EXTRAVAGANZA IS MARRED BY DESPONDENCY FOR INDIAN SHOPPERS, AS RELIABILITY TRUMPS COMFORT

Summary: Gone are the days when Indians were accustomed to the sight of counting notes before paying at the next door ‘Kirana Store’. For shopping is now done over the internet, followed by collection of cash on delivery. However, the boom of Indian e-commerce was preceded by a gradual and steady evolution of a brick & mortar retail business model, which still enjoys the lion’s share of India’s $500 billion retail market, and even a single mistake made by the Goliath of Indian e-commerce creates havoc. Body: A much-hyped shopping gala floated by the poster-boy of Indian e-commerce has just swept the country’s tech-savvy population, as the skeptics gawked at the modest to an extravagant range of cash splash amidst the frenzied action of the festive season. While large discounts offered by the e-tailer propelled the unprecedented shopping spree, it invited a severe backlash from several shoppers fuming with anger for not being given the promised cuts at the prices of the items they purchased. Interestingly enough, the founder CEOs of the alleged electronic marketplace requested for apologies from their unsatisfied customers. They were also not shy of openly admitting the lack of preparation and underestimation of the event’s scale from their end. Traditional retail chain biggies of the country also stepped up to the occasion and expressed their concerns about the consequences of offering lucrative discounts that attracted enough pair of eyeballs to shatter all previous records. Analysts and experts plying their trade along the interfaces of finance and internet based transaction also added some camphor, fanning the already red-hot debate between e-commerce and ‘brick & mortar’ retail. While their arguments in the likes of inadequate, ad-hoc strategies employed by the celebrated website primarily fueled the anxiety of the disappointed and perplexed customers of the e-tailing giant, they were legitimate and genuine, and thus command appreciation. One such aspect raises questions about the robustness of inherent algorithms that work as the backbone of the website, and encompasses the entire shopping experience of the online shoppers. As flag-bearers of more consolidated business models, parties who boast of sprawling showrooms equipped with Retail POS Software and managed by highly trained graduates, have emerged as a much stronger opponent than many would have anticipated, especially aftermath the blunder made by the most prominent name of Indian e-commerce. In fact, the advent and extensive implementation of Retail POS Software in traditional stores across the country heavily influenced the way Indians shop, and almost radically revolutionized the entire industry at its grassroots. After globalization, when malls and super-markets were increasing their foothold on the Indian soil, Indians aspired to match their global counterparts. Prudent retailers with deep pockets adopted a shrewd approach that established a benchmark of social status, and wooed the crowd that resulted in a proliferation of item categories to a more diverse set, and consequently, scaled up the volume of business. Indeed, Retail POS Software and hardware components contributed significantly to this saga by facilitating, automating and customizing the sequence of price and discount detection, bill generation and payment/transaction acknowledgement, apart from streamlining the accounting methodologies and synchronizing inventory management with sales deliverables. In this regard, the only fundamental alteration that online retailers provisioned for, was the removal of the ‘touch & feel’ that they compensated by offering an unlimited virtual shopping arcade that can be accessed from anywhere in the world and by anyone who has a computer or smartphone with internet connection – a trivial trade-off for an average Indian who, perhaps, still prefer to avail a modest discount from a brand’s exclusive showroom at his locality, rather than going for a heavy one that is available online, but which comes with a risk of loss due to some algorithmic glitch or overloaded server at a remote location!