MxMIndia

Tag: Indiatimes Shopping

  • Indiatimes Shopping says that through the main ecommerce portal, shopping.indiatimes.com, they are running a hybrid model with a mix of managed marketplace and just-in-time buying

    Indiatimes shuts down Hutk; TimesCity app launched

    By A Correspondent

     

    In the volatile e-commerce scenario in the country and outside, it is no surprise that there will be a few shutdowns as well. The NRI-focused ecommerce website from Times Internet, www.hutk.com, was one recent example.

     

    Subhanker Sarker,COO, Indiatimes Shopping said, “At Indiatimes Shopping, we have always believed that the best way to find answers is to do nimble experiments. Hutk.com was one of the few experimental businesses we had got into, to understand the market and measure the consumer traction at a minimal cost. The NRI opportunity is huge but our focus currently is on the Indian Ecommerce market that is showing double digit growth MOM and we want to focus all our energies there. The site and the supporting sourcing relationships are very much alive but we have sought to set customer expectations right by making explicit our decision to not focus there currently.”

     

    Mr Sarker further stated that through the main ecommerce portal, shopping.indiatimes.com, “we are running a hybrid model with a mix of managed marketplace and just-in-time buying”.

     

    Amongst the verticals that they have experimented with include Satvikshop.com, giftmeup as the first social shopping recommendation engine in India. “Of course, the NRI audience is very close to our heart and you might just see hutk.com back online when the time is right,” said Mr Sarker.

     

    In another development, Timescity.com – the lifestyle portal of Times Internet – has launched its Mobile App. It will give info on restaurants and nightlife, movies and events in the city. Timescity.com, Times Food and Nightlife Guide content have also been merged thereby allowing users to read reviews, lookup their addresses and phone numbers, get directions and call restaurants from within the App. Users can also post reviews and share details via Facebook, Twitter, SMS or email and can also view cinema listings, movie trailers and movie reviews for each selection. The app features listings and recommendations based on location, type of venue or date.

     

    Currently, the app is available for download on the Google Play store,iTunes store (iOS) & Blackberry World. Timescity app is available for users in the following cities: Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bangalore, Goa, Jaipur, KolKata, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Ahmedabad.

     

  • Godrej Appliances has launched an online shopping portal powered by Indiatimes Shopping which is a part of Times Internet Limited (TIL)

    Indiatimes Shopping launches online shopping store for home appliances; to launch Jewellery brand soon

    By A Correspondent

     

    With online shopping portals becoming increasingly popular amongst consumers, Godrej Appliances has launched an online shopping portal – Shopping.Indiatimes.com, powered by Indiatimes Shopping which is a part of Times Internet Limited (TIL).

     

    Consumers can search for products by category and look for ‘Deals of the Week’, offering select products at competitive prices, from the range of consumer durables on the site, ranging from air conditioners and refrigerators to washing machine and microwave ovens. While the Godrej online store will exclusively sell Godrej merchandise, Indiatimes Shopping aims to launch a jewellery brand very soon.

     

    In conversation with MxMIndia, Mr Subhanker Sarker, COO, Indiatimes Shopping explained that while Godrej was the natural choice for home appliance, Indiatimes Shopping has partnered with Nokia for mobiles. “Indiatimes Shopping’s strategy is to partner with the leading players in each significant retail category. In the home appliances space, Godrej is the natural choice in India as it is a brand customer’s trust. We have partnered with Nokia in the mobiles category and are in discussions with a major jewellery player.”

     

    According to IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) March 2011 report, the e-commerce industry in India is growing at an average of 55 percent year on year since the past four years. In addition to this, the size of the home and kitchen appliances segment is valued at about Rs 62 crore.

     

    With the robust growth of e-commerce business, Godrej Appliances are said to be targeting growth of its online business at over 150 per cent year on year. While Indiatimes Shopping already has an android and iPhone app for its horizontal shopping store, Godrej products are also now available on app. “Going forward the preferred route is through responsive design where you don’t have to build different products for different devices. We will go that route and will enable the store on all kinds of devices within this financial year itself,” added Mr Sarker.

     

    Asked whether this indicates a growth in consumer trust regarding online shopping, Mr Sarker said that today there is a lot of comfort with the online format, although it is a limited to a certain psychographic profile. “It is definitely not limited by the traditional demographic models. We have all kinds of payment options, the most popular being net banking and credit cards with free EMIs. There are immense growth opportunities in the e-commerce space; however, customers first experiment with the model through low-value standard goods and low-risk payment options like COD (Cash on Delivery). But once comfortable with the format and service levels, they then go for goods with high perceived value like baby products and apparel.”

     

  • Gautam Sinha Director- Technology & e-Commerce, Times Internet Ltd talks to MxMIndia about TIL's investment in a logistics company and more

    Times Internet acquires stake in logistics co

    In a move towards enriching customer experience and delivering quality service, Times Internet has invested in New Delhi-based logistics company, Delhivery to step up its last mile delivery for Indiatimes Shopping. Speaking to MxMIndia’s Shruti Pushkarna, Mr Gautam Sinha, Director- Technology & e-Commerce, Times Internet Ltd said that this acquisition is done to boost the delivery capabilities of the e-commerce vertical. He said: “After pivoting from a marketplace to a retailer model, we had to strengthen our warehouse network and last mile delivery. Some e-commerce companies in India are doing this by launching their own courier network, but that requires time to scale, hence we have decided to take the acquisition route.” Currently Indiatimes Shopping has Fedex, Bluedart, ASL and Aramex as its logistics partners.

     

    Gautam Sinha joined the Times Group in 2007 as CTO, and is heading e-Commerce as well. He leads and drives the technology strategy, vision and execution for all the internet, mobile and telecommunication properties of the group. He has over 24 years of rich experience in technology innovation and execution, which includes a wealth of startup and industry expertise. Most recently, Mr Sinha was the COO/CTO of CashEdge Inc, where he worked since 2001 building and leading the company from startup to profitability.

     

    Mr Gautam Sinha spoke about the recent investment in Delhivery given the importance of logistics and the focus area for TIL’s e-commerce business.

     

    Can you throw some light on the strategic investment you are making in a logistics company?

    Logistics is the key to any e-commerce player and there are multiple approaches a business can take. One is to build your own logistics company. Another approach is to work with third party partners, which we have been doing so far, and have strategic tie ups with one or more such partners. The third case is what we have done. Understanding the importance of logistics, we invested in a company which can have very tightly coupled systems and processes with us to make it work as if it’s your own company in-house logistics. That’s the reason why we invested in Delhivery. And this is just first of the series of investments and we are actually looking at multiple such investments.

     

    Why this investment in logistics? Wouldn’t it better to outsource it?

    We continue to outsource, so even with the investment, we are still outsourcing. They will execute the orders as an independent company.

     

    How is Times Internet’s e-commerce doing?

    We are doing very well. The growth has been on target and as per plan. We expect to grow another 100 per cent this year in terms of business. And we will be a credible player in this space. We used to be in the marketplace model, and we are pivoted to the e-commerce model, where we own the entire experience, right from warehousing to last mile delivery is owned by Indiatimes Shopping. Previously, this part of the experience was owned by the suppliers, which were on our platform; now we do end to end experience management for every business that we do.

     

    There have been several e-commerce players that have come up in the last few years… especially in the lifestyle segment?

    Indiatimes is a horizontal player. Our primary focus, as of today, is in the electronics, mobiles, computers, cameras, movies, music, books and games. The other category we are interested in is gifts. Although it’s true that a lot of players have come up in the fashion category recently, we don’t see a lot of impact on the business because of fashion as an industry.

     

    Deals sites have been doing very well, as also classified sites like Olx, Quickr and so on?

    They will continue to do well because there are a lot of people who are in the market for second hand products because of the price advantage. So Olx is a good place for buying used products. But if you talk of deal sites, they are typically in the services space, and only recently, a lot of them have started using products in terms of deals. For example, Snapdeal and Mydala are using more products in the deals space, but primarily they have been in the services space like spas, restaurants and so on.

     

    Given the current environment, what are the steps you are taking to shore up revenues?

    I think the market is growing at 60 per cent atleast and certain players are growing at 100 per cent or more. And the growth of the market is because of a lot of people converting from offline to online, the growing penetration of internet and the improved ability to brand yourself and deliver quality services. The first two are functions of the market, so our focus is on getting the repeat customers, so that the lifetime value of a customer is realized with the platform. So using that, we expect to grow at 100 per cent this year as well.

     

    If you look at the revenue pie of TIL, how much of it is brought in by e-commerce?

    See I can’t share this information, but I can tell you that e-commerce as a business is a focus area for TIL. We have put increased focus on it and that’s the reason you’ll see investments made by TIL in e-commerce in other players which are contributory to the ecosystem in the way we play in. So for example, Flipkart went ahead and built their own logistics network, we chose to invest, Snapdeal doesn’t want to do either, they want to outsource. For us, outsourcing but having a strategic relation was the right way to move forward. And we want to do it with more and more such companies so we can strengthen the ecosystem in which we play.

     

     

     

  • It is the first ever Indian shopping portal to deliver mobile devices directly from manufacturers to users.

    Nokia, Indiatimes join to launch NokiaShop

    By A Correspondent

     

    Nokia India in association with Indiatimes Shopping announced the launch of Nokia’s online store- NokiaShop, the first online shopping portal in India to deliver mobile devices directly from the manufacturer to the users.

     

    Nokia Shop will offer the entire portfolio of Nokia devices as well as accessories to the consumers at the convenience of online shopping.

     

    The association between the two leading organizations will serve as a game-changer in the growing Indian e-commerce space as users can now buy handsets directly from the manufacturer, without needing any dealer or reseller in between. For the online space this is an unprecedented initiative and will bring about a major shift in consumer behaviour in the mobile phone category.

     

    According to Viral Oza, Director- Marketing, Nokia India: “At Nokia, we have always invested ahead of the curve in setting up a formidable retail network. Today, as online shopping gains momentum, we are the first mobile handset company to set up a branded online store. Through our association with Indiatimes Shopping, we are confident that we will be able to offer a superior online shopping experience to our consumer by giving them an opportunity to buy directly from Nokia.”

     

    “This partnership is a step further in our aim to bring more offline brands to the online space. With our brand strength, resources, knowledge and credibility in the e-commerce space, we are confident of providing Nokia the right platform to connect with its users,” says Rishi Khiani, CEO, Times Internet Ltd.

     

    Regarding the tie up, Gautam Sinha, Director Technology & e-commerce head, Times Internet Ltd said: “We are pleased to partner with a top brand like Nokia and help them reach their online customers. We hope to witness strong synergistic growth capturing majority of online mobile handset market in the next few months.”

     

    Consumers can make purchases from Nokia.indiatimes.com, and payment options are through credit card or cash on delivery. Customers can also convert their payment amount into interest-free EMIs.

     

    The Nokia Shop offers the entire range of Nokia devices, including smartphones, dual SIM phones, touch and type, Qwerty, touchphones and value phones. The prices offered on the online store are Best Buy prices.

     

    A recent report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) revealed that India’s e-commerce market is growing at an average rate of 70 per cent annually, and has grown over 500 per cent in the past three years alone. Given the potential of e-commerce industry, Indiatimes and Nokia are confident of high growth in the mobile phone category within the next two quarters.