New Horizon in B2C E-Commerce Services

1. Introduction

Trading of goods (Commerce) has been a major drive for human endurance and growth since ages. And people come across for exchange of goods and services through out the world by conventional business channels like market place (a physical place where selling and purchasing of goods takes place through marketing channels). With the introduction of Internet and computers, world has seen a drastic change especially in field of business and commerce. People are embracing digital technology to communicate and commerce on a global scale. The way of choosing and buying products and services for customers are also changing now days and the past decade has seen the emergence of new kind of commerce which is E-Commerce. Conventional trading of goods and services are continuously becoming unpopular among customers and companies. More and more companies are fostering internet and e-commerce technologies into their business processes. Services are considered as integral part of e-commerce business and with the changing time businesses are not consider not only how to address online customer needs more wisely, but also how to capture value from providing new services to their online customers.

1.1  Definition of E-Commerce 

“E-Commerce is an exchange of information across electronic networks, at any stage in the supply chain, whether within an organization, between businesses, between businesses and consumers, between the public and the private sector, whether paid or unpaid.”- Cabinet office, UK Government.  It this way, it is different from traditional business as it enables the trading of goods and services, money and information electronically from one computer to another with the help of internet. 

1.2 Types of E-Commerce:

E-Commerce market models are of various types. The generally accepted types are as follows;

(i)  Business to Consumer (B2C) market model

(ii)Business to Business (B2B) market model

(iii)Consumer to Consumer (C2C) market model

(iv)Business to Government (B2G) market model

(v)Government to Customer (G2C) market model 

(i) Business to Consumer (B2C): When businesses sell products or services to consumer either through direct or indirect electronic channel it is termed as B2C e-commerce.When manufacturer sell his products to consumer through its own website (e.g. www.pumashop.in) it is direct B2C e commerce, whereas when businesses sells products and services through e-tailer (e.g. www.Jabong.com) website its indirect B2C e-commerce.

(ii) Business to Business (B2B): When business partners conduct businesses online for exchange of goods and services it is termed as B2B e-commerce. An e-commerce company can be dealing with suppliers or distributors or agents. These transactions are usually carried out through Electronic Data Interchange or EDI. EDI is an automated format of exchanging information between businesses over private networks.

(iii)Consumer to Consumer (C2C): It is an auction based business model where one consumer sells or offer products to other customers. Customers are also a par of the business and C2C enables customers to directly deal with each other. An example of this is peer auction giant, EBay.

(iv) Business to Government (B2G): Businesses conduct trade with government through websites. And these websites are developed by government to developed trade relations with outside firms and external customers.

(v) Government to Customer (G2C): This business model is a part of e-governance. The objective of this model is to provide good and effective services to each citizen residing in any nation. The government provides useful information like different welfare schemes, application and income tax return forms, railway and hotel reservation facilities etc. through its official website and links.

1.3 B2C E-Commerce Services:

Services are considered to be an integral aspect of e-commerce businesses. These are integrated activities which develop a concrete foundation for e-commerce businesses. Services are intangible duties which are offered to the people for value/money consideration. Following major services can be associated with e-commerce business models;

a)                  Direct Marketing and selling (e-tailing)

b)                  Online Travelling

c)                  Online Classified (C2C services)

d)                 Digital Downloads

e)                  Financial and Information Services

f)                   Other Services (Try and Buy Service)

1.3 (a) Direct Marketing sand Selling of Products (e-tailing): Now days, most of web players are interested in online retailing popularly known as e-tailing business. E-retailing was the earliest type of electronic commerce, and has proven to be a stepping-stone to more complex commerce operations for many companies. E-tailing business includes selling of books, mobile phones, clothes, shoes, accessories, electronics, jewelry, home and kitchen appliances.

The essence of e-retailing is its ability to surpass physical borders and reach customers in a manner different from the traditional brick-and- mortar stores, to their homes. However, the base of the e-retailing model is technology and logistical solutions that facilitates the customer acquisition and the final ‘reach’ process. E-tailing reduces customer turn-around-time (TAT) and conveys best messages through word-of-mouth and publicity. Effective e-tailing business ensures customer acquisition and retention to the e-portal or website.  E-tailing business model trim down the delivery process in comparison to the conventional retail business. Some of the leading firms in e-retail business operating nationally and internationally are eBay, Amazon.com, Flipkart, Jabong, Snapdeal etc.  These e-taliers may be divided into two segments;

(i)                 Direct E-tailers (retailers that manufacture and sell their brands directly to customers through online eg. Nike.com, Puma.com, Levis.com)

(i)                 Indirect E-tailers (retailers that sells other manufacturer’s brands through their online portal eg. Flipkart.com, Jabong.com, Snapdeal.com)

1.3 (b) Online Travelling: One of the easiest ways of booking tour tickets for customers is online ticketing method. Now day’s customers buy tickets, book hotels and purchase tour packages through web. The ticketing services can be for airlines, railways or buses. These companies act as agents who charges commission payment for such bookings. Customers approach these firms to book their complete tour packages including hotel, train or air tickets, tourist cab, meals etc. Against which these agent firms charge fixed amount of fees for such reservations from customers. Some of big names in this field are Yatra.com, makemytrip.com, irctc.com, redbus.com and many more.

1.3 (c) Online Classified: These are basically selling and auction portals owned by e-commerce firms which connects buyers and sellers at a common place. These firms provide a classified space where the sellers can advertise their products. They are now more frequent in C2C e-commerce businesses, where customers find a common platform on web to sell and offer products to other customers. Used products can easily be sold through this retail online classified business. Examples like OLX, Quikr, Locanto, eBay etc., they operated as online market place where used and new products like electronics, furniture, household material, motor bikes, cars etc. are available for ready purchase to other customers online

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1.3 (d) Digital Downloads:  These are digital weblinks and pages on which users and customers can download numerous softwares, music, videos, text,  pdf, video-games, wallpapers, pictures, applications etc. free of cost and sometimes on paid subscription. These are digital services for online customers who wish to get different softwares from various web pages

1.3 (e) Financial and Information Services: Broad range of financial and information services are offered to consumers over the Internet today, and sites that offer them are enjoying rapid growth. These sites are popular because they help consumers, businesses of all sizes, and financial institutions distribute some of their most important information over the Internet with greater convenience and richness that is available using other channels. Services offered under this category are;

• Online banking

• Online billing

• Secure information distribution.

1.3 (f) Other Services                         

“Try and Buy”

To compete with Brick and Mortar organizations, online retailers are moving ahead and offering services to their customers at their door steps. Like physical shops, online retailers also providing ‘TRY & TEST’ facility to the customers at home or office place especially for products like Apparel, Footwears, Watches, Jwellery etc. This novel service is becoming popular day by day among customers and they wish to avail this service on more and more product category. This service is also popularly known as ‘Try before you buy’. Let discuss this service microscopically. 

1.3 (f).1 Introduction: E-commerce world is becoming stiffer for e-tailers day by day and they are trying so hard to drive more traffic to their sites to generate large sales volume. To bring more and more online traffic, online retailers had started unique services like- ‘the likes of click and collect’ and ‘free delivery services’. But these services are no longer innovative; they are also being imitated by most of the industries key players. When this is the case, then e-tailers have to think out of the box and bring new fascinating services for online customers. Retailers have to battle to provide exclusive twists on the conventional ways of selling goods and services, so that customers feel cherished always. The newest service model designed to entice customers to purchase products from online shopping sites, is “try-before-you-buy” or says “Try and Buy”.

1.3 (f).2 The Service Model: In this model, consumers are encouraged to test out products (4 or 5 products at a time) for free at home before making decision on final purchase. It seems high cost strategy for e-tailers, but the benefits are clear and long lasting. There are few reasons which justify that try and buy is a smart investment for any E-commerce retailer;
 

Entice Customers more: At the outset it attracts customers. This unique and exciting service generally consumers aren’t used to seeing elsewhere at the online shopping sites or on product pages. Often it works as catalyst for consumer to become emotionally involved with the website/service and ensure maximum clicks on shopping portal which probably ensures future sales.

Flexibility ensuring Salability: With this service model, e-tailer accommodating flexibility in their approach which in results ensures more sales volume for them and also allow space to customers to make a instant change in their preferences on the spot among 4-5 alternatives of products.  

Low Risk Model: The risks are incredibly low. By offering free delivery and free returns on unwanted stock e-tailer actually avoids the administration cost of refunding for returned items. People will forget to return the items. People are lazy. People have hectic lives and more often than not forget to carry out duties such as returning items to an online store. If the shopping site sends out items under the terms and conditions that individuals must return them before a set number of days then they stand to bring in significant levels of extra revenue.

At present, there are few Indian shopping sites who have already started and saw its fruitful results;

Yebhi.com: Yebhi is known as the first outlet to seriously attempt the try-before-you-buy model. The website’s ordering system lets you select Try and Buy for any item that you want, making it one of the most flexible systems around. Once the item shows up at your doorstep, the deliveryman simply waits for your approval before the final cash transaction is made.

TryNBuyindia.com: They are India’s first commerce portal that gives customer to Try, Learn and Buy all grooming products in one go. They are the best way to discover new grooming, beauty, food and lifestyle products. Try top products from high-end brands, get fellow consumer reviews & advice, buy new favorites and earn points with every purchase. Every month TrynbuyIndia premium members will receive a curated box of your requested samples. Each box will span across categories and deliver exciting products that fit into their day-to-day routine.

Myntra.com: Myntra recently came up with a 'Try & Buy' concept in which consumers could shop for a product online, get it delivered at their home, try it out and then decide about buying it — something that one does at mortar-and-brick outlets. The multi-brand retailer has seen a sharp jump in the number of visitors shopping on its portal since the launch of the try-and-buy scheme.

Efello.com: This is one of the newer online outlets in India, and it is off to a good start thanks to its try and buy service. Efello offers its own unique range of clothing that covers both local and more western styles with an in-house team of dedicated designers to keep up to date with the latest trends.

Lensmart.com: Buying the right lenses is incredibly important to help customer to have perfect vision. LensMart has a special offer in place to help customer to choose the right contact lenses for his particular eyes. Instead of ordering full price contact lenses the shop has very low price trial lenses that the customer can use to find the ideal contact lens.

All these online companies conducting extensive research for capturing unique data that will enable them to know their customers more centrically , so that when they will try new services like try-before-you-buy, the chance of its success is more. Try-before-you-buy modeling crafts a long lasting bond between retailers and customers and educes high levels of brand trust and satisfaction. The technique brings customer and retailer more closely and ensures value for both parties.