Should the Indian e-commerce companies make an effort to make internet users in India (the ones who log in only to check their Email/Facebook) more aware about how to shop/purchase/transact online?

I have a pure technical background and only experience I have for eCommerce is based on my love for online shopping from 2007, and my increased motivation for anything about eCommerce as I own a website listing coupons, deals etc. Since I was asked to answer this question(asking me is free), I will give it a try. India is still an emerging market in terms of eCommerce. The exponential growth we have seen in last few years is hard to believe. I am buying stuff online since 2007 and when I would tell people that I bought stuff online, they would say as to how I make sure that stuff is of right size, what if shop won't deliver etc. The scenario has changed a lot in last 2 years. SnapDeal, Flipkart, http://eBay.in and even sites like Indiaplaza, Dealsandyou has led this change. They started a revolution and with changing times people were more open to buying online. Availability of Debit cards more easily, broadband internet etc has helped the growth. As companies started to get, and show more profits, others started getting interested as well. There were more startups entering eCommerce business, it started getting easier for them to get investors. There started a rat race to do anything "online shopping" business. We are still in that stage where stiff competition is going on. Most well funded or well planned companies are expected to continue while most others will die(like http://Dealivore.com or http://Taggle.com). We will reach an equilibrium, but it will take some time. (Read more here: http://techcircle.vccircle.com/500/rip-dealivore-com-other-deal-sites-who-have-quietly-pulled-the-plug-on-their-e-com-ventures/) Now to answer your question: Niche product is enough: Yes, that is enough. But most are not happy with enough. SnapDeal was doing great with deals only, it was enough for them. But they saw another opportunity with Products and started selling them too. Same happened with Yebhi.com(formerly BigShoeBazaar), which started as a footwear store before turning itself into an "online mall". Other sites like Craftsvilla has sticked to selling "crafts" and is doing good. It all depends on how a company wants to grow itself. Offerring everything means increased consumer base, increased risk, increased profits. Good companies might be able to do it, but few others might fail. It is a risk and many take it, many others don't. Educating users: India is a little different market. Common 30 day return policies(100 day by Yebhi), Cash On Delivery has made choices of customers easy. Currently companies are more interested in luring customer by means of deals, coupons etc and expect them to come back to shop again(and promote them through various channels like mouth of word, Social media etc). For online users who login daily to only check only Facebook status or checking mails or booking irctc tickets, how will they get to know if such kind of e-commerce website exists at the first place? The eCommerce sites target customers within Facebook by using Facebook Ads, Social Media channels, and on Google through Google PPC etc. A study found that most people join Facebook Brand pages only to get special offers. (Jabong, ShopClues ads can be seen on Facebook very easily) P.S. Good read: http://yourstory.in/2012/04/k-vaitheeswaran-indiaplaza-selling-mangoes-too-online-confidentof-capturing-the-sweet-slice-of-e-commerce-market-in-india-slow-andsteady/

- Appreciate your response. I agree with you with the fact that India Internet users are on a growing spree. From the report on Internet in India release(http://www.scribd.com/doc/71938030/Report-on-Internet-in-India-2011) by IAMAI on 2011, we are clearly a booming country especially Youngsters driving internet growth in India. I slightly tend to differ to your point '...A study found that most people join Facebook Brand pages only to get special offers.' Even after having all these promotions stunts in Facebook/Google Ad sense(which primarily helps Big fishes), How can a start up with few months-years of operation in to the business survive in this ever growing ocean. Look at the number of e-commerce start up in the study http://mysmartprice.com. People like me and you who are in this circle may know the name about few, how does it reach down to common man? How do he come to know that he can save 50 bucks in booking railway ticket if he books it other than irctc or makemytrip like websites? How can we develop/built the confidence in 'Indian online users' and convert them to 'online Indian consumers'? In short, my question is, do we need an internet enablers to promote these business or any website to promote and give trust to people that even names other than karts & mart are also here to serve you better?

You are correct in the presumption that a small niche business can work in the online space in India. There are many ways of building loyalty, rewarding the first referrals and purchasers of the merchandise. This would depend on Who is your customer? What is the velocity you expect? And are you in it for Valuation or creating value. There are also couple of handlers aka internet enablers which gives you a head start at low cost, so that the focus can only be on marketing rather than the entire space.

They will type in the type of shop they want as the ... -- or the type of (e.g., I need to relaunch http://www.shop.name sometime soon to provide such a again ;) Alternatively, you could probably with and/or in , but that way you will probably only reach relatively dumb / stupid people -- much like )