Insightory





E-commerce: 3 most sought after
business plans




Manik MahajanTable of Contents

1. Concept I: E-Tailing ....................................................................................................... 3
1.1. Background .............................................................................................................. 3
1.2. Categories ................................................................................................................ 4
1.3. Consumer Behaviour ............................................................................................... 7
1.4. Inventory Decision & Vendor Partnerships ............................................................. 9
1.5. Technology ............................................................................................................ 10
1.6. Competitors in online retailing in India ................................................................. 10
1.7. Marketing Strategy ................................................................................................ 11
1.8. Point of Differentiation (Unique Value Propositions) ........................................... 12
1.8.1. On Demand Retail .......................................................................................... 12
1.8.2. 3D view of products ........................................................................................ 12
1.8.3. Audio Visual Catalog ...................................................................................... 13
1.8.4. Website in regional languages ........................................................................ 13
1.8.5. Customer Care ................................................................................................ 13
1.9. Revenue Model ...................................................................................................... 13
1.10. Sitemap and Domain Name ................................................................................. 14
2. Concept II: Online VFX Portal ..................................................................................... 15
2.1. The Indian Animation Industry .............................................................................. 15
2.2. The Global Scenario .............................................................................................. 16
2.3. The Indian Animation Market: Getting Into The Picture ...................................... 16
2.4. Opportunity identification ...................................................................................... 17
2.4.1. Mobile Gaming Industry ................................................................................. 17
2.4.2. Advertising Industry in India .......................................................................... 18
2.5. Revenue Model ...................................................................................................... 19
2.6. Technology ............................................................................................................ 20
2.7. Marketing Strategies .............................................................................................. 20
2.8. Sitemap and Domain name .................................................................................... 20
3. Concept III: Comparison Shopping Website ................................................................ 21
3.1. Background ............................................................................................................ 21
3.2. Start of the concept ................................................................................................ 21
3.3. How to scale? ......................................................................................................... 22
3.4. Competition Overview ........................................................................................... 22
3.5. Point of Differentiation (Unique Value Propositions) ........................................... 23
3.5.1. Integration of Online and Offline Retailers .................................................... 24
3.5.2. Product Comparisons, features and reviews ................................................... 24
3.5.3. Testing services for various online retailers ................................................... 24
3.6. Revenue Model ...................................................................................................... 25
3.7. Marketing Strategies .............................................................................................. 25
3.8. Sitemap and Domain Name ................................................................................... 251. Concept I: E-Tailing
The online retail environment in India is eerily quiet. The overall online pie is still very
small. Broadly speaking, Indian consumers aren't shopping online. The distributors or
local vendors still look at the online channel as a drop in the bucket. New online retailers
are slowly emerging - however Indian ecommerce just can't seem to hit its stride. What
does this all mean? Is online retailing not for the Indian market? Are the cultural
preferences of Indian customers so unique that ecommerce will never achieve a
mainstream status?
1.1. Background
It is not a mystery anymore that the retail industry is going through a significant
organization in India. Before we look at the factors that will drive an explosive growth in
eCommerce, it is important to look at why eCommerce hasn't taken off so far in India.
Although there have been several debates on this topic, the most basic reason is that most
Indian consumers still don't see enough value proposition in shopping online. They can't
be blamed because over the past few years, they have heard a lot of horror stories about
not receiving the right products, not receiving products in time, notwithstanding the
issues related to cumbersome returns and cancellation processes when shopping online.
On the other hand, we can't fully blame the online retailers because they have to rely on
third party vendors, logistics partners who still haven't achieved enough scale and the
level of technology automation to consistently meet the desired service levels. These
issues really point to the lack of a mature eco system across the eCommerce value chain.
This is a great time to begin an eCommerce venture in India, however, if you are thinking
about getting in before the mad rush begins, you should consider a few things to
maximize your chance of success. Considering the performance of the e-commerce
business ventures in India, there seems to be a lot of potential in this sector.1.2. Categories
There are certain categories which will always be better positioned to sell on the internet.
This is especially true in Indian context where eCommerce adoption is still in its
embryonic stage. Categories that have a larger concentration of well known brands, such
as Home electronics, cellular phones are likely to sell relatively easily, compared to
unbranded or private label products (such as apparel). You could offer a broad set of
categories, or you may chose to go after a vertical niche such as cosmetics, groceries,
books, electronics etc. Both of these options have advantages and disadvantages.
However the one thing you should consider is that the overall eCommerce pie in India is
still very small. Going to the market with a very narrow assortment could limit your
ability to scale up. On the other hand, focusing on smaller set of vertical/niche categories
may be a good long term decision - because when the market is flooded with a large
number of broad based online retailers, focusing on a niche may help you establish the
right positioning for your company and it might also give you a better control over your
suppliers. We have tried to come up with a model to analyze which product categories
would be the most beneficial for the business considering today's scenario. The following
key would be helpful in understanding the analysis.
Key:
1) Market (MA) - is there an internet market for the product…not all products will sellon the internet so you need to establish who buys the product and do these people use the
internet to make purchases?
2) Size of Market (SM) - how much do people spend on average on this product/service?
To try and establish this information you need to do a little market research, there are
plenty of sites that specialize in providing this information and can be found by searching
'Market Research' on the search engines. When looking for products to sell on the
internet you need to establish if they are well searched through the medium.
3) Search Potential (SP) - number/depth of potential search expressions
4) Search Competition (SC) - the competition for those search expressions and the CPC
/ PPC costs that the search expressions attract. Most of the above can be established using
the overture expression tool and then checking the CPC/PPC cost of the expressions you
identify on either Overture or Miva. Unfortunately, Google do not indicate the placement
cost of the expression, so average Google placement costs can only be established once
you have added the expressions to an active CPC/PPC campaign.
5) Competition (CO) - check for any really big players in the market in your region and
research the competition to establish if it is possible to create a competitive edge.
This can be established by searching using the expressions that were previously
identified. The presence of a really big player should not necessarily put you off but you
need to identify ways to be less expensive or better than they are.
6) Market Breakdown and Niche Opportunities (MB) - attempt to breakdown the
market and identify possible niches.
7) Supply (SU) - is there a regular supply of the product and where and who are you
going to purchase it from?
8) Shipping and Handling (SH) - in relation to its size and weight, how easy is your
product to deliver?9) Customer Support (CS) - how technical is the product and will your customers
require pre and after sales support? In the case of after sales support, will they be
prepared to pay for it and are you prepared and capable of providing it? Will the product
require in house specialist knowledge?
10) Average Sector Profit Margin (PM) - what's your profit margin? Is the difference
between cost and sales price large enough to make it a viable project?
11) Returns (RE) - some products naturally generate a lot of returns, for example: when
shopping for clothing people tend to buy products in the knowledge that they will be
returning some of them. It is important to build this into the cost structure.

Each of the above is given a respective score of 1-9 and with our model a product with a
score of 75-100 is worth further analysis.
No. Product Line MA SM SP SC CO MB SU SH CS PM RE Total
1Sporting Goods 7 7 9 7 8 9 8 8 8 9 8 88
2Toys and Games 8 8 8 6 6 8 8 9 9 8 7 85
3Holiday and Travel 8 7 9 5 5 8 9 9 3 5 8 76
4Pet Care 6 7 8 8 9 4 6 8 7 7 8 78
5Books and Publications 9 8 9 2 2 9 7 9 8 4 8 75
6Gifts 9 8 8 4 5 8 7 9 9 8 6 81
7Insurance and Financial Services 7 7 7 3 2 7 8 9 2 8 8 68
8Home Décor and Accessories 6 6 7 8 9 7 7 6 7 6 6 75
9Flowers Real / Artificial 6 7 6 8 8 4 5 5 7 8 6 70
10Collectibles 9 7 8 7 7 8 4 9 6 7 7 79
11Art 6 5 6 9 7 7 4 6 5 8 7 70
12Gadgets and Boys Toys 9 8 8 4 3 5 8 9 9 8 7 78
13Seasonal Goods, Christmas, Easter 6 5 7 9 8 5 8 8 8 7 8 79
14Events Merchandise, Super Bowl etc 7 4 7 9 7 4 8 9 7 7 8 77
15Tickets for Events 7 5 6 7 6 5 3 9 6 5 9 68
16Patriotic Goods - products with flags 8 4 5 8 7 4 7 9 9 8 8 77
17Mens Accessories 7 6 5 6 6 4 7 9 9 7 7 73
18Beauty Products 6 7 6 6 5 5 7 9 7 6 8 72
19Safety and Security 6 7 6 6 6 6 8 8 5 8 6 72
20Bed and Bath 7 5 5 7 7 5 6 6 8 7 6 69
21Furniture 6 4 5 7 8 6 4 4 8 5 7 64
22Clothing 8 7 7 5 4 8 8 8 9 8 3 7523Fashion Accessories 8 7 6 5 5 7 8 9 9 8 4 76
24Garden Accessories 7 6 6 8 6 5 7 6 9 6 6 72
25Home and Household Appliances 7 7 7 6 6 6 6 4 8 7 7 71
26Kitchen Accessories 8 6 6 7 6 6 7 7 8 7 8 76
27Promotional Merchandise 8 7 6 6 6 7 8 9 9 7 7 80
28Home Office Equipment 6 5 5 6 6 5 6 5 8 7 7 66
29Nutritional Products 7 6 6 5 5 5 7 8 5 8 8 70
30Photographic Equipment 8 7 7 4 4 5 7 9 6 6 7 70
31Fragrances and Perfumes 8 6 6 5 5 4 8 9 9 7 8 75
32Telephony - Mobile, IP, PSTN 7 7 7 3 6 6 7 8 3 6 7 67
33Computing 8 9 7 2 3 7 8 8 2 4 7 65
34Electrical Goods 8 9 7 3 2 7 7 7 5 4 7 66
35Property Sales and Rentals 7 7 6 3 4 6 5 9 3 7 9 66
36Clocks and Watches 7 6 5 5 5 7 7 9 7 6 7 71
37Food and Drink 6 5 5 8 7 8 6 6 6 7 7 71
38Health, Fitness and Medical 6 5 6 6 7 7 5 8 4 5 7 66
39Jewellery 7 7 7 4 5 7 8 9 8 7 7 76
40Music and Film 8 7 9 2 3 7 7 9 8 4 7 71
41Baby Products 7 6 7 6 8 7 8 8 7 8 6 78
42In-Car Entertainment 8 5 7 6 7 6 8 8 6 8 6 75
43Computer Games 8 6 8 2 2 5 6 9 8 4 7 65
44DIY an Building Materials 6 4 5 9 8 5 5 5 7 6 7 67
45Heating Plumbing and Air Con 6 5 5 9 8 5 5 5 5 7 7 67
(All figures indicated above are our own internal workings and are based on our own
research and opinions of that market. The data has been gathered from various sources
like indiastat.com, ebsco, etc.)
1.3. Consumer Behaviour
Are we targeting customers who are looking for low priced merchandise or are we
targeting customers who are willing to pay a small premium for a great end to end
experience or are we targeting customers who are looking for good gift giving options.
The initial reaction that most people have is - let's target all types of customer. This is
definitely understandable, especially if you are in a startup mode; however, it is necessary
to establish a focus. We are not suggesting that one should go out of the way to avoid
customers who do not belong to their target segment. However, every decision you make
about the business strategy must be based upon who you are targeting. For example, if
your primary target is customers looking for low priced products, it may be ok to give upcontrol and outsource certain functions such as call center. On the other hand, if your
core value proposition is around a great customer experience and quality, you may decide
to have an overall control over CRM and order fulfillment. Looking at the Indian
consumers over a period of few years, the scenario has been evolving. Today more and
more families in our country have moved up from the aspiring class to the consumer class
and the consuming class is increasing at an unmatched rate as shown in the figure below:

It is this growing consuming class which should ideally be our target segment. It is also
very essential to understand that although the consuming class is growing, the mindset of
the Indian consumers is still more or less traditional and will take time to change, thus the
products and services being offered to the Indian consumers have to be modified/tailored
accordingly. The typical traditional mindset of the Indian consumers can be explained
with the help of the following points:
Þ Believe in touch and feel factor
Þ Very strong concept of Bargaining not available online
Þ Authenticity of products is established only with human interface
Þ They are more comfortable doing cash transactions
Þ Are skeptical of the return/replacement policy of the products purchased online
Þ Credibility of the products purchased onlineThus if we try to understand the Indian consumers properly, there are a few barriers to
online shopping which can be clearly identified and which need to be addressed for any
online retailing website to be successful.

1.4. Inventory Decision & Vendor Partnerships
rd
Whether to stock your own inventory or to leverage 3 party vendors to ship products is
probably the most critical decision you will be faced with. There are significant risks and
rd
opportunities with both the options; however, if you chose to go with 3 party vendors,
the biggest trade-off is about the level of control you are willing to give up in the end to
end customer experience. On the flip side, you don't have to worry about carrying
inventory costs and be faced with out of stock or over stock situations. This also speaks
to the fit with the overall strategy - if your goal is to offer the biggest size of the
rd
assortment at the lowest price point, you are probably better off going with 3 party
vendors who can source the products at a larger scale. On the other hand, if your mission
is to build the best customer experience, then you would probably require a tighter
control on the end to end process and it might make sense to limit your vendor
partnerships to a smaller set of vendors who can execute better.1.5. Technology
Technology is a critical foundation of any eCommerce venture. There are a number of
options available ranging from Open Source (e.g. OS_Commerce) or licensed software
(e.g. IBM Websphere Commerce) or managed eCommerce services arrangement.
Although I would probably leave the detailed comparison of these options for a future
post, it comes down to the overall objective. If you are looking for a strong differentiation
in the end to end experience, it is better to build your own technology platform in my
opinion. However, if you are looking for quick time to market, and if your goal is to
differentiate among other dimensions such as pricing or assortment, you are probably
better off leveraging licensed eCommerce software. In any case, you should consider
investing in robust site analytics software (e.g. Omniture or Google Analytics) and a
parametric based search solution so that customers can easily find what they are looking
for. One thing that usually gets ignored the most often is the automation in the back-end
order management. Most of the smaller eCommerce players focus on building the front-
end capabilities and rely on a lot of manual processes and adhoc reporting to fulfill
customer orders. I believe by putting an equal emphasis on backend automation and
robust order management solution can help you build an environment that can improve
the overall predictability in the end to end customer experience.
1.6. Competitors in online retailing in India
The online retail industry is still considered to be new to India and there is still a huge
potential in this industry which needs to be tapped. There are a number of players which
have already entered this industry which include both big and small players. Various
offline retailers have also made their interest in the online domain pretty clear with
FutureBazaar.com being the first online extension of the offline retailing business - Big
Bazaar. Reliance also has confirmed its entry into this market and other players like
Subhiksha, etc would not be too far behind to follow. Although no concrete data is
available on the exact performance of these online retail websites, we have tried to
compare these websites on the basis of the traffic each of these websites generates.Although ebay.in is not a hardcore online retailer in real terms but it is still the most
preferred website for shopping by the online Indian consumers with futurebazaar.com
and indiaplaza.in to follow. As discussed earlier, the entry of the offline retail giants like
Reliance, etc is only going to make this industry more and more competitive with cut-
throat pricing strategies and a real warfare in the virtual world.
1.7. Marketing Strategy
Even though there are a limited number of eCommerce players in the Indian context, it is
extremely important to carefully determine the go to market strategy and allocate enough
funds to execute it. You may have the best assortment and a great customer experience,
but you still have to convince the customers to come to your site and transact with you.
Since this is more of B2C transaction model, therefore we would need to market and
promote our website through mediums which can reach the mass media in the country.
We would essentially need to market ourselves through various online marketing tools
like direct mailers, advertisements on other popular websites, google search engine
optimization, etc. In fact, for the promotion in the early stages certain offline mediumswhich are relatively cheaper can also be used such as newspaper inserts, fliers and other
promotional merchandise in certain select targeted areas.
1.8. Point of Differentiation (Unique Value Propositions)
As discussed earlier, the online retail market is going to very cluttered with all kind of big
and small players coming up in the market. It is therefore very important for us to
differentiate our offerings from the others and that too should be done keeping in mind
what the consumer wants.
1.8.1. On Demand Retail
Traditional sales models are push-based, i.e. the marketer has a product that he has to
sell. When we go to buy something at a superstore, we get so overwhelmed sometimes by
the number of products/choices that we tend to forget what we really need. Or it may
happen that we know what we want - say I want a cell-phone but the store only stocks
the most expensive brands. Now imagine a store where you can say: "Ok, I want a cell-
phone, but I'm looking for brands with this exact budget." We would like to give our
customers the freedom to express their choices to us first hand. It's a win-win situation.
As a retailer, we get to sell what the customer wants, and the customer gets to buy exactly
that and not a compromise. If the consumer needs something that is not available in our
portfolio, he/she can submit a request for it and we take it up as a challenge to find that
product and make it available to that customer and also add it to our portfolio for other
customers.
1.8.2. 3D view of products
First and foremost, Indian customers love to touch and feel the products before making
the purchase decision. This is one of the major disadvantages for an eCommerce
environment where the touch and feel aspect is almost missing from the shopping
experience. However, there are technologies and solutions that the retailers can
implement to help reduce this gap. For example, Endless.com does an outstanding job of
offering high resolution imagery and dynamic HTML to help customers look at every
minute detail of the product before making a purchase decision. Augmenting thisinformation with detailed product description, specifications as well as unbiased
customer reviews can actually serve as a good proxy for the physical product. Offering a
3D view of the products would enable the customers to look at each and every minute
detail of the product just like they do in an offline retail shop.
1.8.3. Audio Visual Catalog
The Indian consumers are still very much used to the salesman explaining to them and
demonstrating to them the product and its various features. As mentioned earlier this is in
fact one of the barriers to online shopping in India. According to us, this barrier can be
overcome by simply adding to the website a complete audio visual catalog which would
serve the purpose of negating the need of a salesman and would explain the features of
the product in detail to the customer.
1.8.4. Website in regional languages
Recent internet statistics clearly show that 42% of the regular online Indians are already
visiting language websites. Bringing up retailing websites in regional languages would
definitely give us a first mover advantage and would help increase our reach faster and
quicker as compared to other websites.
1.8.5. Customer Care
This customer care doesn't refer to any other typical customer care, it means caring in
real terms. The website needs to be made very user friendly and the response time of the
customer care executives should be minimum. Also we need to build return/exchange
policies that are customer friendly.
1.9. Revenue Model
The revenue model suggested for this website would be the same as being followed by all
the other e-tailing websites i.e. revenue from sales of products and some revenue from
advertisements based on CPC model.1.10. Sitemap and Domain Name
Since this kind of a website refers to the domain of a website catering to the mass, it is
very important for the domain name to be very short and simple for the consumers to
remember. Also the domain name has to have a feeling of my own website, the feeling of
belonging. Thus, we came up with the domain name: "www.mychoice.com"

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Affiliate Program2. Concept II: Online VFX Portal
2.1. The Indian Animation Industry
While the Indian animation industry is still in a nascent stage, the sector is expected to
show significant growth in the near future as global outsourcing within the market takes
off. A special study conducted by NASSCOM on the Indian animation and gaming
market has found that the country could emerge as a significant destination for such
outsourced work in the years to come.
A new and emerging breed of animation and gaming companies in India are leading the
country's charge on the global market for these services. These young innovators have
managed to find a foothold in this high potential arena, which in the earlier days, was
dominated by IT giants with deep pockets and specialized skill sets.

Today, however, as well-known entertainment and media companies and studios,
driven by the need to remain globally competitive, outsource their animation and
gaming development to this sprightly bunch in India, the country too is becoming an
active participant in the great animation and gaming opportunity.2.2. The Global Scenario
According to the NASSCOM study, the global animation business was estimated to
touch US$ 55 billion in 2005 and will grow to US$ 75 billion in 2009 at a CAGR of
eight per cent. Animation has found use in segments such as entertainment (including
TV broadcast, fully animated movies, direct-to-DVD and VFX), e-Education and web
designing, with the entertainment market generating close to 73 per cent of the overall
revenue during 2005.
From a development point of view, the animation sector notched up a turnover of
around US$ 25 billion in 2005, which was expected to rise to US$ 35 billion by 2009
(at a CAGR of 8.7 per cent during 2005-09).
The gaming industry, on the other hand, comprising the video console, PC,
wireless/mobile and on-line gaming segments, achieved revenues of around US$ 19
billion in 2005. The sector is expected to witness exponential growth and achieve a
turnover of US$ 36 billion by 2009 (at a CAGR of 17.3 per cent during 2005-09).
The NASSCOM study indicated that the mobile gaming segment would grow the
fastest, increasing its overall share of the market from 16 per cent in 2005 to 28 per cent
in 2009. Console gaming, which was currently the largest revenue generator, however,
would show a decline and reduction in global market share from 42 per cent in 2005 to
30 per cent in 2009.
Revenues from global gaming development meanwhile grew to US$ 5.8 billion and
were expected to touch US$ 11.1 billion by 2009 at a CAGR of 17.6 per cent.
2.3. The Indian Animation Market: Getting Into The Picture
The NASSCOM study on the Indian animation and gaming market indicated the
following:
· The animation development segment achieved revenues of US$ 285 million in
2005 and was expected to grow to US$960 million by 2009· The Indian animation development market was dominated by the entertainment
sector, which accounted for a share of 68 per cent
· Within the entertainment segment, the highest revenue earner was the TV
broadcast industry, with a market share of 64 per cent. While the segment was
expected to increase at a CAGR of 21.2 per cent during 2005-09, its overall
market share was expected to come down to 42 per cent in 2009
· The fully animated movie market, estimated at US$ 30 million in 2005, was
expected to go up to US$ 180 million by 2009 at a CAGR of 56.5 per cent and
increase its market share from 15 per cent in 2005 to 28 per cent in 2009
· The size of the VFX market was expected to go up to US$ 95 million by 2009
from US$ 15 million, with the offshore market estimated to double
· The non-existent direct-to-DVD market in India was expected to go up to US$ 95
million in 2009 and hike its revenue share to 15 per cent in that year
· e-Education would account for revenues of around US$ 150 million by 2009, up
from US$ 40 million in 2005
· Web designing, including outsourced visualization of animation and creation of
movements, would increase its market size from US$ 50 million in 2005 to US$
160 million in 2009.
2.4. Opportunity identification
Although this kind of a website concept is not new but in India, it is still in the nascent
stages. There are a few online players in this category but still they do not cater to most
of the requirements of the customers world wide. In fact, most of the existing websites
are more of online communities for the animators to come together and market their
designs and products. There is a lack of dedicated websites in this domain in the Indian
industry.
2.4.1. Mobile Gaming Industry
The Indian gaming development market touched US$ 30 million in 2005, and was
expected to rise to US$ 300 million by 2009. Mobile gaming continued to be the largest
segment within the gaming development market with a share of 53 per cent in 2005. This
was expected to go up to 68 per cent in 2009. The PC gaming development market inIndia was expected to witness a CAGR of 62.6 per cent and go up to US$ 35 million by
2009, while console-based games development was estimated to account for revenues of
54 million and a market share of 20 per cent by 2009.

Mobile gaming dominated the Indian gaming market and emerged as the largest revenue
earner for the segment and one of its primary drivers at both the international and
domestic levels. Mobile gaming content is divided along the following segments: mobile
gaming development for Indian telecom operators and offshore mobile gaming
development by MNCs.
Keeping the above facts in mind, there is a huge potential in the mobile gaming
animation development market which can be tapped in through this website. Since this is
an emerging industry, a website is an ideal way to reach out to the potential clients for
full term contracts and relationships.
2.4.2. Advertising Industry in India
The Indian advertising industry is expected to grow 61% by 2010 (with advertising spend
climbing to Rs. 36,731 crore). As per report by ZenithOptiMedia, "..expect advertising
expenditure in India to increase from 0.50% of the gross domestic product (GDP) to
0.53% over the next three years,"Worldwide, the ad industry is expected to grow 6.7% to reach $61 bn and Internet
advertising is expected to surpass magazine advertising; and the upswing will be
triggered by quadrennial events like Olympics,US elections and Euro 2008.
As far as Indian market is concerned:
· Internet advertising contributes only 1.8 % of the country's total advertising
spend.
· Internet medium is set to witness 150 per cent growth in 2008.
For every hundred rupees spent by advertisers, Rs 91 is spent on television and the print
media while the outdoor media accounts for Rs 5. The rest is divided between cinema,
radio and the Internet. (The Indian entertainment industry too is expected to grow by
CAGR of 18% to reach Rs. 1 trillion numbers by 2011).
The point to note is that today more and more advertisers and advertising agencies are
looking towards animated campaigns, animated characters to market their products. Take
for example, The Kangaroo campaign for Fosters with animated Kangaroos, Kellogs
animated campaign, Cadbury's and Vodafone also adopting the animated campaign
route. This essentially signifies the potential of VFX, animations in the advertising
industry.
Our VFX portal can be again used as a very effective medium to showcase our work to
the people in this industry and cater to their various needs. Any designs chosen by them
can be then further customized according to their needs and requirements. This would
give them better cost benefits and lower animation design as compared to traditional
means.
2.5. Revenue Model
The basic revenue model suggested for this kind of a website would be that of sales
again. The initial part of the revenue would come from the sales of designs online to
various customers worldwide. Another major chunk of the revenue can also be earned
from the offline contracts that result from the sales of online designs. Apart from thesetwo, advertising model can also be used to generate some revenue from the websites
based on CPC model.
2.6. Technology
The kind of technology infrastructure required for this kind of website would be similar
to the one described above for the e-tailing website. In this case also we would need a
basic database and shopping cart software system in place.
2.7. Marketing Strategies
This would be more of a B2B venture where the images and animations would be sold to
other organizations instead of individuals. The marketing for this kind of website can be
only done through certain online tools like search engine optimizations and select online
advertising. Also another powerful tool for such kind of marketing would be the business
social networking websites where the marketing takes place with the help of word of
mouth through professionals. Another tool could be the forums dedicated to the
animation and creative arts being operated in the country.
2.8. Sitemap and Domain name
We considered a number of options and finally came up with the following domain name:
"www.liveanimation.com"

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content3. Concept III: Comparison Shopping Website
3.1. Background
With the increasing Internet penetration, ecommerce is steadily growing in India. In the
travel sector, it has reached a tipping point where buying tickets online has become quite
commonplace. I believe it hasn't reached that stage yet in the other sectors, but it is surely
inching there. The number of sites selling stuff online is increasing at a good rate too -
there are at least 150+ decent sites doing retail over the Internet. Surely, a lot of these
have started off with focus on NRI customers, but it is not difficult for them to switch
gears and start focusing on the customers in India, when there is demand. A lot of data
has been already provided about the online retail industry in India. Based upon that data
only, this concept can be further developed.
3.2. Start of the concept
As the number of sites increase, how do you know where to go and buy stuff? Surely
ebay is the current leader, but as other sites start becoming more and more competitive, it
becomes a pain to find out the site offering the best deal. In comes the concept of
comparison shopping sites. Here we build an index from the product inventories of as
many online shopping sites as we can get the data from and provide search on this index.
As a result, users can come to the site, search for products and see what each online
merchant has to offer and eventually click out and go to the merchant site to do the
transaction. The way these guys make money is by charging the online merchant for
driving traffic to their site (mostly cost per click). As with the standard CPC concept, this
marketing channel is very effective and accountable for the online merchants as they pay
only when they actually get the user on their site. With more than 150+ shopping sites out
there, you'd think someone would have seen an opportunity and started a comparison
shopping engine. You didn't think wrong. Surely, we are starting to see some traction in
this area with the early players being bechna.com and ultop.com. Check them out, these
sites do not have a lot of stores in their index, but it's a good start. We will definitely see
more players entering this field and will try to offer more and more value in terms of
better user experience, having more items/stores in the index etc. Obviously, the moreitems and stores that a player has, the better job it can do by helping users find the best
products and best prices.
3.3. How to scale?
Now the next question then is - how to get the data? Couple of options here: they can get
data feeds directly from online merchants or they can scrape/crawl the shopping sites and
extract data from there. The first method is an easier technological problem, because of
the fact that data feeds that they get are much more structured compared to unstructured
HTML from the websites (which of course does not mean that no one takes this
approach. Sometimes this is pretty much the only way to go). But the problem is that as
more and more comparison shopping players come up, it is not scalable for the online
merchants to provide data feeds to each of these players. Providing data feeds is not the
only problem, the online merchants need to track how much traffic a comparison
shopping site is generating so that they can pay appropriately and measure their ROI.
As the industry matures and comparison shopping becomes popular, we will see "middle-
men" in the form of data feed aggregators coming in, who will collect data from the
online merchants and supply it to anyone looking to create a comparison shopping site.
This is also a very attractive business as each these middle-men get a cut from the
revenue that comparison shopping sites generate. Have not seen any player doing the data
feed aggregation in India yet. To give examples from the US market, a few examples of
comparison shopping sites are shopping.com, shopping.yahoo.com, pricegrabber.com,
shopzilla.com etc. A few data feed aggregators are linkshare, commission junction, etc.
In europe there is kelkoo, pricerunner to name a few.
3.4. Competition Overview
As stated earlier, this market in India is still in the nascent stage and there are very few
players in this market. Although these players enjoy the first mover advantage in this
category but after studying the models being adopted by these websites, the loop holes
can be very clearly identified and worked upon.All of these websites claim to give complete information about the products taken from
all the available e-tailing websites but studying them carefully, anyone can very easily
see that most of them search at most results from 2-3 e-tailing websites. Bechna.com for
example, compares prices only from rediff.com and indiatimes.com.
Tolmol.com on the other hand provides reliable results but at the same time detailed
information about the products is not available. For example, for a given product,
tolmol.com displays the prices from ebay, rediff, etc but it fails to mention anywhere that
the product being sold on ebay is a second hand one. Also product reviews and product
comparison and specifications are not available as required.
3.5. Point of Differentiation (Unique Value Propositions)
As mentioned earlier, there are already a few websites in this category which have the
first mover advantage. Thus, there is a definite need for us to differentiate our offerings
from the others and provide a kind of service to the customers which no other website can
offer.3.5.1. Integration of Online and Offline Retailers
Of course the concept of comparison shopping is not limited to online shopping sites
only. There are sites like Rediff Product Search and CompareIndia.com that actually
build their index from data feeds from the local retailers, so users can find out who is
offering the best deal and go and buy the products from the physical store. But still this
concept is not well developed and there is a possibility of taking it a step further.
We can offer the basic service of comparing prices from various online retailers as well
as the prices from various offline retailers. It is not necessary that the online retailers
would be offering the lowest prices or the best deals and thus the customers should be
able to get the best deals even if they are offline. There can be section on the websites
where the offline retailers/stores can enter their quotes for the products which are being
sold by other online retailers. This way, the customers would be able to get the best deals
online or offline.
3.5.2. Product Comparisons, features and reviews
Almost none of the comparison shopping websites except tolmol.com offers the features
of comparing the different products, getting their in detail specifications and features or
even getting reviews about the products.
We will not only offer the customers to find out which is the cheapest deal for him but
also give him/her the details about the product's features and specifications. In fact to
take it one step forward, we can also have a 3d view and an audio visual catalog for the
products which is missing from most of the retailer's websites. This will enhance the
shopping experience of the customer online and we will also give him the facility to write
reviews and critiques for different products of his choice. The website would be able to
offer the complete solution for all needs to all types of customers before they actually go
and buy any product online or offline.
3.5.3. Testing services for various online retailers
This will be kind of a value added service being provided to the online retailers and not
the customers. This will help the retailers test and analyze the various aspects of their
websites on different parameters vis-à-vis competitor online retailing websites. This will
also help improve our relationships with the online retailers.3.6. Revenue Model
The major source of the revenue for this kind of a website would be the commission
which will be earned from the traffic which is being directed towards various online
retailers' websites and the purchases which take place at these online retailer websites
through our website. Another source of revenue would be from advertisements which
would be placed at our website based on CPC model.
3.7. Marketing Strategies
This would be again a B2C venture where we would need to reach out to the masses who
are shopping online. The best methods of doing this would be by advertising both in the
online as well as offline media. This kind of a website would need to be advertised with
the help of radio/tv commercials as well as below the line advertising. That's the initial
way of generating traffic for such websites and later on they work on word of mouth
publicity which again is one of the most powerful ways of advertising.
3.8. Sitemap and Domain Name
For this kind of a service, we would like to come up with the domain name:
"www.bestdeals.com"

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