Visa and Snapdeal.com

Visa and Snapdeal.com ties up for partnership

India’s largest deals website Snapdeal.com, owned by Jasper, a leading marketing platforms company, has entered into a strategic alliance with Visa.

As part of this partnership all Visa Debit and Credit cardholders in India will enjoy various benefits on www.snapdeal.com and will additionally enjoy a free Rs.100 credit, usable against their purchase on www.snapdeal.com. The partnership is designed to provide additional benefits and convenience to the growing number of online cards users in the country and further encourage existing Snapdeal users and Visa cardholders to utilise the various programs designed for the Indian users.

Snapdeal offers 50 to 90 percent discounts on branded products and the best things to do, see, eat and experience in 45 cities across India. With over 1.8 million existing subscribers and a new subscriber joining every 4 seconds, Snapdeal has established itself as one of the fastest growing e-commerce sites in India.  

Visa as a strategic partner for Snapdeal and believe excellent synergies exist between Snapdeal and Visa that offers various benefits to cardholders.

MakeMyTrip

MakeMyTrip acquires S'pore-based travel firm:

MakeMyTrip.com (MMT) has acquired a 79 per cent stake in Singapore-based travel agency Luxury Tours & Travels Pte Ltd (LTT) for $3 million.

MMT will invest another $0.75 mn in the company, in one or more tranches until June 2012, for the subscription of new equity shares to be issued by LTT.

Further, MakeMyTrip will acquire from the existing shareholders their remaining shares in LTT, in three tranches over a three-year period ending June 2014. The payment under each such tranche will be made in cash, based on valuations linked to LTT’s profitability.

This deal will enable MakeMyTrip to strengthen its presence in Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia.

Luxury Tours & Travel Pte Ltd is engaged in the business of providing hotel reservations, excursion tours and other related services to inbound and outbound travelers in Singapore. It has tie-ups with over 100 hotels in Singapore, and around 25 in Southeast Asia.

Founded in 2000 by Deep Kalra, MakeMyTrip has 24x7 customer support and offices in 20 cities across India and two international offices, in New York and San Francisco. The company has private equity investors such as SAIF Partners, Helion Venture Partners and Sierra Ventures

Last year, in February, MMT acquired bus ticketing company Ticketvala.com and also raised $70-mn through an Initial Public Offer in the US.

Retail:Growing Business

Growing Business

There is no inhibition in buying lingerie online, and this is aiding growth of its market by leaps and bounds

India holds immense growth potential for the lingerie industry, which is evident from the entry of large international brands in the Indian market in the last few years. Increasing size of the organized market and the declining share of the unorganized market is resulting in growing independent brands taking charge of the market. In addition, growing income levels of Indian women portray their changing lifestyle which  has rechristened lingerie from just an undergarment to a fashion clothing item, at least in the urban centers.

There lies a big gap in the lingerie market in India. Times have changed for  better for the Indian women like never before in terms of fashion style and statement coupled with growing wealth that is helping the growth of the organized lingerie industry. But to their accessibility, there are not much options available to their reach.

Online retail of this type of product is a lucrative opportunity for the retailers to look into.

Customer response

According to Deeksha and Saurabh Dadu, Co-founders, Strapsnstrings “The response has been phenomenal with over 3000 people visiting and checking out our online boutique within the first 3 days of it being launched. On an average, each customer spends at least 10 minutes on the website without any advertising activity on our part till now. This reflects on how eagerly our audience was waiting for us.”

Shy Product in the market

Online shopping gives them the advantage to shop from the privacy of their homes. They are able to search for the type of lingerie they may want to buy, and have it discretely delivered to the address of their choice. Even for women, they can use our easily navigable site to find exactly what they are looking for: something comfortable for everyday, to a nice cleavage enhancing bra, a demi cup etc.

For many women, Lingerie is a popular topic of discussion at 'all-girl parties'. As for the men, they probably feel shy walking into a Lingerie store to pick a gift up for their partners. Online shopping gives them the advantage to shop from the privacy of their homes. They are able to search for the type of lingerie they may want to buy, and have it discretely delivered to the address of their choice. Even for women, they can use our easily navigable site to find exactly what they are looking for: something comfortable for everyday, to a nice cleavage enhancing bra, a demi cup, to something sexy for the night.

Advantages over brick n mortar

Though physical store has its advantages, online business of lingerie has an edge over it. Setting up a retail store in a mall or a high-street would add to the cost, making the product more expensive for the customers. At the same time it would restrict the geographic reach. Online model gives us the scalability, and allows us to pass on the cost savings to our customers.

In a physical store, there is limited availability of styles, colors, size. In a physical store, there is limited availability of styles, colors, size. In a virtual store, we could offer numerous styles which the customer can browse at their leisure in the privacy of the environment of their choice.

Internet retailing of course has its advantages in terms of lower fixed recurring costs, and its ability to reach out to a larger audience; hence translating into both a good top line as well as bottom line. As for the customers, it gives them easy access to products across geographies, and cost savings from lower real estate costs are of course passed to the customer.

• The cost of physical store is forbidden
• Big advertising cost is curtailed
• No need to keep front-end staff

Requires Specialized Skills and IT set up

To start with the technicalities of the business, retailer needs to have excellent IT support for day-to-day operation which need to be updated at timely basis. Along with this, a team of very experienced lingerie consultants who could help the clients select the right product would add to the success.

Marketing & Delivery Process

Marketing for an online lingerie store is different. It need not necessarily be expensive project, but usually more different. Marketing efforts are usually focused on social media advertising, as well as doing on ground events such as workshops, exhibitions, and marketing alliances with more traditional brick and mortar stores.

On the delivery side of the product, depending on the goods that are being sold online, delivery options can vary between courier, a local delivery vehicle, post, etc.

Challenges

1.People not willing enough to use their credit cards to shop for Lingerie online.

2.Since the products we sell are very new to the Indian market, developing awareness, and also explaining the products in detail trying to replicate a real life touch and feel experience is another challenge.

Future of Online Lingerie

At present, online retail does require a long term view and persistence. This is a long term investment with very good opportunities for good returns as consumers become more techno-savvy and feel comfortable to purchase online.

Online is the wave of the future. As India's population gets more technologically savvy, and the Indian woman becomes more independent, she wants to satisfy her desires and aspirations. Lingerie is one of the most suitable product for online business. It breaks the barrier of shyness and inhibitions that the customer feels when walking into a physical store and either, having to ask a salesperson for  a babydoll, or having several pairs of eyes following the customer around while they browse these delicate and sexy clothing.

Further requires less investment cost and no looking for right location and it would be available to every customer who is just a click away!

Online Marketing

Online Marketing- Giving Exposure to Your Business

Online marketing is the hottest trend in the world of marketing. There are several diverse verticals which need to be worked out on individual basis for PPC, SEO, Email marketing, and display advertising.

Online Marketing: 

The success of business is highly reliant on the wide coverage of customer base. And it is through deft marketing skills that businesses tend to reach out to a wider section of customers. It is often seen that marketing strategies follow people. In the contemporary times, the customers are flocking Internet so the marketing strategies are also seeing a paradigm shift. You can see that more and more companies are focusing on Internet. Marketing your business using each and every source of Internet is called online marketing. 

Let us see various verticals of online marketing. 

Pay Per Click (PPC) Campaigns: 

This is highly targeted and effective way of marketing your business. It focuses on the exposure of your business once relevant keywords are inserted in the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing etc. You need to pay on the basis of clicks through which the users are redirected to your site. 

Search Engine Optimization (SEO): 

Unlike the PPC, in this case, you do not need to pay for the clicks. This helps your site to gain the frontal rankings in search engines. However, you need to know that it requires lots of systematized approach for giving your website the desired rankings. 

Email Marketing: 

This is also an effective source of providing exposure to your business. You can avail the list of valid and active emails through third-party providers. You can also capture the list of emails through your website and use these e-mail ids for staying in touch with the existing or prospective customers. 

Display Advertising:   

You can also advertise your business to other popular websites having heavy traffic. Doing it through creative formats like banners, videos, stretchable banners etc can produce effective results. 

Once you have employed these marketing strategies then you need to focus on your website too. It must be effective enough so that the conversion rate of leads or visitors is high. Remember, if you are strategizing your business for the online visitors then you are dealing with smart consumers with greater spending capacity, hence, you need to pay attention to minute details. 

India Online Landscape 2010

India Online Landscape 2010 – Internet Usage Statistics for India

Juxt – A research company that conducts syndicated research and online research has just released the India Online Landscape Report 2010 which gives an insight into emerging trends among Internet Users in India.

Highlights of India Online Landscape Report 2010

Internet Usage and Penetration in India

51 mn ‘active’ internet users in India, 40 mn urban and 11 mn rural

Reaches 10% Indian households and 4.4% Indians

2/3rd households have ‘multiple’ users in them

97% are regular users and 79% use daily

High base of ‘daily users’ and increased base of ‘online buyers’ indicates growth in ‘depth’

1 in 4 access it on mobile phones, though most of them are ‘dual’ users (PC + Mobile)

Mobile Internet Usage in India

‘Dual’ users access internet on their mobiles habitually – 2 out of 3 access ‘daily’ and 1 in 3 uses it for more than an hour daily

Almost all ‘dual’ users have GPRS enabled phones and most have activated GPRS service on them

‘WAP enabled’ data services and ‘GPRS activated’ direct browsing are the most popular mode of mobile internet usage

‘Poor speed’ and ‘affordability’ are the biggest perceptual barriers in higher adoption of mobile internet usage among existing net users

Intenet Usage in India – Dynamics

Rural user base up at 20%

Growth relatively more in ‘South’, making it the most ‘net-savvy’ region

Growth relatively more in the ‘smaller’ urban areas’ (below 5 lakhs population) – they now account for half of all urban internet users

‘Home’ continues to be the largest ‘single’ place of access. ‘Home’ and ‘transit’ user base show increase

‘Connectivity’ problems are the biggest irritants, starting with ‘speed’ – half of all broadband users claim ‘below 256 kbps’ speeds

Internet User Profiles in India

Over half of internet users are ‘employed’, half of whom are ‘corporate employees’

2/3rd of those employed are ‘head’ of the household (rest 1 in 3 being the ‘other earning members ‘of ‘multi-income’ families)

‘25-35 years’ forms the ‘single’ largest age group among internet users

Their ‘average’ claimed monthly family income is ‘3 times’ the national average

At least 2 times higher ownership levels for the more ‘evolved’ modern day assets

Female user-ship ‘inching’ upwards, ‘housewives’ as a user base starts emerging

Internet Users in India – Lifestyle Profiling

Internet is the ‘dominant medium’ in 2/3rd internet users’ lives

Among offline media, they read ‘newspapers’ more, but are ‘heavier users’ of TV

Internet ‘surfing’ is the favorite ‘indoor entertainment’ for most of them, and they perceive it as a source of ‘learning’ and ‘entertainment’

‘Listening to music’, ‘cinema’ and ‘gaming’ are their biggest hobbies

‘Money’ is the biggest motivation driving their lives

They give highest importance to ‘functionality’, then to brand image

Online Shopping in India – Trends

Proportion of online ‘window’ shoppers fell significantly in the last year

However, this drop is due to significant decline in the ‘searchers only’ base, ‘online buyers’ base actually increased by 2.5 million (33% growth)

40% online shoppers ‘bought’ online (+18% points over last year) – indicates that mere ‘window shoppers’ are giving way to the ‘serious’ buying-intending shoppers

Net users make good ‘marketing audience’ – 3/4th of them have ‘responded’ to some kind of ‘marketing stimulus’ when online

Most popular Online Activity among Internet Users in India