January 2, 2013

e-Commerce: How will it unfold this year?

Where is here? (Expo) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In my recent post, I did some sort of analysis on how e-Commerce space is going to refine itself and establish firmly as a sunrise industry. I did write some of the trends we will see in 2013 w.r.t. to e-Commerce in India, and this post is more about exploring the same slightly deeper.

e-Commerce 2.0

A few years ago, people understood the power and utility of internet when they tried to make it more personal, and then we saw blogging as one of the most important leap internet industry made for itself, and we remember the milestone by calling it web 2.0 which is still emerging and getting refined each day (in terms of quality of information, user experience, delivery method, etc). The point to be noted here is that the transition from original nature of internet to web 2.0 was driven by the desire of capable people to contribute to the ongoing information revolution and be in the league of big guys.

Right now, as I am able to understand the situation, things have not changed much – the desire to be a part of the ongoing e-Commerce miracle happening is coming on the surface of each and everyone who is capable of doing it. And as I can gauge the situation (based on my interaction with the market players), I see a huge opportunity and desire to join the band-wagon. Everyday, a couple of people and businesses are expressing their desire to join this stream of sales and visibility.

I absolutely believe that the time is just ripe and the stage is set for them to enter this new channel. The cost of entering this channel has reached to the minimum possible, and I the hassles which these companies would have faced a few years ago have been reduced to nothing but simple mechanical steps. What is even more interesting to note is that some companies I am working with are ready to get all such hassles outsourced, hence leaving you with only your core business of procuring the inventory and then registering the sales. Isn’t that magical? (I am intentionally skipping the names of the names of all such service providers, forgive me for the same).

So, based on the situation analysis presented above, this is what I expect will happen in 2013:

#1. Many small and medium segment offline (or brick-and-mortar) business will get online. So we will see a huge penetration in this arena. So don’t be surprised if your favorite shop in the nearest mall or your nearest kirana stores is available online and you can place your order without stepping out of home or making a phone call.

#2. A lot of e-Commerce enablers for this segment (Very Small, Small, and Medium scaled) get into the business. However, keep it in mind, this business is not global in nature, instead this is a absolutely focused on local businesses and is all about low margin operations – Hence, expect a lot of local e-Commerce enabling companies to come into existence in year 2013.

#3. Since past few years we all have been feeling surprised about the customer services provided by the big brothers of e-Commerce in India (read, Flipkart, Infibeam, Jabong, etc), that is bound to become a norm in the weeks to come, and even the smallest players will offer the same (while riding on the power of their e-Commerce enablers).

#4. e-Commerce arena is becoming an even more level playing ground (or is going to become one soon), which means the bigger guys who are riding on the investor’s money so far will have to re-invent themselves urgently. I expect an absolute change in the way bigger boys of Indian e-Commerce have been doing business so far.

So friends, be here with me while e-Commerce 2.0 unfolds and at the same time e-Commerce 1.0 strengthens itself. I will of course keep writing about it 🙂

PS: Before you finish reading this post, I have an assignment for you – How would e-Commerce 3.0 look like? Any thoughts? Please do share. Or else, wait for a while, e-Commerce 3.0 has been already designed by the industry, just that the eco-system is still taking shape. Enjoy the way e-Commerce 2.0 unfolds for the time being, rest all will be served here soon! 🙂