(a) Online shopping is the process of buying goods and services from merchants over the Internet. Since the emergence of the World Wide Web, merchants have sought to sell their products to people who spend time online. Shoppers can visit web stores from the comfort of their homes and shop as they sit in front of the computer. Consumers can buy a huge variety of items from online stores, and just about anything can be purchased from companies that provide their products online. Books, clothing, household appliances, toys, hardware, software, and health insurance are just some of the hundreds of products consumers can buy from an online store.
Many people choose to shop online because of the convenience. For example, when a person shops at aEasy day or Reliance Mart, he/she has to drive to the store, find a parking place, and walk throughout the store until she locates the products she needs. After finding the items she wants to purchase, she may often need to stand in long lines at the cash register
Three company do online trading in India are :
- Snapdeal is an Indian e-commerce company based in New Delhi, India. The company was started by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal in February 2010.
- AJIO is an Indian e-commerce company in the fashion space, headquartered in Bangaluree, Karnataka, India. AJIO was launched in 2016 by Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. led by Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
- Shopclues is an online marketplace owned by Clues Network Pvt. Ltd. It was established in July 2011 in Silicon Valley by Sanjay Sethi, Sandeep Aggarwal and Radhika Aggarwal.
(b) The following are the reasons that contribute to the growth of online shopping in India :
- Convenience : A major factor for the popularity of online shopping in India is convenience. Without the need to go out and tackle the traffic, with just a few clicks consumers can save their too much time and effort. With e-commerce, you can hassle-free place the order from your place and get the items delivered to your doorstep. Furthermore, during the festive season and gazetted holidays, you can avail huge discounts and offers on plethora of product range. Rise in mobility- With the advent of hi-tech gadgets such as tablets and smartphones has resulted in online shopping in India. With the use of such gadgets, Shopaholics can buy from anywhere, anytime.
- Better services : Providing maximum customer satisfaction is what online retailers look for. Whether it is return policy or safety of payment, you will get the best services.
- Growth of social media : More and more advertisements on Facebook and other social media sites has led to the growth of online shopping in India.
- Increasing time-***** :** In their crunched schedules, consumers are finding less time to shop. Nowadays, most of the people are working from home, which results in the increasing growth rate in internet retailing
- Easy Payment Options : Instead of waiting in long lines at the cashiers, online payment options gives consumers the facility to pay online through secured payment gateway. All this has increased the demand of online shopping among the Indians.
- Discount Coupons and offers : Indians love to buy products at the most discounted prices. Offering huge discounts and offers to customers results in attracting more customers to the store which leads to more popularity.
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(C) A distribution channel is a chain of businesses or intermediaries through which a good or service passes until it
reaches the end consumer. It can include wholesalers, retailers, distributors and even the internet itself. Channels are broken into direct and indirect forms, with a "direct" channel allowing the consumer to buy the good from the manufacturer, and an "indirect" channel allowing the consumer to buy the good from a wholesaler or retailer.
Motorola sell its new launch products recently through online on Flipkart for wider the distribution at once, because online marketplaces are popular indirect sales channels utilized by businesses of all sizes. By selling through an online marketplace, Motorola can reach a wider net of potential clients who might otherwise not know they exist. As an added bonus, using this channel can help cut down on your marketing costs.
Of course, using an online marketplace comes with some disadvantages as well. Flipkart and other marketplaces can charge hefty fees to suppliers.
Few other distribution channels adopted by marketers are :
- Distributors : Distributors are mainly wholesale businesses that specialize in selling to retailers, not directly to consumers. Because they have an incentive to sell your products for you, distributors save you money on hiring and training a sales force to market your products to their customers. Additionally, having a distributor may mean you don’t need to maintain a retail location, which is capital that can be reinvested into your business. There are limitations that you should keep in mind. Because distributors mark up goods to make a profit, they may not be ideal for companies selling lower-value products. You will have to make sure that your product is priced sufficiently below its suggested retail price so that a distributor—and their retail partners—will be willing to carry it. Further, distributors may choose not to work with you if your target market is too small.
- Foreign Distributors : While domestic distributors sell goods within the U.*., foreign distributors specialize in sales overseas. There are various benefits of using a foreign distributor, including the opportunity to gain access to new customer bases around the world. Additionally, foreign distributors handle customs formalities and paperwork, leaving you more time to focus on operations. Despite these benefits, using a foreign distributor is not without its drawbacks. Typically, businesses have to agree to sell to the distributor at a deep discount. As a result, this sales channel may not be ideal for low-price products or those with a limited audience.
- Affiliate Sales : Affiliates are individuals or companies that sell goods on other businesses’ behalf. In exchange for their services, affiliates receive commissions on sales. While affiliates help businesses reach larger and more varied customer bases, they tend to charge high commissions for their services. Moreover, some affiliates have been known to participate in fraudulent practices like false advertising. Evaluate any potential affiliate before choosing them to sell your product. The last thing you want is for customers to hold you responsible for the deceitful actions of an affiliate marketer.
