FUTURE OF E – COMMERCE

We have seen that nowadays internet being prevalent in everything, that we can think of in today’s consumer era. Whether it is an automobile, household groceries anything you can get the latest product or its updated information in few seconds through some clicks. While pondering sometimes, i used to think that what will be the future of the E – commerce in coming years. Will it change the buying behavior of the consumers or will the E – commerce players further bring some unusual changes in their platforms with the help of technology to make the shopping experience more exciting and full of fun.? If I talk from a technological aspect, I can clearly envisage that Internet of things (IOT) will dominate in future and most of the things will revolve around it only. However, if I talk from the marketing & selling perspective, I become more pessimistic and feels that E-commerce through its technology has increased the distance between the marketer and the consumer. As an marketer what I had learned in my classroom is, I have to communicate about my product to consumers in whatever best possible ways available and to put more focus on the efficient modes of communication to customers. However, what I see nowadays is that, through e – commerce penetration the other ways of direct communication to the customers has been drastically reduced.

          From a marketers point of view, our human sensory organs play a significant role in helping the brain for quick decisions, and that makes consumers more confident and assertive while making the purchases. These five sensory organs (Sight, Hearing, Taste, Smell, Touch) plays an important role while making the purchase decisions. Let’s evaluate their essence in current E - commerce ecosystem.

SMELL -: I still remember the time when as a customer I used to whiff 4 to 5 deodorants or perfumes before making the final purchase but now a day’s technology is becoming as a barrier to me at the cost of convenience. I can order any product sitting at home but, at the same time, I am less confident about the decision that I am making incase of my first purchase. thus in other ways it is effecting my loyalty towards a particular brand or a product because i keep on changing the brands or a product till the time i get the desired value from the product according to my expectations. If i see from the marketer’s eyes they are making every effort in luring the customer by making attractive gift boxes, wrappers, schemes and other inbound and outbound marketing activities. But in the haste of getting the consumer attention the mechanism of communicating the product value to the customer is getting shrink day by day. I think in this digital era getting the consumer attention in the next challenge that the marketers have to overcome that to with the minimum communication channels .

So what i can see that is the next revolution that will happen in Ecommerce would be with the tag line "who can serve the customers better”. I can imagine the day when a customer is booking perfumes from @Flipkart or @Snapdeal on a pretrial basis. Ecommerce executive are coming with the 4 -5 deodorant or perfume options that customer have selected from the portal and customers are checking them by whiffing before making their final purchase.

TASTE -:  I think in almost every middle class household whenever our parents used to purchase the eatables like fruits, Biscuits and Namkeens from the nearby shops. They feel about themselves as a privileged customers when they are getting the chance of tasting the eatables which they are purchasing. Even after the purchase the shopkeeper used to assure the customer for "Free return" or "Replacement" , In case it’s rotten or not up to the mark from quality perspective. These extra services provided by the local shopkeeper help the Indian customers in validating the shopkeeper commitment and trustworthiness. Because our Indian customers are very skeptical about their hard earned money and every time they try to make sure that their money should go in the correct hands. 

SOUND -: If you have ever seen the chaotic & noisy environment of the Shani bazaar and Som bazaar. Than you can easily understand the situation what I am referring to. Even in that chaotic environment Indian customers have the immense capability to listen prices of the particular item that they are looking for purchase . While purchasing the actual transition of the products from shopkeeper to customer in bazaar basically happens in the two phases, primarily customer listen to the lowest prices for the eatable or the product they wanted to purchase and then they further bargain for the best prices from the shopkeeper without compromising on the quality of the product. But when i compare the Internet on – demand deliver service like Grofers and Big Basket they are not allowing any utility for further bargaining for customers , In their platforms customers are bound to purchase based on labelled prices and at the same time customers are missing the core Bazaar feeling which we Indians love because for Indian customers it’s not only a shopping it’s a hangout experience . Buying fruit and vegetables is a area where women are more dominant and they never used to do it alone they always try to go in groups .

SEEING -: This is the only sensory organs which E- commerce is gambling on as of now and in current ecosystem the E-commerce players are forcing the customer to make the decision only by seeing the product on your laptop or mobile screens . These are burning the investors money heavily for luring the customers by providing the good discounts on the product or by providing other attractive offers on products , these players are forcing every customer to make a decision on what you see not on what you feel for the products. Further they are providing the customers with the utilities like Cash on delivery and free replacement facilities for building the trust with the customers but I am still bewildered that how long it will last ??

TOUCH -: As studied in biology that how touch through skin receptors used to generate an impulse that further carried to the brain for processing. From marketers point of view this is one of the medium to communicate the correct product values to the customers. I have seen that many customer evaluating the product quality by just a mere touching they gets the feeling whether the material that’s been used in making the product is authentic or not in case of the vegetables or eatables customer can easily sense by touching that whether the eatables are fresh or not. This is the another challenge that customer will face while interacting with E - commerce platforms 

I don't know how the E -commerce will overcome these challenge in future and try to make the shopping as an experience for the Indian customers not only as a utility .

In next post i will try to answer that  what all service models or technology can be used for overcoming these challenges .

In case you have any other ideas or thoughts do share in comments :-)