Online World Will No Longer Be The Same Date:   Friday , December 12, 2014 Headquartered in New Delhi, Moser Baer (BSE: 517140, NSE: MOSERBAER) is a global tech-manufacturing company established in 1983. The company has a current market capitalization of $1.63 billion. The online world was witnessing a sustained boom with the oncoming festivities and multitude international standard products available online. The boom started couple of years before with players like e-bay, Homeshop18, Flipkart and more recently Amazon. These players had, in fact drawn the debate away from typical question of \"How safe is online\" to products and pricing. Each of the online players was trying to bridge the gap with the consumer and as a result the average consumer was no longer worried about the online platform safety but just bit concerned! The companies had started mapping out separate budgets to attract the consumers and by no means a small budget! And then the manic Monday hit the online world. The big billion day on 06th Oct, brought forth a new face to the industry. Online world will no longer be the same. People may talk about the failure of Flipkart to cater to all demands or speak about the inadequacy of its server or some may just point out the Flipkart was sold out! In all this let us talk about the consumer who is out there, still buying. I had an opportunity to come across multiple cases of the day, some happy, some sad and lot of them wondering – did they win or lose. Same product got sold for different prices, can I trust them??? Branded at cost of Rs.899 seemed a good buy but by the time I concluded the transaction, I ended purchasing the same product twice, once for Rs.899 and second time for Rs.1299. Upon talking to the customer care, they agreed to cancel one sale and promptly cancelled Rs.899 one. I ended buying at a higher price – today the product is available at Rs.999 after the manic Monday. Was it SALE? In a rush to buy cheap, people didn\'t compare the prices of the product across sites. Some ended buying at a higher price, some at par and few made a killing buy. It seems once the product demand increased, the price also increased. Price Differentiation, No Longer There used to be time, when one could go to the source and make a splendid buy. With the online boom, the margins are not so big. The original makers sitting at a remote village now know the value of the product. My take on the entire issue – A survey conducted by us (a base of 3,500 consumers) showed us the sales are still happening with following outcome: 1. Buyers continue to be predominantly in the age group of 25- 40 2. 25 percent expressed a drop in perception of reliability of the offers 3. 75 percent felt there was no quality issue 4. 80 percent said they would use online buying but only after prudent check of prices Diwali saw more spurts in online sales but the actual market penetration will be known closer to end of the year. The trust gap will continue to plague the online-tailers for some more time but this too shall pass!!! Flipkart\'s loss has been gain for players like Amazon, and Snapdeal as they go about promoting limited offers and importantly \'finger burnt\' consumers of Flipkart are trying other option. In Bollywood language, \"Operation failed par padoske hospitals are in demand\".