In the nineties when Amazon was launched during the first internet , I had a bet with a friend that the online stores would never get off the ground. I felt that people like to browse, touch and feel before they bought and that Amazon was going to be bankrupt within a few years.
Boy was I wrong ? I lost the bet. Not only has it prospered and together with others in the online genre have totally changed not just the retail industry , but also had major impact on the publishing and music industry. Over the last few years it is now doing the same in India.
A few years ago I placed a order for a new computer for my home use, from a hardware vendor from whom we had been buying computers /printers for my small company. The computer was never delivered and to cut a long story short I had to write off the money which I had paid in advance. This is not the only bad experience I have had. It is always a case of once I have your money, you are at my mercy. However the online retailers are about to change all that.
This reminds me of the experience I lived through in Hong Kong. I arrived in Hong Kong in 1975. There were no retail chains and there was one major upmarket department store. The service was terrible, particularly if you happened to be non-Chinese and even more if you were non-white.
However thing started to change with the arrival of a retail chain called Giordano, started by a maverick - Jimmy Lai, He stocked clothes which were well made at a reasonable price and better still, staffed them with young cheerful polite staff. Gradually other chains emerged such as Join in, Espirit all with a similar service model and Hong Kong retail underwent a sea change. Of course it also helped that since then the rest of Asia , including China, India ,Thailand etc all prospered and it was not just the Europeans and Americans tourists who had fat pocket books.
In India, of course money is not much of an issue but with some retailers honesty is. They will take the advance payment and promise delivery by a certain date and rarely is it met. You have to keep chasing them and many times, it is of sub-standard quality or not quite what was expected, but you really do not have a choice.
My daughter in New York is a big believer in ordering on-line and I could not understand why she did that. Now after about three months of using the services of the online retailers in India,I can fully understand her preference. The first serious online retailer in India was Flipkart , now followed by slew of others including Amazon.
The best example is that of buying books. I used to go to a book store in Delhi and while the prices were reasonable and when physically there, the owner would provide keen service and flood me with suggestions , ninety percent of which were of no interest. However in a numbers of instances I called his number to check about the availability of certain books and there would no response, and even where I left messages there would be no call backs. There where instances where he promised to deliver some books through his brother's store nearer where I lived and in spite of numerous calls and visits, never got the books. This in spite of the fact on every visit my family and I would buy enough for him to stop attending to other customers and come to help us instead.
Now sitting at my desk I can order even a single book at a price almost at par, if not better delivered to my door stop on the basis of cash on delivery. If I had changed my mind about the purchase, I could return it, although I have never had to do that.
Unfortunately however my experience of ordering an electronic item from one of the retailers from Amazon fulfillment was not a happy experience. Hopefully this is an aberration, but it would make me wary of ordering electronic items in the future.
As elsewhere Amazon is trying to break new grounds. It is reportedly exploring delivery to the rural areas through the Indian Postal System. In the sixties the Postal System was superb, but like a lot of other institutions in India being part of the government with no accountability and life time employment, the services declined leading to a eco system of local and national couriers where people use them rather the post for normal deliveries . Perhaps if they do team up they will have to meet Amazon's delivery standard and we will see the re-vitalization of the Indian Post.
I wish Amazon, Flipkart, and the others all the very best and hope they will all do a Giodarno in India.
Boy was I wrong ? I lost the bet. Not only has it prospered and together with others in the online genre have totally changed not just the retail industry , but also had major impact on the publishing and music industry. Over the last few years it is now doing the same in India.
A few years ago I placed a order for a new computer for my home use, from a hardware vendor from whom we had been buying computers /printers for my small company. The computer was never delivered and to cut a long story short I had to write off the money which I had paid in advance. This is not the only bad experience I have had. It is always a case of once I have your money, you are at my mercy. However the online retailers are about to change all that.
This reminds me of the experience I lived through in Hong Kong. I arrived in Hong Kong in 1975. There were no retail chains and there was one major upmarket department store. The service was terrible, particularly if you happened to be non-Chinese and even more if you were non-white.
However thing started to change with the arrival of a retail chain called Giordano, started by a maverick - Jimmy Lai, He stocked clothes which were well made at a reasonable price and better still, staffed them with young cheerful polite staff. Gradually other chains emerged such as Join in, Espirit all with a similar service model and Hong Kong retail underwent a sea change. Of course it also helped that since then the rest of Asia , including China, India ,Thailand etc all prospered and it was not just the Europeans and Americans tourists who had fat pocket books.
In India, of course money is not much of an issue but with some retailers honesty is. They will take the advance payment and promise delivery by a certain date and rarely is it met. You have to keep chasing them and many times, it is of sub-standard quality or not quite what was expected, but you really do not have a choice.
My daughter in New York is a big believer in ordering on-line and I could not understand why she did that. Now after about three months of using the services of the online retailers in India,I can fully understand her preference. The first serious online retailer in India was Flipkart , now followed by slew of others including Amazon.
The best example is that of buying books. I used to go to a book store in Delhi and while the prices were reasonable and when physically there, the owner would provide keen service and flood me with suggestions , ninety percent of which were of no interest. However in a numbers of instances I called his number to check about the availability of certain books and there would no response, and even where I left messages there would be no call backs. There where instances where he promised to deliver some books through his brother's store nearer where I lived and in spite of numerous calls and visits, never got the books. This in spite of the fact on every visit my family and I would buy enough for him to stop attending to other customers and come to help us instead.
Now sitting at my desk I can order even a single book at a price almost at par, if not better delivered to my door stop on the basis of cash on delivery. If I had changed my mind about the purchase, I could return it, although I have never had to do that.
Unfortunately however my experience of ordering an electronic item from one of the retailers from Amazon fulfillment was not a happy experience. Hopefully this is an aberration, but it would make me wary of ordering electronic items in the future.
As elsewhere Amazon is trying to break new grounds. It is reportedly exploring delivery to the rural areas through the Indian Postal System. In the sixties the Postal System was superb, but like a lot of other institutions in India being part of the government with no accountability and life time employment, the services declined leading to a eco system of local and national couriers where people use them rather the post for normal deliveries . Perhaps if they do team up they will have to meet Amazon's delivery standard and we will see the re-vitalization of the Indian Post.
I wish Amazon, Flipkart, and the others all the very best and hope they will all do a Giodarno in India.
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