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Project Report
Shopping Comparison:Water
Purifiers
The project aims to explore and research the current scenario of e commerce as experienced by the
shopper. We have taken the product- Water Purifiers. It is a basic necessity of every home and
hence present on every shopping website. For the project we visited 4 retail stores that sell water
purifiers-Muni Lal Bhishan Swaroop Store,Laxmi crockery House,Shri Vardhman Traders,Atul
Electricals and 3 E- commerce websites: Amazon,Snapdeal,Flipkart and checked for Water purifiers
from 4 companies:Kent,Pure-it,Aquaguard,Prestige.
Comparison of the shopping experiences of: Retail store vs Retail store, Website Vs Website and
Website vs retail stores on following parameters: Pricing, Functionality, User-experience, Overall
Value reveals the customer preferences and the effectiveness of all alternatives to the customer. We
have also explored all the alternatives available to the potential buyer of this product. We have also
tried to find the shortcomings of both the options: Offline and Online, the users of these options and
why e-commerce is yet not a fully grown shopping option.
The method of payment and purchase in the online situations have also been studied because this is
one of the areas with largest scope of improvement: Ensuring secure payment gateways, Describing
the customer the reason for asking any personal information and ensuring him/her of reliability of
such payments.
The key difference here thus, lies in the delivery time and installation feature. Though water purifiers
being classified as bulk products take time in dispatch and delivery but most sites provide free of
cost installation and door step delivery which saves labor and cost of the customer though increasing
time.
Post purchase options are also very important. The answerability of both online and offline store is
different. The return policy of both may be fully or partially disclosed. This also affects the perception
of the consumer and hence choice of one of the both.
When a shopper buys from marketplaces like Flipkart or Snapdeal, its typically those brands that
benefit when the transaction goes well. Shoppers pay little attention to the marketplace merchant
who originally listed the product and shipped the merchandise.
We conclude that E commerce is still an emerging and constantly changing field that needs
improvement and adaptability according to the Indian Market and some recommendations to
achieve the same.
Alternatives available to potential customer:
Range of Water Purifiers:
Retail stores:
Sno Purifier Company Store Capacity
10 liters 20 liters
14 ltrs
NOVELTY ELECTRICAL
1800
14 Liters
NOVELTY ELECTRICAL
1500
18 liters
NOVELTY ELECTRICAL
2700
10 liters 20 liters
14 ltrs
Amazon 1840
Flipkart 1840
14 Liters
Amazon 1435
Flipkart N.A.
18 liters
Amazon 2700
4 Prestige
Snapdeal 2725
Flipkart 2850
Convenience based on availability and accessibility is almost the same. Every area has a shop or two
dedicated to home and kitchen appliances where they can be bought. Almost every online website
except online fashion stores like Myntra and jabong have wide range of water purifiers. Non-Cash
Payment: E-Commerce enables use of credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, electronic fund transfer
via bank's website and other modes of electronics payment.
The key difference here thus, lies in the delivery time and installation feature. Though water purifiers
being classified as bulk products take time in dispatch and delivery but most sites provide free of
cost installation and door step delivery which saves labor and cost of the customer though increasing
time.
Offline Retail Stores:
Shopping Experience:
Beliaghta main road, beliaghata, Kolkata-10 Opp. Ajanta Jwellers, Beliaghata main road
3) SANGEETA SALES EMPORIUM 4) KITCHEN SOLUTIONS
Near bagbazar bata, Shyam bazar, Kolkata-04 RA block, Near SBI atm, Chingrighata
Details of the shopping Experience:
1) Stores were crowded but personal attention was given to every customer.
2)At KITCHEN SOLUTIONS we were also explained that most affordable and best seller pure It
has the cleaning candle which has to be replaced every 2 months and and very difficult to find-
Something no other store or website offered.
4) Some shopkeepers were very good at convincing us about the highest price product with lowest
price. No such pressure or misguiding was at other stores or website.
5) Purifiers can be opened and tested before buying. Customers could use and try the product. Full
guarantee of replacement in case of faulty product was provided by shopkeepers.
6) Some salesperson were busy showing the customers product of their choice even after customer
demanding otherwise repeatedly.
7) Some stores practiced good visual marketing than other stores and websites which encouraged
more to get a good look at product and motivate to buy it by seeing live display of product.
8) Most stores had few pieces and low variety with high prices.
Discounts:
There were no discounts available at any stores. All were fixed price. No system of coupons was
there.
Review:
There was no system of review or feedback. The only review people could get was by asking any
relative or friend about the product. No such service was given from the store.
Billing:
Very quick and easy billing-Every customer quickly paid and carried the purifier home with signed
warranty cards. Only cash payments were allowed. None of the stores accepted cards.
Online Retail Stores:
Shopping Experience:
V/s
Range of products: Amazon and Flipkart both have large range of products. Flipkart apparently has
some tie with Kent and hence has all products of the company but no product of Pure It.This is
something not present in retail stores. Every retail store though had less range of particular company
but had purifiers of same company. All sites are B2C and B2B-Busineess to customer/business.
Very different from offline retail stores. The whole choice was laid on the customer.
There were only suggestions but no pressure. There was no testing or touching of
products available but 3D view and zoom in compensated because touch/feel is not a
requirement in water purifiers.
Product specifications and features were given in detail and clearly and especially well in
Flipkart where they were divided into categories for customer to choose in which area
they want high specifications.
Both sites gave considerable discounts as compared to the offline stores. Snapdeal gave more
discounts than flipchart and had more versatility of products but did not provide free door to door
installation.
Reviews:
Both snap deal and Flipkart had customer reviews in which customers had reviewed the product and
services of the online store by giving stars out of 5.Flipkart gave the percent of positive reviews the
product had received in its desciption.On snapdeal it was in relatively excluded bottom of page
Billing Process:
Flipkart has launched its own payment gateway called Pay Zippy. So that it can reduce its
cost and control its infrastructure from frontend to backend. Besides this, with the
launch of Amazon India marketplace in the country, it has become increasingly
important for Flipkart to offer seamless service.
Other payment gateways in the country include Paytm payments, PayU, CCAvenue,
Billdesk, EBS, among others. All sites offer emi and COD option along with payment with
cards and coupons. All of the sites require email id, address and postal code.
Shipment and delivery: Flipkart orders come through Blued art and can be tracked at any
place and time by the shipment Id provided by the site. Similar thing is done by Snapdeal
by shipping service of Red Express. Billing at Snapdeal:
Third Party Sellers:
When a shopper buys from marketplaces like Flipkart or Snapdeal, its t pi all those ran ds that benefit
when the transaction goes well. Shoppers pay little attention to the marketplace merchant who
originally listed the product and shipped the merchandise.
The exception is when there are problems. In those cases, marketplaces can point fingers at the merchant,
regardless of whether the problem was within the merchants control. In other words, the merchant
receives little credit for smooth transactions and gets blaimed for problem ones. Thats not the best way
for merchants to build their brands.
Amazon is a prestigious and reliable name in online shopping.Recentlly it introduced Third party
selling and customer complaints reached three fold. People complained for mistakes of third party
store to amazon and its brand image reduced. Hence it launched a new Amazon Fulfilled icon to
products of third party sellers
Comparison for Online and Offline stores by shopping experience:
1. Pricing C B- C B B A A-
2. Functionality B B- A- B- A- B A-
3.
User-experience B B- B B- B A- A
4.
Home delivery N/A N/A N/A N/A B- A- B
5.
Delivery Time A- A- B B- B A- A
6.
Payment Option B B B B A- A- A
7.
8. Shipping Cost N/A N/A N/A N/A B A A
Overall Value B- B B- B A- A- A
Post purchase:
After browsing through all products in water purifiers in this was my facebook page:
This kind of post service communication between sites can be perceived both as healthy customized
advertisement and intrusion of privacy. Any way it is one of the things that offline retail stores just
cant do. Flipkart and Snapdealboth post purchase and post delivery ask for optional feedback and
reviews from customer. Amazon Offers door to door return policy. They come and take back the
product unlike Flipkart and amazon.
Conclusion:
Both the shopping experiences were good in their respective places. They were very different in
terms of availability, accessibility, convenience, versatility, price and so on.
E commerce though quick and easy has many shortcomings that we learnt through the experience:
Recommendations:
For Online Stores:
The effective design of a brand for local market and tropicalization of the products under
an effective knowledge of the local consumer;
A complete understanding of the local social, politic, economic and regulatory conditions
relevant for a successful market entry;
Thorough knowledge of local demand and the competitive environment that will allow a
given company to compete in a meaningful and successful way;
And, a deep knowledge of local distribution channels, including e-commerce and mobile
commerce.