Today ecommerce is a revolutionizing technology for Indian online buyers. We are buying anything from soap to software thru web. Every newspaper on a daily basis speaks about one or the other online stores about their growth, investments, market capitalization, innovations on order management to delivery, etc... This trend is mainly due to increased security in using plastic money, clear information & simple way of transactions, best product packaging and delivery mechanisms and obviously other factors like increased and always available bandwidth, no breaks between store and payment gateways and proper refund mechanisms.
There are more interesting automated solutions used by these online stores, This blog discusses about that.
Considering the huge market and product consumption, big online stores have relaxed themselves from stock management, handling products, maintaining inventories, etc... They just act like a mediator between the seller and buyer. They just facilitate the buying process, but they in built innovative marketing and feedback solutions in place to ensure the benefits of remarketing and achieving more sales.
I ordered a product in one of the leading online store by 11 pm (in the night). I got the product next day morning 9 am. Its surprising, the connectivity between the inventory and delivery providers are amazing. Even the tracking of the product delivery state for every hour is interesting watch. Delivery Automated.
I got a automated call that day morning around 8 30am, stating that, the product is out for delivery and it may reach before 9 am. In the same call, it also requests feedback to know about the buying experience. Feedback Automated
I had one more experience on how the online stores market the product thru referrals. I had a automated call after 6 hours I received the product stating that, if I like the product, it asks a for referral (to key in friend's mobile number) and suggest % discount on next product purchase. After 10 min, my friend received a automated call saying, I referred him and suggest % discount for him also to steal the deal. Marketing automated
We know about these traditional online stores, where interested buyers, registers and buy online. In the mediation context, there are platforms like olx and quickr which again connects buyer and seller, but limits themselves without facilitating buying process. Even there are platforms which uses facebook as a medium to reach network of people to sell their products.
Setting up a store is not rocket science nowadays. Even small players can open their online store in a short time of week. There are many ready made and can be tailored kind of ecommerce software's exists. It is just about configuring and uploading products, the store is ready to sell. Even the trend of cloud software's has brought down the cost of infrastructure encouraging the small business owners to go online.
Will share more automated experience in another blog...
