Chachu's column #8: Of Fabulous E-tailing Sites

Even when the stories of dot-com busts still abound the Internet fraternity, the e-tailing business has made slow but good progress in the country. The success of Amazon.com (for online purchase) and ebay.com (for online auction) are case in point. E-tailing, in simple terms, refers to purchase of goods over the Internet. Some five years ago, our Computer Science professor had to buy a very important book. However, he was too loath to give his credit card information over the Internet. The apprehensions were obvious. What if someone siphoned off his credit card number? In the end, his fears won and he did not buy the book. A couple of years later, I too find myself in dire need of buying few books from Amazon.com. I consulted an old gentlemen and a mentor to me about the efficacy of the idea. He was quite upbeat about the idea and said his experience was overall quite good. He had once ordered books from Amazon, which unfortunately took a very long time to get delivered. When the shipment did not arrive even after an inordinate delay, my friend informed the vendor, who promptly dispatched the shipment once again. After few days, my friend had two copies of all the books he had ordered. When the vendor was informed about this, a reply came that both the orders be kept, as it was not economically viable to return the books back to US. In summary, the dealing was based on trust and the experience was overall quite satisfactory. I too, spurred by his experiences, brought books from Amazon without any problems. Just that I used dollar cheque instead of credit card. Some more time passed and my penchant to surf the Internet brought me to Fabmart.com (meaning "fabulous mart"). I did hunt for books and put them in a shopping cart. However, I did not bother to buy them. Some six months later, I landed on the site once again, only to see my account still there and the shopping cart intact having the books I had collected months ago. Finally, I mustered enough courage to give my credit card number, and everything went fine. For net transactions, apart from the customary credit card number and expiry date, the vendors do seek a 3-digit number that is printed adjacent to the main number on the card. This number does not appear when the card is swiped, thereby providing an additional level of security. The transaction went smoothly and all the books arrived in around a week's time. Now, apart from credit card, there are various other options like cheques, bank drafts and direct payment from bank account (using ICICI's Infinity and HDFC's netbanking facility).Since then, I have brought books and cassettes worth more than six thousand rupees of. My membership level (akin to the the frequent flier status in aviation industry) has been elevated from silver to gold, whereby I get additional reward points. The elevation also gave me 100 bonus points, each point being worth a rupee. The good part of the reward program is that it is simple. In most cases, I find the points having no relationship with money, thereby confusing the customer. In Fabmart, however, rules are simple. 1 point is 1 rupee. The points are redeemable at the site itself. Apart from the reward points, I have often found that when orders are shipped, the bill comes with a small surprise. It says "You have saved XYZ on this order". The XYZ is an additional discount offered by the vendor after the order is placed. This discount is then credited to the account of the customer. In normal circumstances too, Fabmart offers discount ranging from 0% to 25%. The surprises are over and above that. In last few years, Fabmart has made rapid progress. It now offers hosts of goods, which include books, cassettes, music videos, watches, Jewelry, computers and accessories, Internet connections, and even groceries (which is shipped to certain areas only). While prices are competitive, the quality of goods is generally good. While I wonder whether people opt for purchase of durables like computers over the Internet, the market for books and cassettes is really large. The obvious proof being that there are at least half a dozen sites, including SIFY mall, Indiatimes, FirstandSecond, selling these items.They key to success in e-tailing business is that customers trust should never be betrayed. Moreover, his/her words should be accorded the greatest importance. Like in the case of my friend's purchase from Amazon, the small gesture from the vendor reinforced my friend's faith in e-purchase, thereby motivating others to choose that option without any fear. The reason for this is that the items are not visible to the customer till the payment has been made and items are shipped. A dubious vendor may ship poor quality goods and the customer is then forced to live with it. As a good business practice, the vendor should not ship such goods. In the remote case such omission does occur, a support system should be in place whereby defective items can be replaced or can be shipped again. Another important aspect of e-tailing is customer care. In fact, as brand differentiation diminishes, a good customer care becomes one of the key USPs of a company. In this regard, Fabmart, like most others provides an efficient email based customer care. The telephonic option exists, but that implies making an STD to Bangalore. However, in most cases, the email option is suffice. Earlier, a live chat facility existed at Fabmart. That facility, however, has now been stopped.

In general, my experience with Fabmart has been quite good, as I have never received a defective shipment. The customer care too has been prompt and efficient. There has been just once exception when I lodged a complaint regarding incorrect calculation of reward points and the customer care executive gave a rude email response stating that the calculations were correct. The response left me flabbergasted as I held high regards for the company. However, the matter was set straight when a week later, I received another email. The vendor sought apologies for the previous response and accepted the mistake. The reward history was later corrected and I found around 200 reward points in my account, which allowed me to do shopping worth that amount totally free.

However, the same cannot be said for another e-tailing site, which I would not like to name. I ordered a book, 'Coolie', by Mulk Raj Anand from that site. When I received the order, it turned out to be the critical study of the book by Ramji Lal. The mistake was repeated with another book by Mulk Raj Anand. My attempts to get the book replaced were in vain and the two critical study still lie in my drawer, being of no use. The same vendor also sponsors a quiz, in which I was lucky to be a winner, a couple of times. There too, my experience was not very good. While the vendor claimed a collection of millions of books, the winners of the quiz could buy only from a accelerated delivery store that contained the most pathetic collection of books including strange titles like "Harvesting in Israel". In that pathetic collection, I did manage to order three books. However, even after one month, I did not receive any books. In a fit of anger, I emailed the vendor lambasting it that it should immediately get out of the business of sponsoring quizzes and that the whole process was a sham. The vitriolic mail got a polite reply stating that "The vendor appreciated my patience and the books would be dispatched soon." The polite reply was definitely a saving grace. Within four days, I received the books. For once I appreciated the fact that the customer had won a battle, the several losses notwithstanding.