<FONT COLOR="#FF0033"><B>India Digital Summit 2007:</B></FONT> Retailers need to come online

Learning from successful online ventures that have cropped up in the recent past, many traditional companies have realised the importance of online businesses, primarily as an efficiency enhancement tool to reach out to a larger customer base.

The second session of the India Digital Summit 2007 focused on ways to leverage the Internet to e-nable businesses. The session was moderated by Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder and chief executive officer, Info Edge; the speakers included Mark Fox, chairman and chief executive officer, Novator; Sandeep Murthy, chief executive officer, Cleartrip.com; Vivek Nayak, chief operating officer, Avenues India; and Virender K Ahluwalia, chief executive officer, Fobaz.

Most corporates are still struggling to figure out the advantages of the online world and how having an online presence will benefit them. In addition, there are fears linked to online retail, payment security being the most widespread. The challenge today is to create awareness, using examples of successful online and offline businesses.

Novator's Fox took the floor and opened his presentation with the thought that more and more consumers across the globe are finding comfort in shopping online. He said, "The web has become a common man's medium and a significant proportion of the population will in future (in the next four years) make purchases online. It has become a dominant medium where consumers research their in-store purchase."

The point Fox was trying to drive home was that the difference between online and offline is blurring. Even if a consumer visits a store in person, it does not mean that he would not like to make a purchase or conduct research on the product online. So, retailers in India should wake up to this fact and develop coexisting offline-online models.

Nayak of Avenues India started his presentation with the comment that India was a nation of shopkeepers. To his surprise, he said, he found no real e-commerce happening on the web. According to him, the major brands, despite having an online presence, were shying away from retailing online. Said Nayak, "The real world brands are missing."

Taking the example of three brands such as Shopper's Stop, Samsung and Louis Philippe, Nayak drove home a simple point: "All these brands have an online presence. They have glossy websites, but none of these sell products online! This is one side of the coin. There are brands which do not even have an online presence. No wonder it is important that retailers and brands practise real time e-commerce."

Ahluwalia of Fobaz emphasised the need to develop strategies, especially for the Indian consumer. He said, "The evolution of online business in India is more or less a repeat story of the path taken by the Western world. We need to devise a path of our own. The focus so far has been more on e-commerce and less on the consumer."

Cleartrip.com's Murthy concluded with the comment that the Internet market was capable of accommodating many more players and that, at the moment, the market was relatively small.

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