This is a difficult one to answer. On the face value, it may appear that online retailing is for the neo-rich upwardly mobile variety who are always hooked on to the internet and love to explore the new trends.
Well- that is true but that is only the tip of the iceberg. There is also a majority of population who can benefit from online retailing if it is done right. These are the average low and middle class segment which form the majority of indian population. The reason being twofold.
One – the bad state of physical infrastructure and increasing real estate prices leading to a scenario where customers have to pay more and have a less than satisfying experience at the retail stores. Think of the number of times you curse yourself while standing in a queue in Big Bazaar.
Two – The death of distance! While shopping online, the distance is of insignificant importance. It works favorably well for India where the travel is a big pain. Roads are in bad shape, pollution and traffic on the road is mind numbing etc. In these situation, having no worry to travel is a big boon. This is where etailing has a huge prospect.
So why its not happening? Well, first of all the etailing model have to be tuned towards the local needs. For e.g. – availability of information in regional languages to reach the masses. efficient logicstics operations to make sure delivery happens quickly. Measures like this will put the etail shops on the mainstream and industry will swing along the positive feedback loop.
