid a lot of the trouble that comes with multi-channel selling.

The new service integrates with Amazon, eBay, Shopify and Etsy; so items, contacts and sales orders in those channels will be imported to Zoho Inventory. More, when a purchase is made in one channel, stock levels are automatically updated in all channels. When an item is packed and shipped, the status is updated in the corresponding channel.

Just the right amount of stock

Users can keep their product list organized and get notified when product stock falls below desired inventory levels. This way, users can avoid losing out on sales due to stock-outs. With Zoho Inventory’s powerful reporting features, users can optimize their purchases and inventory levels and get critical insights about their businesses.

Fulfill orders in time

Zoho Inventory takes care of order fulfillment as well and works with 25+ shipping services. Owners can make use of that integration to get real-time shipping rates of different services from one place. Also, the status and in-transit location of each shipment will be updated at regular, user-defined intervals.

Works with Zoho’s accounting software

Zoho Inventory integrates with Zoho Books, the backbone of the back office that lies at the heart of Zoho finance solutions adopted by many retailers and online sellers. Zoho Inventory can leverage Zoho Books to ensure data integrity and eliminate duplicate data entry. The integration also provides Zoho Inventory users an integrated view of their business; so for instance, purchases from vendors and invoices for inventory made in Zoho Inventory are automatically recorded and reflected in Zoho Books.

Works with Zoho’s CRM software

Zoho Inventory also integrates with Zoho CRM, so all contacts, invoices, items and sales orders are reflected in both applications. This way, sales people know what stock is on hand and what is back ordered. The inventory insight ensures sales teams sell what they have and set customer expectations appropriately when selling items that are out of stock.

Zoho Inventory also features a mobile app for iOS users that lets users find status updates of orders in real time, from anywhere

Pricing and Availability

Zoho Inventory, along with the iOS app, is available immediately for businesses. For details on pricing plans, visit http://www.zoho.com/inventory/pricing. All users get Zoho Books Professional Plan for free to manage their accounting. All Zoho Inventory plans include a 14-day,free trial that can be accessed at Zoho Inventory SignUp

In a bid to ease recharge facilities for commuters, FreeCharge, India’s leading digital platform for recharge and utility payments launched online recharge facility for smart card users of Mumbai Metro. With this new integration FreeCharge will enable Smart Card recharges on its website, Android, iOS & Windows app allowing users to recharge on the go.

Like any other payment of utility bills or recharges, commuter can recharge their stored value card in less than 10 seconds. As far as the process goes, it is developed to comfort, where in commuters only need to enter their unique smart card number which will lead to the payment gateways. Once the recharge is successful the user will receive a message/mail.

To this new addition, Kunal Shah, CEO and co-founder of Freecharge, said

We are very excited with this new addition and have witnessed tremendous response since the launch. We believe that this expansion like all our others is being leveraged by thousands of FreeCharge customers making their daily commute easy and hassle-free. We appreciate the support extended by Reliance Metro and looking forward to add new users to our database. To us this is a unique idea, simplifying and rewarding smart card recharges to all the Mumbai metro card users.

With answering to the woes of thousands of daily metro passengers, Freecharge is set to take on another level of taxing payments, metro card recharges. It will gather a gamut of utility payments along with recharges under one roof, making the boring transactions stress-free and gratifying for its customers. These smart card recharges will empower metro commuters quit long queues and recharge their smart cards anytime and anywhere.

FreeCharge has made smart card recharge not only convenient but rewarding through various exciting discount coupons. FreeCharge has recently launched a 100% cashback offer for commuters wherein every recharge of INR 100 and above will get INR 100 cashback. Mumbai Metro and FreeCharge aims to further promote the use of smart card for ease of life and commuting by launching many more exciting offers.

About FreeCharge

FreeCharge is India’s leading digital platform for recharge and utility payments which provides prepaid, post-paid, DTH and Electricity bill payment for almost all Indian service providers. FreeCharge was founded in 2010 by Kunal ShahSandeep Tandon and had received funding of over $120 million in the last 4 years. In the largest acquisition in the consumer Internet space yet, Snapdeal acquired FreeCharge in Apr’15 resulting in India’s largest m-commerce ecosystem.  For more details, please visit FreeCharge

FreeCharge, India’s leading digital payments platform, today announced that the company will adopt Aadhaar as the primary Know Your Customer (KYC) tool for opening & upgrading wallets.

Consumers who enrol for a FreeCharge wallet with Aadhaar authentication can have their balance limit enhanced from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 Lakh. Also, there will be no monetary limit on transactions making the wallet truly versatile. FreeCharge, which has already hit the million wallets mark within a week of launch, believes that being Aadhaar enabled is key to mass adoption and ubiquitous usage.

FreeCharge

Consumers can link their FreeCharge Wallet to their Aadhaar number in multiple ways like–doorstep service available on demand, consumers can also authenticate by walking into any of the 30,000 banking correspondent points of FreeCharge partner YES bank or walk into any branch of YES Bank. In the future this service will also be available with FINO – the Payments bank licensee a strategic partner of FreeCharge.

Speaking about this, Govind Rajan, Chief Operating Officer, FreeCharge & Chief Strategy Officer, Snapdeal said

For consumers, convenience and speed of transaction are key considerations. We will leverage Aadhar ID authentication for paperless, secure KYC, to be completed in a few minutes. We are innovating to bring new models of go to market – for instance doorstep authentication, where customers can request for an agent to come to their home for a doorstep biometric authentication. Within a week we hit the 1 million mark and now leveraging Aadhaar enabled KYC gives us access to the pool of over 900 million KYC ready consumers

With lakhs of deliveries a day on Snapdeal, we have a huge and relevant customer connect opportunity for us to synergize with for doorstep KYC. We will soon launch the pilot in metros and then scale this nationwide.

FreeCharge wallet is powered by cutting edge technology. It is a robust and flexible platform that leverages enabling technologies such as HCE, NFC, QR code & BLE to create a most intuitive consumer experience.

About FreeCharge

FreeCharge is India’s leading digital platform for recharge and utility payments which provides prepaid, post-paid, DTH and Electricity bill payment for almost all Indian service providers. FreeCharge was founded in 2010 by Kunal ShahSandeep Tandon and had received funding of over $120 million in the last 4 years. In the largest acquisition in the consumer Internet space yet, Snapdeal acquired FreeCharge in Apr’15 resulting in India’s largest m-commerce ecosystem.  For more details, please visit FreeCharge