takalar shopping

Online shopping industry may touch Rs 2,800 crore during the ongoing festive season on rising sales of consumer electronics and other products, an Assocham survey has said.

In 2010, the e-shopping sector stood at Rs 2,000 crore, Assocham said in a study.

As per the chamber's estimates, the sales of the shopping websites are expected to go up about 20-30 per cent in October.

Products like mobile phones, e-tablets, consumer electronics, gift articles, apparel and ornaments are the major attractions for consumers who shop online, it said.

The reasons for number of e-shoppers multiplying include 24 hours shopping advantage and home delivery of products.

Also, the shopping websites are offering discounts, free gifts and shopping vouchers to attract consumers, the study said.

"Online shopping has seen a phenomenal rise in the country and will continue to do so given the great potential and huge segment of the population," Assocham said.

Further, the study said, e-shopping boom is not restricted to metros alone as people in other cities like Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Dehradun also prefer to buy online.

India's largest private lender ICICI Bank on Wednesday said it has collaborated with vPost - an e-commerce site in South East Asia run by Singapore Post, for an exclusive online shopping service for the bank's customers.

"The collaboration with vPost will allow ICICI Bank's customers to shop at US websites for a variety of products and enjoy the convenience of having the products delivered to their doorstep," ICICI Head (Cards Group) Sachin Khandelwal said in a release.

ICICI Bank customers can save as much as 15 per cent on VPost shopping charges and shop in a safe online environment as it is one of the online merchants which has been awarded with TrustSg seal by the National Trust Council in Singapore, the release said.

"The growing e-commerce market in India has induced a lot of customers to shop online. The association with vPost will increase the boundaries of online shopping and avail the special privileges," Khandelwal said.

On the collaboration, vice-president of vPost Lester Chie said, "ICICI Bank's customers will be able to enjoy a one-stop service as they shop beyond their own shores, with vPost providing a safe shopping environment and taking care of delivery from point to point."

The coming week seems to be filled with festive cheers. And with Raksha Bandhan round the corner, brothers and sisters crowding the stores or gift shops for that perfect gift. Those who spend weekdays in offices working find it difficult to shop in the over-crowded malls and shopping centres during weekends. And they just don't have the time during the weekdays to shop for their sibling.

Online shopping could come in handy for such shoppers. Avoiding crowded malls, traffic jams or standing in gigantic billing queues make a strong case for online shopping. But they come with their own set of security issues. Following tips are helpful to make online shopping a safe and enjoyable experience:

Check the authenticity of the shopping portal. In case of big stores as they regularly advertise about their shopping portals. However, there are some basic visual safety symbols which indicate the vendor's legitimacy. VeriSign logo or a green browser address bar is a definite sign that the website is valid and safe for online shopping and other transactions.

Secondly, genuine websites have their addresses starting with 'https://' (not just 'http://). Here the letter 's' stands for security, which implies that the communication between your browser and website's server is encrypted. So it's secure and cannot be intercepted by third party fraudsters.

Do not impart with too much personal information on any shopping portals.

If you are planning to use your credit card for online shopping you require an additional password. In technical jargon, this is called two-factor authentication. The first level is the usual keying of the user name and password. The second level could be providing an additional password, numeric security code, answering personalised questions which only the customers are expected to know. The idea is to provide additional and personalised layers to carry out online banking.

It matters where you by your products online. Cyber cafes are a big no-no for online transactions. If you try to access sites from an internet cafe, the line and systems are not secure. You can not be sure how authentic the software on the cafe's system is. Further, desktop cookies are saved in the system and smart hackers will use those to access your bank accounts. Even locations that offer online connections through wireless networks are unsafe for online shopping.

Personalised desktops in office or home are a safe bet. But you have to scan the system at least once a week to ensure it's free of virus. Viruses often get downloaded through some free downloads, MP3 or movie downloads. They can erase, overwrite or copy data from the infected computer, corrupt and encrypt files. There are a couple of programs called 'Spy Ware' and 'Trojan Programs' designed to capture your strokes and hack your password.

You can combat such security issues by using additional security measures such as virtual keypad if you are using net banking. Virtual keypad is an online application, where you can substitute the physical keyboard with a mouse. When you click on the virtual keyboard option at the time of net banking, the monitor flashes a keyboard on your screen. You have to use the mouse to click on the relevant keys to sign into your net banking site.

If there is such a thing as an online shopping hall of fame, you won't find Jane Snowball placed next to Amazon's Jeffrey P Bezos or billionaire eBay founder Pierre Morad Omidyar. That could be about to change, because the Gateshead pensioner has been revealed as an unlikely retail trailblazer who kicked off the online shopping revolution.

A new documentary shows how the online shopping industry, now worth £87 billion a year, was launched in May 1984 from Mrs Snowball's armchair on the Leam Lane estate with an order for eggs, margarine and cornflakes.

The industry that now sees a staggering 1.3 billion online shopping deliveries a year and has transformed the face of the high street started with a 72-year-old using her television to shop "online" from home - seven years before the internet was commercially available.

The latest episode of Robert Peston Goes Shopping reveals how Mrs Snowball was part of a pioneering local council initiative designed to help the elderly and infirm. It used a groundbreaking Videotex online shopping system to create a shopping list of basic items through her television. That list of items was sent via her phone line to a local Tesco store, which were then picked off the shelf, delivered to her door and paid for in cash.

Reportedly, Mrs Snowball picked up the system in 15 minutes and thought the invention was "wonderful".

The inventor, Michael Aldrich, said "it changed the world of shopping" and made "shopping functional and stripped out all the theatre". He added: "Mrs Snowball never saw a computer, Mrs Snowball saw a television. Her connection to the television was a remote with an additional button that said 'phone'. What effectively we did was take a domestic television and turn it into a computer terminal. It was 1984 and we were doing online shopping. It was amazing and she loved it."

Her eldest son, Alan Snowball, 76, now lives in Co Durham and told The Independent: "My mother was a very bright woman and well versed in the technology behind the system, but she wouldn't want any praise.

She did it for the sake of doing it and really just enjoyed the process, as in those days you never really knew what you were going to get at the front door." Mrs Snowball was one of the first silver-surfers and died in 1995. Today, she would have had a choice of half-a-dozen online grocers while Tesco alone now receives up to half a million food orders online every week.

Online carts have replaced shopping bags and mall hopping has been taken over by Internet surfing. Welcome to the world of e-Commerce, a trend, which Koramangala techies have cashed in on.

The average growth rate of both new and old e-commercesoftware development companies varies between 30 and 300 percent. According to Payal Jain, co-founder of Jain Technosoft at Koramangala, five out of three company owners today, will g o for a website, while 50 percent of brands, both big and small ones have an e-commerce website of their own.

Payel Jain along with her husband started Jain Technosoft in 2011 with initial investments not exceeding Rs 2 lakh. Within just two years the company has registered a whooping 300 percent growth and a 50 percent profit margin.

End-To-End Solutions

Most of the e-Commerce software development companies offer end-to-end solutions for both start-ups as existing e-commerce websites for up gradation. The few major services include open source e-Commerce integration, payment gateway integration, secure online transaction or shopping cart solution, credit card payment integration and custom e-Commerce websites among others.

Jain Technosoft provides analytics and reporting service, which helps the client to understand the dynamics of the business as these weekly reports give detailed record of customers, most clicked sections, inventory and stock management.

Biju Varghese, the proprietor of Talking Pebbles another development company in Koramangala is mostly concentrating on search engine optimisation services, which are heavily in demand. To upgrade their SEO services, the company has invested Rs 10 lakh.

The company not only develops websites for e-Commerce companies, but also helps the client to identify their target audience along with developing and promoting the brand online.

The cost to clients for starting an e-commerce website according to Varghese can start at Rs 1 lakh and go up to any limit depending on the size, preference and investment of the company. "According to market standards, return on investment could range anywhere between 20 to 40 percent," said Varghese. With a year on year growth of 20 percent, Varghese is working on an undisclosed project worth about Rs 20 lakh, which is likely to come up by the end of 2013.

Hot-Spot Koramangala

The location of Koramangala has helped many start ups in the e-commerce software development sector. Proximity to IT hubs, good connectivity with rest of the city and the best place to find techies in cluster helps the businesses grow.

Being located in Koramangala has been one of the prime factors that contributed to the growth and success of Eyota Techonologies started by another techie Anu Tom with an investment of Rs 15 lakh "Koramangala hosts several big and small companies alike and so being located here is an advantage," Tom added. Within the first two months of 2013, Eyota has catered to e-Commerce application development for four Koramangala companies.

Glocal Clientele

Target audience for these websites includes a global clientele, local businessmen and existing e-commerce sites.

Local clientele demand has been giving impetus to the growing business of Talking Pebbles. Sapna Book House, a Koramangala shop has gone online with the help of Talking Pebbles. The local clientele of the company includes names like HP Reselling.

 Reliance Communications on Tuesday launched online shopping service 'Special Privileges' for its customers in partnership with supply chain business firm,Martjack Exchange.

"This is our new year gift to our customers...We are confident that Special Privileges will provide completely new experience in terms of variety and convenience to RCOM customers across huge range of product categories," RCom, President for Services, Anurag Prashar said in a statement.

'Special Privileges' will offer mix of both common home products as well as luxury goods across more than 15,000 products ranging from mobile phones, apparels, books, daily goods, electronic Goods and kitchen appliances among others, it added.

"Reliance customers can receive the delivery of these goods through courier across more than 500 cities in the country," the statement said.

To buy products from the 'Special Privileges' website, RCom customers will have to sign in using their Reliance number.

Online shopping website ShopClues aims to clock revenues to the tune of Rs 350 crore this year on the back of an expanding customer base and growing sales in clothing, fashion accessories.

The company, which was launched in November 2011, had clocked a revenue of Rs 35 crore in FY'2012. It follows the January to December fiscal year.