CHAPTER-4 ONLINE SHOPPING INDUSTRY: AN OVERVIEW - Shodhganga
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CHAPTER-4
ONLINE SHOPPING INDUSTRY: AN OVERVIEW
4.1 Introduction
In this fast changing, dynamic and world of cut throat competition, companies are
trying to lure customers with some or the other competitive advantage. With the
advantage of technology, companies try to give convenience to customers at their
doorstep due to scarcity of time, hectic lifestyle and materialistic world. Online
shopping is one such convenience to customers where they can buy 24 x 7 at their
convenience. Online shopping is the process whereby consumers directly buy goods
or services from a seller in real-time, without an intermediary service, over the
Internet. It is a form of electronic commerce. The sale or purchase of transaction is
completed electronically. An online shop, e-shop, e-store, internet shop, web shop,
web store, online store, or virtual store evokes the physical analogy of buying
products or services at a bricks-and-mortar retailer or in a shopping centre. The
process is called Business-to-Consumer (B2C) online shopping. Nowadays almost all
biggies in retail segment are electronically present
on the World Wide Web.
Online marketplaces have significantly reduced financial and reputational barriers of
entry into world market for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). These
marketplaces provide web presence, marketing and payment services fulfilment and
other services. Due to this Small and Medium Enterprises focus on their core
competencies. These SMEs get chance to build a reputation at low cost relative to the
offline environment by the one click feedback of customer ratings online.
112
4.1.1 Modes of Ecommerce Transactions
Figure: 4.1 Modes of e-commerce transactions
E-Commerce Transactions can be segmented into three broad categories or modes,
based on participants involved in the transactions :
Modes of e-commerce transactions
C2C B2C B2B
• Online Classifieds • Online Travel • Online Classifieds
• Online Retails • Online retail / e-tailing
• Online Classifieds
• Digital Downloads
• Financial Services
Online retail/e-
Online Travel Online Classifieds Digital Downloads Financial Services
tailing
Customers buy Online sale of Portals Paid music, Online sale of
tickets, book products such as connecting videos and games insurance, loans
hotels and books, mobile buyers and sellers download and mutual funds
purchase tour handsets, mobile by providing
packages online. accessories, classifieds space
The Ticketing electronics and where the sellers
services can be for home and kitchen can advertise
airlines, railways or appliances among their product
buses.
others
Source: Ernest & Young
Business-to-Consumer (B2C): The B2C market in India generates the bulk of
revenues across the consumer-facing modes of e-Commerce. Online travel has
typically held a major share of the B2C market but online retail is also growing
rapidly and is expected to significantly increase its share.
Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C): India’s C2C market, though currently small, is set to
grow with the entry of several players. These entrants are attracting venture capitaal
investment. Their online portals are also garnering significant traffic. It is expected
that the C2C segment will show rapid growth in coming years.
Business-to-Business (B2B): The most common users of B2B online classifieds are
micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). These small businesses lack the
requisite financial resources and, therefore, find it difficult to market their products
and services to potential clients through traditional media such as newspapers, banners
and television. Trade through online B2B portals increases the visibility of MSMEs in
the marketplace and helps them overcome barriers of time, communication and
geography.
113
4.1.2 History of E-commerce
The first World Wide Web server and browser was created in UK by Tim Berners-Lee
which was opened for commercial use in 1991. In 1994, Netscape introduced Secure
Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption of data transferred online, which had become
essential for secured online shopping. Later on, other advances took place, such as
online banking and the opening of an online pizza shop by Pizza Hut. In 1994, the
German company “Intershop” introduced its first online shopping system, in 1995,
Amazon launched its online shopping site, and in 1996, eBay started online
operations.
Originally, e-commerce was introduced in late 1970’s to facilitate the commercial
transactions electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange
(EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). This allowed businesses to send
commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. In 1980’s, the
growth and acceptance of credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and
telephone banking were also other forms of electronic commerce. Another form of e-
commerce was the airline reservation system typified by Sabre in the USA and
Travicom in the UK. Later on from 1990s onwards, electronic commerce also
included enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data
warehousing.
In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee invented the WorldWideWeb web browser and transformed
an academic telecommunication network into a worldwide everyman everyday
communication system called internet/www. The Internet became popular worldwide
around 1994 with the adoption of Mosaic web browser.
Timeline (Parikh, 2011)
1979: Michael Aldrich invented online shopping in UK
1981: Thomson Holidays, UK is first B2B online shopping
1982: Minitel was introduced nationwide in France by France Telecom and
used for online ordering.
114 1984: Tesco is first B2C online shopping and Mrs Snowball, 72, is the first
online home shopper
1985: Nissan UK sells cars and finance with credit checking to customers
online from dealers' lots.
1987: Swreg, an online payment processor that is the best Paypal alternative
for global businesses begins to provide software
1990: Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser, WorldWideWeb, using a
NeXT computer in UK.
1992: Terry Brownell launches first fully graphical, iconic navigated Bulletin
board system online shopping using RoboBOARD
1994: Netscape, US Computer Services Company releases the Navigator
browser in October under the code name Mozilla. Pizza Hut offers online
ordering on its Web page. Netscape 1.0 is introduced in late
1994 SSL encryption that made transactions secure.
1995: Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon Inc., USA launches Amazon.com and the
first commercial-free 24 hour. Internet-only radio stations, Radio HK and
NetRadio in US start broadcasting. eBay is founded by computer programmer
Pierre Omidyar as AuctionWeb in US.
1998: Electronic postal stamps for people residing in US can be purchased and
downloaded for printing from the Web.
1998: Alibaba Group is established in China. Alibaba Group is a family of
Internet-based businesses which makes it easy for anyone to buy or sell online
anywhere in the world
1999: Business.com sold for US $7.5 million to e-Companies, which was
purchased in 1997 for US $149,000. Business.com helps small-to-medium
enterprises discover, compare and purchase products and services to run their
businesses.
2000: The dot-com bust.
2001: Alibaba.com achieved profitability in December 2001.
2002: eBay acquires PayPal for $1.5 billion. PayPal is the faster, safer way to
send money, make an online payment, receive money or set up a merchant
account.
115 2003: Amazon.com posts first yearly profit. 2004: DHgate.com, China's first
online b2b transaction platform is established, forcing other b2b sites to move
away from the "yellow pages" model.
2007: Business.com acquired by R.H. Donnelley for $345 million.
2009: Zappos.com, an online shoe and apparel store acquired by Amazon.com
for $928 million. Retail Convergence, operator of private sale website
RueLaLa.com, acquired by GSI Commerce for $180 million, plus up to $170
million in earn-out payments based on performance through 2012. GSI
Commerce is an eBay company specializing in creating, developing and
running online shopping sites for brick and mortar brands and retailers.
2010: Groupon reportedly rejects a $6 billion offer from Google. Instead, the
group buying websites plans to go ahead with an IPO in mid-2011. Groupon,
is a deal-of-the-day website that features discounted gift certificates or
discount coupons usable at local or national companies.
4.1.3 Seven Unique Features of E-commerce
Seven unique features of e-commerce are:
1. Ubiquity: e-commerce is available everywhere and at all times
2. Global reach: it reaches customers across national boundaries
3. Universal standards: it use standards shared by all nations
4. Richness: it shares messages that are rich in terms of complexity and content
5. Interactivity: it is characterized by a two way communication between
customer and merchant
6. Information density: it increase the amount of information available
7. Personalization/Customization: e-commerce allows the delivery of services
and messages that perfectly fit with customer’s interest and preferences.
(Source: Applying e-commerce in Business: Lana Tassabehji 2003)
1164.2 Global E-commerce Industry
For private consumers around the globe the most well-known form of e-commerce
falls into the business to consumer (B2C) category, which includes online retail or
online shopping. It refers to online purchases from bricks-and-mortar retailers, such as
Walmart, as well as from web-only online retailing corporations such as Amazon.com
or Rakuten. In 2015, the global population amounted to around 7.3 billion people, of
which 1.4 billion people purchased goods and/or services online at least once. In total,
they spent $ 2,272.7 billion online, which results in an average spending per e-shopper
of $ 1,582. Asia –Pacific; a strongest B2C e-Commerce region in the world in 2014,
was the strongest B2C e-commerce region in the world in 2015 also. With a B2C e-
commerce turnover of $ 1,056.8 bn, it ranked ahead of North America ($664.0bn) and
Europe ($505.1bn). Latin America and Middle East and North Africa (MENA) were
the smallest B2C e-commerce markets in 2015. They achieved B2C e-commerce sales
of $33.0bn and $ 25.8bn, respectively. Among the top countries, China lead on the
United States of America as the country with the highest B2C e-commerce turnover in
2015. With $766.5bn, it ranked above the US ($595.1bn) and the UK ($174.5bn).
Together, these three countries account for 68 % of the total global B2C ecommerce
turnover. In 2016, an estimated 1.61 billion people worldwide purchase goods online.
In 2016, global e-retail sales amounted to 1.9 trillion U.S. dollars and projections
show a growth of up to 4.06 trillion U.S. dollars by 2020. In Asia Pacific, e-retail sales
accounted for 12.1 percent of retail sales in 2016 but only for 1.8 percent of retail
sales in the Middle East and Africa.
eMarketer’s latest forecast for retail sales around the world reports that the rapid
growth from Asia-Pacific is in part; driven by the rising middle classes in China, India
and Indonesia and secondly, the increasing popularity of mobile devices that is driving
more and more people to online buying.
According to eMarketer, the Asia Pacific region’s global retail spending of 877.61
billion will make up 52.5% of the worldwide spending of $1670.99 billion, and this
will be for the first time it holds a majority of the world market. However, China
remains on the top of spending, with its 2015 sales at $672 billion, and forecast to
grow to $1,568.39 billion by 2018. Online retail now accounts for 0.8% of all retail
117sales in India, compared with a global average of 6.3%, and e-Marketer forecasts this
would grow to 4.8% by 2019, when it is projected to be 12.8% globally. With $681
billion in online retail sales in 2016, China is the largest market for e-commerce
globally, followed by the U.S. and the fastest growing country is India. According to a
new study by Forrester Research, approximately a fifth of total retail sales will take
place online by 2021 in Asia Pacific, with 78 percent of that coming from mobile, up
from 63 percent in 2016. The study adds that online retail via mobile will grow at a
CAGR of 15.6 percent, to reach $1 trillion in 2020, up from $539 billion in 2016.
eMarketer’s Director of forecasting, Monica Peart said that “This rapid growth in
Asia-Pacific, coupled with faster Internet service, greater mobile uptake and rigorous
steps from Government of India (Digital India), is heating up the competitive
landscape where large local players are increasingly vying for market share by
improving their logistics and mobile platforms, and in some cases, moving entirely to
an app-only service,”.
As of 2014, worldwide retail sales are more than $1 trillion worth, and are growing at
a steady rate of 19.4% annually. In recent years, mobile shopping has been on the rise,
with customers increasingly using their mobile devices for various online shopping
activities. According to a March 2016 study regarding mobile shopping penetration
worldwide, 46 percent of internet users in the Asia Pacific region and 28 percent of
those in North America had purchased products via a mobile device, whether smart
phone or tablet computer. As of the last quarter of 2016, desktop PCs accounted for
the majority of global e-retail orders but smart phones are the number one device in
terms of retail website visits. During a 2017 survey, 11 percent of online shoppers
stated that they shopped online via smartphone on a weekly basis.
The average online shopping and purchase intention rates among online shoppers also
vary strongly by product category - a total of 53 percent of online shoppers had
purchased books or music online in the past 12 months but only 5% (five) percent of
shoppers had bought artwork online. The average number of annual online
transactions per capita is also different in different countries. Asian shoppers made an
average of 22.1 online transactions whereas shoppers in Latin America online made
9.2 e-retail purchases. India has seen the fastest growth in the retail e-commerce
section among the Asia-Pacific countries, growing at 133.8% in 2014, 129.5% in 2015
118and about 170% in 2016. eMarketer also forecasts that this growth will stabilize to
23.9% in 2019, compared with an Asia-Pacific projected average growth of 23.5%.
4.2.1 Highlights of Global E-retail 2009-2016
A report, based on a survey in 2010 by the research and consulting firm Booz
& Co, U.S social commerce sales of physical goods through online social
networks are projected to grow by 93% per year, reaching $14 billion by 2015
and 27% of shoppers are willing to buy through social media.
Brazil’s online retail market was only $7.9 billion worth 4 years ago and is
expected to increase by a compound annual growth rate of 17.5% over the next
5 years, meaning that the online sales will go up to $22 billion in 2016, putting
it on an impressive growth rate.
A research by the Forrester Research Co. also shows that the online retail sales
in Europe for the last 6 years are constantly growing, but in a slower rate than
Brasil’s online market. It grew from US $112.1 billion in 2010 to $184.6
billion by 2015, which rounds up to an annual growth rate of 10%. The
number of online shoppers in the seventeen European Union nations have
grown from 275 million to more than 303 million at the end of 2015.
On a global scale, e-commerce sales are growing more than 19% a year.
China accounts for nearly 80 percent of online retail sales in Asia Pacific, and
Forrester expects it to become the first market to reach $1 trillion in online
retail sales in 2020. More than 19 percent of all retail sales in China takes
place online, and it will reach 24 percent by 2021.
Indian market is expected to reach $64 billion by 2021, growing at a five-year
CAGR of 31.2 percent.
1194.2.2 B2C Ecommerce Sales Worldwide
Chart: 4.1 B2C Ecommerce Sales Worldwide
2.5 B2CE-commerce Sales Worldwide 2.356
2.143
1.922
Amount in trillion Dollars
2 1.7
1.471
1.5 1.233
1.058
1
0.5
0
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017* 2018*
* = Estimated
Source: OEX Divante Business Services
Chart: 4.2 Growth in B2C Ecommerce, 2013-2017
120Chart 4.3: B2C Ecommerce Sales Growth, Worldwide
Source: emarketer.com
Table 4.1: B2C Worldwide E-commerce Sales Growth by Country
from 2012 to 2017 (% change)
Countries 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 ⃰
China 93.7 78.5 63.8 43.3 34.4 29.4
Indonesia 85.0 71.3 45.1 37.2 26.0 22.0
India 35.9 34.9 31.5 30.3 24.5 20.0
Argentina 31.1 6.3 24.0 18.0 12.0 10.0
Mexico 55.8 41.9 20.0 14.5 10.0 5.0
Brazil 21.8 16.5 19.1 8.5 6.9 6.0
Russia 34.4 19.4 17.1 10.5 6.9 5.2
Italy 17.0 16.5 15.3 13.5 12.0 10.6
Canada 15.0 14.2 14.0 13.5 13.5 11.5
Spain 10.0 10.0 13.8 11.9 10.0 8.0
Sweden 18.4 16.2 13.3 10.3 9.0 8.4
121U.K. 13.7 13.7 12.2 10.2 8.2 7.3
U.S. 14.2 13.4 11.8 11.4 10.9 10.4
Norway 14.9 12.7 11.0 10.8 3.1 7.2
Denmark 14.3 12.4 10.6 8.9 4.5 5.9
France 32.3 10.3 10.0 9.5 7.6 7.1
Netherlands 12.7 11.4 9.4 8.4 6.3 5.3
South Korea 12.7 9.6 7.4 4.5 4.3 3.6
Germany 25.6 5.7 7.4 6.9 6.5 6.1
Japan 12.3 10.2 7.1 6.7 5.6 5.0
Australia 10.5 6.0 5.7 5.1 5.0 4.2
Finland 4.3 4.4 3.7 3.2 2.7 2.5
Worldwide 22.2 18.0 20.1 17.6 15.9 14.8
Source: www.emarketer .com
4.3 Indian Ecommerce Industry
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) was the first in India to
interact with the online E-Commerce in 2002. The government of India was the first
to bring IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System, which for the first time opened
the online ticket booking from anywhere at any time in India. This was followed by
Airline Agency and then in 2007 online shopping gained momentum with the
introduction of Flipkart with its deep discounted model.
According to the survey conducted by Assocham (Dec 31st, 2013), published in The
Economic Times, India’s e-commerce market stood at $2.5 billion in 2009, reached to
$8.5 billion in 2012 and rose 88 per cent to touch $16 billion in 2013. A study
conducted by BCG suggested that during the year 2013 out of 1220 million Indians,
169 million Indians were active internet users only. Again in 2015, the report said that
out of 30% rural population, only 15% use internet and out of 70% urban population,
India has only been able to capture 10% population on internet. India had an internet
user base of about 354 million as of June 2015 and was 450 million in December 2016
as per the report of Internet and Mobile Association of India and market research firm
IMRB International. According to the report, overall Internet penetration in India is
122currently around 31%. Despite being the second-largest user base in world, only
behind China (650, 48% of population), the penetration of e-commerce is low
compared to markets like the United States (266 million, 84%), or France (54 M,
81%), but is growing at an unprecedented rate, adding around 6 million new entrants
every month. The report estimated that by the year 2018 this figure of internet users
will shoot up and reach up to 583 million and the country’s e-commerce market to
reach $56 billion by 2023, driven by rising online retail.
The Assocham’s study on 1st January, 2016 revealed that Mumbaikars have left
behind all other cities in India; shopping online in 2015. While Delhiiets ranked
second, Ahmedabad ranked third, Bangalore ranked fourth and Kolkata ranked fifth in
their preference for online shopping in 2015. As per the findings of the joint study
recently, Bangalore has left behind all other cities in India; shopping online in the year
2016. While Mumbai ranks second, Delhi ranks third in their preference for online
shopping. In 2017, mobile commerce will become more important as most of the
consumers and companies are shifting to m-commerce. Mobile already accounts for
30-35% of e-commerce sales, and its share will jump to 45-50% by 2017," adds the
report.
Key Highlights
E-commerce currently is attracting a lot of investment with food delivery, and
fashion and jewellery retailing being the most lucrative segments
that contribute close to 49 per cent of overall spend.
Non-travel online segment had a strong hold on overall E-tailing performance
with 57 per cent Y-o-Y growth between December 2014 and 2015. The market
moved from Rs 24,046 crores to Rs 37,689 crores between December 2014
and December 2015.
Online travel continues to be a hero of the overall Digital Commerce spends at
61 per cent and valued close to Rs 76,396 crores. Domestic air ticket booking
and railway ticket booking are among top categories in online travel space,
that contributes close to 70 per cent of online travel spends.
As many as 1,06,086 websites are registered daily and more than 25% are for
niche businesses.
123 Electronics and electrical appliances are India’s most favourite purchase online
in the non-air travel category.
Among e-tail categories, mobile phone and mobile accessories continue to be
the top contributor to the overall pie. Given that there is an increased demand
for smartphones in India, this could be a contributing factor.
While Flipkart sees the highest sale numbers from the mobile phone and
electronic categories, Fashion is where vertical players shine. Flipkart-owned
Myntra and Jabong, and other well-funded players like Wooper, Voonik, and
Limeroad are playing on a huge customer base.
Looking to the overall spend in e-tail segment, Computer and consumer
electronics, as well as apparel and accessories, account for the bulk of Indian
retail e-commerce spends contributing close to 49 per cent collectively.
Apparel and footwear sale had almost doubled as compared to the 2014
figures, recording a 52 per cent YOY growth from Rs 4699 crores in
December 2014 to Rs 7142 crores in December 2015. This segment is
expected to gain further momentum and reach Rs. 72639 crores by the end of
2016. The online Indian Fashion catalog is dominated by Apparel (47%)
followed by Fashion Accessories (40%), Footwear (9%) and Lingerie (4%) in
2016.
With the growth of horizontal marketplaces in 2015, $9 billion flowed into
Indian startups, with ShopClues, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Paytm bringing in a
one - fourth of the amount.
Amazon India recent Research Report shows that, Indian digital shoppers
mostly belong to top eight metro cities and small metros. Most of these
shoppers fall in the age group 16 to 34 years, predominantly male (around
64 per cent), and belong to higher SEC groups – SEC A and SEC B.
Online medicine is a new and emerging sector in e-commerce, selling
complementary and alternative medicine or prescription medicine online.
There are no dedicated online pharmacy laws in India and it is permissible to
sell prescription medicine online with a legitimate license.
1244.3.1 Total E-commerce Size & Structure
Chart 4.4: Total E-commerce Size
Total E-commerce size in India
2020* 101.9
Y 2018* 40.3
e
a 2015 16
* Estimated Amount in US
r billion $
2014 13.6
s
2013 2.9
0 50 100 150
Amount in US billion $
Source: comscore and Euromonitor, Deloitte Analysis, Media Reportss
Chart 4.5: Average spend per online shopper (B2C) in India
Amount in US $
500
450
464
400
350
300
250 288
200 247 Amount in US $
150
100 147
50
0
2013 2015 2018* 2020*
* Estimated
Source: comscore and Euromonitor, Deloitte Analysis, Media Reports
1254.3.2 Number of Online Shoppers in India
Chart 4.6: No. of Online Shoppers in India (in Millions)
No. of Online Shoppers in India
250 220
200
140
150
100 No. of Online Shoppers in
India (in Millions)
50 39
20
0
2013 2015 2018* 2020*
* Estimated
Source: comscore and Euromonitor, Deloitte Analysis, Media Reports
Change in shopping habits of consumers, immediate & safe delivery of products and
rise in the number of middle class consumers add the online shopping demography
every year.
Indian customers now, not only buy the electronic products and fashion online – but
they have also started buying daily essentials, furniture, gift cards, beauty
products, jewellery, personal audio, footwear and lifestyle products, energy-saving
bulbs, selfie stick, printer ink, slimming belt, condoms, protein supplement, massager,
blood pressure monitor, hookah and hookah flavours in 2016. With quality assurance
initiatives, stringent security features, easy returns and zero-cost EMI options, along
with the scarcity of time, complexities of life, people spending more time on luxuries
and personal growth; online shopping has become more sought out option. After the
Demonetization incident in India even more and more customers have been adopting
online transactions.
In fact, online marketplaces like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon India have witnessed
the customer maturing with the ecosystem. Vishal Chadha, Senior VP (Business),
126Snapdeal noted that in 2016, new customer segments adopted online commerce and
there was an increased acceptance of digital transaction methods. “The delivery of
functional benefits like speed, convenience and value also resulted in massive growth
from non-metros cities in India,” he said. Online retail now accounts for 0.8% of all
retail sales in India, compared with a global average of 6.3%.
E-commerce has changed in India since its inception. The industry was growing slow
for last so many years and the environment also was not so conducive for an industry.
In last few years, e-commerce in India has grown in leaps and bounds. According to
the reports of Assocham , from being worth about $3.9 billion in 2009, online retail
was worth $16.08 billion in 2016. The beginning of the 2017 has seen major
breakthroughs in online shopping Industry. It is expected to generate about $100
billion online retail revenue in 2020 out of which $35 billion will be through fashion
e-commerce and online apparel sales will grow four times in coming years.
The e-commerce penetration in India is still considerably low and there is
considerable room for growth and a market for multiple players to co-exist. E-
commerce companies have been competing on prices and offering discounts on sales
and ultimately the winner has only been the customers.
There is a lot of untapped market online due to several reasons. Reasons may be low
level of education, low levels of income, unemployment, low resources at hand,
superstitions, lack of knowledge etc. Lots of initiatives have been taken by
Government to educate the people. Even the concept of “Digital India” has been
introduced by the Government of India to bring people online. Smart phones are made
available at very low rates. Customers shop online to save their time, energy and
money but there is a time when customer feels helpless due to the lack of knowledge
and complex procedures which hinder the popularity of online shopping. Further,
doing transactions at the arm’s length is not easy. A customer faces certain difficulties
while shopping online. Educated people especially who are working in the private
sector and are time scarce and the teenagers & youngsters prefer to shop online for
various reasons. Three of the main driving factors to supplement this rise would be the
inculcation of niche players, role of FDI and GST and how e-retail is changing the
face of food and grocery for good.
127Chart 4.7: Total Retail and Retail Ecommerce Sales in India
2018* 1244.58 17.52
2017* 1082.24 14.18
2016 941.08 10.68
Total Retail
2015 818.33 7.69
Retail ecommerce sales in
2014 717.83 5.3 India
2013 635.25 3.59
0 500 1000 1500
US $BILLION
Source: emarketer, December 2014.
4.3.3 Growth of E-commerce Industries in India
According a study by Assocham and international accounting firm Pricewaterhouse
Coopers (PwC)average online purchases are expected to increase by 78 percent in
2016 from 66 percent in 2015, due to attractive deals and aggressive marketing of
ever-expanding range of merchandise from clothes to jewellery, from electronics to
books. Though retail e-commerce still holds a small share in the total retail sales in
India (approx 1.7 per cent as recorded in 2015), industry experts believe it is still in
the nascent stage and has immense growth potential. E-commerce is expected to
acquire 4.8 per cent market share in total retail sales by 2019.
Improvements on the payment front (Demonetization) have brought about the
increasing use of plastic money by Indian consumers. Payment gateways have now
been made more secure through multiple levels of authentication via one-time
passwords (OTPs) and transaction passwords. This has helped strengthen users’
confidence in carrying out online transactions. These enablers augur well for the
development of e-Commerce in India.
1284.3.4 Some of the popular Indian Companies in online Business
Some of the highly preferred online companies/ websites from which Indian
consumers prefer to buy are:
Apparels and Accessories
Myntra
Myntra is another name for fashion in India; incepted in 2007, this Bangalore
headquartered online portal was founded by Mukesh Bansal and comes under the
Flipkart umbrella. In 2011, Myntra extended its product catalogue to include fashion
and lifestyle products. Myntra tied up with various popular brands (350 Indian and
International brands) to retail a wide range of latest merchandise from these brands.
Myntra is rapidly diversifying into home furnishing, personal care segments and
jewellery; in the year 2016, Myntra is merged with flipkart.
Jabong
Jabong is an Indian fashion and lifestyle e-commerce portal, with apparel, footwear,
fashion accessories, beauty products, home accessories and other fashion and lifestyle
products. Jabong was co-founded by Arun Chandra Mohan, Praveen Sinha, Manu
Jain, and Mukul Bafana in 2012 and funded by Rocket Internet (run by the media
avoiding Samwer brothers). After operational issues and heavy online competition
from Amazon and Flipkart, Jabong finally got sold off this year to Flipkart and may be
subsequently merged with Flipkart’s fashion brand, Myntra. Irrespective, Jabong and
its latest stream of cutting age post modern advertising has ensured it remains one of
the most admired brands. Recently Jabong has been acquired by flipkart.
Koovs
Koovs India has been incepted as an independent e-commerce fashion portal in 2010,
operating through Koovs.com as an online store especially for western fashion,
serving products like menswear, womenswear, footwear, accessories, jewellery and
beauty products. The website flaunts Indian and international brands.
129 Zovi
Zovi’s central agenda has been to locally craft and manufacture lifestyle apparel and
accessory products with quality at reasonable prices. Zovi is positioned as a metaphor
for trendy fashion. The brand offers a wide range of fashion products from shirts,
denims, polos and a whole lot more items at reasonable prices. Topping the charts of
trendy online shopping sites, Zovi provides free shipping and cash on delivery
options. The brand strongly believes that high quality apparel and accessories should
be in the reach of everyday people.
LimeRoad
Ankush Mehra, Suchi Mukherjee and Prashant Malik, the founders came up with this
unique fashion proposition for women in 2012 through a ‘social ecommerce platform’
where they could create a unique look choosing from a range of available products.
Craftsvilla
Crafting their innovative business idea, entrepreneur couple Manoj and Monika Gupta
have founded Craftsvilla an online marketplace that allows users to buy and sell ethnic
handmade products to discover unique Indian products.
Kaaryah
The Big Idea came to Nidhi Agarwal- founder & CEO at the Bangalore airport when
she spilled coffee on her shirt and could not find a quick replacement fitting her size
on the go. That was the seed for the business and KAARYAH was born and has
grown over the years as a premium brand of non-casual Western clothing for all sizes,
even those you may not find at standard outlets. KAARYAH offers 18 sizes – three
variants in each size– and introduces 150 new designs every month; this has been
made possible with a proprietary IT enabled production system. Read our interview of
the KAARYAH founder in this issue.
Shoppers Stop
Shoppers Stop is a one stop shop Indian retailing company owned by K Raheja Group,
which started its operations in 1991 with its first store in Andheri, Mumbai. The
website sells all the products practically available at Shoppers Stop stores, including
apparel, cosmetics and accessories. Keeping pace with technology, the brand has also
130launched its app in February 2016 as part of their omni-channel strategy. From Biba
Apparels, Gini & Jony, Nike, Reebok, Louis Philippe, Pepe, to Arrow, Shoppers Stop
also merchandises its own brands such as STOP, Kashish, LIFE, Vettorio Fratini and
Acropolis.
Yebhi
Yebhi, previously named and incepted in 2009 as BigShoeBazaar, is an online portal
for buying and selling shoes, later expanding with a variety of products ranging from
Apparels, Bags, Mobiles, Watches, Books, Laptops, Home furnishing, Fragrances,
Cameras, Sunglasses, and others. The site boasts a registered user base of over 1.5
million users and about a third of it have made a transaction for some product or the
other. Yebhi brings the most updated global fashion trends to customers, which has
ensured that the brand is one of the most recalled and admired ones in India.
YepMe
“Fresh Fashion every day” is what YepMe stands for, being one of India’s biggest
online fashion brands. Their target is young India with teenagers and young adults as
the segment to cater. Founded by Vivek Gaur, Sandeep Sharma with Anand Jadhav in
2011 and headquartered in Gurgaon, the company specializes in the online retailing of
men’s and women’s garments and accessories. Stylophane ranked YepMe as one of
the top 20 fashion brands in the world. The youth fashion brand has been the recipient
of the “Web-only Brand of the Year” award in 2014 by eTailing India. YepMe
continues to gain top of the mind recall through the years.
Lenskart
Lenskart was founded by Piyush Bansal and Amit Chaudhary in 2010 has changed the
way people see the world through their lenses. Capturing on a very niche and largely
untapped and unorganized sector, the online eyewear portal has galvanized the market
with its exceptional growth. The online retailer sells eyeglasses, sunglasses, contact
lenses and eyewear accessories with an all India reach including important cities like
Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. Lenskart gives great
discounts and amazing offers on a daily basis. Starting as an online player, Lenskart
switched to an omni-channel approach to provide eyewear in hypermarkets, high
streets, malls, hospitals and even at home. Lenskart sells 5,000 spectacles a day
131making it one of India’s top two eyewear firms. Lenskart plans to expand by opening
1,000 brick-and-mortar shops through the franchise model.
e-tail
Flipkart
Online shopping is equated with Flipkarting in India nowadays and that’s what, is a
clear example of; the stupendous growth the online retailer has, shown over the years.
Flipkart originally started as an online bookstore founded by IIMA alumni Sachin
Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007. Flipkart now employs over 33,000 people providing
thousands of products from national and international brands to hundreds of thousands
of customers. India’s answer to global e-tailing brands, Flipkart’s brand is amongst the
most admired and respected in India. ‘WeRead’ in 2010, Mime360 and Chakpak.com
in 2011, Letsbuy.com in 2012 and then Myntra.com in 2014 (India’s largest online
apparel store), AdIQuity, Appiterate and FXMart and MapMyIndia in 2015, Flipkart
owned Myntra acquired Jabong and PhonePe in 2016 and recently on 10th April 2017,
acquired eBay India; cash and stock; are acquired by the ecommerce leader.
Amazon
Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos in July 5, 1994. This is one of the oldest
online shopping company headquartered at Seattle, Washington, U.S. It offers Online
shopping, Web hosting and Content Distribution services and employes more than
2,22,400 (October 2015) people. Since June 19, 2000, Amazon's logotype has featured
a curved arrow leading from A to Z, representing that the company carries every
product from A to Z, with the arrow shaped like a smile.
When the dot-com bubble burst at the start of the 21st century, destroying many e-
companies in the process, Amazon survived, and grew on past the bubble burst to
become a huge player in online sales. The company began as an online bookstore, an
idea spurred off with discussion with John Ingram of Ingram Book (now called
Ingram Content Group), along with Keyur Patel who still holds a stake in Amazon. In
the first two months of business, Amazon sold to all 50 states and over 45 countries.
While the largest brick and mortar bookstores and mail order catalogs might offer
200,000 titles, an online bookstore could "carry" several times more, since it would
132have a practically unlimited virtual (not actual) warehouse: those of the actual product
makers/suppliers.
SnapDeal
Kunal Bahl, a Wharton graduate along with school friend Rohit Bansal, an alumnus of
IIT Delhi founded SnapDeal in 2010. It expanded in September 2011 to become an
online marketplace and became one of the most recalled brands. Started as a discount
site to provide the best deals to online customers, SnapDeal was amongst the first
Unicorns of the Indian eCommerce space and has a plethora of products across
categories like mobiles, electronics, home and kitchen, sports, books, restaurants,
entertainment, fashion accessories, apparel and footwear. Recently snapdeal is offered
$700 to 750 million from flipkart, on 5th july, 2017 again it was reported in Times of
India that snapdeal rejected offer of $800 to 850 million from flipkart and some news
going on expect that flipkart will offer $900 to 950 million to acquire snapdeal within
a near future. On the other hand rumours are that snapdeal is in talk with infibeam for
acquisition.
ShopClues
ShopClues.com is an online marketplace headquartered in Gurgaon, India. ShopClues
was founded in November 2011 and now has over 4,00,000 merchants and small
businesses listed on its marketplace, and ships more than 3.5 million items every
month across all product categories to choose from, on the platform catering to almost
42 million visitors every year spread across 9,500 locations in the country. Shopclues
product quality is not admired by the online shoppers and people feel that it offers low
quality products at low prices.
Indiatimes Shopping
Indiatimes Shopping one of the country’s oldest e-commerce platforms established in
early 2000 is a part of India’s leading media house – The Times Group. Envisioned to
provide a hassle-free shopping experience and all that a customer wants, Indiatimes
offers an extensive range of products in all major categories. Indiatimes shopping has
a reach farther and wider than any other e-commerce player in India. As part of the
Times Group, Indiatimes Shopping provides and gets considerable synergy from the
media conglomerate, ensuring that readers of the publications of the media group have
133a 360 degree experience. Indiatimes Shopping remains amongst the most liked and
respected amongst portals in India. But customers complaint about the delivery delays
by indiatimes shopping.
FabFurnish
Entrepreneur trio Vikram Chopra, Mehul Agrawal and Vaibhav Aggarwal launched
FabFurnish.com in 2012. It is essentially an online content driven marketplace which
does retail and delivery of home products at doorsteps. An innovative e-store initially
started with 2000 products and progressively scaled to plethora of over 1 lakh
products to choose from. The e-store contains 600 plus brands and in 2016, became
part of the behemoth Future Group which is India’s biggest organized retail player.
Quikr
Founded by Pranay Chulet and Jiby Thomas in 2008 as an Indian classified
advertising platform, Quikr is headquartered in Bengaluru. It has listings in over 1,000
cities in India in several categories such as mobile phones and household goods. It is
now India’s no. 1 online classified platform and aspires to empower every Indian to
independently connect with buyers and sellers online. Capitalising on the brand,
Quikr is extending its reach into the online market for cars, real estate, jobs, services
and education.
B2B Category
IndiaMart
IndiaMart was founded in 1996 by Dinesh Agarwal as an amalgamation of websites
with an objective to primarily serve offshore markets. Improved internet penetration in
India since 2006 made IndiaMart diversify its focus from being an export-import
service platform to an online medium connecting buyers and suppliers in the domestic
market. This innovative portal provides B2C, B2B and C2C sales services.
IndiaMART has been India’s largest online marketplace and world’s second-largest
B2B marketplace after Alibaba as of 2012.
134 FreshDesk
An unpleasant incident with an insurance provider brought out the entrepreneurial self
of Girish Mathrubootham, propelling him to establish Freshdesk in 2010. Freshdesk is
the leading provider of cloud-based customer service software. The flagship product
allows organizations to support customers through emails, phone, websites, mobile
apps, forums and social media. Freshdesk, allows businesses to monitor real time
customer responses across a wide spectrum of media vehicles.
Deals and Discount Category
Naaptol
Naaptol is a leading home shopping company in India available on the virtual
platform and sells various products in categories ranging from apparel, electronics,
home furnishings, kitchen appliances, furniture and other utility items. Naaptol was
started by founder and CEO Manu Agarwal, an IIT Kanpur alumnus in 2008 primarily
serving as a product research and price comparison service. Naaptol (Hindi for
‘Bargain’) provides a platform for merchants and sellers to sell their products, which
are compared through web analytics, providing invaluable customer support.
HomeShop18
HomeShop18 is an online and on-air retail and distribution venture of Network 18
Group. HomeShop18 is the pioneer in TV shopping in India as it changed the way
India shopped by launching the first 24 hour home shopping TV channel. The
company brings the perfect balance between TV shopping and digital/online shopping
with India’s best online selling site, HomeShop18.com and HomeShop18 Mobile
App. This is the only home shopping site in India that equally caters to the wide
customer base through television, online and digital medium.
Electronics Category
Reliance Digital
Reliance Digital is a consumer durables and Information Technology initiative by
Reliance Retail, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries. It is the 2nd largest
135consumer electronics company in India successfully foraying into the online segment.
The first Reliance Digital Store was set up in 2007 at New Delhi. With the launch of
premium stores Digital Xpress and Mini stores, the brand plans to scale up its current
store count.
Croma
Venturing into the large electronics retail market, Tata Group’s Infiniti Retail Ltd has
promoted the Croma premium retail chain for consumer electronics and durables. It is
now amongst the largest such stores in its genre, having successful expanded into
Croma Kiosks and Croma Zip stores. From Cellphones, Cameras, Laptops, Tablets,
Televisions, Music Systems, Home Appliance to other accessories, Croma has 6000
plus products across 8 categories. Croma online retail store’s market share is 11% of
all e-commerce sales in India, thus ensuring the brand’s leadership in India.
Next
Next Retail India Ltd is a subsidiary of Videocon Industries Ltd operating in the
consumer electronics space in India. It was founded in 2003 and is now amongst
India’s largest electronics retail chains. The brand is continuing its domination in the
online space too. Next has developed its positioning as a multi-brand, multi-product
retail chain storing a wide range of consumer durables, from air-conditioners, washing
machines, refrigerators, microwaves, to home theatre systems, mobile phones, gaming
consoles etc.
The MobileStore
The MobileStore Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Essar Group. The brand
presently has over 1000 shops in 150 cities, with its headquarters located in Mumbai.
It launched its website in April 2008, and since then has been counted amongst the
leaders in the sale of mobile phones of domestic and international brands like Apple,
BlackBerry, HTC, Karbonn Mobiles, Micromax, Motorola, Spice, Samsung, and
Sony.
136 Entertainment and Recreation
Wynk
Wynk Limited is an innovative wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Airtel founded in
2015. Wynk provides online content including music, movies, and games specifically
designed for smartphone users. Wynk is available on Android, Windows and iOS.
Wynk offers an integrated mobile music experience with full track audio streaming,
internet radio, caller tunes and other services. Wynk even curates playlists for artists
and genres to customize the experience. Wynk has crossed an awe inspiring feat of 5
million downloads in just 6 months of launch. Wynk is today one of the most popular
virtual stations for music lovers in the country and has been featured by Google in the
‘Favourite Apps’ section on Google Play Store.
PVR Cinemas
Redefining the way India watches movies, PVR Cinemas is the country’s biggest
cinema chain with over 500 screens spread across over 111 Cinemas in 45 cities.
While the first phase of their restructuring occurred when they upgraded their single
screen halls to multiple screens, the second phase of their growth occurred when they
started taking over other movie halls and movie companies. The third phase occurred
when they entered the distribution business. The fourth phase occurred when PVR
revamped their online presence and became one of India’s biggest online ticketing
platforms. PVR retains its numero uno status and continues to be a rage.
BookMyShow
It’s difficult to find a youngster who has not booked ticket on BookMyShow. It is
India’s biggest online movie and events ticketing brand used widely by a wide
spectrum of audiences across cities in India. The online booking website facilitates
ticket sales for movies, plays, concerts and sporting events through the online
platform. BookMyShow has a network of close to 1000 cinemas spread across 200
cities and towns. Nearly 60 percent of its transactions happen via its mobile app.
Founded by the trio Ashish Hemrajani, Parikshit Dar and Rajesh Balpande in 1999,
during a vacation to South Africa, BookMyShow retains a cult status.
137 Grocery, Fruits and Vegetables
BigBasket
bigbasket.com, founded by Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh and others in 2011, is India’s
largest online food and grocery store. The megastore has at its disposal over 18,000
products to choose from and more than 1000 brands in its catalogue. Product
categories vary from fruits and vegetables, rice and dals, spices and seasonings to
packaged products, beverages, personal care products, and meat products. Products
are handpicked to help users get the best quality at an affordable prices. Orders are
delivered at the doorstep, anywhere in the cities where bigbasket.com operates.
Godrej Nature’s Basket
Nature’s Basket is the Godrej Group’s answer to e-tailing portals. Growing with pace
in the segment, it is today India’s preferred retail destination for quality food from
across the globe. Nature’s Basket has scaled into a 36-store chain of premium utility
outlets strategically located at prime locations in Mumbai, Delhi/NCR, Pune,
Hyderabad and Bangalore. Users can purchase all products online on its website for
services at doorstep. Nature’s Basket is supported by an expert team of food experts
who search for the best and newest food products from around the globe.
Grofers
Orange T-shirt wearing delivery boys, a unique feature that Grofers has made ever
present in the modern day metropolis. Grofers is a local mobile e-commerce platform
that is transforming the shopping experience for the common man by providing the
first to last mile delivery service to its e-commerce clients (shops, basically). An
online app is available where registered users can order household items from the
listed shops to be delivered to their doorstep, quickly. The online portal offers a wide
range of groceries, fruits and vegetables, even including cosmetics, electronics, bakery
items, flowers and others.
138 Jewellery
CaratLane
A jewellery retailer Mithun Sacheti joined hands with an IT entrepreneur Srinivasa
Gopalan to form Lister Technologies, which subsequently formed Carat Lane in 2008.
CaratLane.com is one of India’s leading e-commerce portals in the gems and
jewellery segment and one of the most visible online brands in the country. Carat
Lane’s online inventory includes diamond jewellery and Gold ornaments (including
Gold coins); the company has several thousand vendors who supply gems on request.
With a network of over 4000 global vendors, Carat Lane offers its featured and
showcased products to customers in more than 150+ cities and towns across the length
& breadth of India.
Voylla
Voylla an online portal for designer apparels was founded by Vishwas Shringi, in the
year 2011. Voylla started as a designer apparel selling portal, and later diversified into
a full-fledged e-shop that provides jewelry and accessories from designers across
India to customers worldwide. Voylla claims to have more than 35,000 unique designs
and adds 1000 new designs every week to their collection across various jewelry
categories, including fashion and silver jewelry.
Tanishq
Pioneering the concept of branded jewellery and ornaments in India, Tanishq from the
Tata Group is a prominent jewellery brand in the country, which has used the online
mode to replicate the values that it stands for. Tanishq’s online sales channel brings a
fresh perspective to the skillful craftsmanship of each meticulously hand-woven
creation, with a strong appeal for women. Belonging to the Tata stable, the biggest
advantage for Tanishq has been the trust factor that customers associate with it.
BlueStone
Established in 2011, BlueStone is one of India’s fastest growing and leading online
jewellery destinations that showcases high quality fine jewellery with strikingly
exquisite designs. The online luxury brand aims at revolutionizing real jewellery and
lifestyle scenario in India with a firm focus on craftsmanship, quality and user
139experience, building a large family of loyal consumers in India and abroad. The brand
houses more than 4000 unique designs for customers to choose from, all these designs
are crafted to perfection with utmost care giving customers the flexibility to customize
the product’s gold purity and colour or diamond clarity to suit their needs. In-house
award-winning design teams that pay great attention to detail are its USPs.
21Diamonds
21Diamonds’ unique business model, based on innovation and customization has
made it one of the biggest online jewelers operating in India. The luxury diamond
brand’s approach is based on quality and design; it provides superlative jewellery
collections and also gives opportunities to the customer to create unique, fully
customizable pieces. This concept has allowed 21Diamonds to expand internationally
at a fast pace and by virtue of that, they currently operate in 13 countries worldwide.
India has seen customers adopting the products of 21Diamonds with ease, leading to
its inclusion in this list of most admired brands.
Furniture
Pepperfry
Pepperfry is a leading player in the online furniture market. Founded in 2012 by
Ambareesh Murty & Ashish Shah, the brand has focused on shifting consumers’
preference of buying furniture online from offline. Pepperfry is a clear leader in this
segment with 45-50% market share of the online segment. It has got first mover’s
advantage in the category and is extremely differentiated from other players in the
market with respect to aspects like variety, pricing, servicing and delivery.
Urban Ladder
Urban Ladder, a Bangalore based start up founded by Ashish Goel, offers a unique
selection of stylish, contemporary furniture online. Their online furniture range
includes sofas, beds, dining tables, TV units, wardrobes, dressing tables, and many
other customized furniture options to choose from. All wooden furniture designs are
available online too. The differentiating factor for Urban Ladder is the fact that the
portal focuses on providing modern, contemporary and fashionable designs on all their
offerings, apart from adhering to world-class standards.
140 Services
TimesJobs
TimesJobs.com is an employment website from the Times Group operating in India
and Middle East. Times Jobs provides placement services by connecting job seekers
with recruiters having a huge network of associates. The online job portal earns
revenues with paid services for job seekers and sale of databases to companies.
TimesJobs.com has differentiated its services in unique ways, including reaching out
to the job seekers and advising them about improvements to their profile, and also
ensuring that interesting jobs on other portals are also listed on TimesJobs.
Naukri.com
The brain child of Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Naukri.com is the brand of Info Edge
(India). It was India’s first recognised and well-advertised job portal. It went public in
November 2006. Conceived as a platform of jobseekers and hiring managers meet, the
services went commercial in October 1997. On date, Naukri.com has a database of
about 44 million registered job seekers and an average of about 11,000 resumes are
added daily while about 130,000 resumes are modified daily. Naukri.com leads the
online job market with 70% traffic share. The website has retained its leadership in the
job market with innovative plans for the jobseekers.
CarDekho.com
CarDekho.com is an auto portal based out of Jaipur, India founded in 2008 by Amit
Jain and Anurag Jain. The portal provides complete freedom to the car-fanatics of
India to watch, know and understand automobiles at their core in much greater detail
and from a wide variety of viewpoints. It monetizes lifecycles of car owners via
applications like CarBuddy. It also provides reviews, price information, on-road prices
and comparison facilities for new cars, as well as classified listings for used cars.
CarDekho has received the ‘Best Car Website 2012’, ‘Most Popular Website 2012’
and ‘Website of the Year India’ awards given twice in a row – in 2011 and 2012. You
can add this listing to the website’s various sparkling accolades.
141 Infibeam
Infibeam, founded in 2007 by Vishal Mehta, headquartered in Ahmedabad, India is an
internet and e-commerce conglomerate operating in online retailing, e-commerce
software and internet services. The company offers cloud based online services in
B2C and B2B verticals. Infibeam’s businesses include online retailing through its
flagship website ‘infibeam.com’, e-commerce platform software service through
‘buildabazaar.com’, e-commerce marketplace ‘dhamaal.com’ and its own branded e-
book reader.
Travel and Tourism
IRCTC
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is a subsidiary of the
Indian Railways that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of
the railways. It is by far India’s largest travel portal with its magnitude of travelers
across the length and breadth of India. IRCTC is known for having changed the
dimensions of railway ticketing in India. It pioneered internet-based rail ticket
booking through its website, as well as from the mobile phones via GPRS or SMS. It
has extended its service offerings to flights and hotels booking facilities too.
Cleartrip
Cleartrip Pvt. Ltd. is a leading online travel company providing online booking
services for flights and train tickets, hotel reservations, and domestic and international
holiday packages. Cleartrip was founded in 2006. The mission of Cleartrip has been
“Making Travel Simple”. To that extent, Cleartrip has set up booking contracts with
over 15,000 hotels across the globe, Cleartrip also offers a range of holiday packages
comprising flight-and-hotel combination deals for destinations around the world.
Cleartrip remains an admired brand.
MakeMyTrip
Nurtured from a single idea to empower the traveller, MakeMyTrip made its mark
being the pioneer of the online travel industry in India. With its passion to serve better
and innovatively, MakeMyTrip has revolutionized the travel industry over the years.
142MakeMyTrip.com is India’s leading online travel portal (next only to IRCTC).
Founded in the year 2000, not only does MakeMyTrip have its online presence, it also
operates through 65 retail stores across 50 cities in India, along with international
offices in New York City and Sydney.
OYO Room
Started with a goal to change the way people travelled, OYO Rooms was started in
May 2013 by Ritesh Aggarwal at an early age of 22, implementing the concept of
‘Budget Hotels’ in India. Ritesh’s idea took fruition when he was awarded the Thiel
Fellowship (instituted by the PayPal founder). Today, in a short time, OYO Rooms
has become India’s largest branded network of hotels spread across 10,000+ hotels in
250+ cities of India offering standardized stay experiences at unmatched prices; for
records, it is also India’s largest hotel room aggregator (more than 100,000 rooms).
The OYO app for guests assists in booking rooms, ordering beverages and requesting
room service.
Travelguru
Travelguru.com was the coincidental conclusion of a midnight chat between the two
founders Ashwin Damera, a Harvard Business School scholar with his classmate
Ganesh Rangaswamy in 2005 started Travelguru.com. It is one amongst India’s
leading travel portals, offering customers the best prices on flights, hotels and holiday
packages across India and the world. It provides access to deals on 21,000+ hotels in
India as well as 430,000 hotels worldwide.
Yatra
Yatra.com is another of India’s leading online travel portals. Founded by Dhruv
Shringi, Manish Amin and Sabina Chopra in August 2006, Yatra.com is today ranked
as one of the leading providers of consumer-direct travel services in India. Yatra.com
provides reservation facility for more than 50,000 hotels in India and over 500,000
hotels around the world. The brand handles 20,000 domestic tickets and 7500 hotels
and holiday packages a day, making it one of the highest gross transaction value
handling companies in their industry space. It remains one amongst 4Ps B&M’s most
admired e-commerce brands.
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