4 ms·

Free shipping for a low priced item isn't sustainable. It's there to get traction. That's what amazon.in is doing right now. There's nothing wrong with offering

by enscr 13y ago

Free shipping for a low priced item isn't sustainable. It's there to get traction. That's what amazon.in is doing right now. There's nothing wrong with offering free shipping above a certain threshold (like Amazon.com has a $25 threshold). I don't think the biggest benefit of Flipkart was free shipping. And they have grown far beyond books. Amongst the e-commerce players in India, they are in the "better" category.

kamaal 13y ago
Actually free shipping, and cash on delivery are two things that helped Indian e-commerce scene gain some customers. And spending for shipping will be non starter in India, people here bargain for a rupee or two for 1kg of potatoes with the local vegetable push cart vendor who comes right in front of your home to sell things. And we are expecting them to pay up 50 rupees for just showing up. And its not just vegetable push cart vendors. You have clothes salesmen, pickle vendors, biscuit vendors and what not. Who just just go from street to street trying to sell stuff. Our people are culturally trained to forget giving them a extra shipping fee, but rather bargain for a lower price. You are trying undo centuries of free shipping, and cash on delivery culture here. Books work fine for e-commerce, because books are what they are. You read reviews on the internet and buy them, it doesn't matter what's inside as knowing that by reading is the whole point of the book. Its like a movie. A mobile phone, tablet, laptop, clothes, glasses etc are totally different. I will never buy anything such, unless I see them or at least get a real feel of it. The Indian customers are very sensitive to this, try to convince an average Indian family to simply buy a thing online, without even seeing it once. Most won't, and for a good reason.
- enscr 13y ago
  > Actually free shipping, and cash on delivery are two things that helped Indian e-commerce scene gain some customers. Exactly. they "helped". It's like you handout freebies when you launch a new product so that people can get a "taste" before they commit to buy the whole package. All these incentives are there to get people hooked on to buying online. There's nothing wrong with this approach. You need to step out of that rock if you feel that Indians aren't buying online. Brick & Mortar mobile stores could be one of the earliest casualty of e-commerce.

by enscr 13y ago

kamaal 13y ago

Actually free shipping, and cash on delivery are two things that helped Indian e-commerce scene gain some customers. And spending for shipping will be non starter in India, people here bargain for a rupee or two for 1kg of potatoes with the local vegetable push cart vendor who comes right in front of your home to sell things. And we are expecting them to pay up 50 rupees for just showing up. And its not just vegetable push cart vendors. You have clothes salesmen, pickle vendors, biscuit vendors and what not. Who just just go from street to street trying to sell stuff. Our people are culturally trained to forget giving them a extra shipping fee, but rather bargain for a lower price. You are trying undo centuries of free shipping, and cash on delivery culture here. Books work fine for e-commerce, because books are what they are. You read reviews on the internet and buy them, it doesn't matter what's inside as knowing that by reading is the whole point of the book. Its like a movie. A mobile phone, tablet, laptop, clothes, glasses etc are totally different. I will never buy anything such, unless I see them or at least get a real feel of it. The Indian customers are very sensitive to this, try to convince an average Indian family to simply buy a thing online, without even seeing it once. Most won't, and for a good reason.

enscr 13y ago
> Actually free shipping, and cash on delivery are two things that helped Indian e-commerce scene gain some customers. Exactly. they "helped". It's like you handout freebies when you launch a new product so that people can get a "taste" before they commit to buy the whole package. All these incentives are there to get people hooked on to buying online. There's nothing wrong with this approach. You need to step out of that rock if you feel that Indians aren't buying online. Brick & Mortar mobile stores could be one of the earliest casualty of e-commerce.