Online Shopping: Don’t have a credit card? No Problem.

‘Cash on Demand’ – also known as COD – is a feature that has given an added boost to the growing Indian E-Commerce Industry. COD allows the purchaser to pay at the time of delivery instead of having to pay upfront.

In a developing nation like India, most consumers do not posses credit cards or even bank accounts for that matter. This factor had made investors skeptical about online stores in India; but that’s not the case anymore. E-Commerce companies like ‘Flipkart’ and ‘Amazon’ have recently raised a few billion dollars to drive their businesses in Indian markets. With Online-only discounts and free shipping facilities eCommerce Stores in India are poised to take over an established retail market.

The proof can be seen in the online presence of booming E-commerce portals like Snapdeal, Jabong and Myntra.

At the moment E-Commerce captures less than 1% of the retail market and customers here still prefer to get the touch-and-feel of the product before purchase. But when online portal ‘Yepme’ offered 3 designers T-shirts for INR. 399/- and further discounted pricing to 30% on online payment; why would someone need to step into the store?!  It’s not a surprise why this portal went out of stock in just a few days.

With technological advances and improved Internet facilities; it has been a lot easier to sell products using eCommerce software in India. Digital marketing is further strengthening its roots with emailers, digital Billboards, text messages and emails are targeting potential customers with special offers. Online advertisements and electronic word of mouth (E-WoM) on social networking portals are enticing computer savvy generation to make purchases.

This potential can be reflected in the case of a startup called ‘Xiomi’ that was founded in 2010.

With the help of ‘Flipkart’ as E-commerce channel partner in India, this Chinese company was able to sell their flagship phones (known as Mi3) in no time. It should not come as a surprise that Indian E-commerce market has driven the sales of this product in an exponential manner. It took ‘Xiomi’ less than 3 seconds to sell out their 20,000 phones. What would you call that?!

Looking at this scenario almost half a dozen other leading shopping sites have announced major fundraising deals and as a result the entire industry is experiencing an evolution of eCommerce. The angel investors were never so excited to offer seed money, and looking forward to get the benefits from the market.