Online shopping websites offering designer wears at a discounted price are getting popular with the Indian youth. Experts say that these sites have registered a 30% growth in recent times.
The age group between 18-36 years is said to be hooked to online shopping. "The younger generation is super active. Our main focus has been life-style products and food deals. As of now the maximum traffic has come from food and health services with a price band between Rs 250-1000," said Sandeep Komaravelley, the head of marketing of snapdeal.com.
While shoes top the chart for yebhi.com, apparels come a close second. "We have almost 70,000 visitors a day. The growth can be attributed to a variety in choices and good customer service. The speed of delivery of products — which has come down from two to three weeks to around two days — boosts sales. Unique schemes also help in building relations with customers and boosting their confidence," said Manmohan Agarwal, spokesperson of yebhi.com.
According to Ishita Swarup, CEO and co-founder of 99labels.com, accessories such as fragrances, watches, jewellery, wallets, bags and home décor products with an average ticket price of Rs 2,500 have become popular. "The buyer's buying behaviour is what guides most of the decisions like pricing, selection, brands etc," she said.
These websites also market themselves through social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. With features like flash sales, huge discounts on label prices, the choice of shopping at any given time and personalised services, they attract more customers from Tier II and Tier III cities.
"We have over 1.3 billion subscribers over 45 cities," said Komaravelley of snapdeal.com. "The order intake is of two orders per minute and the number of shipments has increased to 1 lakh per month for yebhi.com," said Agarwal.
Players believe that this space will attract modern retailers online as a market is still being created for the
category of discount event sales. "The Indian consumer loves bargains, deals, discounts on quality branded merchandise. The lifestyle, fast pace, lack of time and the traffic conditions are enticing the Indian consumer to explore efficient ways of getting information and shopping," said Swarup of 99labels.com.
13 February 2011 — The Sunday Guardian.
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