AIOVA First Edition

eTailMail
From the Past to Future
An AIOVA initiative for the
E-commerce Ecosystem in India
First Edition
All India Online Vendors Association
A Publication of
YOUR LOGO

From the desk of Editor
Dear Fellas,
I am extremely happy to present you with the first
edition of eTailMail.
The first edition has the basic elements of e-
commerce and it talks about the ecosystem which
has been evolved over the course of time in India.
It also brief introduction about the structure and
team of AIOVA which is growing and evolving every
week.
eTailMail is expected to be the official mouthpiece
of the thousands of sellers. Future editions will also
have tutorials and special talks with the sellers
across India.
-Mr H, Editor, eTailMail

Structure of AIOVA
• Core Team
• Members
• Volunteers
AIOVA

Structure of AIOVA
• AIOVA has simple structure having Core
Team, Members and Volunteers.
• Core Team has members who are blesses
with abilities to analyse the things at the
hindsight to formulate the standards with
the foresight
• Members are the sellers who have
registered themselves on the forum and
are active on it.
• Volunteers are highly motivated
individuals who perform various tasks for
the betterment of the community.

Core Team
Mr K
Mr C
Mr S
AIOVA
Mr D
Mr U
Mr J

AIOVA Core team consists of junkies of from
different categories having varied business models
to come together with a vision to have uniform
working model for every online seller in India.
It has very prolific personalities who prefers to have
anonymity and that’s why we call them with some
prefix .
• Mr K- He is the Kinetic person of the AIOVA. Super
active on social media and networking channels
• Mr S- There are two Mr S. One having shining face
and is often seen on media representing views of
AIOVA and other Mr S who is quite subtle in his
attitude and vision. Seen less but is strong
backbone of AIOVA
• Mr U- He is Mr Understanding . He has
tremendous amount of experience and
understands every concept of Indian E-commerce
• Mr C- He is Mr Chilled. Talks less but formulates
the policies with lot of ease.
• Mr D- He is Mr Daring & Dashing. Man with the
looks and takes on everyone to limit with his
arguments and experience
• Mr J- Mr Jolly not Mr Jolly (LLB). Quite down to
earth man who rattles his mind into complexities
of reconcialiation
There are some other members who doesn’t seem
but exist like Mr H. Mr H is neither the core guy nor
the ordinary member, he is The Guy who pushes
himself hard for the community like many other
guys.

Evolution of Retail-From
Offline to Online
Journey which Indian Retail Industry has witnessed over the years is
tremendous. In just a span of one and a half decade it has witnessed so much
business models :to reach customers, to build distribution systems, to market
the product, solving the logistics , understanding the buying patterns. Current
Indian retail ecosystem is surely the most Revolutionized sectors in recent
modern history of India build on the bricks of evolution of business
fundamentals.
In last two decades, not only India witnesses Modern Kirana Store which
actually evolved into Easy Day or Big Bazaar or Vishal Mega Mart but it actually
witnessed the entry of modern retail buying in the form of organized Brick and
Mortar Stores consisting of electronics, fashion, groceries, utilities and other
household products.
With the rise of Brick-n-Mortar stores, business houses understood the
importance of product assortment, segregation of markets, fundamentals of
logistics, distribution systems and Big Mass Marketing spends. It surely
impacted the lifestyle of Indian consumers that they switched from
unorganized buying to organized buying which was mainly due to the single
roof solution, time saving and often best deals served without any hassle. It
also saw entry of private labels brands which was till end of 90’s was western
concept only.
Off Retail witnessed boom
• With Organized Brick-n-Mortar stores
• Which changed B2C buying & spending pattern
• Entrance of private label brands
I

India saw Telecom revolution which laid the
foundation of tech enabled businesses for both
services and goods. In fact, corporate houses then
understood the value of Service Marketing as well
and importance of technology.
In last one decade, fabulous things happened. India
saw surge of internet penetration, became third
largest internet population country, shifted from
feature phones to smartphones. People started
browsing on mobile devices rather than their
standalone PC.
With advent of such advancements and great
networking platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp,
Instagram, Twitter etc Indian youth became more
dominant more powerful and eventually more alert
about the tech specifications, quality and discounts.
Indian Retail started witnessing shopping from
various online portals like Flipkart, Yebhi, BigAdda,
Snapdeal, Pepperfry, Healthkart etc. Some evolved
their business models too early and some hit the
niche segment directly.
Indian E-commerce and name of major players like
Flipkart, Snapdeal, FashionandYou, Paytm etc became
the topic of discussion with every Indian talking about

Problems of Sellers:
Myth or Reality
In last one decade, the pace at which Indian E-commerce has witnesses
the growth has actually created the ripples of challenges and problems
which are difficult to highlight in a definite area.
I tried to understand the challenges and problem of sellers from our Core
team members Mr S and Mr U. For elaboration purpose, lets bifurcate the
last one decade into various timelines.
• Timeline 1 2005-2010- In this period, we had few players who were at
nascent of the business. Mostly closed platforms with handful of
sellers.
• Timeline 2 2011-2015- Exponential rise of marketplaces backed by VC
funds. Various malpractices followed, no business ethics. Huge seller
base
• Timeline 3 2016-till date- Downgrading of Marketplaces, few players
left. Declining active seller base
2005-10
2011-15
2016-so on

In the period, 2005-2010 we had few players like Bazee, LetsBuy,BigShoeBazaar
etc who entered into Indian E-commerce market with mostly closed
marketplace structure. They had few seller and worked on limited set of
categories. Mostly all were startups who didn’t had robust SOPs and practices
and very limited tech. Major issues with reconciliation of accounts and undue
charges deduction but things used to get resolved by mutual discussion and
categories. So there were sellers who were facing problems but there was
mutual discussion and consent mechanism which resolved major challenges.
From the period 2011-2015, in this period we saw chivalry of taking VCs money
burning it on unnecessary and unwarranted things like rockets. With firing of
discounts, this period actually harnessed the Indian Youth to come on online
platforms to buy, to return. This period also laid platform for ancillary industries
like logistics, packaging, cataloging, photography, order management, inventory
management etc to rise and evolve as e-commerce enablers. With exponential
rise of such things, problems of sellers rose many folds.
To beat the competition, you have to give more discounts, you need to have
best catalogue, you need to have real time inventory sync and order sync, you
have to reconcile accounts etc. Sellers were actually traumatized with sudden
high traffic and ever changing marketplaces policies due to which many sellers
multiplies their business volumes but witnessed declining volumes with the
same velocity. Cases of thefts via logistics partners, fulfillment personnel,
cheating by customers, wrong returns, damaged returns were rising with no
possibility of controlling them. They were at mercy of the mighty marketplaces
to listen to their plea and grant the claims in their favor.
Since cost of doing business along with such huge pressure of performance
cropped up, sellers who joined with no tech know how eventually started going
out by registering loss due to unwarranted returns, damages, cheatings and
apathetic attitude of marketplaces to accept their system inefficiencies and to
deny legitimate claims.
Post 2015, things changed not because of lightning news from government or
something but due to gradual shift of the consumer as well as of the seller. Since
marketplaces are already sitting at the mammoth losses and million dollar burnt
ashes, they depleted the discounts, went away from cost intensive
methodologies, sellers showed recliner chairs to marketplaces with majority
sellers opting out of multibrand inventory management, launching their own
private labels to generate extra revenue, getting more pro-active in
reconciliation.
We see vast majority of intelligent active sellers who know about the
complexities and know how to handle the e-commerce business.

Impact of Demonetization
on Indian E-commerce
India is one of the most potential e-
commerce market in the world, according
to a joint ASSOCHAM-Forrester study paper,
e-Commerce revenue in India is expected to
jump from $30 billion in 2016 to $120
billion by 2020, growing at an annual rate of
51%, the highest in the world.
The volume of business that is being
projected can’t rely on the conventional
methods of payments, there has to be
transition from cash to digital mode of
payments.
Migration of COD: From Pain to Gain
India is predominantly a cash economy
where most of the transactions have
traditionally been made using cash. Cash on
delivery is the most preferred mode of
transaction, typically about 70% of the
overall e-commerce orders are paid in cash,
according to research and advisory firm
Redseer Management.
Since, huge amount of business was being
done on cash the sudden decision of
demonetization created ripples within the
ecommerce world. Most of the ecommerce
companies were forced to stop taking COD
orders, cancel the orders which resulted a
huge dip in the online orders.

When the order is placed as COD by the customer, in the pure business
perspective means that you as a retailer are providing credit to the
customer of few days and at the same time pay extra COD charges to the
logistics partner which is an addition to the freight cost, which means you
are compromising with the profit percentage of the product you are
selling.
Now if the mode of payment is any option other than COD, the customer
will pay in advance and you are now less vulnerable to the order
cancellation and at the same time the company can earn the interest once
the amount is it credited, apart from that you don’t have to shell out extra
money as collection charges by the logistics provider.
The transition is always difficult to pallet, what demonetization has done is
forced the customers to use digital modes of payments, thus making the
payment eco system more diverse and at the same time helping the
ecommerce retailers by providing a more confident platform to serve.
Cashless becoming the new trend.
Post demonetization due to cash crunch the digital modes of payments
started to pick up the pace, people were driven to use debit cards, credit
cards and internet banking facilities, apart from the conventional digital
modes of payments, many mobile wallet service providers like PayTm,
Mobiwik and Airtel Money witnessed a huge growth surge in their user
base.
Many big ecommerce players in India have understood the potential of
mobile wallets due to their flexibility of handling digital money and have
started partnering with them to expand their customer pool and in turn
the sales. In coming years the mobile wallets are going to be extensively be
used, contributing to the fundaments towards making India a digital
economy.

Expansion of shopping catalogue.
Who would have thought that one day even the vegetable vendors would be
accepting money via digital mode, with the advent of demonetization
customers have started using online payment modes to even buy Grocery and
items of daily use.
Even before the announcement of demonetization the online grocery and
consumables shopping were gaining growth and momentum. Now the major
chunk of consumers have started to turn their heads towards online shopping
for groceries, consumables and everyday essentials. Major e-commerce
players like Amazon, Snapdeal have started to focus on these categories of
products, making the market more competitive and at the same time
benefitting the consumers.
Discount on using digital Modes of Payments
We Indians love bargaining and in fact large no of consumers turn to online
shopping just to get the best discount and best price-commerce retails are
well aware that in order to lure the customers and encourage them to use
digital mode of payments they need to strategize things, so these retails have
starting running attractive promotional campaigns such as discount, cash back
etc. so that a customer becomes habitual of online modes of payments.
Usage in Non-Metro Cities.
After Demonetization the non-metro cities in India saw an appreciating grown
in the orders paid through digital mode of payments. This change of
preference will help to decrease the dubiousness in handling cash in regions
other than urban India and at the same time will help to increase the
customer base preferring online mode.

Complexities are always difficult to handle the more simple things are,
the more easily it becomes to prospect growth. If India has to grow, it
has to undergo a huge transformation from a cash dominant economy
to a near cashless economy. Demonetization may seem to be an
agonizing call given by the government, but in the larger context of
growth it will pave the way for digital payment, aid the process of
financial inclusion and help in the transformation of Indian economy
and at the same time will define amplified avenues for e-commerce
industry.
By Moien Ahamd Shad

Role of Technology in E-
commerce selling
The Ecommerce boom
Indian ecommerce market saw a huge boost in 2014-15, due to aggressive
marketing by marketplaces (both Indian and global) and a lot of venture
capital funds available in the market, as Indian eCommerce market held a
huge potential (large smartphone penetration, younger demographics) and
was expected to hit US$ 100 Bn by 2020.
This presented a huge opportunity for merchants across categories,
primarily due to:
• Ease of access to pan India customer base, which was otherwise not
accessible
• Unparalleled sales growth, due to aggressive marketing campaigns done
by marketplaces
Gradually, merchants saw the relative share of sales from online channels
growing, which attracted many traditional businessmen and new age
entreprenuers to explore the “ecommerce boom”
Source-eMarketer

Challenges faced by
Online Sellers
While the growth presented a lot of opportunities, but it also increased complexities
for the sellers in terms of managing multiple marketplaces, multiple courier partners,
ratings on marketplaces, prices on marketplaces, cataloging, listing etc. and the list is
never ending.
This is why it became important for sellers to have the right tools to ensure
that they are able to manage this increased complexity seamlessly. One
such critical tool that helped ecommerce sellers is Unicommerce, which
helped bring down SLA breaches, returns, in turn, improving the ratings and
ensuring higher growth even with higher complexity. Many of
Unicommerce’s customers saw at least 10X improvement in its sales, and
many saw significant reduction in their SLA breaches (listing few examples
below):

Now that the marketplaces are cutting down on their marketing spends and
discounts, it is impacting the sellers significantly, and many of those who saw
their sales blossom during the peak time, are now contemplating going back to
their offline business.
While it is a difficult time for the sellers, in general, but this is also a time which
would ensure “survival of the fittest”. It is all the more important for the sellers
to streamline their processes, invest in the right tools, keep a “razor sharp”
focus on products that are adding to the bottom line, and churning out loss
making products.
The merchants have to view technology as an enabler to make the processes
efficient, improve the sales, rather than treating it just as a replacement of an
employee, because those who invest in the right tools now, will be able to
survive the difficult times of eCommerce, and will come out shining once the
eCommerce boom picks up again.
About the author
Kapil Makhija is the Director of Strategy & Operations at Unicommerce
About Unicommerce
The SaaS based multichannel order fulfillment platform allows ecommerce
merchants selling on multiple marketplaces like Snapdeal, Amazon, Jabong,
Flipkart, eBay and so on, to manage their entire inventory and order fulfillment
process through one single platform. In a short span of time, Unicommerce has
built a strong customer base of 10,000+ sellers in more than 220 cities including
big brands such as Monte Carlo, Swiss Military, Classic Polo, House of Anita
Dongre, Reliance, Mahindra Retail, Carat Lane, Raymond etc. Ecommerce sellers
love this product, as it helps them grow their sales, reduce costs and improve
their seller ratings. For further information about the company or the product,
please visit http://www.unicommerce.com/ or reach at:
contactus@unicommerce.com or 082877 90222.

AIOVA Forum’s Top Posts
In our first edition, we wanted to talk about the top posts which actually
saw high number of views. AIOVA team will like each and every reader to
get into the community building activity.
We strongly believe in “Communication, Collaboration and Innovation”.
We urge our fellow sellers to get active on AIOVA’s forum so that we can
bring the innovation which industry needs for its betterment.
These can be summarized as below:
• Improve Sales through your own website- This is the hottest topic on
the AIOVA forum. It basically talks about the ShopVed services and how
it is useful for the online sellers. Discussion clearly shows that sellers
are not grabbing any service and they want to know the revenue and
working of the company works to ensure that no illegitimate use of
their data is done. Quite an interesting discussion topic. Must
participate for each seller
• Flipkart Returns- Returns are always difficult for every to manage. It
becomes more frustrating when you see that product shipped was
correct and still customer has sent the product either after using or
damaging the product. This thread talks about the recent policy
changes by Flipkart and their impact on Seller Returns.
There are numerous other posts on seller issues pertaining to each
individual marketplaces, there are other general discussion topics as well
as special discussion posts for e-commerce enablers like browntape.
Unicommerce, boostmysale etc