Pitch December 2014 by Adsert Web Solutions

11TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

Volume XI Issue 10 | December 2014

` 75

Amazon, Snapdeal, Groupon share their success mantras Pg. 24

Also Meet the

RISING STARS of ecommerce Pg. 45

Blippar

How is helping marketers adopt augmented reality Pg. 12

The future of

E-COMMERCE Ecommerce has changed the game for the retail and media industries. How long will the frenzy last and who will take the lead?

Pitch | December 2014

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INSIDE

Pitch Volume XI, Issue-9 December 2014

Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Annurag Batra Editor & Director Amit Agnihotri Director Nawal Ahuja

EDITORIAL TEAM

Consulting Editor

Vinod Behl

Deputy Editor

Rashi Bisaria

Correspondents

Kanika Mehrotra

Senior Art Director

Shamsad Shaikh

Senior Graphic Designer

Joby Mathew

Photographers

Vilas Kalgutkar (Mumbai) Suresh Gola (Noida)

COVER STORY

ECOMMERCE and its future- Will the frenzy last? 22

AD SALES

Rajat Thareja Prashant Kulkarni Sneha Walke

9810134435 9886138249 9845541143

0FFICES

NEW DELHI: Shop No. 32, 33 south Ettn. Part-I, Om vihar, Uttam Nagar, New Delhi 110 059 NOIDA: B-20, I-Floor, Sector-57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Phone: (0120) 4007700 Mumbai: 301, Kakad Bhavan, 3rd Floor, 11th Street, Bandra (W), Mumbai - 400 050 Phone: (022) 2640 3303/09/14/16 Bengaluru: Flat No. 1,062, 1st Floor, 2nd Cross, 6th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Indira Nagar, Bengaluru - 560 038 CIRCULATION/DISTRIBUTION

Vinod Sharma (Delhi) - 9999447209 vinod@exchange4media.com

Ecommerce has changed the game for the retail and media industries. How long will the frenzy last and who will take the lead?

“The strength of the organization lies in our execution capabilities” Saurabh Kochhar MD and Co-Founder, Printvenue.com

OTHER INTERVIEWS

Anandan Nair (Mumbai) - 9819445200 anair@exchange4media.com On News-stands ` 75 www.pitchonnet.com Printed and published by Annurag Batra on behalf of Adsert Web Solutions Pvt Ltd B-20, I-Floor, Sector-57, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 Printed at All Time Offset Printers, E-53, Sector-7 Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301 An exchange4media Publication

08 Hanneli Slabber Country Manager, South African Tourism

62 Sandip Somany Joint Managing Director, HSIL ltd

18 Karthikeya R. Reddy CEO and Director, ID Overseas Pvt Ltd

20 Bhavesh Somaya Marketing and Innovation Director , Diageo India

Pitch | December 2014

‘We stuck to our core by offering innovative, high-quality deals’

‘Being visible online helps in acquiring customers’

Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Groupon India

Sameer Parwani CEO and Founder, Coupondunia

Rohit Chadda MD and Co-Founder, FoodPanda

How FreeCharge provides value to marketers

Technology and Innovation define Bluestone Jewellery

Alok Goel CEO, FreeCharge

Gaurav Singh Kushwaha Founder and CEO, Bluestone

Anisha Singh Founder, Mydala

Smartening up the customer about prices

Pepperfry provides the omni-channel experience

Sitakanta Ray Co-Founder and Director, MySmartPrice

Kashyap Vadapalli CMO, Pepperfry

How Consumer Analytics Data helped Mydala

‘Our focus is to create life-changing experiences’ Sandeep Komaravelly SVP- Marketing, Snapdeal.com

Climbing the ladder of success

Fresh fashion with a fresh appeal

Rajiv Srivatsa COO and Co-Founder, Urban Ladder

Sandeep Sharma Founder and COO, YepMe

Amit Agarwa Country Manager and VP, Amazon India

FEATURES

Are brands struggling to cope with the social 76

The Panda on a rampage in the Indian online food ordering market

media challenge?

COLUMNS Joginder Chhabra

Head, Market Intelligence & Consumer Insights, LG Electronics

Gaurav Sood

Tamanna Khanna

Kulwinder Singh

Brand Communication professional, Brand Educator & Research Scholar

Director, Global Marketing & Communications, Synechron

Nitin Mathur

Co-Founder, 91mobiles.com

Pitch | December 2014

Ankur Ashta

Vinish Kathuria

Avik Chattopadhyay

Ayush Trivedi

Annurag Batra

Marketing Professional and Author

Head Marketing, IndiaFirst Life Insurance

12 Can augmented reality catch on in India?

‘Our philosophy of working backwards from the customers is what drives our growth’

Chief Operating Officer, Digital Quotient Independent brand and Strategy Consultant

Co-Founder & Managing Director, Bhaap.com Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, Pitch Magazine

COLUMN

Changing consumer mindset in the age of E- Commerce Joginder Chhabra

Head, Market Intelligence & Consumer Insights, LG Electronics

As the consumers use the Internet to research products with the intention of making a purchase online, they are also taking their new-found knowledge back to offline retail 4

commerce is a big business worldwide and getting even bigger each day, though ecommerce currently accounts for 5-6 per cent of the total worldwide retail sales, however the growth has been spectacular achieving more than 100 per cent growth in last 2 years. As the consumer continues to trade off between online and of�line activations and with the splurge of new technologies like 4G and increased use of smartphone for internet retailing, the of�line retailers are increasingly under pressure to merge of�line, online & mobile infrastructure to provide complete shopping experience for the new age consumer. The main drivers for ecommerce in recent years have been consumer aspiration for more value and convenience, increased use of web, faster and effective download speeds, improved and much secure shipping and online payment methods and more recently increased use of smartphones and tablets for the same. While US & China are the largest markets for Internet retailing, UK & South Korea are largest in terms of online sales as a proportion of total retail sales. Though Internet penetration in India is still low (11 %) as compared to global standards, it is growing at a much faster rate and currently has 80- 85 Mn active users. India ecom-

merce market is currently at US $ 12bn (Rs.70, 000 crore as of 2013). As the consumers use the Internet to research products with the intention of making a purchase online, they are also taking their new-found knowledge back to of�line retail locations to make the transaction, The trend is more prevalent in certain categories such as apparel and big ticket consumer goods such as durables & automobiles. Consumer categories which have highest online sales are Airline tickets, Clothing accessories & shoes,Tours & Hotel reservations, E-books, Cosmetics, personal care & groceries etc. Electronic equipment & mobile phones are fastest growing among the appliances category but also have higher category of customers who search online and buy of�line. The trend is more or less similar worldwide, with the exceptions being Latin America where online browsing rates are exceptionally high, but online sales conversion

Pitch | December 2014

COLUMN is relatively low. Incidentally Asia paci�ic region has the highest Online browsing to sales conversion ratio across major online consumer categories. The most common reasons for shopping online globally are price and �lexibility. Time constraint and ability to buy brands not available of�line are the other reasons for the same. Consumers in Markets such as India where in- store retailing, modern trade & of�line retailing has not reached the levels of developed countries are particularly enthusiastic about online retail and experiencing brands not available otherwise.

Types of Online buyers

In India there are three clear prominent segments of Online buyers. First- the one who searches online and also buys from a website. These segments of customers apart from ticketing , travel related transactions have the following online preferences Major product searched and bought online – “Mobile Handsets & Accessories” Personal grooming products & peripherals,Digital Cameras/Video Cameras/Camcorders,Healthcare productsand Desktop PCs/Laptops/ Notebooks/Tablets also form a signi�icant percentage. The preferred reasons for buying online are – Best Price among all websites Credit Card is the preferred mode of payment for all categories followed by cash on delievery. The other segments of customers are those who search online & buy of�line. These customers search online for product information, price comparisons , online reviews. They �ind Internet most convenient source for concerned product / service related search , also saves time for going to the market.

The last segment of customers is the Price sensitive customer who leverages and prioritizes of�line and online channels on the basis of the price factor alone and buys from the source which offers minimum price. The rapid growth of smartphones and tablets, which allows access to the internet anywhere and at any time, has led to growth in the number of shoppers making purchases on the move or while relaxing at home, a practice known as “sofa shopping”. This trend has become more prevelant in Asia paci�ic with the spike in smartphone market in this region. Though actual sales through smartphones have have not made signi�icant impact yet , in Japan, it is currently contributing 35 per cent of the total Internet sales. There is a growing trend of “showrooming” – whereby consumers visit physical stores to examine an item in person, then order it online at a lower price . The trend is also visible in India especially in the apparel and shoes segment lately.

Online retailers, with the continuous advent of new technologies such as 4G,Expansion of home broadband services, Wi Fi Hotspots continue to attract more traf�ic to their websites with the objective of converting more search based customers to online purchases.Well coordinated Sales events like “Deal of the day”,” Black Friday “ , “ Billion dollar day” are aimed at attracting meaningful online traf�ic for these Online retailers. In some countries, Brick & Mortar retailers have started providing both of�line and online channels to retain customers , however this trend is limited to conventional online categories and portable appliances. To summarize, the new age Consumer is both smart and informed about the shopping priorities , and is leveraging and blending both Online & Of�line channels,in terms of his shopping priorities , convenience, value , best prices and making more informed decisions than ever before. 

The views expressed here are of the author alone and do not necessarily re�lect the views of Pitch

Pitch | December 2014

INTERVIEW HANNELI SLABBER

he travel and tourism industry has uncovered the potential of social media in promoting destinations. Sharing of travel related content has become second nature for Indian consumers who are driving a high level of engagement through their travel stories. Cashing in on this wave are tourism boards that are using social media to disseminate their messages. South African Tourism believes that ‘travel is social’ and has been driving its marketing efforts through social platforms. In conversation with Rashi Bisaria, Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager, South African Tourism explains how consumer outreach initiatives have been amplified through the digital medium and how the number of Indian visitors to South Africa has steadily increased over the years. Edited excerpts:

How social media marketing has become an important tool for destination companies What kind of presence does South African Tourism have on digital media? How did you amplify the latest campaign through social media? When #TakeMeToSouthAfrica was �irst conceptualized in 2012, the main objective was to reach out to travel enthusiasts all over India thereby showcasing the variety of wonderful experiences on offer to

Indian travel enthusiasts. We wanted to launch a direct consumer outreach initiative where we get them to experience the destination �irst-hand and to further augment the consumer outreach, we decided to get our Brand Ambassador and cricketing maverick Jonty Rhodes to don the role of a host to the winners on the 2 week trip to South Africa. Hailing from South Africa

and being extremely passionate about travel we were sure to have had made the perfect choice. Rightly so, the entries for the �irst edition and the current one of #TakeMeToSouthAfrica received phenomenal response from travel junkies across the country. This year in an attempt to further intensify our approach as per the tastes

Pitch | December 2014

of Indian travelers, an extensive external research was carried out. The results indicated that gaming was one of the key in�luences of the customer’s preferences. On the basis of this understanding, South African Tourism introduced the latest edition #TakeMeToSouthAfrica through an online gaming contest where contenders had to cross multiple levels on adventure, wildlife, art & culture and history about South Africa. As expected, the contest was a huge hit across India with a very high level of engagement across platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and a specially designed microsite linked to the South African Tourism website. With the understanding of ever rising in�luence of social media platforms on travel decisions of Indian travelers, South African Tourism is extremely active on various digital media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Our of�icial website is also extremely user friendly and provides our consumers an insight into South Africa with a number of blog posts, tweets with popular hash tags, Instagram posts and much more. In the social space there is a focus on building communities that will be most receptive to the content you have to share. Community building extends the reach of organic activity if the communication is good. The recent South African Tourism “Reconsider Ad” garnered more than 500,000 views on YouTube not only due to the sheer brilliance of the ad also due to the sustained efforts of the #MeetSouthAfrica community that invested in the initiative almost 18 months prior to the ad, by proactively sharing content in order to generate initial buzz around the ad . The ad along with the hashtag #MeetSouthAfrica has worked perfectly and generated large conversations with the majority of comments and shares.

What was the #TakeMeToSouthAfrica campaign all about? #TakeMeToSouthAfrica commenced earlier this year and immediately caught on with the audiences. Participations started pouring in from across the country, the moment the contest went public. Over 800 numbers of entries were received and from

Pitch | December 2014

the 24 shortlisted contestants who made it to Round two, 4 lucky winners have been chosen for a two week trip to South Africa with Jonty Rhodes. This year, we adopted a distinct and innovative strategy to inform the chosen winners about their victory. Billboards were set up outside the of�ice of the four winners with a personalized message from Jonty Rhodes announcing that they have won a trip to South Africa with him. Amazed to see their billboards, contestants expressed excitement for this once-in-a-lifetime voyage to South Africa. These travel enthusiasts will embark on their journey to South Africa from December 1-15, 2014 for some amazing travel experiences with Jonty as their personal host. Compared to last year what is the consumer sentiment like this year? Are people travelling more this year? All our efforts with varied initiatives in the Indian market to reach out to our target audience and key stakeholders have always paid off extremely well and has helped strengthen the perception of South Africa as a tourist destination offering a varied set of experiences. 2013 recorded 1 12 672 Indian tourists visiting South Africa which was an increase of 5.5 per cent vis-à-vis 2012. 24 556 Indians have visited South Africa in the �irst three months of 2014. Has digital gained prominence as compared to 2013 in the tourism industry? The tourism industry has changed dramatically with the overwhelming emergence

of social media platforms. While choosing a holiday destination, consumers today opt for research on the internet for reviews as the �irst step to understand the destination and its varied offerings. Hence, digital and social media marketing has gained immense importance in the overall marketing and communication strategy for destination companies and tourism boards. Social media is a massive tool to reach out to the global audience with your key messages and immerse prospective consumers in an engagement programme through contests, pictures, videos among others. Engagement is the key feature of social media marketing which has worked well for many destinations including ours. We at South African Tourism believe that “Travel is Social”. This means that travelers worldwide love to talk about where they have been, where they are going and the things they are planning to do at the destination. This process is aspirational and it is absolutely crucial in today’s digital age to pay attention to what is being said. Digital media and technologies now affect every single stage of the visitor’s journey to a destination – from planning to stay to post trip conversations. The purpose of every Tourism Board should be to develop a holistic digital marketing strategy targeting the decision-making process of planning a trip, to providing useful visitor information to utilizing attractive social media tools for sharing their memorable experience upon their return home.  - rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

COLUMN

“Brand Modi:

Leveraging Secondary Brand Associations” Gaurav Sood

Brand Communication professional, Brand Educator & Research Scholar

gauravkaransood@yahoo.com

Narendra Modi has shown the world the “Art & Science of Branding” through his own brand knowledge structures in the minds of the consumer 10

Our world is in danger. Indeed it is in such a precarious condition. We need a Superman to �ly in and save the world. But the problems now facing mankind can’t be solved by the Man of Steel’s superhero abilities. Population pressure, price rise, falling GDP, climate change, corruption ... these are villains that can’t be beaten by the super powers from �iction. There is, however, a real-life superhero on the horizon: Narendra Modi. Narendra Modi has shown the world the “Art & Science of Branding” through his own brand knowledge structures (Gujarat Model of development, Hindutva etc.) in the minds of the consumer (=voter). Comic books often borrow ideas from science: Superman is fuelled by solar energy; Spider-man was bitten by a radioactive spider; the X-Men are the next stage of human evolution, Popeye the Sailor Man gets his power from Spinach, Asterix from magic potion brewed by Geta�ix (the potion in which Obelisk fell as a baby), Harry Potter from his magic wand and Iron Man from the Arc Reactor. Almost all the superheroes borrow powers from secondary sources and use them to build the brand superhero. In branding terms these are known as secondary brand associations through which brands

build on their brand equity. This makes the super-hero’s de�iance of laws of nature seem plausible, and builds on credibility, and indicates ingenuity.

Brand Modi–“I have the power” PM Narendra Modi has shown how well he can leverage secondary brand associations from his competition/opponents/events in recent times. In effect, the Modi brand “borrows” some brand knowledge and, depending on the nature of those associations and responses, perhaps some brand equity from other entities. This indirect approach to building brand equity is leveraging secondary brand knowledge for the Modi brand. Post elections and forming the government, secondary brand knowledge may be quite important for Modi and BJP to creating strong, favourable, and unique associations or positive responses for Modi to be acceptable nationally and internationally. It can also be an effective way to reinforce existing Modi brand associations and

Pitch | December 2014

Brand Modi‘s Secondary Brand Association Network

responses in a fresh and different way. Kevin Lane Keller, Branding Guru, considers the different means by which we can create secondary brand knowledge by linking the brand to the following: companies, country of origin or other geographic areas, channel of distribution, co-branding, celebrity endorsement,other events and thirdparty sources. Modi has done his brand building homework precisely well, as he has used each and every trick in the book and beyond it to leverage secondary brand associations to build his brand. Modi needs to be applauded for leveraging these secondary associations like: Sardar Patel, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Ice Bucket Challenge, Amitabh Bachchan etc.

Brand Modi’s secondary brand association network It all started when Modi appointed Amitabh Bachchan to promote Gujarat Tourism -A successful case for destination branding Strategy using Amitabh Bachchan as the brand Ambassador. Bollywood icon and Gujarat brand ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, who has lent his rich baritone and charismatic presence to attract tourists to many picturesque spots in the state of Gujarat. Bachchan has so far promoted the Kutch region, Dwarka, Somnath and Gir National Park. Subsequently, these places have seen an increase in tourist arrivals, including a 30 per cent rise in foreign travelers. On 2 October, 2014, Narendra Modi virtually hijacked Mahatma Gandhi’s inheritance from the Congress Party. Modi went on doing it with élan, telling the world about the Gandhian philosophy. Gandhi was a man of the masses. After a long time Modi took him out of government �iles, the ritualistic Rajghat homage and routine Vigyan Bhawan seminars to take him back to the masses - launching a national campaign for clean India, ‘Swachh Bharat’ on the lines of the “Ice bucket challenge”, even nominating 9 personalities to further it up.

Pitch | December 2014

Sardar Patel

Mahatma Gandhi

Brand MODI

Amitabh Bachchan

Martin Luther King

On American soil, in a nod to civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King, PM Modi said, “I have a dream... (mera ek sapna hai) by 2022, there should be no one in India without a roof over his head.” Keeping in mind the US President Barack Obama’s admiration, Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally chose and gifted audio-video clips from the 1959 India visit of Martin Luther King. All this has enabled imparting a larger corpus and a stronger momentum to his core brand. This is akin to inorganic growth companies try via mergers and acquisitions. This also allows mellowing of resistance from some, who hold the secondary brand in good esteem. Naturally, the followership accretion is exponential.

The real challenge Leveraging secondary brand associations though have worked well for Modi, but then could present some real challenges. First of all, it may dilute Modi’s core brand elements, bringing in a diffusion, and amorphousness in de�inition of the core brand. The heterogeneity of these borrowed secondary associations in�lects this effect. Moreover, the sources of secondary associations are dif�icult or

even impossible for the Modi brand to control. We have seen how the Congress party facing an onslaught by the Modi government, tried to counter by leveraging the legacy of Jawahar Lal Nehru on his 125th birth anniversary, and keeping the whole act sanitised of Modi’s in�luence/ presence. Any untoward happening with these secondary brands would upset and undermine the borrower. Borrowing strengths from other sources has its limitations too. Sometimes the linkages drawn are not very strong or don’t marry well with the brand in question. Also it might lead to raised expectations and may boomerang if not backed by action as promised. It has already started a social media backlash …questioning the claims. So Modi, the Branding Guru/ Activist needs to �igure out how to carry forward these secondary associations to build strong brand equity in the future as the best PM of India and deliver ‘achhe din’ as promised. Can brands ignore and laugh it off or develop an alternative branding strategy, to counter the rise of this modern cultural phenomenon of branding? 

The views expressed here are of the author alone, and do not necessarily re�lect the views of Pitch

COVER STORY BLIPPAR

Can augmented reality catch on in India?

Newly launched platform Blippar thinks it can By Rashi Bisaria

t wants to be known as the browser of the physical world. Merely two months after its launch in India, global augmented reality and image recognition platform Blippar is working with top brands and is in talks with multiple top media planning agencies and brands to establish itself in a market that still does not fully understand the potential of this concept. “Perception is a big bottleneck. We need to evangelise the platform through stakeholders especially media agencies. Media agencies can persuade brand managers to invest 10 per cent of what they invest in traditional media to get incremental benefit from this technology. What has helped us is that we have been engaged with the top 100 brands globally and our credentials in the global market help us in getting leads,” says Arnav Ghosh, Regional Director, Blippar India who is heading the company’s India operations. Since launching in the UK in 2011, Blippar has expanded rapidly internationally -through partnerships with some of the largest international media owners and brands - including Condé Nast, TIME Inc., Procter&Gamble, Kraft, Nestlé, Heinz,

Although at a nascent stage in India, augmented reality is slowly finding its way into the media plan of marketers

Coca-Cola, Anheuser Busch, L’Oréal, Universal Pictures and Jaguar. In June 2014, it acquired Layar, a pioneering AR company founded in the late 2000s. In India, brands like Wipro and Microsoft’s Bing are already utilising its expertise along with a few others. “The challenge for Augmented Reality as a whole is to make people understand its true value. Different people have different perceptions of what it is and it is upon us to break

Pitch | December 2014

India team, Blippar that mould through creative execution with great analytics behind it. We try to ensure that anytime you use blippar your reaction is ‘wow’. The wow factor is important. Our team works on this fundamental principle,” adds Arnav. Although at a nascent stage in India, augmented reality is slowly finding its way into the media plan of marketers. Companies like Blink Solution, Adstuck Consulting already have some brands on board and the conversation around augmented reality has gathered steam. Being a global platform with tried and tested best practices, Blippar has an edge over local players, “ It has not only created a global leading product but is driving a behaviour with top 1000 brands and media houses globally! Local players have more or less sold technology and have commoditised AR, we have used the same technology DNA but have helped to subsume AR into visual browsing , creating interactive products. We have moved the envelope by becoming the first platform to be used

Pitch | December 2014

“It’s important to excite the consumers and create multiplier engagement opportunities” Arnav Ghosh Regional Director, Blippar India

on Glass. The biggest difference is in vision, creating great immersive user experience and making it measurable,” adds Arnav. There is still some time before the concept finds popular acceptance among marketers, “It’s important to excite the consumers and create multiplier engagement opportunities. Immersive and powerful content is the most important factor.

Smart content planning has become a necessity and that is what we are aiming for,” he says. Blippar is also working with publishing houses to provide solutions to print publications, the first being BusinessWorld. Several pages were blippable in the November 5 issue of the magazine and subsequent ones will see more blippable content. “Print Publishers are looking to innovate and create new opportunities to engage readers in this digital age. AR not only allows to make content interactive but also bridges the gap between the digital and physical world. But the trick is not use technology just to make content simply interactive. It needs to be immersive , measurable and digitally plugged allowing the content experience to seamlessly move between traditional and digital world. Often the best interactive content for a magazine like BW is co-created thus presenting an opportunity to the readers to experience interactive print in the form of videos, animations, gaming or any other CTA,” explains Arnav when asked about the relevance of the concept for the print medium. Print media in India has been using the technology but at a very basic level till now and the strategies used have not been well thought through. But there is tremendous potential in this technology which can become a great enabler for print publishers. What it needs is tighter integration. The need is for AR to evolve as a long term content channel for print publishers. While there is much ground to cover for Blippar, it is clear about its goal of building business value for brands and consumers. It wants to promote ‘blipping’ as a behaviour among consumers. Arnav extends the value proposition a bit further by saying, “We are as much a content channel as Facebook and Twitter and would like to be known as such.” n - rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

COLUMN

What Does It Take To Get In There? Tamanna Khanna

Head Marketing, IndiaFirst Life Insurance

Life insurance is a product that people typically know about and definitely need, but rarely ask for. The market is nowhere close to getting saturated

magine selling a product that people are sceptical about and have more questions than the number of planets in the galaxy (and which they don’t really want to understand due to the perceived effort involved). And to top it all, you are not alone �ighting for that mindshare among the customers. A barrage of advertisements, price comparisons and the same emotional appeal (or atyachar as some may call it) are the trade norms taken for granted. But positioning life insurance product correctly isn’t that easy. Life insurance is a product that people typically know about and de�initely need, but rarely ask for. Yes! The market is nowhere close to getting saturated. Today insurance penetration is as low as 4 per cent of the GDP. But the sheer number of players, dependency on allied ful�ilment services and an ever demanding customer can make life complicated for life insurers (pun intended!). So what can a brand do to ensure awareness and recall?

Tell stories that end with a smile. For life is but a well told story. Stories connect and are remembered

for eons. A well-crafted story, simply told with a happy ending (not exactly like the movie though) is what works. After all life insurance is all about ‘life’. You buy insurance only with the objective to see your family smile. Some may look at returns on their investment through ULIPS or endowment products while others may be interested in providing for contingencies through term plans. But at the end of the day, it is all about securing the smiles. An adage as old as the hills goes that trust is the key to the success of any �inancial product. It is more so for an insurance product as consumers are far more emotionally involved in the purchase decision. Customers may not remember the exact premium you charge per month/ year but will surely remember why they trust you to secure their loved ones. Know Your Customer, beyond forms The actual starting point lies here. Understanding the customer goes much beyond the information �illed in the KYC forms. As marketers, we rely on data backed by research and try to map business objectives to the diverse set

Pitch | December 2014

of inputs from media vehicles and research teams that feed us with information that we need to take informed decisions. But the real challenge is in turning the oodles of data into actionable strategies. Insurance as a product has a long shelf life, more so today as compared to the some generations ago thanks to the increasing longevity. You make a purchase and then continue paying the premium for a decade or more thereon. Mapping and analyzing data over this prolonged period is a crucial part in understanding the changing behaviour patterns and needs of the customers. Understanding the new trends enables us to tailor products better suited of the evolving needs of our customers. This data also helps us map different types of insurance products catering to the diverse needs of a single customer across different life stages. Data can thus enable a brand to ‘Know Your Customer’ well. Stay close and stay connected Creating brand awareness is not a ‘one-campaign-a-year during Q4’ activity, just because the product also offers some income tax bene�its. You need to be there with the customer continuously. Leveraging multiple platforms and media helps a brand position itself in close proximity with the customers and yet not be jarring in their face. As brands we need to integrate ourselves in the day to day lives of our customers. This is again based on data analyzes which help map out various touch points that are customers visit/ interact with for different requirements. However what we must not forget is that word-of-mouth even today is the best form of advertisement and endorsement for any brand. And this means not loosing contact or

Pitch | December 2014

focus with our existing customers. Satis�ied customers have the potential of turning into unpaid brand ambassadors and that too with far more credibility. Prospective customers may rely on the opinion of their peers and trust them more than any direct communication by a particular brand. Consumers will trust and reach out to brands that ‘hang around’ and not the ones that make ‘guest appearances’. That is what you would expect in a trusted friend you can depend on. Correct?

Live your promise As I said, trust and reliability are two most important pillars for building an insurance brand. While brand awareness is all about having a great story and being there over a period of time, we, as marketers need to remember that discerning Indian consumers are smart enough to

Consumers will trust and reach out to brands that ‘hang around’ and not the ones that make ‘guest appearances

see through our tales. The product proposition needs to live up to the promise made in our communication and their expectations. In an increasingly social world with consumers bashing brands online for services not delivered, one can no longer live with the assumption that ‘all izz well’ if the entire brand experience right from sales to after sales is in line. Not having this also creates brand awareness. . Just not the kind you’d want though.

Adapt to changing touch points and platforms Last but from no angle the least, is the need to stay relevant. Consumers evolve with time. Technology is aiding this churn faster than before and information is at the �ingertips of those who’d like it delivered. Also, comparison between the competition is easier than ever before. So, as a brand being present on these new-age platforms is all the more important. It’s not like the core is changing, but the way concepts and media is consumed, surely is. So what does it really take to get in there? It is a combination of sustained efforts to communicate effectively with your customers and the ability to stand out among the crowd. Yet, as a brand you cannot afford to be intrusive and too forceful. It is a tricky balancing act of staying close yet allowing the customers their own space; because �inally you are looking for making space for yourself within that very zone. As an insurance brand, it’s not just about building awareness but more so about building the trust. 

The views expressed here are of the author alone and do not necessarily re�lect the views of Pitch.

COLUMN

Marketing and Leadership

Kulwinder Singh

Director, Global Marketing & Communications, Synechron

Marketing is all about visibility and if the leader is able to showcase the best qualities in an individual, he is bound to become a people’s leader 16

o market a product, you need to sell its story. But how do you get to that point? You need to assemble a team, and lead that team to success. So, how important is good leadership for marketing? It’s a question which has crossed the minds of numerous marketing leaders at some point of time in their lives. So today, I ask this question. Who is a leader? A leader is a person who leads a company or a person who is capable of leading people. Marketing is about leading your company in terms of sales and

revenue, understanding competitor’s strategies, and acting promptly. In short, it’s about staying one step ahead of all the others. When we talk about leadership styles, every style is unique in its own way. For some leaders, the autocratic style of leadership works best and yet for others, democratic leadership becomes their style. What really matters is not the style of leadership, but the way a leader takes charge and achieves the desired results from his team. In a world full of competing marketers, the only parameter which makes an effective marketer is the ability to showcase his or her team’s capabilities in an extraordinary manner. Marketing is all about visibility and if the leader is able to showcase the best qualities in an individual,

he is bound to progress immensely on his journey of becoming a people’s leader. Now let me clarify the term ‘people’s leader’. A leader can be appointed by two ways – One, he or she can work his or her way to the top by demonstrating exceptional intelligence and an ability to work hard on tasks; second, he or she can be popular among the “people” and accomplish work goals with the help of his or her team. Now this type of a leader is called people’s choice or people’s leader. Take the example of Adolf Hitler: his intelligence and unique ways of executing tasks took him to the top position in Germany’s political world. On the other hand, take the example of Mahatma Gandhi: his ideology and simplicity made him popular among the masses and secured praise among his countrymen. Both examples differ in extremity; however, their target was the same–success in results by numbers. Leadership determines the future of the team; able leadership can change the course of the team. Examples of successful leaders are everywhere; from small to medium and large sized companies. The point I wish to make here is this: leaders from the marketing �ield can initiate any style of leadership as long as they are able to derive meaningful results. At the same time, �lexibility and the ability to change in accordance with demanding situations should be an inherent quality of every leader. This ability to respond to change is paramount, since marketing is changing every day with the introduction of new trends and technologies. An ideal style of leadership should be a blend of both autocratic and democratic leadership. This will not only ensure success on the business front but also lead to work satisfaction. 

The views expressed here are of the author alone and do not necessarily re�lect the views of Pitch.

Pitch | December 2014

INTERVIEW KARTHIKEYA R. REDDY

Global work-wear brand Dickies enters India with big plans

n November, Williamson-Dickie Manufacturing Company, a global work-wear maker entered India through an exclusive licensing agreement with ID Overseas Private Limited. This agreement authorises the use of Dickiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; brand portfolio in the design, manufacturing, marketing and sale of licensed products in India. Having analysed the Indian market for three years, the brand perceived a notable shift in the work-wear needs in the country. As the company takes its first steps here, Rashi Bisaria caught up with Karthikeya R. Reddy, the CEO and Director of ID Overseas Pvt Ltd, the exclusive Licensee of Williamson-Dickies Mfg. Co. Edited excerpts: 18

Pitch | December 2014

Can you describe the kind of offerings you will be getting to India? Dickies India will primarily focus on work-wear and performance wear for India. We will be bringing the complete range of work wear and uniform solutions for healthcare, hospitality, school wear, industrial and also �ire retardant clothing. Dickies India has been known worldwide for the quality of work wear products and we hope to establish the same in India as well. We would also be launching our most popular work pants and shirts known globally for best �it and performance.

What kind of work- wear demands are you going to ful�il? India is seeing a huge growth in manufacturing and service sectors, with more investment coming in from international platforms. We believe that this would translate to a bigger demand for quality work wear and performance clothing in these sectors. The key industries for work wear in India have traditionally been healthcare, hospitality and manufacturing. However, lately there has been an increase in use of uniforms in the organized retail, logistics, facility management, security and other sectors. Indian work-wear segment is currently estimated at approximately US$219 million, a subset of the US$100 billion textile and apparel industry. The Indian school uniform market is highly fragmented, due to the nature of the demand with every school prescribing their own set of uniform. The industry is largely dominated by unorganized players with small capacities. This offers an opportunity for the organized players with sophisticated technology and the ability to consolidate the market by tying up with large school chains and effective inventory management for smaller schools Why did it take you such a long time to enter India?

Pitch | December 2014

We have been analyzing and understanding the Indian work wear and performance wear over three years. We found the Indian work wear needs are culturally different from global workwear needs. Indian needs are shifting towards safety and performance from the earlier priorities that were based more on looks or cost alone. What are your plans for manufacturing and distribution in the country?

here are obvious advantages and disadvantages for having no national level recognized brand in this space The Indian licensee (ID Overseas Private Limited) is a group company of Indian Designs Exports Pvt Ltd, which is one of the preferred suppliers for several highly respected global brands. We have the capacity of producing 2 million garments per month. Dickies India will produce most of the work wear uniforms in-house and performance uniforms will be manufactured by other nominated vendors. There has been a very positive and encouraging response from the distribution network since the of�icial launch in November this year. We would be appointing and training quali�ied distributors for South India as phase one.

Do you think Indians’ taste in apparel has evolved over time? The entire Indian domestic fashion and lifestyle clothing industry has evolved

to a different level over the past decade. In the past, we had textiles and tailoring practice in India . With multi-dimensional retail taking over the traditional individual tailoring concept, the scene has transformed to create various local, national brands as well as allowed the entry of international brands. We think the work wear and uniform market will take the same shape over the next ten years with demand for higher quality, performance and service. What kind of marketing and advertising are you looking at in the year following the launch? Our primary focus is on B2B sales and we would like to communicate with the core worker. We will adopt different marketing and advertising strategies and want to use sports, music and events to communicate our message.

Is it a concern for you to establish yourself in the Indian market considering there are already many international players, though not speci�ically for work wear? It’s not a concern for us as we are not competing. Our focus is only work wear and school wear. There are obvious advantages and disadvantages for having no national level recognized brand in this space. What is your USP worldwide? When it is “Dickies”, it is built to work. We are globally known for tough, durable and performance clothing. It is our legacy and commitment What will be the role of Indian Designs in this partnership? Indian Designs has over 20 years of experience in garment manufacturing in India which will be an advantage for Dickies India. Karthikeya R. Reddy is the CEO & Director of ID Overseas Pvt Ltd, Exclusive Licensee of Williamson-Dickies Mfg. Co.  -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

INTERVIEW BHAVESH SOMAYA

Can Smirnoff Ice eat into the Beer market as the latest cool, refreshing drink? W

ith the launch of Smirnoff Ice, the pre-mixed Vodka, Diageo is looking at expanding the Vodka market in the country. Smirnoff Ice is being positioned as the ideal drink to kick-start the party, hoping to become the preferred choice of young consumers who are stepping into the world of spirits. The brand’s proposition of “Start the night, break some ICE” is aimed at capturing the pre-partying space. While some might say it is the answer to Bacardi’s Breezer, Bhavesh Somaya, Marketing and Innovation Director , Diageo India says it might just nudge out Beer as a cool, refreshing drink. In conversation with Rashi Bisaria, Somaya speaks about why the time is right for international brands to enter India and how Smirnoff Ice might just give the Vodka category the much needed push in the country. Edited excerpts:

How important is the Indian market for Diageo? The recent level of action that we have seen with respect to Diageo in the country is evidence of the fact that India is one of the most important markets. It is important for Diageo to break into a critical market like India. Our stakeholders are very serious in building their footprint in the country. The interest in India is not a recent phenomenon. Diageo has had its focus on building its footprint in the developing world. We have always focused on leveraging the huge economic and demographic dividend that India has to offer.

How are you looking at scaling up the Vodka category in the country considering that it is a dif�icult category? The Vodka category in the country was introduced 18 to 20 years back with the launch of Smirnoff in the market. Smirnoff started the Vodka revolution in the country. Smirnoff still holds a very strong equity in the mind of the consumer. While India may not be a very ful�illed Vodka market as the category itself is very young in the country, I believe that the impetus behind Vodka will help us drive a far greater level

Smirnoff Ice has a strong case to win the share from beer especially on occasions when consumers are looking for something light and refreshing

of growth and expansion in the country. Smirnoff Ice is a pre-mixed drink. The category that it falls under is the Magic Mix which is a very secret and closely held formula. It is the perfect drink to tap into consumers who are stepping into the world of spirits and can leverage this opportunity. It can enable recruitment into the Vodka category and into Smirnoff as a brand. As Ice grows bigger in the country its the trademark that will stand to gain. We are targeting consumers who are above 25 years of age and who are entering the world of spirits. Smirnoff Ice has a strong case to win the share from beer especially on occasions when consumers are looking for something light and refreshing. We are tapping into a new occasion and looking to drive recruitment of LDA+ consumers with SMIRNOFF® ICE. Its attractive packaging and refreshing taste will resonate well with consumers looking for exciting convenient options. Is India ready for international brands from Diageo? Income levels are rising. People are looking at spending more. Consumer trends are fuelling the drive for individualism, extreme experiences, premiumisation. There is increasing opportunity for premium brands to enter and occupy niche segments. In a few years, people will make these lifestyle choices and so it’s best to enter now than wait for this change to happen. It’s all in search of building the future. Scale bene�its will come later but it’s only logical and timely to introduce international brands in the country now.

Pitch | December 2014

How are you planning to build the positioning of the product? Beer and Whisky are both well entrenched categories in the country and they boast of a certain narrative. There is a certain emotional association that consumers have built over time with that category. Consumers have different motivations to choose either beer or whisky. We have a tool called the ConsumerScope which tells us clearly the motivations behind the consumption patterns. Whisky is consumed driven by the status motivation. Whisky denotes coming of age, progressing upwards, achievement, status etc. Beer is about af�iliation, about belonging to a group and bonding. There is still a task to build a narrative around Vodka and the way Smirnoff is positioned globally, we know we have to build that positioning consistently in India. Smirnoff globally, is in the release motivation space which is about liveliness, spontaneity, fun, letting go, energy and excitement. Through consistent communication with consumers we need to entrench Smirnoff in India and build this positioning . This leads us to the question about creating an amazing night life in the consumer’s life through the Smirnoff brand programmes. Night life in the country is also on a rise, it’s evolving and adding newer meanings. There is also a need to educate people in the country about how to drink Vodka.

How are you looking at marketing the product in the country, considering that advertising for a liquor brand is extremely controlled in India? What will your strategy be? One of the most important ways of communicating with consumers is through the last mile connect. One method is about bringing experiences alive for them. We can create an occasion where consumers can come and interact with the brand and understand what the brand stands for. Hence, experiential events are a very important leg of communication for us. On trade or off trade store is as important a media vehicle as any other in the country for us. That is another way by which we can create disruption and differentiation for our brand, when consumers are at that moment of truth, at the point of purchase or consumption. The digital medium is another platform to engage with consumers through regular conversations and content.  - rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

It is still a task to build a narrative around Vodka and the way Smirnoff is positioned globally, we know we have to build that positioning consistently in India Pitch | December 2014

COVER STORY

ECOMMERCE and its future- Will the frenzy last?

By RASHI BISARIA

yber shopping carts are getting fuller by the minute and the ecommerce India story is resembling a Bollywood blockbuster which is gathering momentum and garnering fans with each passing day. The festive season, which began with Onam in the South and continued till Diwali, was the best time for big and small ecommerce players. The frenzy of discounts, deals feeding off festive exuberance and convenience of shopping at home reached a climax in the run-up to Diwali. Flipkart’s ‘Big Billion Day’ sale and Snapdeal’s 50 Television campaigns enthused shoppers and critics alike. In fact, the deluge of customers was almost too much for some portals to handle, unprepared as they were for this never-before-experienced phenomenon. The festive season saw many new converts taking to online shopping for the

Source: Google Forrester Report

Pitch | December 2014

The recently released Google Forrester Report about online shopping has revealed some interesting �indings that throw light on why some shoppers have stayed away from the online space. According to it, India will have 100 million online shoppers by 2016. The report also projected that 40 million women are esti-

Customer Service

62%

not satisfied with previous shopping experience

58% 70% in Tier 1 in Tier 2

Complicated Process

Source: Google Forrester Report

�irst time . Social media was abuzz with news, shared experiences, and developments about ecommerce. One of the biggest bene�iciaries of this digital euphoria was the media which attracted some of the largest advertising spends in recent years. Experts say the trend of increasing ad spends will continue till the market is saturated. Vivek Ballabh, Head, Digital Media, Cheil India, says, “Ecommerce will continue to invest in the media till the time the customer base is growing. They need to acquire new customers as currently the base in India has the potential to buy online but is not saturated enough. Everyone is �ighting for the same share of the pie. People are still hesitant to pay online and companies are trying to break that wall. So the market potential is still huge. The kind of money they put in during the festive promotions, they have recovered.”

59% in Tier 3

the biggest hurdle in the path to TRUST remains purchase for buyers and non buyers

63% concerned about transacting online

67% admit that the

return process is too complicated and expensive Source: Google Forrester Report

mated to shop online in India by 2016. Convenience and Variety were cited as the main reasons to shop online in addition to discounts. What was surprising was the insight that 62 per cent of those surveyed were not satis�ied with their shopping experience. 67 percent buyers also highlighted that the current return process was too complicated and expensive. Trust was a major issue with Non buyers, 55 percent non buyers did not trust the quality of products sold online, 63 percent said they were concerned about the safety of transacting online and 65 percent said, they don’t feel comfortable sharing personally identi�iable information online. 66 percent of total respondents said that poor connectivity was also a major barrier for them to shop online.

Pitch | December 2014

55%

of non buyers have misgivings about the quality of products

65% concerned about sharing personal information

Source: Google Forrester Report

Pitch decided to speak to the ecommerce players, both emerging and established, to �ind out the real story, how they were tackling customer experience management and the valuable lessons they had learnt along the way. They have predicted that the ecommerce ecosystem is set to change the way India shops and sells. Customer experience management has emerged as the key differentiator when the offerings are similar. Several ecommerce players are taking keen interest in improving the same and the coming days will show whether their strategies have worked or not.  -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

COVER STORY INTERVIEW Amit Agarwal

‘Our philosophy of working backwards from the customers is what drives our growth’ S

ince the time Amazon launched in India it has made huge strides in the Indian market. India has been one of the fastest growing markets for Amazon globally. It is also known for some path breaking innovations in the ecommerce space. Whether it was the Release Day Delivery, same day delivery, personalized and multi-lingual Amazon gift cards, or ‘Pay With Amazon Service’ Amazon has pioneered some of the best customer-centric concepts in India. Its total selection now stands at more than 18 million products. In conversation with Kanika Mehrotra, Amit Agarwal, Country Manager and VP, Amazon India shared Amazon’s vision for the Indian market and how it has come up with India-specific innovations.

Amazon claims to be customer centric in its focus. What are some of the customer focused innovations you have come up with in the last 6 months? We take it as an article of faith that customers will shop on Amazon. in only until the very moment they find a better customer experience elsewhere. Our initial successes in India stand proof to the fact that our focus on customer inputs works. Our experience of working around the world has taught us that customers around the world are similar. I am yet to come across a customer who will say that they want a smaller selection or higher prices. Customers around the world always want a vast selection at low prices and a reliable and trustworthy online shopping experience. Indian customers are no different. We ensure that we are able to deliver and raise the bar for online shopping in India. India has been one of the fastest growing markets for Amazon globally. Amazon.in has grown exponentially to become India’s largest online store in terms of selection in such a short span of time. We were the first ones in India to introduce guaranteed ‘One-Day Delivery’ service for items fulfilled by Amazon. Within a short time

we have been able to make available nearly 4 lakh products for next day delivery across hundreds of pin codes in India. More than 60 per cent of our customer demand is already eligible for next-day shipping on products fulfilled by Amazon. We launched the Amazon.in shopping apps making it convenient for customers to shop from anywhere. We are very excited that India is already the fastest growing marketplace on mobile for Amazon. We continue to invent and invest on behalf of customers. Some examples include: • •

•

We set the pace for the industry by introducing premium guaranteed delivery services, both next day and two day We are piloting Pick Up stores for customers convenience– both Kirana stores across various cities in India and with the In & Out outlets of BPCL across cities. We are also piloting scheduled delivery for customers in Mumbai with the TV category. We will be extending it to Thane & Pune We launched Release Day Delivery (RDD) and as part of RDD also launched Midnight Delivery service. With the launch of RDD, Amazon.in customers can now pre-order

| December | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

Pitch | December 2014

INTERVIEW AmIT AgARWAl COVER STORY INTERVIEW AmIT AgARWAl

and receive some of the most eagerly awaited new products at their doorstep on the day of release. The service launched with the release of Xbox One and we activated this service for all iPhone 6 customers who had pre-ordered the devices on our platform. Many of our customers who had pre-ordered the Xbox One and iPhone 6 on Amazon.in received their orders at midnight i.e. as soon as

st on behalf e v in to e u n ti n o c We will that they have an o s rs e ll e s r u o f o more on the ll e s to y it n u rt o p op rketplace Amazon India ma the devices launched in the country

• • •

The service launched with the release of Xbox One and yesterday we activated this service for all iPhone 6 customers who had pre-ordered the devices on our platform

We launched same-day delivery in Mumbai and Bangalore

Customers can purchase the Amazon.in Gift Cards of any value starting from Rs. 10 up to Rs. 10,000. Available in 9 Indian languages including Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali & Punjabi

During Diwali we launched physical gift cards in gift boxes and also introduced special festive design packaging and introduced gift boxes and gift wrapping paper in colours that match with the artwork on the gift boxes for Diwali

#AmazonCart enables customers in India to add products they discover on Twitter from their social network to their Amazon.in shopping carts without leaving Twitter. We see the #AmazonCart feature as a convenience feature. It is in line with our goal to deliver an outstanding customer experience. Customers who have connected their Amazon and Twitter accounts can add items to their carts just by tweeting the link of an Amazon.in product along with the #AmazonCart hashtag. In effect, when a customer discovers a tweet from their favourite artist, expert, brand, or friend with an Amazon.in product link, they simply add “#AmazonCart” to their reply on Twitter and the product is added to their Amazon.in Shopping Cart. They no longer have to switch apps or type more passwords to do what they want, bookmark an item they are keen on buying or learning about. These are clear customer benefits. We are very pleased by the response we have seen since we

launched this service few months back. Customers use this service from both PCs as well as mobiles. We also announced Pay with Amazon service in India which is a trusted payment bridge between customers and sellers and further aids and supports the growth and integration of small and medium businesses in the new digital economy. This service expands the market by providing small sellers with efficient tools to drive conversions and also help customers to shop with confidence. We are committed to ensure 100 per cent Purchase Protection for our customers so they can benefit from a safe and secure online ordering experience, convenient electronic payments and cash on delivery, easy returns, Amazon’s customer service with 24x7 support, and a globally recognized and comprehensive purchase protection provided by Amazon’s A-toZ Guarantee. Customers should expect us to continue to invest in expanding selection in existing categories, launching new departments & categories, enabling more selection and pin-codes for next-day delivery, and ensuring we are providing the most convenient and trustworthy shopping experience on PC and mobile. We will continue to invest on behalf of our sellers so that they have an opportunity to sell more on the Amazon India marketplace. How many categories and sellers have you added in the past 6 months? During the course of the

traffic At present, nearly 50 per cent of is a e comes through mobiles and ther ll as we sharp increase in customers as ps quantum of shopping on our ap

| December | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

past 17 months since our launch, we have received a fabulous response from both customers and sellers. Our total selection now stands at more than 18 million products across 37 departments and hundreds of categories. Our seller base is in excess of 14,000 sellers from various cities and towns in India. The seller base is spread across India. A significant chunk of sellers are based in nonmetro cities (tier-2 and 3) like Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Indore, Ludhiana, Agra, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Nagpur, Varanasi, etc.

You have stated that mobile will be a focus area. What initiatives have you taken to make it grow? Over the past 17 months of our India operations, we have witnessed a significant increase in traffic and sales through our mobile platforms. At present, nearly 50 per cent of traffic comes through mobiles and there is a sharp increase in customers as well as quantum of shopping on our apps. Additionally, the repeat rate of customers is very healthy indicating a good shopping experience. We recently hosted the Amazon Appiness Day,as we wanted to create a special day for our shopping app and reward app users, to which we received a fabulous response from customers. Throughout the day, customers had the opportunity to win special prizes – right from Amazon gift vouchers and products such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to 11 months of free shopping on Amazon.in. Over and above this, there were interesting deals available through the app. App adoption has been quite significant. As compared to other global markets, how is India placed in the ecommerce space, with respect to performance and maturity? Pitch | December December2014 2014

rket for India is a huge ma re is scope for e e-commerce and th winners nd multiple formats a Indian e-commerce space is still at a very nascent stage with significant potential for innovation to improve customer experience. Since India is a huge market for e-commerce, there is scope for multiple formats and winners. Since our launch in June, 2013, we have observed several trends that will have a bearing on the landscape of Indian e-commerce industry: Rise of mobile commerce: In India, the mobile internet traffic now outweighs PC traffic. With increasing penetration of smartphones, India is all set to be a massive market for m-commerce. Nearly 50 per cent of our traffic comes from mobile devices, thus we want our customers to be able to do everything they do today on their PCs from their mobiles while searching and shopping online, be it through a browser or an app. The range of screen sizes and

device capabilities available in India is very high. Amazon does not try to force fit one mobile interface to all devices, we have multiple mobile platforms that help us support all internet enabled devices in the market. The customer behavior on mobile devices is evolving fast and we are observing and learning. The unique capabilities of mobile such as location awareness, camera and voice will transform shopping experience dramatically. E-commerce is at a very early stage of its evolution in India. In the US, we say it’s ‘Day 1’. In India, it’s probably minute 1 of ‘Day 1’! A lot more innovation lies ahead of us compared to what we have seen over the past decade. How is Amazon uniquely equipped to ensure a superior customer experience in India?

COVER STORY INTERVIEW AmIT AgARWAl

Our experience of working around the world has proved that customers around the world are similar. I am yet to come across a customer who will say that they want a smaller selection or higher prices. Customers around the world always want a vast selection at low prices and a reliable and trustworthy online shopping experience. Indian customers are no different. And we are focused on ensuring we are able to deliver and raise the bar for online shopping in India. We follow Amazon’s global business strategy which is same everywhere but the execution of that strategy is local. For example, pin code based promises are something we don’t do anywhere else globally because logistics has a different reliability factor based on where you are. Customers find it useful in India. When you look at our payments experience, given that the payments infrastructure in India has redirection to other payment processes, we have revised payments functionality that allows customers to start where they left if there were failures in that process and that increases our success rate. That is something we don’t do elsewhere except in India.

We specially badge ‘fulfilled by sellers of the hassles of figuring Amazon’ products on www.amazon.in out the right shipping provider who . We do this only in India because we can deliver efficiently to a specific realize that the sophistication level location, dropping the package at the of sellers is very different. We undercollection centers, maintaining the stand that customers find it valuable tracking information, etc. to discover which of the listed items At Amazon.in’s Fashion and Lifestyle are using the Amazon infrastructure. store, we work hard to meet the varySellers have greatly appreciated ing tastes and our FBA service, a pay-as-you-go fulfilment service le mobile ip lt u m s a h n Amazo through which s support u lp e h t a th s we take care of in platform packing, shipping bled devices a n e t e n r te in all and delivery of our sellers’ products. the market We strive to do the heavy-lifting on their behalf while they focus on their core business style preferences of all of our customfunctions. Sellers invariably see a ers by providing a broad selection of sales uplift when they start using designers and brands so that customFBA. Today over 75 per cent of units ers can easily and instantly find and shipped are Fulfilled by Amazon buy exactly what they are looking (FBA). for. You will find us working with Amazon Easy Ship is again an Indiabrands to present a brand experience specific innovation by Amazon for and not just a product experience to sellers. Amazon Easy Ship is an astheir consumers. There will be rich sisted shipping service that makes content, images and videos and joint it easy for sellers to ship products marketing and promotion activities. across India. Amazon Easy Ship frees We have also made investments in studios and creative teams will enable us to put out interesting trend guides, look books and style guides on our site as well as channels like You Tube that will help customers make the right choices with respect to their fashion purchases.

king with r o w s u d n You will fi present a brand duct brands to and not just a pro e experienc to consumers e experienc

What are some of the Amazon global best practices that have worked well in India? Our experience of operating online marketplaces globally has provided us with learnings. If you look at the logistics infrastructure, Amazon has built one of the most sophisticated logistics infrastructure ever been built to serve sellers and customers globally. We can learn a lot from that and localize to India. We don’t have

| December | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

to solve each of those problems right from the core problem statement. When we look at the technology platform, the website platform, all the way from search technology to personalization to discovery, a lot of those tool sets can start with what our global platform is and localize for India. When you look at the seller platform, the seller tools that are available to help them run their business on Amazon, they can get advantage right from Day 1 from the

entire suite of tools available at Amazon which is being used by 2 million sellers use globally. How much of your success can you attribute to strong logistics? The biggest advantage of ecommerce is the instant nationwide reach it enables for sellers of all sizes. However, it is the delivery of that opportunity that requires significant focus and investment from the industry. There is a huge opportunity in increasing the serviceable areas across the country. Our Fulfillment Centers play a pivotal role in our distribution network. We have 7 Fulfilment Centers in India covering seven Indian states including Maharashtra, Karnataka, Haryana, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan with a total storage capacity of half million square feet. All FCs are aimed at meeting fulfillment needs of retailers and small and

Pitch | December December2014 2014

medium-sized businesses and to help them achieve nationwide scale. Amazon Logistics is our logistics arm that manages all the logistics in India. We have our own logistics staff besides the external carrier partners like Blue Dart, FedEx, Gati, among others. To ensure last-mile delivery even in the far corners of India, we have partnered with the Indian Postal Services. IPS is one of the prime carriers that Amazon India uses as a delivery channel. Through

Midnight Delivery service. With the launch of RDD, Amazon.in customers can now pre-order and receive some of the most eagerly awaited new products at their doorstep on the day of release. The service launched with the release of Xbox One and we activated this service for all iPhone 6 customers who had pre-ordered the devices on our platform. Many of our customers who had pre-ordered the Xbox One and iPhone 6 on Amazon.in received their orders at midnight

antage of v d a t s e g ig b e h T e instant th is e rc e m m o c eit enables h c a re e id w n o nati sizes for sellers of all

this extensive network we are able to service over 19,000 pin-codes through 140,000 post-offices across all 35 states and union territories in India. For example we even deliver to the pin code – 790002, which is for a remote place called Balemu in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh. Thus having a combination – our own network and that of our partners- allows us to ensure large coverage and great customer service. We are the first ones in India to offer Scheduled Delivery for a large appliance like television where customers can choose the time-slot between which they want their TVs to be delivered and the first online player to launch Midnight Delivery service. We launched Release Day Delivery (RDD) and as part of RDD also launched

i.e. as soon as the devices launched in the country. We are continually innovating to find solutions that enhance the convenience and experience for our customers on Amazon. in. Towards that we are working with BPCL for our ‘amazon pickups’ initiative where we are working on developing some of BPCL’s In& Out stores as shipment pickup points. Similarly, we have identified and trained the staff at small kiosks and stores across several cities in India, run by individual entrepreneurs, to be our shipment pick-up points. Our philosophy of working backwards from the customers is what drives our growth and success. .n -kanika.mehrotra@exchange4media.com

INTERVIEW INTERVIEWSANDEEP SHARMA COVER STORY INTERVIEW

YepMeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proposition of fresh fashion bolstered by an agile supply chain sets it apart from other apparel ecommerce brands. Launched in 2011, the brand has witnessed a growth of 200 per cent in its revenues on a yearly basis. The brandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success proves that having a unique voice amid the clutter is extremely critical. As a private label fashion brand it has entered the global market too and is optimistic about its growth. Rashi Bisaria caught up with Sandeep Sharma, Founder and COO at YepMe to learn the secrets of its success strategy.

a h t i w n o i h s l a a f e h p s p e a r F fresh 30

Pitch | December 2014

How much has YepMe grown from the time it launched in India 4 years back? Launched in 2011, Yepme started with Men’s apparel and extended its range to Women’s apparel in 2012. Since then, the company is growing extremely fast and witnessing 200 per cent growth in the revenues on a yearly basis. What is your annual revenue like? Apparel is the best performing category for us followed by Footwear. As of now about 70 per cent revenue comes from Men’s wear though Women’s categories are witnessing strong growth recently after endorsement by Esha Gupta.We are targeting $100 million revenue in 2016. What is the business model you follow? The company has built its business around the Fresh Fashion Model on the lines of leading global peers. The talented team of in- house designers hand-picked from the top design institutes operates on high agility to curate fresh and new designs on an everyday basis. The team derives its inspiration from real-time research and analytics on latest fashion trends in the global fashion markets. This model operates by keeping the

The team derives its inspiration from real-time research and analytics on latest fashion trends in the global fashion markets

Pitch | December 2014

online store exciting with new merchandise brought in daily.

YepMe has been able to position itself as the private –label fashion brand. How important is it for ecommerce brands to have a typical positioning on today’s date? Yepme is an established brand with high margins (compared to private labels) and our proposition is Fresh Fashion. We must remember that price only becomes a factor after a customer has liked a product and not before that. Also, repurchases, which form a large part of any healthy retail business, can only happen if the customer is comfortable with the quality of the product he has bought earlier. Therefore, quality and fashion are of utmost importance. Having said that, lower price is certainly one of the reasons why private labels perform better than branded ones. Low price helps private labels in targeting two kinds of customers. First, those who wish to get same quality and look at a better price and second those who have marginally lower purchasing power but are aspirational about appearance. I think it makes sense to aim for the private labels where the scope for the margin improvement is far better than branded ones.

As a fashion brand we have a strong value proposition of fresh fashion and a better position to create an emotional connect with our target audience YepMe has depended a lot on celebrity brand endorsements, recently roping in Shah Rukh Khan. How much have these endorsements helped the brand and how? Bollywood is a fashion inspiration to the majority of people in the country. Hence we are using of�line marketing very effectively through Celebrity Endorsement. As a fashion brand we have a strong value proposition of fresh fashion and a better position to create an emotional connect with our target audience. Keeping this in mind we have signed on multiple celebrities in the past for our different lines. We also signed on Farhan Akhtar who created the Yepme anthem video that became very popular online with over 2 million views. Recently we have also associated with Shahrukh Khan as our brand ambassador and will soon come out with a major campaign in December featuring him.

COVER STORY INTERVIEW SANDEEP SHARMA

You have plans to go global and have forayed into the US market. How has the response been? We sell in the US market and have received a decent response there. We have plans to target the UK and Singapore markets next month followed by Europe early next year.

How are you positioning yourself in the global market considering that there are so many ecommerce apparel stores there? Why would the international market turn to YepMe? We are a brand focused on Fresh fashion and we keep changing our product line ensuring our customers always have access to the latest designs from the fashion world. No other of�line or online brand can match our agile Supply Chain. This strategy has ensured a growing customer base for us that believes in wearing the latest designs and wants to keep up with fashion. That’s one of the reasons we can venture into any international market. We are also focusing on creating designs for categories especially for the international market with prime focus on customized designs for customers across any geographical area.

One of our biggest strengths is our business model based on Fresh fashion and we keep changing our product line every 20 days

What are your 2 biggest strengths? One of our biggest strengths is our business model based on Fresh fashion and we keep changing our product line every 20 days ensuring our customers always have access to the latest designs from the fashion world. Being an online fashion brand, we are backed by our fully integrated in-house technology platform with strong data focus ensuring that our

customers get the ultimate shopping experience. How important is customer experience management for YepMe and how do you ensure a superior experience for them? Our focus has always been on ensuring our customers get the right product as and when they want, without any delay. We offer a 30 days no questions asked refund/replacement policy to ensure customers can easily return / exchange the products they do not like. An intuitive website, strong mobile focus and engaging fashion

content on our social media platforms are some steps we have taken to ensure our customers get a better shopping experience. Which parts of the country do you get the maximum traf�ic from? Top 10 cities contribute to about 35 per cent of our sales and overall sale is dominated by Southern states.

How many registered users do you have on today’s date? We currently have 2.5 million registered users. -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media. | December | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

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COVER STORY INTERVIEW SANDEEP KOMARAVELLY

fter the innovative and clutter breaking communication campaign of the festive season, Snapdeal has generated increased awareness and brand recall. In the coming year, the brand will continue to optimise its media investments and aims to become the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;default shopping destinationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. Sandeep Komaravelly, SVP- Marketing, Snapdeal.com spoke to Deepa Balasubramanian about the strength of its supply chain, its technology platform and skilful customer experience management.

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Our focus is to create life-changing experiences for our sellers Pitch | December 2014 Pitch | December 2014

The festive season saw you spend huge It is important to break amounts on advertising and marketing. We don’t think about the competition, the the clutter in the market. What were the reasons behind this? market has huge potential and we are con�ident Does it worry you to see so Diwali is by far the biggest shopping month many players coming up? that our pure marketplace model will enable us of the year in India. Given the increase in to rapidly scale up. We are sure that we will conassortment and the number of categories tinue to cater to our consumers’ needs by adding that we are present in, as compared to last to our product assortment. We have a long term Diwali, we wanted Snapdeal to be the deview for our business and will continue to build fault shopping destination this time around. our technology platform and supply chain to ensure that all our customers Hence, the investments were skewed have access to the best products at best prices, irrespective of where they are accordingly. Also, our investments were in based. Our focus is creating life changing experiences and an unparalleled line with the business goals and the size online shopping experience for our customers. of the business we are in right now. We’ve made the investment look far higher than per cent, year-on-year growth, and we are ently from other sites? the actual investment through very smart now a team of over 2500 with over 30 Mn We are a pure play online marketplace media buying and innovative and clutter members, and over 50,000 sellers. Our - our role is that of creating a platform breaking communication campaign that where brands and sellers can connect with assortment now includes more than 5 Mn ran for 40 days. products across more than 500 diverse customers. This is what differentiates us categories from thousands of regional, from the competitors in the space today. What was the return on this kind of innational and international brands and The retail landscape has changed globally vestment in marketing? Did it pay off? retailers. and it is steadily changing in India too. We launched a 360 degree marketing Online marketplaces like ours are playing campaign in September, in time for the How important a role does technology a key role in driving this change. We have Diwali season. Our brand recall has gone play for Snapdeal? enabled small sellers, retailers, entrepreup considerably, we will continue to keep Technology is at the heart of what we neurs to directly take their products to the momentum and build on this further. do. We provide a technology platform customers on a comprehensive scale and In addition to the awareness levels, there on which sellers and buyers connect. will continue to do the same in the future was a signi�icant jump in the number of We are making massive investments in consumers who considered the Snapdeal technology, both organic and inorganic. In What do you attribute your success to? brand before a purchase and also the addition to our core technology we would In the initial days we were motivated by eventual trials that we generated. be working on making investments in just surviving and staying in business recommendation, personalization, supply for one more day. Then as we entered a How many categories and products do chain, payments and so on. phase of hyper growth, there was imyou have on the site today? mense excitement as every day was new Snapdeal.com offers the largest assortHow important is Customer experience and unique. However, we realized that to ment of products, with 5 Mn products management for you and how do you across more than 500 categories, available motivate a few thousand very smart and very young team members, just survival or ensure a superior experience for your at best prices on our website growth wouldn’t be suf�icient. That’s when customers? Do you have a team in place for this? we introspected on why we are in busiWhat are your spends going to be like ness, and �igured that our end goal is really Customer experience is of paramount imfor the next �iscal? portance for our business. It’s important to do something meaningful for others, They will be in line with the needs of the for every business to grow and become speci�ically the small businesses selling business. We will continue to work on successful. In addition to a dedicated team on Snapdeal. We committed to creating optimising our media investments while which is looking into customer experience, life changing experiences for our sellers, meeting the business goals. every team is working towards making the our customers and our team, and there customer engagement with the platform has been no looking back for us since. How do you position yourself differvery seamless. We map every touch point Snapdeal.com has seen a tremendous 600 and try and improve the same through What media better processes, better technology and A combination of media - TV, Print, Outdoor, Digital is what works best for small innovations which can help difwe typically use. The effectiveness of each of the mediyou and why? ferentiate the experience. It’s a continuous ums varies depending on the objective of the marketing process, and our goal is to get better at it campaign. The philosophy behind using a combination of with each passing day.  media is to reach our target audience across the country in the most effective manner, while achieving the goals of the campaign -deepa@exchange4media.com

Pitch | December 2014 Pitch | December 2014

35 35

COVER STORY INTERVIEW ANKUR WARIKOO

‘We stuck to our core by offering innovative, high-quality deals’ G

roupon India entered the Indian market in 2011 and quickly rose up the popularity charts through its innovative daily deals. Today, it holds 75 per cent of the market share in the deals space. Groupon prides itself on its strong principles, an intelligent strategy combined with impeccable execution. Rashi Bisaria spoke to Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Groupon India about its key differentiator, some irresistible deals and its journey in the Indian market.

From the time Groupon launched good job. in India, the ecommerce ecosystem has undergone many changes. What are the innovations you have Several other deal sites have come come up with on the site recently? up. How is Groupon facing the Groupon’s shopping experience exchallenge? What sets it apart from tended to its iPhone, Android and iPad Mydala, Snapdeal, and the upcom- apps last year. The popular Groupon ing ones? apps have been downloaded by more Our differentiator is that we stuck than 80 million people in 43 countries to our core by offering innovative deals worldwide. that the world loves Groupon for! The getaways page on the website ‘Onions deal’ is one such example, is now much simpler and has a sophiswhere we sold more than 22,000 Kgs ticated new look and feel, with unclutof Onions in 279 minutes tered presentation across 5 days and 78 cities and bolder imagery. in India. The unique deal is How much have you a great example of how we grown in the last 5 constantly think creatively years? to surprise our consumers Groupon holds and offer them irresistible 75 per cent of the deals and experiences. While market share in the deals space in India it was not a simple deal as and has seen a y-o-y growth of 100 per there were many challengcent in India. es attached to the idea, we nailed it with a strong strategy and impeccable execution. A prominently displayed segregated Our focus is also on the right qual- bar at the top of every page allows cusity of merchants. We run our business tomers to easily �ind travel deals on on strong principles that we call the demand. ‘Ten Commandments’, and the �irst Now, it also gives you an option to and most important one is that we book the stay directly from the site never offer deals that we personally and at the time of buying the voucher do not believe in, and would not pur- ,which was earlier a cumbersome chase ourselves. We constantly aim to process. offer the best deals to our consumers. Together, these create a signi�icantThe quality of deals we offer and our ly enhanced shopping experience for merchants, have also helped us gain an the best deals on things to see, eat, do edge over our competitors here. and buy. Competition is healthy and it pushes us to innovate constantly and be on With so many deal sites mushroomour toes. We realized that to win this ing in the country, what does the furat-race we will have to offer cura- ture look like for this category? tion to our customers. Handpick what The daily deal websites comprise Inwe think is the best selection of deals, dia’s fastest growing web vertical. rather than act as a catalogue of deals. The coupon business is 13.5 per cent This worked for us. Today, Groupon of the total e-commerce audience has worked with the best and most- in India, growing at the rate of 62.9 loved brands in the country and cre- per cent with 7.6 Mn unique users a ated a very strong following amongst month (Source: Comscore Report Deits buyers. cember 2013). This clearly shows that People buy a mobile phone once Indian consumers who were earlier in six months, a book may be once apprehensive about shopping online a month but eat out at least twice a are now browsing more often to make week. If we can get people to buy their high value purchases and avail experimeals online we would have done a ential offers.

| December | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

We entered the Indian market in 2011 and have grown tremendously to reach the number one rank in the daily deals category (as per ComScore data). We have seen traction from customers and our repeat purchase rate is 48 per cent. Additionally, our consumers recognized us as the best destination for high quality deals within just a year of our presence in the country. We were able to attain this mark within one year of existence in India because of our strong focus on providing quality deals to consumers.  -rashi.bisaria@ exchange4media.com

How are you leveraging the capabilities of mobile to strengthen your model?

Mobile traf�ic in India has witnessed a surge like never before, and i s rapidly penetrating the market. It is fast becoming a preferred medium for marketers to reach out to their customers and effectively engage with them through customization and personalization of content and services. At Groupon, more than 80 million people worldwide have downloaded our mobile app and 54 per cent of global transactions were completed on a mobile device in March 2014. In India, 20 per cent of our revenue is generated through mobile. Moreover, we are also looking at enhancing our mobile services with features such as location based services, real-time alerts, and customized deal alerts as per a consumer’s shopping history. What is the average traf�ic on the site per day and what are the sales like?

2014 Pitch | December 2014

We have around 1.2k impressions per day on our site. The most sold category on Groupon is Restaurant deals which comes under local services. We sell almost 3 lakh Groupon’s coupons per month that would be 0.9 Mn vouchers in a quarter. Also, one of our key milestones is that we sell a voucher once every 14 seconds.

INTERVIEW COVER STORY INTERVIEW Kashyap Vadapalli

Pepperfry provides the omnichannel experience T

he online furniture and home products category has become a favourite with consumers. Pepperfry, the online furniture and home products store, that started out in 2012 has seen amazing growth. They sell a piece of furniture every minute and have been operationally profitable for the last few quarters. They have shipped furniture to more than 2700 towns and are now setting up experience centres to provide the ‘touch and feel’ experience to customers. In conversation with Rashi Bisaria, Kashyap Vadapalli, CMO, Pepperfry shares their formula for success in the Indian market.

How much have you grown from the time you launched? We have had an awesome journey so far. In the current quarter, we are 18X of what we were in the first quarter of our launch. On today’s date, how many registered users do you have? Ecommerce is growing at a rapid rate driven by growth in internet users and a rapid increase in time spent online. We have more than one and a half million registered users and are adding to it on an ongoing basis. We get 4.5 Mn visitors every month of which 2 Mn are unique visitors and 1.5 lakh daily visits on an average It’s very difficult to differentiate oneself in this cluttered market. How is Pepperfry positioning itself differently? Pepperfry has positioned itself as India’s No. 1 Online Home & Furniture shopping destination by offering the most exhaustive selection of designs and competitive price-points available in the country What are your daily sales like?

We sell a piece of furniture every minute and for our other home segments we are selling an item each in half a minute or less. Pitch | December 2014

Pitch | December 2014

COVER sTORy INTERVIEW Kashyap VadapallI

today. We have more than 75,000 products on our site. Our customers can choose from an array of products in various designs, materials, finishes, etc Our marketplace model helps us to offer a vast selection of products to our customers allowing us to work with 1000 plus merchants across categories. We have an association with more than 70 national brands like Godrej Interio, Nilkamal, Spacewood, @Home, Durian, Furniture Kraft, Evok, etc. and more than 150 traditional non-branded furniture manufacturers in the furniture segment alone We have the largest reach in terms of number of cities we service. We have shipped furniture to more than 2,700 towns across the country and cover 127 towns and cities through our own Last Mile Delivery which is almost 97 per cent of the Pepperfry market

ers have reached a stage where they have realized that ecommerce trial is easy and safe. Providing superior customer experience along with benefits of additional value and convenience has led to retaining the acquired shoppers. We are continuously improving on the customer experience. Today, we have established leadership in the home and furniture segment by offering the best postsales support. Pepperfry provides a host of unique services to enhance the overall furniture shopping experience for customers by offering free shipping and installation on all furniture items and we have a carpenter on call service in select 40 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, and other

How important is customer experience management for an ecommerce player? With growing access to the internet through smart phones, Indians (especially the young) are now increasingly shifting their daily activity online. Today customYou have plans to launch offline stores. Why did you feel the need for offline stores?

We plan to launch four Experience Centers in key cities by first quarter of 2015. Our first Experience Centre is set to be launched in Mumbai at Powai in December. Furniture shopping is a complex process. Apart from standard issues faced by online shoppers varying from value, delivery and likeability of designs they are also posed with big questions like quality, durability, etc. While evolved online shoppers are able to gain confidence through the rich experience provided by Pepperfry online there are eligible shoppers who still want to experience the touch and feel of the products in order to finalize their purchase decision. We also think that the millennial customers who are setting up their homes for the first time are on a look-out for advice on both design and practicality when it comes to designing and doing up their homes. These are the two reasons why Pepperfry is introducing a brick and mortar presence. In the last two and a half years we have had customers who have inquired if they can check our products to experience the quality. We understand that for any individual furniture buying is a huge investment and they would like to get a touch and feel of the product as an assurance. Pepperfry is not looking at these Experience Centres as sales points. They will represent the best and latest from our range of thousands of furniture designs that are available on our marketplace and will help to trigger 10-15 per cent of sales online over a period of time.

Ecommerce brands are taking time to become profitable. When are you hoping to break even and start making profits?

Pepperfry has been built on strong unit economics with high contribution margins and low fixed costs. We have been operationally profitable for the last few quarters, something that very few ecommerce companies have been able to achieve. We plan to fully break-even in the next 12 months. major towns and cities to assemble and fix furniture bought from Pepperfry.

How do you manage to offer a superior experience to the customer? What are the resources you have in place for the same? One of the biggest challenges of being a marketplace is the standardization of the customer experience. As Pepperfry is a marketplace, our investments have been towards controlling all aspects of customer experience starting from presale merchant listings to post-sale logistics and customer service. This helps us provide a standardized and superior buying experience while retaining our marketplace model. â&#x20AC;˘ Stringent quality check measures enable us to ensure high quality standards. Almost every item sold on Pepperfry first arrives at one of our logistics hubs where it is checked for quality, before being packed and shipped. â&#x20AC;˘ In the case of made-to-order furniture, our team monitors and tests products at each stage of preparation by manufacturers; this ensures that only the highest quality products reach our customers. â&#x20AC;˘ Deliveries take place through our own delivery network or through

Pitch | December 2014

•

experienced 3rd party logistics partners. In the rare instances where a customer is dissatisfied with the product or the product is damaged in transit, we stand by our customer promise and either offer to fix the product (especially in the case of furniture) at the customer’s premises itself or refund the purchase amount to the customer.

What do you attribute your success to? Strong logistics, customer insight, customer experience, or marketing? Please give percentages for each if possible. How did your recently launched marketing campaign affect sales in the festive season?

towns across the country. We have successfully established our Last Mile Delivery in 127 towns directly which covers 97 per cent of our market. We are continuously improving the customer experience we provide to our consumers by putting in place best-in-class practices in the service ecosystem across logistics and post-sales support. Please share 2 lessons you learnt from your journey in the Indian market. We understand that a good customer experience overshadows everything else. To provide great experiences to our customers we cover 127 towns and cities through our own Last Mile Delivery which is almost

The campaign featured a series of high impact Television Commercials supported by a 360 degree media mix consisting of Print, Digital, Outdoor, Radio, Social and On-Ground Activation to address apprehensions related to issues such as quality and value. The idea behind launching a campaign was to create awareness and build trust amongst online shoppers by addressing the barriers related to furniture shopping in general and specifically online furniture shopping. Today Pepperfry has entered millions of homes strongly establishing “Happy Furniture to You” as its unique brand proposition. We have accomplished our goal of introducing Pepperfry into the consumers’ consideration set and establish our value and service proposition and the response has been remarkable. We have seen a surge in our sales which have more than doubled in Q4 through the campaign

One of our biggest differentiators that has contributed greatly to our success is our strength on the supply-side. We have the most exhaustive selection of designs and price-points available in the country today. Our end-to-end sourcing process enables us to get differentiated supply from nonnet-savvy small businesses while ensuring high merchandizing quality. This has enabled us to establish our leadership in the furniture and home products segment. While providing a wide variety of products we also offer price points that are more competitive than any other brand operating in the segment which gives us an edge. Our reach in terms of the markets we cater to, is phenomenal. Till date the company has shipped furniture across 2,700 Pitch | December 2014

97 per cent of the Pepperfry market Indian consumers are discerning. They are value conscious and for them home is a reflection of their personality. To cater to their requirements which extend beyond functionality Pepperfry provides them with a wide choice and variety in home and furniture designs. How do you source your products? As a curated marketplace, we have a team strength of 40 plus employees working in the category team alone to source differentiated products across categories. Our category teams across major procurement centers namely Delhi, Jodhpur, Mumbai are constantly on a look-out for unique products evaluating them in terms of differentiation, rarity, uniqueness, quality, etc.

For Furniture, Pepperfry has its own category team that works locally with craftsmen and artisans. They assess their interest and capability of vendors to sell online and gets them on board. Pepperfry equips them to sell successfully online by training and helping them at each stage. Thus, our end-to-end sourcing process enables us to get differentiated supply from non-net-savvy small businesses while ensuring high merchandizing quality. More than 70 per cent of Pepperfry’s sales relate to SME suppliers and artisans, who are highly competent in creating home and furniture products, but who do not have the savvy to manage their internet presence

How do you foresee the ecommerce space in India a few years from now? Ecommerce is growing at a rapid pace driven by growth in internet users and a rapid increase in time spent online. The furniture and home vertical is a 20 bn industry. Within this, furniture comprises 55 per cent and Home Décor & Furnishing 45 per cent stake, respectively. In the next 3 years it is all set to become a 32 bn business. Globally, online home businesses contribute about 15 to 20 percent of the total online business while in India it is currently under 2 percent. This is set to change in the coming 3-5 years with leading Indian home players set to reach the global standards. Pepperfry sees a huge opportunity to lead this growth. -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

COVER STORY INTERVIEW Rohit Chadda

e g a p m a r a n d o o o a f d e n n i a l P n o e Th e Indian t e k r a h in t rdering m o 42

Pitch | December 2014

They want to become the global synonym for online food ordering in the world and are quite close to their target. FoodPanda, the largest aggregator of restaurants in the world is present in 45 countries including India, acting as a marketplace for food ordering. It earns revenue from the restaurants by charging a commission for every order processed through its website or the mobile application. India is among the top 3 countries where foodpanda rules. International brands like Dominoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Pizza Hut, McDonaldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and domestic ones like Faasos, Yo China, Eatsome are all a part of the family. Having acquired food delivery website TastyKhana, the brand with the Panda as its mascot has tied up with 10,000 restaurants in India and wishes to cover more than 173 cities. It is clearly in expansion mode, with the mobile application contributing to 40 per cent of the orders. In a quick conversation with Rashi Bisaria, Rohit Chadda,, MD and Co-Founder, FoodPanda, shares the reasons for the growth of the brand in India, and its need to reach out to a larger customer base to attain market leadership. Some excerpts: What kind of growth have you witnessed since the time you launched in India? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s been a phenomenal growth story both in terms of orders and restaurant coverage. The company has grown more than 100 per cent quarter on quarter and has come a long way from being an online food delivery portal to a mobile first company. Today around 40 per cent of our orders come from the foodpanda mobile application signalling a new phase and exciting journey ahead. Please share at least 2 factors that are driving this growth. The 2 critical reasons are quality restaurants and a great user experience. We make it a point to sign up quality restaurants and regularly

Pitch | December 2014

monitor their performance in terms of customer feedback, re-ordering, reviews, among other parameters. This way we ensure listing of high quality restaurants that have a trusted track record and delist restaurants that do not match up to the service levels our customers expect from a quality platform like foodpanda. Also, the company has left no stone unturned to take the experience of ordering food to the next level with options of paying online, pre ordering food upto 2 days

in advance and a multitude of exclusive deals and discounts, all of which make for an enriching user experience. You recently acquired TastyKhana. How is this move going to help you considering that it will continue to operate as an independent brand? While we continue to operate as two separate companies, we will utilise synergies across platforms in all verticals to improve customer experience for both platforms.

r orders u o f o t n e c r e Around 40 p foodpanda mobile e come from th nalling a new phase ig application s urney ahead jo and exciting 43

COVER STORY INTERVIEW Rohit Chadda

utlets, ensuring o ty li a u q p u g in Sign foodpanda f o t n e tm a e tr d e preferr ts as well as n ra u ta s re m o fr delivery nts and deals ra u ta s re e iv s lu xc listing of e y differentiators e k e th f o e m o s are What differentiates Food Panda from other sites of a similar nature? All efforts are directed to provide the customer with a platform through which they can order their favourite cuisine with the click of a few buttons. Therefore, signing up quality outlets, ensuring preferred treatment of foodpanda delivery from restaurants as well as listing of exclusive restaurants and deals not available on other platforms are some of the key factors separating us from competition.

How many restaurants have you tied up with till now in India? Foodpanda and Tastykhana together have signed up more than 10000 restaurants and are present in more than 173 cities.

You recently launched a TVC, so are you planning to embark on mass media marketing now? In the last couple of years foodpanda has streamlined its operations and grown its coverage both in terms of restaurants and cites. It is therefore the right time to introduce the company to consumers through the loveable panda who is also the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mascot. We have previously been quite active and invested substantially in the digital and social media space and the next logical step was to reach out to a larger consumer base and that is precisely what the company has tried to achieve through the campaign. What are some of the ways in which you have been marketing in the country?

Social media, Online marketing, Radio, Print, offline marketing and television are some of the channels through which foodpanda has been interacting with its audience on a regular basis. Several exciting marketing campaigns have been initiated by the company over the course of two and a half years, popular among them being food and biryani festivals that facilitate customers to order their favourite food from the comfort of their home and office. We have always believed in giving back to the society and have tried to do so through several CSR campaigns, be it on World Food day or our flagship programme â&#x20AC;&#x153;food for soulâ&#x20AC;? that allows users to donate commodities such as pulses, rice, sugar etc to the underprivileged.. n -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com Pitch | December 2014

THE RISING STARS OF

ECOMMERCE T

he ecommerce success story has spawned numerous start-ups, each with its own winning formula for success, vision for the future, unique aspirations and infectious optimism. These are the rising stars who are slowly but surely influencing lifestyles with their specially tailored niche offerings. From a website that specialises in consumer complaints, to sites that believe in tempting deals, to those that sell used goods, to those that give you a cash back guarantee, niche offerings that feed off the ecommerce wave have swelled in number. Hard to ignore, these affiliate websites are profitable due to the general growth of the industry. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hard to ignore the dark horses of the ecommerce revolution. These brands have risen in stature and potential after a few years of inception and having learnt their lessons , have emerged successful. They know the customer well and have scripted their own success story. The brands featured in the following pages are the ones to watch out for. Their confidence is unparalleled, they have new business models to offer and come from varied backgrounds. These are the rising stars of the ecommerce storm that shows no signs of abating.

Pitch | November 2014

INTERVIEWANISHA SINGH COVER STORY INTERVIEW

H ow er C ons um s i t c y l a n A e d p l e h a Da t Mydala 46

Pitch | December 2014

From the time mydala launched in India, the ecommerce ecosystem has undergone many changes. Several other deal sites have come up. How is mydala facing the challenge? What sets it apart from Groupon, Snapdeal, and the upcoming ones? When we started we thought we were solving a user’s choice problem but the more we understood the market we realized that there was no complete merchant marketing platform that existed that allowed small local consumer facing businesses to market themselves while tracking their ROI. The marketing options were limited to bulk sms, �lyers in the neighbourhood etc. We then built a complete

he online coupons industry is thriving globally, a factor that keeps Anisha Singh, Founder, Mydala, upbeat about her discount coupon website. Known for innovative concepts and a strong technical back-up, Mydala has recently added grocery listing as a vertical. The site has a mature user analytics system which helps map the right target audience for the right merchants. Anisha Singh spoke to Rashi Bisaria about why competition is important and how the site is adapting itself to mobile.

Pitch | December 2014

e h on the shiton it w p u e m co it ns you havnes you have come up w io t a v o n in e th atio What are W e the innove recently? r a t a h ? the sit fortunate recently , we’ve been

rm cheting platfo rs once we had the te rk a m d e -l e e bil m at we with consu line and mo itiatives th in t Being an on easy for us to engage s e g ig b a user he irly s to target ce. One of t u la s p le that it’s fa b in a s n e ic t this, . It the analy tc. Besides r analytics e u s o e e c v n ro re nology and p fe ies to aken is to im g power, pre local activit h g have undert likes/dislikes, spendin u ro h t is s ver pub eir a regular ba organizing the first e n o based on th rs e m u s umers m with con xcited. Fro where cons e , s ly k t e n e we engage a w t ’ s s n u auti-licio er base co special ‘Be keep our us g in ld ed. o h o t city stions ask e e h u t q in o l n w , ls ra c facia ircuts and get free ha marketing platform that enables merchants to pick and choose the platform they want including social media. It also allows them to see where their traf�ic is coming in from, track redemptions and study life time value on a consumer. Technology has been the enabler. Through complete pro�iling and user analytics system we not only map the right target audience for the right merchants but also help merchants understand a loyalty system so that they can build LTVs for each consumer that has come to them. In 2009, there were more than 38 deal sites in our competitive tracker, but now it’s down to less than a handful. Having said that, competition is always a good thing,

because it motivates us to keep innovating and coming up with new things. As the �irst movers in the deals space, we are selling more than 2 lakh vouchers a day. We have a strategic alliance with all major telcos in the country, and with a presence in more than 196 cities, we have the widest footprint in the country. Interestingly, smaller cities are contributing more in terms of revenue than the major metros. About 40 per cent of traf�ic comes from non-tier 1 cities. How are you leveraging the capabilities of mobile to strengthen your model? We started as a local business but realized quickly that this would

With so many deal sites mushroom what does the future look like for thiing in the country, s category?

This is a very exciting space and time to be in. A lot of cutting edge work is happening in the e/m commerce space and we are quite excited about it. A recent report has stated that the onlin e coupons/discount marketing industry is thriving globally. If you see the coupon industry in the US or China, it’s a billion dollar industry. Besides, disc ounted offerings on services such as cabs, salon / wellness, hotels and rest aurants constitute 15 per cent of the industry’s sales, pegging that at more than US$11bn. Besides this, more and more Indians are looking for a coupon or deal before shopping. So you should expect a lot of innovati on in this category. 47

COVER STORY INTERVIEW ANISHA SINGH

Aircel, Idea etc). We are India’s largest mobile couponing portal with the highest pro�ile targeted mobile and internet base to reach out to. We have a wide collection of data which will ensure repeat value of a customer. We are gradually expanding our presence on all online platforms and 80 per cent of our company’s revenue is driven by m-commerce.

never remain just a desktop game. An entire generation has skipped desktops and their lives revolve around their mobiles. In 2011, much before everyone else was betting on it, we knew we had to get on mobile. It made sense as the next logical step to enable a user to seek out deals/ shopping at their convenience. We also realized that no matter what we did, it would still be equivalent to a drop in the ocean – this required a bigger player. We then started having discussions with Telcos for strategic alliances. In 2012, we began working with Vodafone and the response was something even we had not anticipated. Till

We are gradually expanding our presence on all online platforms and 80 per cent of our company’s revenue is driven by m-commerce then, users only had the choice of ringtones or wallpapers, and we were giving them more options in the form of local deals. We leveraged our internal consumer analytics data to offer location-based deals and that’s when mobile really started building user momentum and our J-curve on mobile really came around. Fast forward to 2014, and 80 per cent of our user traf�ic comes from mobile now. We currently run deals and offers for all the top Telcos (Airtel, Vodafone,

Can you tell us about the new grocery section on the site? We are always looking for ways to make life convenient for users. One of the things that we were getting request for was help with grocery shopping. So we talked to a number of FMCG companies. Since not many have an online presence, we got a good response from them. The idea was to take them online and showcase their products and new offers to people. Usually, the general stores do not tell you about all the offers. This could be resolved as buyers would know which brand was offering what discounts from the listings on Mydala. We are also letting users create their own grocery list on our app. People generally make their list on their phones, so now you can sync that with the mydala app and see what offers are available on them. Food and grocery form 60 per cent of India’s USD 600 Bn retail market and mobile coupons are going to be great enablers for instant saving on a user’s daily purchases. Given their popularity, we expect coupons to contribute at least 7 per cent of retail in the grocery vertical. The platform will now enable the big brands to target their customers with direct promotions, new product launches and trials. Apart from this, brands will now be able to hyper target users to increase their product penetration and consumption in local markets.  -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com Pitch | December 2014

COVER STORY CASHKARO

They make ‘Cashback’ sound cool By RASHI BISARIA

ver heard of getting cash back when you made a purchase? Af�iliate marketing site called cashkaro.com brought this novel concept to India along with a few others but has now become easily the largest in this space. Flight tickets, hotel bookings , mobile recharge, you name it and Cashkaro is giving cash back on these products. It taps into the natural human liking for rewards. Who doesn’t like extra savings? Launched by husband-wife duo Rohan and Swati Bhargava, graduates from London School of Economics, Cashkaro is not just bene�icial for consumers but also for all brands associated with the site. It helps them in customer acquisition. The concept of cash back is not new to the couple who started Pouringpounds. com in the UK in 2011 on the same lines. Daily deal sites were already there but Rohan and Swati wanted to start a Pitch | December 2014

model that gave shoppers discounts on their day-to-day purchases. That’s how the idea of cash back was born. They brought the idea to India in 2013 and since then there has been no looking back. The ecommerce boom is spelling good times ahead for cashkaro which is tying up with an increasing number of ecommerce sites who pay them a commission and some part of it goes back to the consumer. They have grown by a whopping 1000 per cent since their launch and make 1500 to 2000 sales a day. Their venture in the UK continues to thrive and as Rohan says, it almost runs on autopilot. It is the Indian version that is demanding all their attention. With 500 retail partners already on board including the big names of the ecommerce industry, Cashkaro is on an upward curve. “It is a global concept but people in

India are warming up to the idea too. We are a performance driven market channel for ecommerce brands and drive traf�ic to their sites,” says Rohan. When asked about how he drives traf�ic to cashkaro in the �irst place, Rohan explains how they have their own ways of marketing the site, “We are very active on social media and are trying to make the concept popular in India.” There is a fresh appeal to the start up which comes from it being run by a young couple with a vision, unparalleled energy and an optimism based on experience. They have hired a bunch of young professionals with open minds and bright ideas, not having relied on pedigree alone. Even though infrastructure is a challenge and they struggle with the nitty gritties of the daily grind in India, their focus is unwavering.  -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

COVER STORY INTERVIEW GAURAV SINGH KUSHWAHA

Technology and Innovation deďŹ ne Bluestone Jewellery 50

Bluestone, the e-jewellery store made news in September this year when former Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata made a personal investment in the company. With a registered user base of half a million and growing, Bluestone is on the right track. Launched in 2011, the Bangalore based jewellery retailer differentiates itself from the others with its affordable , everyday range. Deepa Balasubramanian spoke to Gaurav Singh Kushwaha, Founder and CEO to find out more about its differentiated offerings and its market appeal. Pitch | December 2014 Pitch

We have grown at a very encouraging pace of 300 per cent year on year since we launched in 2012

How many registered users do you have on today’s date?

We are currently at a GMV of 120 crores annually and we are looking at a 500 crores GMV in the coming year (FY16)

How important is brand building for you, considering that you also launched a TVC and are now going strong on building the brand image?

We have a registered base of around half a million. What sets you apart from your competitors? BlueStone is at the forefront of leading innovation in the jewellery market with a very distinct design philosophy, unhampered design variety and choices with a 50000 SKU catalogue, never before services like home trials, personal shopping recommendations and lifetime exchange. We have the best in class systems for design, manufacturing and marketing jewellery across a range of price points. We offer a unique jewellery buying experience which an rekindle the romance in real relationships.

Jewellery as a category demands a lot of trust, credibility and awareness. It is a very emotional and high involvement purchase which requires a strong brand which ful�ils the expectations of the consumer in terms of stature, trust, value and quality. We have embarked on brand building journey with our new marketing communication across various mediums. We believe that a strong purpose, an enduring brand idea and continuous brand led innovations will help us establish an enviable jewellery brand in the country in the coming few years.

“

We have set up new product development and innovation processes internally which are at the core of our business

What do you think is your biggest strength?

“

How much has Bluestone grown since it launched?

What is your annual revenue like and what are you aiming for in the coming year?

Our biggest strength is the capability and focus to deliver a unique jewellery buying experience with a wide range of jewellery across price points designed and crafted to perfection. Our attention to detail and precision on every piece of jewellery irrespective of the value sets us apart in the current jewellery market.

You have begun innovations like home trial etc. How important is it to innovate consistently in this fast evolving market and how do you ensure that you can keep innovating?

In the highly connected and fast evolving digital world the consumers have instant access to information, lower attention spans and comprehensive knowledge. It is very important to continuously innovate and be a step ahead than the market and the consumer. Modern day organizations should understand the need of the consumers before it surfaces and serve them with innovative products and solutions. We are a very outward looking organization with a strong focus on continuous improvement and disruptive innovation. We believe we can change the way jewellery has been made, bought and sold through technology and innovation. We have set up new product development and innovation processes internally which are at the core of our business and we strive to build solutions which are disruptive.

Pitch Pitch| December 2014

What do you think is the future of ecommerce in the country in the coming few years?

Needless to say, Indian ecommerce market is one of the fastest growing markets and will continue to do so over the next decade. Ecommerce has not only revolutionized the way we used to shop but also given huge value back to the consumers in terms of product variety, choices, accessibility and value. Ecommerce will be one of the biggest industries in India in the years to come.

-deepa@exchange4media.com

COVER STORY INTERVIEW SAMEER PARWANI

e n i l n o e l b i s i g v n i g r i n ‘Bei lps in acqus’ he customer Indian customers are deal seekers and affiliate sites like Coupondunia that ride on the success of ecommerce in India, know the pulse of shoppers. Coupondunia connects merchants looking to increase their sales with shoppers looking for good deals. Sites like Coupondunia are generally profitable because of the growth in the ecommerce industry and they are popular as they offer tempting discounts. Rashi Bisaria spoke to Sameer Parwani, CEO and Founder, Coupondunia to find out how the site has fared this year and what is the secret to its success.

What is the business model of CouponDunia? How does the process work? CouponDunia is a coupon code website that helps users save money while shopping. We connect merchants looking to increase their sales with shoppers looking for good deals. When the merchant offers a good discount, we promote it to our users who then buy from that merchant. Both parties end up winning: the consumer saved money and the merchant sold more of his product.

What was your revenue like in 2013-14 and what are your targets for the coming year? We earned a revenue of over Rs 10 crores last year. This year we’re looking at doubling our revenue and driving sales worth Rs 500 crores. Times Internet has a stake in your site. What kind of difference has that made? Our acquisition by Times Internet has helped us expand our reach to potential

consumers and attract more merchants. Apart from increased distribution, the media access enabled us to substantially increase the awareness of coupons in India. How many brands are you currently associated with? Currently, we provide coupons of more than 1800 brands on our website. Our biggest clients are the most popular e-commerce merchants such as Flipkart, Amazon, eBay, Myntra, Jabong, MakeMyTrip, GoIbibo, Snapdeal, and a few others. These e-commerce stores make up more than half of Indian e-commerce (excluding recharge) and naturally also make up more than half of our business. However, we also work very well with all sizes of clients and drive a meaningful number of sales to even lesser known e-commerce stores. We have recently launched a mobile app which offers restaurant coupons on the go, whether one is ordering in or eating out.We have associated with around 2000 of�line restaurants across 5 cities and also with more than 1800 online merchants for the mobile app and are hoping to increase this number soon. CouponDunia is associated with more than 3500 brands. We are also, looking forward to more such associations. What have you done to ensure a superior

| November | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

experience for your customers? In today’s rapidly growing e-commerce scenario, the customer is king. Ensuring quality and accurate content helps us provide the consumer with a good experience while shopping. We’re constantly working on providing a better user experience through design and algorithm upgrades as well as exclusive discounts. Since we have the largest audience of discount seeking users, merchants are more willing to share better coupons with us which helps us serve the customer better.

What do you attribute your success to: technology, logistics, innovation or marketing? Actually, our success comes from the fact that we have always been customer centric. Our entire idea has been to provide a good value proposition to our customers by giving them the best deals and discounts possible. We have kept our website clean of advertising and anything that hampers the customer’s attention while he is trying to search for a discount.

digital e k a t r e d n u We h Engine c r a e S , g in t marke Adwords le g o o G , n io Optimizat o come up with a ls and have a ill be acting as a w blog which t to our website supplemen How are you planning to market CouponDunia in the coming year? Being a part of an online business industry, we understand that being visible in the online space helps us gain more customers.As industry leaders,we already have a �ine understanding with major online stores. Even with our small merchants, we share a healthy relationship since we deal with them directly. We are constantly striving to discover new online portals and shopping sites. We do a lot of digital marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Google Adwords and have also come up with a blog which will be acting as a supplement to our website. We also have a robust marketing and advertising plan in place for the coming year.

What is the daily traf�ic like on the site? Our daily traf�ic is around 2 lakh customers on average with 1.5 lakh visitors on the website and 50,000 visitors on the mobile app every day.  -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

Pitch | December November 2014 2014

COVER STORY INTERVIEW RAJIV SRIVATSA

e h t g n i Climb s s e c c u s f o r e d d la U

rban Ladder has made superior customer experience its stated objective. Although reluctant to disclose revenue figures, the start-up has been fulfilling an average of 150200 orders per day. Customer Experience Management is one of the major factors for its success and enabling a seamless furniture-buying experience is the differentiating edge. The company believes in expanding slowly only after extensive research and wants to be true to their tagline, “Great Furniture Made Easy”. Rajiv Srivatsa , COO and Co-Founder tells Rashi Bisaria how they stay focused on their key offering. Till now you have focused on the metros, is there any plan to scale up? We are present in 7 cities in India. We will scale up and enter other cities after in-depth research on customer needs, and after ensuring that we are able to service these cities exceptionally well from a logistics and delivery standpoint.

How much has Urban Ladder grown from the time it launched?

Considering that there are other players in the market doing much the same thing, how important is it for you to differentiate your offerings?

Within two years of launch, the company is ful�illing an average of 150-200 orders per day and the average ticket size is close to Rs 20,000, the highest in the e-commerce industry in India today. In terms of revenues, Urban Ladder has been seeing 4-5x growth year-on-year.

Our tagline - ‘Great Furniture Made Easy’ sums up exactly what we are here for. Our focus is on getting world-class furniture designs to the Indian audience and providing exceptional customer experience to make furniture shopping easy. On both these fronts, we have clearly differentiated compared to competition.

You are investing in innovative apps. Is that because mobile is a great source of traf�ic for you?

The use of mobile is growing rapidly. We see almost 40-45 per cent traf�ic from mobile. With a clear focus on making millions of Indian homes beautiful, we are inventing a model which is a perfect marriage of good design and technology. We are working aggressively to provide world class digital solutions for furniture shopping so that the online shopping experience is superior to even the of�line shopping experience.

How many registered users do you have today? We can’t disclose this number

What are the sales like on a single day? We do close to 150200 orders per day.

How many categories do you have on the site and are you We have over 25 catplanning to increase? egories at present. We are constantly working on the range to add relevant products and categories to our catalogue.

| November | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

How important is customer experience management for you and how do you achieve it?

Customer experience management has been key to our success What is the key to The key is to stay focused on your key offering – so far. We’ve laid imsurvive in this the product and great service. We have stayed fomense importance on cluttered space? cused on our mission of making a million Indian customer experience at every point – whether homes beautiful with well-designed furniture it is the website’s seamless user interface and and exceptional customer experience. easy navigation, a well curated furniture cataWe ensure that we never comlogue to offer the best in design and quality, a promise on the design or quality Any immediate plans friendly and dedicated customer care team to of the product which you would like ensure our customers have a hassle free shopto share? ping experience and a well-trained logistics What marketing team to provide safe doorstep delivery and activities have you installation. We have ensured that we hold One clear area of focus for us is technolundertaken so far? all these pieces closely together so the entire ogy. We are working on innovative apps Are you planning on furniture buying experience is seamless. We have largely to bridge the gap between online and oflaunching any mass We have set up several methods internally to used the digital �line shopping under UL Labs which we media campaign? ensure we maintain a very high bar on cusmedium for launched three months back. ‘UL Labs’ tomer experience. One such method is capour marketis a collaborative outreach effort where turing the Net Promoter Score (NPS) from ing efforts so teams from Urban Ladder will work every customer. We let customers rate us on far. Facebook has played an imwith digital start-ups across the world their entire experience and ask them how likeportant role in spreading posito come up with pioneering solutions in ly they are to recommend us to their friends tive word of mouth about Urban various aspects of furniture buying. We’ve and family on a scale of 1 to 10. We have mainLadder and has also served as an launched two apps – Urban Storage & Livtained a very high NPS score so far and will effective sales channel for us. As ing Spaces so far, and we are working on continuously monitor this number to maintain we grow, we will look at different some more interesting apps in this area. a high benchmark on customer experience. mediums, both online and of�line

Pitch | December November 2014 2014

to increase brand awareness.

-rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

COVER STORY INTERVIEW SAURABH KOCHHAR

rintvenue, the Gurgaon based company backed by Rocket Internet has been offering services for business printing and individual requirements since July 2012. By providing customisation in the printing sector , the company filled a unique gap in the niche market and has grown 6 times in the past one year. Both the B2B and B2C markets contribute equally to its revenue and its targeting up to 20 per cent share in the Rs 3000 crore segment. Rashi Bisaria spoke to Saurabh Kochhar, MD and Co-Founder, Printvenue.com about the niche segment, their growth strategy and how they market themselves online.

How large is the customised gifting space in India and what is printvenue’s share? It is a niche market and growing at a fast rate in the country. There is no big player in the segment and we are targeting up to 20 per cent share in the over Rs 3,000 crore segment this year. Why did you choose to launch a niche e-commerce product? The main idea behind it was to actually bring the ease of customization in the printing sector to the homes of the Indian customers in a big way, the gap was for single product customization. Printvenue has made personalized gifts and printing solutions a very easy job for them. They can get things personalized with just a click of the mouse. What have been your sales like in 2014? We have grown 6 times in the past one year. Do you get bulk orders or individual orders? We are focused on individual orders followed by bulk and corporate orders.

With the clutter in the ecommerce space, do niche segments work better? As people are becoming more tech-savvy and prefer r u o shopping online (because y s i What profile like? of the obvious reasons), yes s er gment y e s the niche segment helps g custom in t it interes se: The major f o us serve better as there is le p u a a co tab We have r customer da uth, who don’t onalized less competition and the s u o demand for such categories within o re educated yhopping for per Day, a s e’s in t is growing by the day. n le a r dulge in V e

e oth e to in s like hesitatts on occasionnd new year .Thloyed p ,a gif self-em hip Day Friends ent is that of who would segm fessionals ationery pro office std gifts. y u b o t like sonalize and per

56 56

What is your business

plans Do you havefo to go in r eting? ark mass media m

ch nd plans to rea Yes , every bramers through every erent. out to its custo nd we are no diff possible way a un OOH campaigns, We have beg ing TVCs and and plann s as well. other print ad

model? We are the ONLY portal in India to have over 500 products that can be personalized for individual, gifting or business use. Our tech backend ensures that we can quickly produce and deliver our orders even at scale. Printvenue offers compelling value to its customers through ease of ordering from a wide range of personalized products and personalized customer services. We offer a Design Library to customers, and have more than 50,000 designs available across products. How strong is your back end? The strength of the organization lies in our execution capabilities. Getting things right the �irst time and on time is a skill we have honed. All this is possible through our highly motivated and energetic team of operations that we have which ensures that orders are going out on time.

How are you marketing this concept? We have mostly concentrated on online promotions for Printvenue campaigns. Google Search, Display Network and Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are a signi�icant part of our marketing

| December | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

budgets and we also keep our customers updated through regular newsletters about latest offers and products. How important is customer experience for you? What are you doing to enhance it? The customer is the most important aspect for any company. We have a very active customer support team and we take constant feedback from our customers through social media platforms and various surveys and work for the betterment of our services.

How do you envisage the ecommerce space in India in the years to come? E-commerce is booming and the Corporate Gifting market is worth around INR 3,000 crore and we plan to acquire 20 per cent of it by 2015 Q2. Also as we grow, we intend to add more than 1000 products to our major categories which are printing, engraving and special occasion gifts as it will help us in providing more options to customers. Ecommerce is going to be the best and easy way to reach customers.  -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

e h t f o h t g n e r t “The s ation lies in our z i ” s n e a i t g i r l i o b a p a c n o i t u c e x e Pitch | December 2014 2014

COVER STORY INTERVIEW Alok Goel

Ho w e g r a h C e Fre e u l a v s e d pro vi s r e t e k r a to m F

reeCharge is building Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest mobile in-transaction ad network and payment technology business. Today, it has a fast growing m-commerce app and 90 per cent of transactions originate on the mobile phone. With close to 14 million registered users on the site, FreeCharge is on a steep growth path. In conversation with Kanika Mehrotra, Alok Goel, CEO, shares how FreeCharge is becoming increasingly relevant for marketers

How much have you grown in the last year? We have grown 1000 per cent in last 10 months starting January 2014. FreeCharge has become a pioneer, leading the mobile internet revolution in the country. Our mobile apps are just 10 months old and have been downloaded by more than 8M users, thus making us the fastest growing m-commerce app in the country. Today 90 per cent of our transactions originate on the mobile phone as opposed to only 5 per cent a year back.

| November | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

Can you tell us about the advertising platform you are building to capture consumer purchase behaviour? FreeCharge is building India’s largest mobile in-transaction ad network and payment technology business. We think that our platform is hugely valuable for various of�line and online marketers to reach out to the right target audience. For example, every e-commerce company is looking at targeting consumers who know how to make an online payment and FreeCharge is a leading platform that can provide them access to these customers. Similarly, several FMCG brands also use our platform to reach out to the most appropriate target audience for their products.

You recently received funding. What kind of difference has it made to your functioning and performance? Funding is only an event in a long journey of creating and building a valuable business. Funding is also a good validation that the direction taken is right, the progress is excit-

y regisHow masners do you tered u day? have to e to

los We have c gistered users. e 14 Mn r

Pitch | December November 2014 2014

e are associat s d n a r b y n a How m t present? with you a

ing and is creating brands value for our users. nd premium wide a t s e b ’s ia d ross a 0 of In However, fundhave over 30h us. These are spread ac ent, Food, e W m ing hasn’t had an it in associated wegories - Travel, Entertahers . impact in our style t t a o c y f n o a range estyle and m of functioning. We ommerce, Lif -C e still operate with the same consumer focus and try to keep innovating in everything we do with you? - be it products or marketing efforts. Brands look for business value. They However, funding does allow us lever- would be perfectly open to adopting age to accelerate execution and create new models which help them achieve more impact for consumers. their business goals. We have very strong focus towards helping busiYou are also investing in acquiring nesses achieve the right ROI and mobile apps. Why ? acquire customers. With FreeCharge We think, India is a mobile market. becoming a strong brand, we now There were only 2Mn mobile internet have many brands reaching out to us, users in the country in 2009. However expressing their interest to partner. this number now stands at 120Mn. We have built an array of products This is 60X growth in 5 years. India to suit different needs of brands and is already going through an in�lection their marketing leaders. point with respect to mobile internet usage. Our belief is that, a company What is the future of ecommerce in targeting Indian consumers needs to the country according to you? Will focus on mobile or it will cease to exthe frenzy last? ist 2 years from now E-Commerce is making people think Our mobile consumers have far in fundamentally different ways than higher retention rate and engagement they did earlier. Who would have with the product. We are also able to imagined that ordering a taxi would create a much more engaging experibe a single click effort on your mobile ence on mobile apps than on desktop phone, but it has become a reality internet. Hence we have made a few today. E-Commerce will create new acquisitions around mobile apps to business models for old school busifurther expand our vision. nesses and in many cases, will create disruption.  How do you get brands to partner -kanika.mehrotra@exchange4media.com

COVER STORY INTERVIEW SITAKANTA RAY

e h t u p n g n i e r t e s S ma c i r p t u o a b r e m o t s cu T

his Hyderabad based start-up is focussed on providing value to its customers. Launched in 2010, MySmartPrice has evolved into a full fledged price comparison site that facilitates product and price discovery for customers. With a product list that includes more than 200 leading brands and close to 3 million registered users, MySmartPriceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s patience has paid off. Price comparison sites are growing in popularity and the competition is keeping them on their toes. Sitakanta Ray, CoFounder and Director, speaks to Rashi Bisaria about the affiliate model and future plans.

Pitch | November 2014

What is your business model? MySmartPrice works on the Af�iliate Business model. We earn a percentage of the product selling price as commission from the Indian e-retail outlets. We have partnered with over 40 of India’s top e-retail destinations.

How much have you grown in the last 4 years? We have grown 10 times in the last 4 years. In 2011, we had a traf�ic of 2 Mn users a month, today we serve close to 20 Mn users a month.

mally not be aware of. For example, If a product may be discounted by the store and there is an additional store wide discount on using a particular credit card, we factor in both these prices to give users the True Best Price.

What are your future plans? We are already working on adding of�line prices to our mobiles category. In addition to this, our focus continues to be to improve product accuracy and the addition of

It is important to work on your core strengths and build a minimum viable product.

How many registered users do you have on today’s date? We have close to 3 Mn registered users through email. What is the daily traf�ic to the site like? We get over 6 Lakh visitors every day.

How does the backend work and how do you ensure accuracy? Our partner stores either provide us with an API or an XML feed of the prices of products across categories. These feeds are periodically refreshed to ensure accuracy. In case of popular stores, these prices are refreshed on an almost hourly basis to ensure customers don’t miss out on sudden price falls or �lash discounts. How are brands associated with you? We do not associate directly with any product labels or brands. All items listed on our site are products that are

We are a complete technology product. It has remained our differentiator as well as enabler for many reasons

available on our partner stores. We create an exhaustive list of products from these stores. We currently list products from over 200 leading brands in multiple categories.

How different are you from other comparison sites like Junglee.com etc. What is your USP? One of our key differentiators is the number of partner stores that we have compared to others. We work with all the leading ecommerce sites including Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. We also provide users the True Best Price of products. True Best Price, essentially factors into the price of the product, any potential discounts, coupons or special items bundled with the product that users may nor-

Pitch | November 2014

more categories. Our motto is simple, if it’s sold online, we help you buy it.

What are the 2 most important lessons you have learnt from your journey in the Indian market? 1. Mobile is King. A signi�icant chunk of India’s internet users access websites through mobiles, often at signi�icantly slower speeds. It is important to make a website that works well on mobile. 2.

Build a Minimum Viable Product then Expand: It is important to work on your core strengths and build a minimum viable product. By building a minimum viable product, you not only limit your losses but also gain a more exhaustive understanding of how the product will do in the market. Minimum Viable Product also acts as a great proof of concept to help secure funding.

How important is technology for your model? We are a complete technology product. It has remained our differentiator as well as enabler for many reasons. We believe technology is our core strength and we continue to focus on creating a strong technological product that does its own marketing. How are you preparing to tackle the rising number of online shoppers? An abundance of online shoppers is a good problem to have. We would like to be the prime shopping destination for all Indian online shoppers. We are trying to achieve this by providing exhaustive listing of products and their True Best Prices, which is inclusive of any possible discounts or deals. In addition to this, we are constantly working on improving the product experience and building trust among our users.  -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

INTERVIEW SANDIP SOMANY

Sanitaryware brand Hindware opts for new ways to engage with niche consumers W

ith a luxurious urban lifestyle comes the need for functionality combined with aesthetics. Premium Bathroom product brands are in a race to provide the best to the consumer and aim to deliver the message through new age communication devices. Hindware released a Bathroom Planner DVD App which serves as a tool to engage with interior designers and architects. The Application integrates brand, product, people and planning, delivering focused communication to reach a distinct set of consumers. Rashi Bisaria spoke to Sandip Somany, Joint Managing Director, HSIL ltd about the latest App, the first in this category and how the brand is reaching out to consumers in new ways.

| November | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

What prompted the brand to come up with an App? The ‘Bathroom PlannerDVD’ App is a novel marketing tool and a first by a sanitaryware player being offered to engage with niche target segment. It is designedfor professionals; Interior Designers & Architects. Brand communication is all about reaching out to one’s target audience in a cluttered market successfully and delivering the brand’s core message. New age communication at present is going digital and popularity of ‘apps’ is growing each day. It serves a win-win situation for both brand and the target group. Moreover, ‘focused’ communication with minimal spillage is the mantra for brands at present. This calls for customization and personalization of strategies to reach a distinct set of consumers. The genesis of launching the ‘Bathroom Planner DVD’ App lies in this core philosophy of brand communication.

Is the App meant for architects only or is it for the end consumer? The ‘Bathroom Planner DVD’ App, at present is designed specifically to cater to the needs of professionals. With the increasing usage of technologies across industries the way businesses operate has been changing, making traditional ways of functioning redundant and transforming the way brands communicate with their stakeholders. Offering this ‘DVD App’ to interior designers and architects is an effort by brand ‘hindware’to connect with one of its stakeholders and aide them to generate better results for their consumers, the end users. It is an easy to use ‘App’, once the DVD is inserted the user can download the ‘Bathroom Planning tool’, create client groups, add bathroom category for each client (Master bathroom, kids bathroom, commercial bathroom) and can begin working on ‘five’ projects of varied nature, commercial and individual homes. The ‘App’ not only provides easy acPitch | December November 2014 2014

cess to hindware’s entire product portfolio made available under roof, it also enables flexibility to the user to make smart choices for each client. The ‘Bathroom Planning’ tool offers product search option through keywords or catalogue number, selection criteria of maximum 4 product designs at a time to match their suitability with each bathroom blueprint, the user can also add up to 16 products of choice to their wish list, a convenient way to play around

What has been the best medium so far for HSIL to communicate with consumers? We at HSIL today have a 360 degree marketing communication plan for brand hindware, to optimise all available mediums. Print has and still holds a primary position in our planning, however we use different mediums for different purposes. Our ‘Designs to Desire’ TV campaign was launched last year to enhance awareness, and is aired on channels of dif-

Focused communication with minimal spillage is the mantra for brands at present. This calls for customization and personalization of strategies

ferent genre, from Hindi & English entertainment, movies, news as well as language. Radio and Social medium is primarily used during contest. We also have a dedicated hindware Facebook page and Twitter account which is constantly monitored to get feedback from consumers as well to drive traffic to our brand website; hindwarehomes.com. Apart from the above, sanitaryware retail is an important area, focusing on branded stores, with ‘hindware Galleries’, we already have 100 hindware Gallerias at

with product design and bathroom design. This application in sum, integrates brand, product, planning and people together.

INTERVIEW SANDIP SOMANY

present and plan to add 100 more this financial year.

How important has digital media become for a category like yours? As more people seek and consume information, products and services online, the power of social media is undeniable in today’s world. With Facebook, Twitter and YouTube the main protagonists, they have transformed the way our entire society functions. This transformation has impacted all brands and holds true for bathroom products as well. Digital media ensures that a brand’s message keeps moving, creating brand exposure and grabs the attention of key influencers in its sphere. It creates a snowball effect in the form of re-tweets and likes, generating more

exposure. In the bathroom products domain, with both trade customers and consumers today expect constant communication with brands and with Indians viewing sanitaryware products as a medium, through which they can showcase their wealth and premium lifestyle, digital media planning forms an integral component of our brand communication. We see social media as an additional tool to enhance our position as an industry leader and allow for better communication in the market and with customers. What else is HSIL doing to engage

consumers with the brand, especially as it is a low involvement brand?What marketing initiatives is the brand planning to come up with in the coming months? Today’s consumers crave and expect more, and more customized and personalized products, services and experiences. And, we at hindware are well equipped to respond to our multi-faceted stakeholders with personal-

that hindware is well entrenched in. We run two social media campaigns in a financial year and just concluded the ‘Bathroom of the future’ campaign. It was a 4 weeks campaign, promoted through display ads, video ads, mailers on various Google platforms including hindware’s FB page and Twitter page which to generated exciting ideas from consumers with . 75,000 likes on hindware FB page, over 60,000 views on YouTube and 1 lakh footfalls to the brand website in 4 weeks. Hindware received over 1000 entries and seven winners were announced every week ending with one final winner winning a grand prize - iPad. Contests are an on-going engaging activity, which also uses the social media platform. These contests are occasion based such as Mother’s day, Water

ize messaging and outreach programs. Apart from ATL campaigns, event tieups with media houses such as the Architect Innovation Challenge with CNBC TV, engaging platform for Architects & future student of the subject, the Femina Penn Shakti Award, which recognises women achievers across various professional field, Femina Style Diva Beauty contest are new and enriching platforms we are seen now. And, we will continue to seek such tieups as they are in sync with lifestyle and premium brand positioning. Contest & Campaigns on the digital space is another engaging platform

day, Environment day to name a few. Brand stakeholders like dealers and plumbers are very important for brand hindware to constantly engage with them as well. They not only play the role of an influencer but are the bridge between the brand and the last mile user. We at hindware conduct nearly 1000 plumbers meet (a group of 25 -30) every year to educate them about new product offerings, from technical know-how to installation after proper usage; comprehensive knowledge capsule is prepared for them.  -rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

Digital media ensures that a brand’s message keeps moving, creating brand exposure and grabs the attention of key influencers in its sphere

| November | December Pitch Pitch 2014 2014

E-COMMERCE

LESSONS LEARNT THE HARD WAY

E-commerce brands share the lessons they learnt from their journey in the Indian market

FREECHARGE

URBAN LADDER

The most important lesson we have learnt is that you always need to be focused on your consumer and everything else will follow.

Focus on few things and do them really well instead of spreading too thin. This focus has helped us stay ahead in the market and establish a clear positioning for ourselves. Rajiv Srivatsa | COO and Co-Founder, Urban Ladder

Alok Goel | CEO, FreeCharge

MYDALA

AMAZON

Customers around the world are similar. Customers around the world always want a vast selection at low prices and a reliable and trustworthy online shopping experience.

Don’t quit. There was a time when things were extremely rough for us but we chose to keep innovating till we hit the right formula for exponential growth. Anisha Singh | Founder, Mydala

Amit Agarwal | Country Manager and VP, Amazon India

YEPME

GROUPON

Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Groupon India

Focus on high quality merchants: We worked with top brands across the industry to offer great deals to our customers while ensuring that the merchants also benefit from the promotions by gaining valuable new customers. Customer focus: Ensuring that the Groupon promise is always delivered, we went out of our way in ensuring that customers get a great experience each time they buy a Groupon.

Sandeep Sharma Founder and COO, YepMe.com

SNAPDEAL

PRINTVENUE

Customization provides great value to the customer and customer satisfaction should be the prime concern for an e-commerce brand. One should never doubt oneself. Saurabh Kochhar | MD and Co-Founder, Printvenue.com

Pitch | December 2014

One should focus on creating multiple channels to acquire customers; dependency on a single platform is a strict no-no for any ecommerce business. Also brand positioning and brand building is an integral part for any brand especially when you are a private label.

Sandeep Komaravelly SVP- Marketing, Snapdeal.com

It is important to think big and pursue it with supreme aggression and conviction. Most of the times, the reason why big things aren’t achieved is because the goal wasn’t big enough in the first place. Pursuing Innovation in each and every small thing that you do, can potentially change the way the team works. 65

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The future of wearablesvying for a pride of place on your person Nitin Mathur

Co-Founder, 91mobiles.com

f there’s one product category that has taken the technology world by storm in the recent past, it has to be wearables. Most associate wearables with smartwatches, but the fact is that it’s a massive segment – consisting of not only smartwatches, but �itness bands, glasses, even apparel – in essence, any piece of electronics that can be worn on your person. After smartphones, wearable technology is slated to be the next big thing,

and not without good reason. The �itness monitor space isn’t new globally, and brands like Jawbone, Nike, and Fitbit have had offerings since a long time now. The smartwatch world is relatively new though, and one of the early names in this �ield is that of Pebble. This device took the crowdfunding route to come into existence, and the same approach has since been utilised by quite a few start-ups to fund their own wearable gadgets. The Android Wear platform from Google is a noteworthy attempt to bring a semblance of consistency to the highly-fragmented smartwatch domain, and with Apple jumping into the fray with its own Watch expected early next year, things are getting hot. Eyewear, with Google Glass as its hero product, hasn’t created that big an impact yet – since the devices are prohibitively pricey and tough to acquire. Smartwatches and �itness monitors currently constitute the bulk of the wearables portfolio, and those are exactly what we’ll focus on here. The distinction between the two is quite simple – smartwatches relay noti�ications from your smartphone to your wrist, while Pitch | December 2014

�itness bands monitor your physical activity. However, things get confusing because of the fact that many smartwatches also integrate �itness-related functions, and devices like Samsung’s Gear Fit go all out to marry smartwatch and �itness band functionality into a single device. Talking speci�ically about India, the country is still fairly new to the wearables phenomenon. There are around 20 smartwatches and less than 10 �itness bands available for sale online in India, although many more are looming on the horizon. Sony and Samsung are the brands that took the bull by its horns by launching their smartwatches in the country early on, with others like LG and Motorola boarding the bandwagon with their Android Wear-powered smartwatches, the G Watch and the Moto 360 respectively. ASUS is bringing in its ZenWatch to the country soon too. When it comes to �itness trackers, Sony took the lead in India again with its SmartBand, but since then, many others like GOQii, mymo, and Garmin have entered the space. GOQii is one of the most noteworthy, since it’s an Indian start-up that offers its �itness band as a subscription-based service rather than an off-the-shelf gadget, bundling the services of real-life coaches alongside. Yet another game changer is likely to be Xiaomi’s Mi band, a �itness band that could be priced as low as Rs 1,500 or even lower. A quality device at an affordable price point may be just the thing that brings to life the latent demand for this category. If the above sounds a tad hotchpotch, we’ll blame it on the eccentricities of the category itself. As things stand currently, there are hardly any concrete numbers available in terms of the adoption rates of these new-fangled gizmos in the country. The growth

Pitch | December 2014

Taking smartwatches and fitness bands as representative of the whole wearables space, India stands poised at the cusp of a potential revolution

of smartphones could be a usable benchmark, since almost all these devices work as companion accessories to mobile handsets. According to a recent IDC report, India was the fastest growing smartphone market in Asia Paci�ic in the third quarter this year. The large-screened smartphone or the so-called phablet segment is extremely popular, and with the country-wide 4G rollout expected soon, fuelling the growth of smart devices in general, things are looking up indeed. Taking smartwatches and �itness bands as representative of the whole wearables space, India stands poised at the cusp of a potential revolution. However, we don’t expect it to be something that’ll take over our lives in a matter of days or weeks. Instead, it could be a quiet revolution that promises to reach a point where owning one of these devices could become as essential as owning

a smartphone. Right now, these are merely toys for the early adopters and gadget enthusiasts who don’t shy away from shelling out the big bucks to try out the cutting-edge stuff. Cost, in fact, could be a signi�icant deterrent, since smartwatches cost upwards of Rs 7,000-8,000, with the more worthy ones priced around the Rs 15,000 mark or higher. Fitness bands are more affordable, but are primarily adorned by �itness buffs at the moment. As costs come down and awareness levels about the usefulness of these devices increase, don’t be surprised if you feel compelled to hit that enticing-looking ‘buy now’ button… not because you need that gadget to �launt, but because you need that gadget, period. 

The views expressed here are of the author alone and do not necessarily re�lect the views of Pitch

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The Curious Case of E-commerce Ankur Ashta

Marketing Professional and Author of the Book, ‘Heart, Mind and Wallet’.

ankur.ashta@gmail.com

et me start with a question. Rather two. Did you know that human beings tend to spend signi�icantly more when using a credit card against when paying by cash? Did you know that this has been proved scienti�ically? Yes, research tells us that since our decisions are largely affected by the tangibility of consequences of our choices, we tend not to feel the loss when the plastic money goes out of our wallet, only to come back (after the swipe, of course). However, when we take those crisp rupee notes out of our wallet and hand them over, our senses feel the tangibility of our action �irst-hand and tell us that now we have less of those. Hence, we tend to practice restraint when paying by cash. Spending by credit card, on the other hand, is plain madness. So much so, that it – without much resistance from any one of us – quali�ies as a disorder so grave that experts abroad advise people to freeze their credit card in deep-freezer, so as to kill the impulse. Now, impulses represent an extremely emotional side of human behaviour. The other extreme of the human behaviour spectrum is rationality. While an impulse alone

is enough to make ecommerce a success (the online shoppers look through the ice and still complete the transaction), let us have a look at why rationality too makes e-commerce an obvious winner. Assume you are 30 years old. You stay in what people call The Millennium City and you love taking your spouse out to a mall every Saturday and Sunday. Assume that you will live till you are 75 years and you will continue this practice of mall visits till your last Sunday. INR 3 lakh is what you are required to spend on mall parking alone by the time you breathe your last (and this is as per ongoing parking rates – in�lation remorselessly ignored). Please

Pitch | December 2014

note we have not even spoken about the fuel charges. If this is too big a jump for one’s imagination, I have spent more than 8,000/- rupees on parking in the last one year (check yours; it wouldn’t be signi�icantly lower). Add to these savings (and savings from fuel), the discounts the e-commerce portals offer and there is nothing left to appeal to rational side of your brain. Or is there something? Risk aversion, I would reckon. What if I don’t get the product and the payment has gone through? What if the product is not what I wanted? This is where the masterstroke

With consumer insights in place and all ingredients measured in right quantities, it is confirmed that e-commerce is leaping in the right trajectory

called cash-on-delivery comes in. COD, as this famous facility is known as, is believed to be a pain for the e-commerce companies (because of high return rates and working capital issues) but has proved an ageless wing as far as the �light of the industry is concerned. Industry reports suggest that Cash-on-Delivery accounts for 50 per cent to 80 per cent of the online transactions in India. This position of strength for COD has primarily been attributed to the low credit/debit card penetration in the country, but a deep understanding of Indian consumer’s psyche suggests it is used more

Pitch | December 2014

as a shield against functional and �inancial risks and less because of unavailability of credit/debit cards. Had that been the case, COD in urban areas would have been negligible as there is no dearth of plastic money in 1Mn+ towns. With strong consumer insights in place and all ingredients measured in right quantities, one shouldn’t require a rocket scientist to con�irm that e-commerce is leaping in the right trajectory. If data is anything to go by, e-commerce industry has seen a CAGR of over 35 per cent in the last 5 years (the number is expected to touch 50 per cent for the next 5 years). The only sting in this otherwise smooth run is that online

travel contributes over 70 per cent to this pie. But then Indian Railways, being largely a need-based service, is around 60% of this 70 per cent. These �igures notwithstanding, there are areas which the ecommerce players need to work on. If I were to own a differentiation in brand positioning today, a complete guarantee against counterfeit products would not be a bad pitch to play on. While players such as Snapdeal and Flipkart are communicating genuine offerings in their messaging, a vehement announcement can do a world of good as far as gaining the consumer con�idence is concerned. A step towards that could be presence of communication material at the brand touch-points. So, can we see a Jabong logo on Forest Essentials’ website? Or a Flipkart poster at their store (atleast the company-owned stores)? The nation demands an answer. 

The views expressed here are of the author alone and do not necessarily re�lect the views of Pitch

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Transforming Data into

Actionable Insight Vinish Kathuria

Chief Operating Officer, Digital Quotient

vinishk@live.com

igital marketing is an amalgamation of science and art constructed within a creative process. Fast adaptation to new technologies and platforms by Digital marketers has emerged, offering a range of opportunities. Data is undeniably one of the most dynamic raw materials in today’s information world, instrumental in making marketing more real and effective. Technological progresses have urged marketers’ unparalleled access to volumes of customer data. But, the power doesn’t lie in the data alone – the power lies in the utilization of that data by brands/companies. 90 per cent of digital data beamed now is generated in the past two years, especially as mobile devices have started becoming

omnipresent and consumption of social media and multimedia on digital devices is increasing on a daily basis. In the over�lowing reservoir of customer information, the issue most often is a lack of actionable insight that can be garnered from this data that already exists. How should marketers gather and analyze data to target right customers? What are the end bene�its derived from data- driven marketing? 1 billion plus smart phones in the world, 3G /4G / Wi-Fi adoption are increasingly growing. The importance of data analysis has never been so crucial before in the rise of Big Data. However, with tons of data available from multiple channels, deriving what’s relevant and what’s not and then �itting it together in a way bene�icial for the brand is the main concern. While most companies understand the value of gathering data, they now also understand that that leveraging this knowledge to create intelligent, fact-based marketing strategies is packed with challenges. Data provides a valuable peek into customer behavior journey in the digital world enabling marketing strategies to be real-time and customized. It helps

The digital marketing industry is at the cusp of a paradigm shift. The old rules are giving way to the new set of more data driven, real time marketing decisions 70

Pitch | December 2014

you answers the simple and integral questions like: what, when, where, and how? Also, its key in predictive analysis and probability i.e. based on customer’s current need and behavior, the marketer can derive what they might be looking for in future and thus identify business and marketing trends. This Data can also be useful in personalization of messages and relevance. This can help brands boost their bond with customer, and potential customers. Again, data helps understand and have customeroriented mindset when taking key marketing decisions like: • • •

What messages will resonate best with these audiences? What offers will be most compelling? Through which channels should the messages be delivered?

On an average a user is bombarded with thousands of messages on a daily basis. In an extremely cluttered digital space, customer attention is dif�icult to achieve. Thus, marketing success depends on delivering relevant, well-timed and tailored marketing messages. Here are some platforms from where marketers obtain various types of customer information: • • • •

First-hand information from websites, Social media, Mails Shopping preferences from searches, e-commerce, retail sites Communication preferences from email and social media Purchase behavior from point-of-sale

Classi�ication of customer into small sub-segments based on a combination of multiple digital activities they engage in, provides higher level of con�idence in demographics, behavior and intent analysis of customers. Using techniques of contextual analysis and collaborative �iltering, it is possible to get multiple data points from multiple

Pitch | December 2014

digital platforms that consumers use into different but unique segment level pro�iles. Intelligent use of Big data allows for customer classi�ication based on demographic, behavior and intent. The customer pro�iles can be further broken down into sub-segments using Data and applied science technologies. Visualization of multiple data points into easily recognizable visual features also help marketers infer information faster and drives intelligent decision making. Traditional marketing methodologies generally use the same mechanism to acquire consumer as for providing them with value added information. Better pro�iling through use of multiple digital platforms is ineffective if multiple means of customer reach are not used. These tools could be display ads, visual ads, emailers, in-app ads, IVR/ Voice, etc. However, maintaining quality of content as compared to quantity is more important. Intelligent use of creativity, technology and marketing is the key for better customer acquisition and retention. While on one hand customer data can be your greatest asset, it can also be your greatest challenge on the other. Many marketers fail to maximize the use of their customer data and as a result, miss out on customer retention and acquisition opportunities. This happens a lot due to lack of budget, lack of cooperation from other inter-related departments, limited

expertise, limited infrastructure. The digital marketing industry is at the cusp of a paradigm shift. The old rules of digital marketing are giving way to the new set of more data driven, real time marketing decisions. At the center of this transition is an ever evolving, time starved and multifaceted consumer. More and more consumers are in an ‘always on’ mode on various digital devices like mobile, PCs and tablets at homes, on transit and at of�ices. They scourge the internet for the best deals, buys and review multiple products on e-commerce sites daily. They discover content through various sources like search, social recommendations and content curated sites. In this fast paced environment where millions and billions of digital engagements are taking place across thousands of touchpoints, the challenge to catch the right audience at the right place with the right marketing communication is paramount. Audience marketing and its various tools leveraging Big Data technologies to better understand and predict and connect the 5Ms – Millions of People with Millions of Devices, doing multiple activities, at multiple times, using multiple ways or methods is the Key for a brand’s marketing campaign success. 

The views expressed here are of the author alone and do not necessarily re�lect the views of Pitch

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“Create in India”

the next mantra

Avik Chattopadhyay

Independent brand and Strategy Consultant

avikchatto@hotmail.com

rovenance, or simply put, ‘place of origin’, as the brand pundits say, is pivotal to carrying a race and its ethos beyond boundaries, to all corners of the universe. I make deliberate use of the words “race” and “universe”. A race may belong to a single geographic entity or be scattered across all lands; it is the mind of the race that is important, irrespective of where it resides physically. I use universe, because when someone in any corner of the world see the Indian tricolour on the Mangalyaan Mars Orbiter, it does trigger a certain impulse, something physically and metaphorically out-of-this-world. It was September 2004 at the Paris Motor Show. I walked into the Rover

pavilion and saw a Tata Indica displayed, badged as a “Cityrover” with the Rover badge on its bonnet. Feeling intensely proud of seeing an “Indian” car at the show, I walked up to the company person standing alongside and stated my cause for pride. He looked at me sternly and said, “This is a Rover and we make this car in Birmingham. Indians can’t make such cars. You have been wrongly informed.” The nerve of the man, I thought and wanted to retort…but kept mum. For the fault was not his. It was ours, as a race. It was our low self-esteem and self-con�idence. First, it could have been easily called a Tata as hitching on to a decaying name like Rover made no

What we as a race intensely suffer from is low self-esteem. What we need is a mission that builds and instils pride 72

Pitch | December 2014

sense! Second, even if one were to re-badge the car, you could say that it comes from India!! I have always wanted to ask Mr. Tata how he could ever allow this, but have not had the privilege as yet. Ten years later, in September 2014, we proudly announced the “Make in India” mission. As expected, there was huge fanfare about it. At almost the same time it was decided to close the HMT watch brand. A tiny bit of news…literally a corner snippet. “Make in India”. Much needed, very strategic and de�initely populist. The objective is clear – an investment base, a skilled nation, gainfully employed youth and a spurt in GDP. The mission will certainly gain momentum in the initial years till our human skill costs less than most of the world. And then, say in the year 2030, when there are nations like Philippines, Vietnam, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Venezuela that have a large educated youth raring to go, at lesser cost than in India, where goes the “Make in India” credo? It is a good mission, much needed right now, but it is neither a ‘great’ mission nor a sustainable one. The “Make in India” mission is purely transactional. It has no emotion in its form. It is all mechanical. It has no passion. It is like a balance sheet. There is no pride. What we as a race intensely suffer from is low self-esteem. What we need is a mission that builds and instils pride. Now, the other piece of news about HMT watches. A pioneer. A cause. To create a truly national brand that would make the watch democratic and affordable. The Janta, the Vijay, the Sona, the Elegance, the Automatic…all started individual little revolutions. The brand invited the new free Indian by saying “if you have the inclina-

Pitch | December 2014

tion, we have the time…the exact time.” Now it is being wound up, literally! The powers that be simply decided to close a brand with scant respect for its heritage, purpose and even possible potential. For we, as a nation, do not value brands, institutions, concepts, centres, entities and missions. The way we preserve our architectural heritage and classic buildings stands testimony. It is as if the entire nation has this utter sense

It is time for the nation to start building, investing in and nurturing physical ‘brands’ that are quintessentially Indian

of shame about all that is past and only looks forward to the future with a clean slate. We do not have corporations that are some of the most admired, schools of learning that the world wants to come to, centres of culture that mould full generations, research institutions that bene�it multiple societies…simply put, we have not built one truly global entity since we

raised the tricolour on the ramparts of the Red Fort for the �irst time. The term “Indian” , in the positive sense, means intelligent individuals, to the world…individual doctors, software engineers, lawyers, academicians, management professionals… all individuals…nothing collective or as an entity. There is no positive association with an Indian product or service brand. Except for some IT �irms, BPOs and hospitality. It is time now for a deliberate and disruptive shift. It is time for the nation to start building, investing in and nurturing physical ‘brands’ that are quintessentially Indian. Brands that are created in India. But cater to the world. Brands that can proudly state “Designed in India. Made in XYZ country.” Just as an Apple product states

“Designed in California. Assembled in China.” Millions do not own an Apple for the China bit. Neither does the Apple brand get any value enhancement from the China bit. It is all because Apple is quintessentially Californian [not even US] and Jobs-ian, and therefore singular,

COLUMN unique, admired, aspirational and valuable [currently more than the GDP of Russia it seems!]. HMT. Medimix. Dabur. Duckback. Nirula’s. ThumsUp. Vijay Super. Amul. Color Plus. Apollo Tyres. Micromax. Mahindra. LIC. Zodiac. . MTR. Zandu. Tata Steel. These are some really formidable Indian brands. The list is endless when you put mind at work and pen to paper. Brands that are not half-measures and vestiges of national pride. Brands that have been or still are at the same level of quality and delivery of global brands but have been grossly under-leveraged as they carry an invisible burden of being Indian! It is all an outcome of our low self-esteem.

Darjeeling Tea will never be itself unless there is an Indian tea brand that serves the best Darjeeling Tea in the world We have to realise as a nation that brand India is not and will never be built by just manufacturing on this land; it will be built only through product and service brands that

will deliver their promises across the world and thus establish and reinforce brand India. And that is the only way the creativity, inventiveness and craftsmanship of the millions of Indians behind these brands will be established… not as individuals but as a race, as a nation.

While the “Make in India” mission starts rolling, the “Create in India” campaign needs to be given a good thought and shape

A Haldiram’s on Champs Elysee will establish that. College goers in Australia drooling over the next Micromax Canvas will reinforce that. The Audi A8 on Apollo tyres will testify to that. The Mahindra 4x4 winning at Dakar will crown that. The nation cannot be truly on the world stage on its own personality and value system unless there are physical moments of customer experience and delight built through products and services crafted in India, by Indians across boundaries.

Darjeeling Tea will never be itself unless there is an Indian tea brand that serves the best Darjeeling Tea in the world instead of almost every tea brand from any country claiming to offer one. Therefore, while the “Make in India” mission starts rolling, the “Create in India” campaign needs to be given a good thought and shape. The government needs to lead this initiative. And bodies like the India Brand Equity Foundation need to work on this at the ground level, for in the nurturing of Indian brands lies the foundation of brand India. Brands of the yesteryears with terri�ic pedigree need to be revived, like HMT, Duckback and Vijay Super. Brands in very good health like Amul, Bajaj and Micromax need to be encouraged to keep expanding their horizons. And brands that seem to be losing their way right now, but have de�inite potential, need to be nurtured back to health to �ight their global battles for mind space. A speci�ic National Brand Council should be put in place that should have the task of identifying, guiding and managing the brands, both products and services that will do India proud. The council should be reporting directly to the one person who represents India as a brand at every stage and event before the world, the Prime Minister. It is through these products and services that the world will understand what India truly is and is capable of. It is through their success that the average Indian will �ind his / her true place on the world stage. It is through their leadership in the hearts and minds of consumers globally that we will rid ourselves of our low self-esteem. Jai Hind! 

The views expressed here are of the author alone and do not necessarily re�lect the views of Pitch

Pitch | December 2014

11TH

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Pitch||December December2014 2014 Pitch

75 9

FEATURE SOCIAL MEDIA CHALLENGE

Are brands struggling to cope with the

social media challenge

of customer service experience? By Ankur Singh

fter a series of recent consumerbrand spats on social media, customer relationship management has become a major bone of contention for all brands. A major challenge that brands are facing today is the overlap of marketing and customer service in an ever-evolving business environment. Marketers and customer service executives, across different sectors, often fail to understand the breadth and importance of good customer experience. And this is now being highlighted on social media, where customers have a direct way of grabbing the brand’s attention. According Ankur Singla, founder and CEO, Akosha, India is one of the few countries that does not have a structured discourse around the subject. “We have met many individuals from various companies over the years that are tasked with looking after customer experience, and one of the things we found was that while they knew it was important, they were often lost when it came to building their brand around it,” says Singla.

Customer expression According to Mohit Bhatnagar, Managing Director, Sequoia Capital, “With the explosion of devices, a lot of transactions are happening online. With 10-30 per cent of your customers coming from mobile, the challenge is these consumers are expressing themselves in the online world and companies are grappling with issues

“In terms of percentage about 75-80 per cent of the brands prefer to take the conversation offline” Ankur Singla Founder and CEO, Akosha, India

around it. It is clear that as the world gets connected and multiple channels open up to voice feelings and angst, the good and bad about a brand can no longer be swept under a carpet.” “In the US, the single biggest trend we are seeing in value add is that as businesses try and deal with customers who express

Pitch | December 2014

themselves on apps, Facebook and Twitter, it has become very important for enterprises to pull out and access feedback across all mediums and then almost on the fly analyse it, make sense of it and do something about it. This is a huge task as the amount of feedbacks is going through the roof. We are now increasingly seeing businesses that help enterprises deal with feedbacks on social network and beyond,” he added.

Fading boundaries “I see a lot of customers moving to social media, not necessarily to consume content but also to voice their opinion - positive or negative. Boundaries between marketing and customer service is blurring,” says Groupon India CEO, Ankur Warikoo. “Some brands would prefer to take the conversation offline, which has its own advantage, while some brands feel solving the issue then and there is more apt. In terms of percentage I feel about 75-80 per cent of the brands prefer to take the conversation offline,” says Singla. “Brands do not want to wash their dirty linen in public and I think this will continue, but merely to manage that is fairly difficult. The other camp believes they have the wherewithal to sort out issues and they have the quality of the people needed to service customers. Many online brands have decided to own their voice and willing to do the interaction on social media. In large brands where feedback volumes are quite high, the first option may be better,” Singla pointed out. Because of the cross-functional nature of customer experience, brands struggle with who should interact with the customer on a channel, which is both marketing and customer service. Singla feels most brands are still caught

“Once Whatsapp API hits the market, we will see a new avenue of customer expression” Ankur Warikoo CEO, Groupon India

in a time warp where they only expect customer experience to be communicated directly over a phone call. Social media and online channels are often ignored by brands. “Sometimes we feel brands do not appreciate how big or what impact customer experience holds. There are times when businesses question us over the fact that they get about 1000 calls, but maybe only about 200 feedbacks on social media and hence should they actually pay importance to social media? You have this situation where you have a lot of people online on social media and this trend will only grow bigger. If you have two percent of your customers expressing online, there is every possibility this number creeps up to 40 percent by 2017. Online companies have been faster in noticing trends and being proactive but I feel everyone should wake up to it,” says Singla.

Mobile impact Akosha recently held Quest, a customer experience management summit. The Panels

“The challenge is consumers are expressing themselves in the online world and companies are grappling with issues around it”

Mohit Bhatnagar | Managing Director, Sequoia Capital Pitch | December 2014

were of the opinion that when messaging app like Whatsapp enters the space, feedback about brands will see a paradigm shift. “I feel once Whatsapp API hits the market, we will see a new avenue of customer expression,” says Warikoo. “If Whatsapp starts removing limit on a group chat that currently stands at 50, you will soon start seeing customer cohorts that are either created by brands or by likeminded customers themselves. This I think can be the first step,” he added. A brand is generally better during its startup days when it comes to customer experience. However, as it starts to expand, it often stumbles and customer experience sometimes flounders. According to Singla, for brands there is little tangible benefit flowing out of a robust customer experience function. Product experience often overlooks customer experience. “We wanted to hold Quest to get all the stakeholders to discuss and determine how best to provide a good customer experience in a changing world where technology plays a vital part,” says Singla. Brands, today, need to use of social media for generating leads, use of consumer touch points in retail from a branding perspective, creation of an MNC-level of customer experience for the consumer, incentivising marketing and customer service executives to think holistically and preventing customer issues. n - rashi.bisaria@exchange4media.com

COLUMN

Reinventing Retail, the Bhaap Way Ayush Trivedi

Co-Founder & Managing Director, Bhaap.com

haap.com is a simple solution to a common curse suffered by most busy Indians: not having enough hours in the day to get everything done, especially retail therapy. With our lives becoming increasingly busy, the thought of shopping in crowded malls where discounts max out at 10 per cent and the AC units are perennially in a state of disrepair is about as appealing as re�ining 15 different searches on 5 different online “megastores” - to �ind that one item that will save you time in the kitchen or help you look great at your next social do. The Proposition: 100 per cent Genuine Brands You Want At Prices You Love At Bhaap, we believe in simplifying the online shopping experience to provide our customers greater satisfaction and enjoyment. To achieve this, we are injecting convenience back into online shopping and giving our customers the chance to buy the brands they want at prices they love. Customers have told us that there is nothing convenient about sorting through 10,000 products in 10 different categories to �ind that one product you may or may not want. It’s for this reason, we don’t have a search bar on our site – our concept ensures that one is not required. Instead, every day we offer a new range of

especially selected products across categories that include electronics, fashion, jewellery, home and kitchenware, footwear and more. Each product is available for sale for no more than 48 hours or until all stocks are snapped up, whichever happens �irst. The products you see on Bhaap today will not be there next week, and they are unlikely to ever come back. However, new products are available for sale every day and we take great pride in offering our loyal customers a fresh and interesting selection of shopping ideas that allow them to indulge their passion for shopping in an uncluttered and confusion-free environment.

Pitch | December 2014

What about the prices? Apart from offering discounts of up to 90 per cent on MRP and free shipping on every order, an added advantage of shopping on Bhaap is that every product is sold at the lowest price, as compared to any other online store. That’s a big claim and we back it with our “Money Where Our Mouth Is Promise” which entitles you to receive a product for free if you �ind it cheaper elsewhere.

How Do We Manage All This? We believe in mutually bene�icial relationships. We work with manufacturers, distributors and retailers to create a trustworthy and reliable channel for branded products that will go a long way to organising a very fragmented Indian retail space. An advantage of having Bhaap in the Indian retail ecosystem is that our supply chain partners have access to a focussed, reliable and quality assured avenue through which to retail their products and make space for new stock. While we continue to strengthen our supply chain and form strategic relationships with key players, we remain conscious of offering our customers a pleasant and clutter-free shopping experience. For this reason, we will continue to expand the number of products per category, but we will never have thousands of product options that only serve to confuse our customers and prevent them from enjoying their Bhaap shopping experience. Making Big Data More HumanoidFriendly Being focussed means many things to us. On the marketing front it means that we unendingly strive to give our customers more targeted and relevant shopping ideas. After all, if you’ve just bought a pair of sneakers,

Pitch | December 2014

Big data, in combination with our personal interactions with customers, allows us to innovate how, when and with what we reach out to our customers then you probably don’t want to be bombarded with emails offering you another pair before you’ve had the opportunity to show-off what you just bought! Big data, in combination with our personal interactions with customers, allows us to innovate how, when and with what we reach out to our customers. Our proprietary algorithms have resulted in cost of acquisition and repeat purchase rates. Our quest to stand apart from the one-size-�itsall marketing approach commonly adopted across the industry signals our unadulterated commitment to

building a truly friction-free and delightful customer experience. While the e-commerce industry, intoxicated by a funding glut, takes the view that bigger is always better, we take pride in proving that size doesn’t always matter. Our focussed approach, combined with an uncomplicated value proposition for customers and supply chain partners and innovative marketing activities puts us in a great position to capitalise on the online shopping boom that is about to start blowing down our doors. Bhaap is light years removed from most of our competitors in terms of concept and motivation. We are fast progressing towards our goal of owning this niche by providing our customers an enjoyable, trustworthy and confusion-free online shopping experience. Happy online shopping, India! 

The views expressed here are of the author alone and do not necessarily re�lect the views of Pitch

COLUMN : ANNURAG BATRA COLUMN ANNURAG BATRA

Customer Experience Management emerges as the key differentiator Annurag Batra

Chairman & Editor-in-Chief, Pitch Magazine abatra@exchange4media.com @anuragbatrayo www.facebook.com/anuragbatrayo

he time has come for e-commerce brands to graduate from simply enabling transactions to provide delightful shopping experiences to the customer. As the ecommerce market is poised to reach $20 billion by 2015 (source: Motilal Oswal Securities Report) and customers clamour to purchase online, the players that can provide superior start-to-finish shopping experiences will be regarded highly by shoppers. Creating an easy to navigate site is just the starting point. There is a long way to go before a customer is fully satisfied and that has emerged as the key differentiator for ecommerce sites. How much do you know your customer? Are you present in their social media conversations? Are you using data analytics for better customer insight? In the age of the customer, only those brands that truly understand him, will have the edge. The entire customer journey is important and each market is different. All customer interactions need to be tracked and acted upon. Customer Support centres are extremely important and responding on time to a customer query can be the big difference between an ordinary experience and a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;wowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience. Using appropriate technology to study and track customer behaviour and experience, has become imperative. The year 2014 can easily be termed the year of the ecommerce boom but behind the boom lies the customer management story. Every brand that stole the show had a

With the customer touch points on the rise, brands need to be doubly sure that each experience is carefully monitored 80

customer experience management success story to share. The Flipkart Big Billion Day sale turned out to be a study in customer experience management. Although the day was a disaster for Flipkart with website loading errors, order cancellations after payment, there were many lessons to be learnt from the way Flipkart dealt with the irate customers. It apologised on mail to all its users in one of the best and humblest apologies in recent times. Instead of hiding behind a host of excuses, Flipkart was honest and upfront about the disaster that took place due to a lack of foresight. With the customer touch points on the rise, brands need to be doubly sure that each experience is carefully monitored. The brands featured in the issue are the ones that have won the hearts and wallets of consumers, and have built their brands through consistent customer experiences. As internet access in the country becomes smoother and smartphones become ubiquitous , ecommerce has become the new shopping norm. An extensive research by Forrester Consulting and Google search trends has shown that there are more dissatisfied online customers than satisfied ones . 62 per cent of those surveyed said they were not satisfied with their shopping experience.67 per cent buyers also highlighted that the return process was too complicated. Most consumers have found it hard to trust ecommerce brands and their services. The brands are struggling with their own set of issues related to infrastructure and supply chain management but those that remain customer focused will be able to sail through this arduous journey. ď Ž Pitch | December 2014

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