Changing Perception of E-Commerce Industry

IT industry has seen a way lot of changes in technology…. from Symbian based mobiles to Android, from Microsoft Windows to iOS, from 2D to 3D, from 2G technology to very high-speed 4G and now the Virtual Reality – all these major technology revisions have been there in these few years.

The technology as we see now is totally different and dynamic to as what it was 10 years back and the same has been reflected in our day to day life. Today, India has become one of the rawest markets across the globe with its demand for the latest technology and gadgets. Even the users, who never used the internet are now enjoying the technology and are active members of Facebook and WhatsApp.

With this fast-paced industry, the tech industry needs to revamp frequently and also their websites. In recent years, some of the e-commerce biggies have collected valuable data about consumers visiting habits on their website. It is a common exercise among marketplaces. The data gathered offers good information about customer online buying habits like:

• What do they come online for
• What they browse
• What they like or dislike
• After surfing all the products, what they end up buying.

This kind of data has been used by the e-commerce giants such as Jabong and they now use algorithms to offer what people essentially purchase in its place of showing them with any or all bunch of items. The data collected also helped the e-commerce company to remove the brands that people do not like to visit or rarely visit as Jabong has recently reduced the number of brands available online to around 1,500 from 2,500. This approach has risen the number of genuine shoppers — who actually buy.

Conversion rate, i.e. the ratio of the people who buy products from every 100 visitors, has jumped from 1.7% to 2.12% for the website who applied this algorithm.

Now let’s talk about the change that is required. The core concept of most of the e-commerce operations has been the deep discounts they offer, but these companies have also been coming with new strategies to charm customers to buy products from their websites. As per the words from Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder, Paytm – “Discounts would have eventually come down, but the DIPP order has accelerated the shift to better management. Companies are using the opportunity to build better, profitable marketplaces”

Luckily many online shoppers are not so bothered about discounts and this also shows that many online customers are shopaholics as well. A recent report on online shopping by AT Kearney & Google clearly shows that that buying won’t stop even if discounts are withdrawn. This report makes us think that people want to have a better buying experience rather than better discounts. E-commerce giants in India are trying to push for clever strategies to increase and repeat purchases and create a more cordial relationship with visitors.