Ecommerce market is heating up with online players looking all set to start the race ahead of the upcoming festive season.
Online sales set to cross Rs. 52,000 crore
According to a latest study conducted by ASSOCHAM, the 2015 festive season sales figure isexpected to cross $8 billion (Rs. 52,000 crore). With heavy discounts, app mania and the general celebratory mood around Navratri, Durga Puja, Dussehra, Diwali, and Christmas, it won’t be a surprise if the sales figure nearly doubles.
As per the ASSOCHAM report, the revenue generated during this year’s festive sales would be five times more compared to last year. Explaining the reason behind this growth, Mr. D S Rawat, Secretary General of ASSOCHAM said, “The customer is connected 24×7 through their smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices which is leading to a gradual evolution of e-commerce into mobile commerce. Also, there is an issue of convenience which also leads to impulsive buying”.
Prep by Online Marketplaces
Right from tightening logistics & delivery to equipping sellers for the expected surge in sales, online marketplaces Snapdeal, Flipkart, Paytm, Amazon and Shopclues are doing it all.
According to this ET report, delivery staff of Flipkart is preparing for 11-hour work shift to meet the Big Billion demand as the number of packages delivered daily will reach 1,03,000 packages as opposed to 65,000 on regular days.
Paytm is looking for 3 times growth. Snapdeal is expecting 10-15 fold growth, just like its Preview Monday Diwali Sale.
Jayant Sood, Chief Customer Experience Officer at Snapdeal revealed, “Unlike Flipkart, we have a sale every week, which is a good stress test to gauge customer experience. We began getting ready for this Diwali as soon as the last festival season was over.”
Furniture etailers gearing up too
Due to the inherent nature of furniture category, delivering bulky orders during festive season is going to be a task. Hence, online furniture companies such as Pepperfry, Urban Ladder,FabFurnish, are doing their bit to handle last mile delivery challenges. The pressure to deliver in fewer days as compared to the usual few weeks delivery timeline during regular period is going to be high.
Urban Ladder’s Manager – Operations, Govind Raj Kaushik said, “Each customer might also order 20-25 items for their homes, if it’s a “gruhapravesh” (house-warming) and there is huge pressure from the customer to deliver everything together.” So the company started preparing operations 2-months in advance, ramped up its delivery fleet by 35%, informed sellers about the expected rise in demand 3-months in advance and trained delivery staff.
Hyperlocal startups ramp up operations and add suppliers
Adequate staff is going to be the biggest challenge for hyperlocal startups like Grofers,Peppertap, and Zopper. On top of that, high attrition rate due to leaves taken by delivery staff because of festivals will add to the woes.
To prepare for this, Albinder Dhindsa, co-founder of Grofers shared the company’s strategy, “We normally add around 10% staff month-on-month but we’ve ramped up our delivery capacity by 40% to 4,200 over the last two months anticipating the dip in attendance. We also need to make sure we have a good relationship with the suppliers so that we are the preferred vendor.”
With etailers putting so much effort in training & collaborating with sellers, delivery staff, suppliers, and logistic players for the festive sales, we can only hope that it pays rich returns in the end.
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