Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN, Financial) is an American e-commerce company headquartered at Seattle, U.S. It is the biggest online store in the USA and enjoys the fame of providing easy-on-the-wallet goods, best in quality, in no time. It operates in various countries and has spread its roots in India as well. The Indian market of fashion is far more different from that of America. The market here is characterized by low value transaction, cash-on-delivery model and shallow penetration of internet. But the biggest question related to this big name that’s yet to be answered is: Do the people of India; consider the online option of Amazon when it comes to fashion?
Amazon does provide a fabulous range of apparels, but a few factors are not allowing it to be the online shopping leader of the sub-continent.
Amazon India Retrospection
The late arrival has crucially affected the recalling capacity of consumers. When Amazon entered the Indian market, Flipkart.com was already enjoying the cream layer of it. Flipkart became a synonym for online shopping. Amazon did become a part of the equation, but long after. Hence, people are often heard talking about deals on Flipkart, rather than those on Amazon. Indian buyers are not very fond of exploring online options.
Website is not very user friendly
Fashion freaks, especially women like to shop on a hassle free website which Amazon failed to provide initially. The website was not very user friendly and thus lost a lot of buyers. In a country like India where word-of-mouth publicity travels faster than any other medium, made this online store notorious for not having an easy-to-surf website. Although the company has worked on making it a lot more lucid than it used to be, but most of the milk has been skimmed.
Choice Limitation
Even if the difference is of a mere 10 bucks, it matters a lot for an Indian buyer. Amazon does not provide the option of comparing the prices offered by different sellers. Plus the comparison regarding the colors of clothes of same pattern is also not available. In terms of fashion, more is less. The variety is got to be there to gain the attention of the buyer.
Apart from the shortcomings, the company has a lot more to offer. It has a nice range of designer apparels of various brands. Not only it offers great variety, but many dresses available on Amazon are cheaper than those offered by other websites. A dress of same brand, same fabric, and same color is likely to be available at a cheaper rate on Amazon.
Amazon India Gearing up for 2015
The company is striving to ace the Indian market, and it’s making huge effort in the direction. The company’s price comparison website Junglee.com is to be made a gateway for the price listings of the offline sellers as well. The listings of the offline sellers would show up when a buyer looks for a product, but the transaction is to be entertained offline only. The idea behind this initiative is to ensure wider presence in the country through two websites simultaneously- Amazon India and Junglee. A good news for the buyers, as this step would also lead toward the availability of a wider range of product choice.
The company has declared an investment of $ 2 billion to expand in the subcontinent and the package doesn’t end here, it has aggressive hiring plans for 2015. The company has declared to hire 8000 employees this year. Currently, Amazon has 6000 employees in their logistics as well as delivery department. Its aim is to reach a headcount of 9000 till March, and to 14000 in the next 7 months. The rival company Flipkart has 12000 employees in logistics and delivery department.
Amazon would also introduce Amazon Prime services in India now. Amazon Prime is a special annual membership service. The members would be delivered their orders for free in two days time. The orders would include digital items like, music, videos, e-books as well. The buyers in USA are charged $99 per year for the same. This service is somewhat similar to the Flipkart’s FLIPKART FIRST which charges $8 annually. Albeit, unlike Amazon it does not provide digital content streaming or downloading offers. The limitations of this service would be the availability of cheaper pirated versions and slow speed of the internet.
Conclusion
It’s never too late if the efforts are genuine. Certainly Snapdeal and Flipkart aren’t going to wait and watch. The competition would be intense as well as hopefully beneficial to the consumers. From the investors perspective, as the global economy is shifting direction towards Asia and China and India in particular it would be interesting to wait and watch as to how Amazon designs its route to success in these parts of the world.
