eCommerce News - October 2021
Profile of the Week - Peyush Bansal (Lenskart) “It was about picking up each problem, and solving them”
- In this interview, Lenskart CEO speaks about how tough his journey has been to make the Indian population buy glasses specifically from Lenskart.
- Being an online-first brand for a high involvement category, it was all about deeply understanding consumer needs and delivering accordingly.
Changing Trends on India’s eCommerce Platforms this Festive Season
- With a drastic change in consumer behaviour, brands are focusing on personalisation of products with better technology.
- With thematic marketing, brands on e-commerce platforms are also focusing on the IPL season.
- With an increase in internet & smartphone usage, online platforms are seeing an increased number of consumers from tier II and Tier III cities.
eCommerce Companies to Put Details of Executives Online or Face Action
- The Consumer Affairs Ministry of India has cautioned the E-commerce platforms not to hide the details of the sellers/executives on their platforms.
- The authorities claim that hiding the seller’s details is against consumer interest.
- eCommerce platforms violating the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 rules can face legal action.
Shopee Begins Seller Recruitment Campaign in India
- Singapore based e-commerce company has announced its recruitment campaign for sellers to sell on “Shopee India”.
- It is also ramping up the hiring of employees to support its India presence.
Changing Customer Behaviour is Impacting Engagement Strategies of Retailers
- The dynamic consumer behaviour of the new age customers is impacting retail marketing strategies of traditional retailers as well as online marketplace & D2C players.
- Companies now have in place all channels – social media platforms, web, chatbots, email, SMS, IVR, and a live executive answering queries.
Amazon to launch a tool to help sellers understand popularity of products
- Amazon recently announced that it will launch a tool that’ll help its sellers understand customers preferences including search volume, sales history, pricing trends etc.
- Product Opportunity Explorer’ feature of Amazon is currently in the testing phase and will be available by 2022.
- Identifying and launching new products can be expensive and time consuming . The tool aims to help sellers reduce guesswork by providing them with detailed consumer insights .
Flipkart Launches Supply Chain Operations Training Academy
- Flipkart has announced the launch of Supply Chain Operations Academy (SCOA) .
- The first phase of the programme begins on October 22 and will consist of 15 days of digital classroom training and 45 days of on-the-job apprenticeship at its supply chain facilities.
- It aims to enable youth to make a career in the supply chain industry.
Jewellery brand Tiffany & Co. all set to launch itself in India soon.
- With a motive to overcome its limited presence in India, Tiffany & Co will soon launch its eCommerce site tiffany.co.in in India in partnership with Reliance Group.
- The online portal of Tiffany & Co. will showcase all the products available in its offline store including the wide range of collections of collections of gemstones, diamonds and crafted jewellery.
- This new online portal will not only amaze the customers with its special section for rings but they shall also be able to book diamond consultations with in-house experts, in-store private appointments, personal shopper services, facility to wish-list products.
Amazon Expands Operational Capabilities for Festive Season
- Amazon has planned to hire 1,50,000 extra employees, about 50% more than last year to tackle the increasing demand during peak season.
- The eCommerce giant is aggressively expanding its logistics operation, opening warehouses and smaller, urban delivery depots at a pace of roughly one per day.
- It is offering high signing bonuses of 2.24 lakhs for certain employee categories. Amazon will also pay Rs. 224 per hour for workers willing to work overnight and on weekends.
Flipkart Wholesale partners with Rupifi to provide BNPL services to Flipkart Wholesale enterprises
- This partnership will enable 1.5 lakh kiranas and MSME members on Flipkart Wholesale to get instant digital credit, with flexible repayment terms and transparent pricing.
- Flipkart wholesale Head, Adarsh Menon informed that embedding of BNPL services shall free enterprise owners of Flipkart wholesale from using cash, thereby encouraging smooth purchase of supplies.
- The multilingual app developed by the two companies will ease the onboarding of customers as well as the MSME retailers on the platform.
Shopify teams up with Microsoft and Oracle to implement their business tools on its eCommerce platform
- Business owners now no longer have to depend on any external ERP tool to streamline their business on Shopify.
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tools including Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Oracle NetSuite and Infor are now accessible to the merchants on the Shopify app.
- This partnership will not only help Shopify grow its merchant business but shall also strengthen the hold of Microsoft and Oracle in the cloud market.
Tips for Warehouse Management in the Festive Season
- A seller needs to opt for a warehouse management system to effectively manage the inventory tracking, order picking and packing, shipment process etc specially during the season time.
- Segregating the seasonal inventory than the rest of the inventory well ahead of the pick time can help timely deliveries and shortage of inventory.
- Maintaining SKUs for their products, tying up with courier companies as well as third party fulfillment platforms can streamline the ecommerce process efficiently.
Flipkart Join Hands with Snapchat to Launch Virtual Try Ons
- Flipkart has partnered with Snapchat to enable virtual try-ons on its platform for a wide range of products including furniture, beauty, luggage etc.
- Flipkart has integrated snapchat’s camera kit to it’s app to enable its customers to virtually try the product or view it in the physical world.
- The e-commerce giant had launched AR (Augmented Reality) offering on the Flipkart camera in mid 2021. It claims that AR enabled products not only resulted in higher conversion rates but also showed lower returns as it helped the customers make correct purchase decisions.
Snapdeal Partners with SAMA for Faster Consumer Disputes Redressal
- To deal with consumer grievances faster and effectively, Snapdeal has joined hands with SAMA, an online dispute resolution specialist.
- Snapdeal launched a pilot project called Sama Suljhao Manch to resolve pending consumer disputes along with SAMA that resulted in 54% of success rates.
- In April 2021, the Indian government though NITI ayog launched Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) handbook that has types of ODR models for companies.
Indian Government Issues Notices to eCommerce Companies for Violating Norms
- Consumer Affairs Ministry of India has issued 217 notices to ecommerce players, out of which 202 were issued for violating the ‘Country of origin’ norm.
- The consumer Affairs secretary, Leena Nandan said that this action is taken to alert companies as well as consumers. Although no names were disclosed.
- The ministry said that the consumers can file complaints through their telephonic helpline i.e. National Consumer Helpline as well as through e-dakhal which is an e-filling facility at district, state and national level.
Flipkart Collaborates with Moj for Video commerce
- Flipkart & Moj collaboration will result in in-app integration. It aims to engage its next 200 million customers through video commerce.
- Flipkart stated that this collaboration shall incentivise content creators of Moj by enabling new commerce led revenue streams. The users of Moj can directly shop from the marketplace.
- Creator economy-led revenue streams are globally seeing a massive upsurge and this collaboration with Flipkart is a step towards developing a concrete revenue stream for creators in India,Mohalla Tech Pvt Ltd., the parent company of Moj said.
Exports of UP’s MSMEs Boosted through eCommerce Trade
- Amazon India informed that after it launched the Amazon Global Selling program in 2015, Indian MSMEs and entrepreneurs have emerged as successful brands in different fields
- After the government provided UP’s Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with an ecommerce platform, it has shown a 38% rise in its exports.
- It has given access of foreign markets to small businesses unlike traditional means of exports, said Abhijit Kamra, director (global trade), Amazon India.
