DECEMBER 20198HOW LOCALIZING YOUR E-COMMERCE SITE CAN HELP YOU GAIN MORE TRACTION?By Shashank Randev, Founder VC, 100X.VC, Investor & MentorShashank brings entrepreneurial and investment understanding with 15+ years of cross-functional expertisendia of 2019 is a changed country compared to the last decade. With market enablers like availability of cheaper smart phones, low mobile data tariffs and an ever increasing digital literacy, Digital India has progressively been moving towards more inclusive growth. The Indian e-commerce and consumer inter-net sector has witnessed multiple waves of entrepre-neurship due to these factors.With an ecosystem in place, new age startups have taken to the challenge to solve problems in tradition-al industries. Increase in rural commerce and under tapped potential of tier 2/3 cities is witnessing the next wave of growth for these e-commerce startups.We are still in the beginning of the marketplace evo-lution in our country and three emerging trends which are revolutionizing ecommerce are:1) Verticalization of ecommerce: Shopping prefer-ences are becoming more defined and differentiated. Consumers are now looking beyond large marketplaces to verticals in specific categories for a dedicated ex-perience. The growth of vertical market places is likely to be more hyper-vertical and hyper-local. Examples: Craftsvilla, Lenskart, Oyo Rooms etc.2) Double commit ecommerce: A two-sided mar-ketplace where sellers and consumers interact with one another, and create a network effect between them will see a rise. Increasingly users want to curate, filter and match providing customization to their specific needs.3) B2BE commerce: B2B marketplaces where brands are able to sell their products and ser-vices (in bulk) to other businesses will see mul-tiple players. From a handful of companies in the past ­ IndiaMart & Trade India to startups and SMEs catering to big and small clients - those offering seamless servic-es will carve their niche in this sector and survive in the long run.With the ever changing landscape and newer op-portunities, founders and business owners will con-tinuously need to think quickly and have a strategic focus. Thinking about ­ what big ecommerce players are measuring and how could they develop a moat by implementing essential growth strategies? From prod-uct development to keeping customers happy, making decisions on the go in order to stay relevant would be critical. Connecting with the target audience (vernacu-lar in many cases) would be a prerequisite and without a localization strategy, it would be difficult to engage with this segment.IN MY OPINIONIShashank Randev, Founder
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