Recently I was going through a list of top trends in Wall Street Journals and it had a list of probables. (See the article here). The list says that Freemium trend will go away, well fair enough expectation for developed markets, but for India and other upcoming markets I doubt if that can happen.

So, taking a cue from WSJ, I am writing the top things which will probably change in year 2013 for e-Commerce/e-Tailing based companies operating for Indian masses.

#1. Lesser Investor money will flow into the e-Commerce space: We saw huge number of companies mushrooming in the e-Commerce (or e-Tailing) space starting from year 2011 till the mid of year 2012. The space got overcrowded (to serve the 110 million internet users), and hence we saw a phase of dip in the sales and growth forecasts of all e-Commerce companies. In year 2013, we are bound to see a more mature approach to e-Commerce companies, and we will see some amount of consolidation happening here. However, it would be rare to see any investor money flowing into the e-Commerce space, on the contrary, 2013 would see e-Commerce players trying to innovate and make a strategic moves while looking out for exit options in near future.

#2. Reduce bombarding of marketing mailers: Year 2012 will be remembered for the unsolicited mails which you, me, and everyone else has received. Either you subscribed for a mailer, or you accidently got the mailer (because someone sold his database to some other company), you hated all the mails which you got, and most probably you deleted them even without a second thought. This year you will see a reduction in mailers, mostly because companies are realizing that mindless bombarding doesnt help in generating the revenues. Enhanced analytic tools and skill levels will help companies reach out only to the focus markets. Finally, companies will increasingly empower the customers to choose not to receive the mails.

#3. Visibility on other devices: 2012 saw the rise of TV as a platform for advertising the e-Commerce companies. However, 2013 will see an increased rise and larger time-window on the Television for selling things on e-Commerce platforms. And this will be not all, 2013 will see the adoption of Apps as an established way to sell things. Almost all the e-Commerce companies will create Tablet Apps or some variant of Mobile Apps to remain in touch with the customers, and customers will be forced to accept this option.

#4. Rise of local e-Tailing: So far, e-Tailing has been seen as a loss to the local Retailing shops. However, it has been proved that the e-Tailing and Retailing will co-exist for decades to comes. Something like – Because Malls came up, Local Kirana shops didn’t shut down, and they don’t have to. The two will co-exist. In a similar manner, Reatilers and e-Tailers will co-exist, however this year Retailers will leverage of their existing backbone to develop an e-Tailing medium and serve the local customers. They will also try and occupy the local deals space, however that needs some more time to be accepted.

#5. More Focus on Quality, Less on Marketing Expenses: Each e-Tailing company has been absorbing huge amount of costs in the name of Customer Acquisition Costs and selling things on huge discounts. So basically, everyone has been driving the customer acquisition based on discounts. This was certainly never designed to remain the same forever, and it is not even advisable financially for any company. This year, all this will change – Discount wars will come to an end, and we will see the rise of product quality, customer services, and other associated backbone services.

Final Thoughts: This space would see a strategic growth in terms of number of customers, volume of revenues, and industry standards in customer service. So, if you are someone reading this article and belong to the job seekers from the Internet community, keep a watch on the increased job requirements in the year 2013 from this pace. Each and every company would require better Product Managers, better Analytic guys, better coders, and better process architects. Business Managers might lose their jobs though, and some of the CEOs will have to start their own ventures in year 2013.

Keep watching the e-Tailing/e-Commerce space, this would be an absolutely interesting time to observe this space. Your truly will of course keep a watch on this space.

Added Later: I have added this question on the Q&A Forum – Quora, the link is here. You may want to add your points on Quora Link.

Added On 2nd Jan 2013: As I understand the movements happening in the e-Commerce space, we will see a official rise of e-Commerce 2.0, and the same can be read in here.

Related articles

• Top Trends for e-Commerce companies in year 2013 – Part 2 (onthejoblearning.wordpress.com)