Browsing Tag
AiHello uses predictive analysis to help online retailers sell efficiently on multiple channels (including Amazon, Ebay, Shopify,Flipkart etc) by optimizing inventory, sale location & price.
Location : Northcote
URL : https://www.aihello.com/
NextBigWhat profiles interesting products and startups (India + world). If you are building something interesting, submit the details here.
The story of Shopclues entering the Indian startup ecosystem and competing with well-funded e-commerce boys is similar to the tale of David vs. Goliath!
Shopclues was founded in 2011 and was pretty much one of the last entrants in the e-commerce space. E-commerce is one of the most competitive segments in the Indian Startup ecosystem and it’s difficult for new players to come and compete with existing well-funded E-commerce giants.
Shopclues from the beginning was very clear that to succeed in the e-commerce industry they have to diverge, differentiate and create their niche. Else, they might end up looking like a man with a split personality – selling both luxury and mass market products.
ShopClues noticed that nobody was representing the bazaars or bringing the actual traders of India online. They decided to be a mass market retailer. The categories, customers, and merchants they targeted determined their success.
Currently, more than 3.5 million orders are shipped every month with over a 50 million products to choose from and a merchant base of 130,000 sellers.
Did Shopclues have the “Last Mover Advantage” or did they just get the product (mass) market fit right and executed brilliantly?
This UnPluggd, hear it straight from the horse’s mouth as CEO of ShopClues, Sanjay Sethi would be speaking on ‘Between India and Bharat, How Shopclues Evolved.’
Still haven’t booked your tickets? Book Now
About UnPluggd
Date: Nov 25th & 26th, 2016
Venue: Park Plaza hotel (Marathahalli), Bangalore
URL: http://nextbigwhat.com
Limited Offer: Use Coupon code WE20 to avail 20% off (until 22nd November) or Book more than 3 or more tickets and get 35% off!
In an effort to improve customer experience, the online marketplace is shifting its focus back to become an inventory-based company, with the prime concentration on metrics such as product quality and delivery speed.
Reportedly, the company’s reputation with customers has taken a huge hit, ever since it attempted to become a marketplace, which saw a slowdown on its product delivery time, and poor product quality.
Apart from this, Flipkart’s CEO, Binny Bansal has also announced 2 of his other top priorities to put the company on track:
1) Monthly gross sales of Rs 3,700-3,800 crore by expanding sales of smartphones, large appliances and fashion
2) Break even at gross profit level, by cutting expenses.
Amazon could be on its way to pip Flipkart as the top e-commerce seller in India.
Amazon’s gross sales in July were above Rs 2,000 crore, while Flipkart’s gross merchandise value (GMV) for July were reportedly less than Rs 2,000 crores.
However, these numbers exclude revenue from Jabong and Myntra, fashion retailers owned by Flipkart.
Relieving e-commerce merchants, of threats that have hindered optimum utilization of rewards and loyalty programs, payment aggregator, PayUbiz, announces the launch of its Device Fingerprinting Technology. The technology is aimed at countering the long-existing malpractices in the realm of e-commerce loyalty program for customers. This technology captures distinctive details of a user’s Internet connecting device like computer, mobile phone and tablet.
Device Fingerprinting enables detection of fraudulent transactions without the need of acquiring personally identifiable information. This solution captures more than thirty parameters through a web browser (mobile and internet). These parameters are updated and customized to keep the technology ahead of the curve regularly. It is a powerful tool for recognizing a returning fraudster even if they use multiple identities by using different contact numbers, identities, IP Address or cookies.
China’s Tiens Group is set to foray into the Indian e-commerce market by the end of 2016. The firm plans to build a user base of one crore over the next five years.
The e-commerce platform will allow the Indian consumers to buy products from different countries.
Founded in 1995, the company has branches in cities including Guwahati, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai and plans to expand to Chandigarh and North East region. It will be directly competing with US based Amway and Sweden based Oriflame.
The company plans to produce 70% of its products locally, which ranges from healthcare to personal care. It will also be hiring for management roles including accounting, human resources, IT.
[source]With everyone embarking on ecommerce ventures and having witnessed the soaring demand, Tata Group is set to join the bandwagon by end of this month. Entering the online market now, may be a little late though.
The Tata Group will enter the space with the launch of its online marketplace called ‘Tata CLiQ’, by the end of this month. The marketplace will make it convenient for the customers by integrating the online channel with support at brick and mortar stores.
The yet-to-be launched business will focus on apparel, electronics and footwear.
Ashutosh Pandey will head the operations as CEO. Tata Group currently operates in the offline retail segment with brands like Westside, Landmark and jewellery brand outlet Tanishq.
The e-commerce marketplace has witnessed few more entrants recently including Reliance Industries’ platform called Ajito and Aditya Birla Group’s abof.
[source] Company Name : FirstCry
Funding Amount : Undisclosed
Investor(s) Ratan Tata . .
Funding Round : Not Disclosed
Ratan Tata has invested an undisclosed amount in FirstCry, owned by Brainbees.
The company is a platform of baby and maternity products in India which started operations in late 2010, has a presence with over 2 million parents, over 50% mobile customer base and has over 150 FirstCry branded franchisee offline stores across 100 cities in the country.
FirstCry, founded by Supam Maheshwari, has partnered with 7000 maternity hospitals across the country.
“Our vision is to simplify parenting by creating the necessary eco-system and we have outgrown competitors to become the dominant driver in this space across mobile, online & offline channels. A positive nod from a business leader of Mr. Tata’s stature is a great vote of confidence in the way we have created the eco-system and validation of the business approach leading to definitive path to profitability. We are delighted to have him on board and look forward to gaining from his rich experience,” said Supam Maheshwari, Founder & CEO of Brainbees.
Brainbees has raised $69 million in capital over multiple rounds from investors including IDG Ventures India, SAIF Partners, Vertex Ventures, Valiant Capital and NEA.
Ratan Tata had recently also invested in Cashkaro, Tracxn, DogSpot.
Flipkart is now available for Windows 10 and available to consumers across all Windows 10 devices (mobiles, tablets, desktops) with a new universal Windows app.
The new universal app will offer a more personalized app interface with features such as customized shopping recommendations, merchandising and notifications, and interactive guided search. Additionally, consumers will also be able to avail all the ‘App-only’ offers right from the app.
The Flipkart app for Windows 10 has been developed specially for hybrid devices and optimized for use of different inputs such as touch, keyboard, trackpad and mouse. The app also enables consumers to open tabs in the background to view products later as well as compare different products for a faster browsing experience. Users can also access the “Image search” feature to find visually similar items when shopping.
Amar Nagaram, Director, Mobile Engineering, Flipkart, said, “At Flipkart, we strive to innovate and re-invent the customer experience at every touch-point. Over the last few months, we have been working on the Windows 10 platform to create richer and more personalized experience for our consumers. We have been working towards creating a seamless experience similar to that of an app and Windows 10 surely provides opportunities to introduce innovative features.”
In a new development, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion’s statement (DIPP) has raised questions on the marketplace models of e-commerce players.
The Department has clearly stated that such models are not recognized under the county’s foreign direct investment (FDI) policy. The regulatory body said that the financial authorities should keep a check if any rules have been violated.
DIPP which is responsible for framing FDI policy, clearly told the high court that the regulations do not permit 100% FDI in B2C ventures but only in B2C ventures. Any violation of FDI rules, are dealt by penal provisions of Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).
In the past, e-commerce models have been much criticized by the traditional retailers although the e-commerce players always said that they operate within the law.
The court has ordered the Enforcement Directorate to investigate whether ecommerce companies, including Snapdeal, Jabong, Myntra and Amazon-owned Junglee, have violated any FDI rules.
[source]Flipkart has hired former Twitter executive Tarun Jain. In his new role, he will be responsible to head the products division of its advertising business.
Tarun Jain has relocated from San Francisco to Bangalore and will head business strategy, product division, execution, partnerships and customer adoption. He will report to entrepreneur-in-residence Ravi Garikipati and the ads business is headed by Flipkart’s Group CEO Sachin Bansal.
Earlier, he worked with Google and was responsible building and scaling AdWords Express, Dynamic Ads, Google Offers and Google Shopping.
The company had earlier hired Google’s Surojit Chatterjee to head consumer experience. [source]
eBay India will now let consumers continue their festive shopping spree with the Black Friday sale. Globally, Black Friday will be celebrated on 27th November while for Indian consumers eBay India will offer the sale starting 20th November.
eBay India aims to introduce and establish the concept of ‘Black Friday’ in India which is considered as commencement of the shopping season in USA and famous for extreme discounts.
Black Friday sale will allow buyers in India to avail heavy discounts on US based products at India pricing across categories such as electronic, lifestyle, home appliances, sports and fitness equipment amongst others.
eBay India will also offer free shipping across the country on products purchased via Global Easy Buy – a service launched by eBay in India that allows Indian shoppers to purchase directly from international eBay sites at a cumulative INR cost inclusive of product price, shipping cost and any other applicable charges.
Indian Consumers can avail upto 50% discount on lifestyle products and upto 45% off on electronic items during the promotional period ending November 30th 2015.
Navin Mistry, Head Retail Exports and Lifestyle Category, eBay India said, “On eBay India we provide Indian consumers with direct and easy access to an unmatched options of deals & discounts being offered during Black Friday Sale Week in USA. Indian shoppers can now buy the world’s hottest labels and coolest brands from the comfort of their home at unbelievable Indian prices whilst enjoying the eBay advantages of trust, safety, guarantee and price competitiveness.”
Company Name : fourseven
Funding Amount : Rs 3 crore
Investor(s) Indian Angel Network . .
Funding Round : Not Disclosed
Delhi NCR based fourseven, an online jewellery store has raised Rs 3 crores from Indian Angel Network (IAN).
Sumit Dhingra and Rajiv Mehta have led this round of investment on behalf of IAN and will also be joining the board of the company.
“We believe customers want a brand they can trust for quality, unique designs, value, sound business practices and a great end-to-end experience when shopping, buying, receiving and, if needed, making exchanges. We are laser focused on providing excellence for our customers. In addition, at fourseven we aim at building a business that reflects our company philosophy of being eco-friendly, made in India, and socially aware. Customers who love our products and what we stand for will see how we stand apart from the rest,” said Rebekkah Kumar, founder, fourseven.
The funds will be used to expand the team, grow revenue, increase product range and invest in its technology platform.
Paytm has concluded its three-day Diwali sale and reported a 6X growth in the pre-Diwali promotion that ended on November 5, 2015.
The Alibaba-backed company sold over 500+ motorcycles and more than 1,000 bicycles which were purchased online and delivered to customers from physical dealerships.
Paytm had earlier entered into an exclusive tie-up with Mahindra Two Wheelers to sell Mahindra Centuro motorcycles and Mahindra Gusto scooters through the site.
Saurabh Vashishtha, Vice President, Business, Paytm, said, “Unstructured categories have always been our focus and our intent is to ensure that consumers see the widest assortment possible in these categories. The recently concluded Diwali sale re-validated our strategy. We saw tremendous interest from consumers leading to over 6-10X growth in transactions for these categories. Apparels, Fashion accessories, Home & Kitchen, Gifting and Diwali sweets were some of the best performing categories during the sale. We also saw significant preference for value added services during the sale. Our customers bought over 500 motorcycles during the sale from Paytm. In addition 20% all orders were delivered within 2 hours through the FED model. We registered a surge of 6-8 lakh concurrent users, which was 10-15 times the average peak traffic on the site.”
Consumers from Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns contributed to over 70% of the total traffic during the sale.
Snapdeal today unveiled Snaptrends – an online fashion trends forecasting service for its sellers.
This fashion forecasting service will enable small and medium sized manufacturers and businesses in getting access to fashion intelligence to assist them to produce commercially viable apparel collection.
Snaptrends aims to act as a definitive guidebook for fashion and design product development exclusively for Snapdeal seller partners.
Vishal Chadha, Senior Vice President- Market Development,Snapdeal, said, “Our aim is to build the most impactful digital ecosystem in the country and we are committed to provide value for both our sellers and consumers. Snaptrends will enable us to create value for our customers by bringing them the latest apparel and fashion accessories and to our sellers by empowering them with valuable consumer insights. With this trends forecasting service, we will enable Indian fashion manufacturers of all sizes to keep abreast of latest industry insights, giving them a chance to tap the fast growing market.”
Snapdeal will break down each step by providing a ready reference that includes trend inspirations, key fabrics, colour direction, original prints which will finally culminate into an exclusive collection. For each season, Snapdeal’s panel of trends analysts, fashion designers, textile designers and fashion experts will develop an array of well-researched and detailed design innovations.
Snapdeal has unveiled an exclusive automobile platform- Snapdeal Motors that offers its customers an integrated buying experience enabling online booking along with loan approvals.
On this platform, customers will be able to browse through a variety of automobile options/variants, avail of test drives, book online, choose from financing options and documentation support.
The platform has been designed to facilitate easy catalogue exploration and discoverability of products from the listed brands. Once customers have selected their preferred automobile model, they can choose dealers on the basis of proximity and estimated delivery date.
Customers will need to pay a nominal booking amount on Snapdeal Motors and will have access to financing options as well.
