Ever since the advent of internet commerce in India, we have been witnessing how the ecommerce players like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon have been working very hard to attract customers. In fact, some of the companies even did this in spite of the delay it causes at the point of breaking even. The first phase of ecommerce growth in India entailed acquiring as many customers as possible and ensuring that they remain loyal and shop even more from the websites.
However, now that these companies have managed to become a household name in our country, it seems like they are gradually shifting their focus to sellers instead of buyers. This is because eventually once these competitors have levelled each other in every other aspect like number of loyal customers, volume of transactions and efficiency of logistics, the variety of products offered will become the next domain of fierce competition.
According to estimates, Indian ecommerce has only about 1, 00,000 sellers operating online as compared to millions of sellers in China. To tap this potential pool of sellers, this is what the following online marketplaces are doing:
Amazon has the most original plan of action when it comes to luring more sellers to get on board. Apparently, it has launched a YouTube channel called ‘Amazon Sellers University’ which gives sellers important tips about how to manage sales and operations in ecommerce. This is indeed a unique initiative, much different from the approaches by others.
Flipkart has been tying up with various Indian artisan groups, in an attempt to increase product variety available on the portal. It also has a programme called Karigaar ke Dwar to guide artisans in selling on its platform. According to reports, Flipkart aims to join hands with Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) and Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (Kassia) to promote sale of handicrafts and products offered by small sellers and local entrepreneurs from across the state. This will definitely aid the state’s artisans in benefitting from a much larger customer base. Flipkart had earlier organised a special workshop to train small sellers on how to grow their business online. Also, this close tie with this online retail giant can help them with all the necessary guidance to handle their business online.
Visha Chandha, vice-president for market development at Snapdeal, strongly believes in the great potential in increasing their seller base. This is what he says, “The challenge (for enrolling vendors) is reducing day by day. There are literally hundreds of examples in small towns who were earlier selling through their stores have suddenly the entire country opened up to them.”
Snapdeal has already teamed up with weavers in Varanasi, North Eastern Handicraft and Handloom Development Corp and Rajasthan government in an attempt to bring more artisans to sell online.
We think it’s great that online marketplaces are finally focusing on improving an online seller’s experience. To all their innovative initiative, we say Thumbs Up!
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
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