Dear Retailer, why don't you sell online?

Dealing with e-commerce for the last few years, I have been listening and reading about retailers asking this question inside their board rooms and to consultants. If we talk about India, which has been overwhelmed with the wave of ecommerce in the last two years, the question is still alive. India has more than 120 million internet users and a growth of 38% Y-o-Y. However, less than 10% of these internet users have ever shopped online.

India’s e-commerce journey started with railways and airlines tickets, moved to financial and entertainment services and has now arrived to the e-tail junction (defined as selling physical products online).  The apprehensive Indian buyer took the first step by buying fairly standardized and low-price item like books.  Their next brave leap was a standardized yet high-ticket item- electronics. The buyer profile was young (18-30 years), urban (metro), educated, working. Browsing through websites for apparel, electronics, books, health or beauty products will clearly highlight to any novice that all these websites differentiate on just one aspect- Price.

Right now, Indian e-tail landscape is suffering from criticism on the sustainability of the business models of the dotcom babies. Additionally I am worried about the reluctance of organized physical retailers to progress to online medium. Share of organized retail in India is still small but not trivial. It is an opportunity to the tune of USD 1 trillion by next decade. We, customers, are familiar with Pantaloons, Shopper’s Stop, Lifestyle, Bata, The Mobile Store, Levis, Spencer’s, Big Bazaar, Easy Day, Home Centre and many other organized retailers with whom we prefer to shop. But when I go online, what do I type- Jabong, Zovi, Flipkart, Infibeam, Bestylish, Healthkart, Fashionandyou? Why don’t these lists match? If I prefer some retailers offline, why don’t I shop with them online? Answer is that my preferred retailers don’t sell online. (Yes, Shoppers Stop does sell online, but has some shoddy technical fault which prevents the product images to show up.)

I thought of a few reasons (as a customer) as to why these retailers should sell online:-

1. Channel Extension– For the very question I posed above, I would like to see my favourite retailer selling online. As a customer I have progressed to the digital media for buying, then why not my favourite retailer?
2. Customer evolution – Apart from shopping online, the Indian customer has evolved in many other ways. Firstly, the young working urban population is time-starved. Long office hours and stretching of office work to home (thanks to the laptop and internet) have ripped them off time and energy to shop. Secondly, the young population in smaller cities has become aspirational and yearns for branded goods and an elaborate lifestyle.
3. Environmental factors- Urban India is witness to crowded metros and suburbs, long traffic jams and hefty parking charges.  Shopping in a popular hypermarket may save me some money due to everyday low prices or huge discounts, but it is at the cost of hourly parking charges. And on days like first weekend of the month, one should feel lucky to get the paid parking too.
4. Online selling made easy – The current websites have a clean and chic design (user interface), easy-to-follow navigation and decently categorized products. The payment gateways are secure and order management is well-managed. The technology and it’s vendors have matured and promise the retailer value-for-money.
5. Payment is not a problem- Thanks to Cash on delivery (CoD), the woes of low credit/debit card penetration in India have disappeared. CoD eats up the margins but earns customers. 
6. Online does not mean cheapest prices – It is well-established that customers love to hunt bargains online usually on the websites of pure-play online retailers. But the question I pose to myself (as a customer) is – If Lifestyle is selling it’s brand bossini online, I would not mind paying the same price as I pay in store. It is because I am loyal to Lifestyle being an Inner Circle (their membership program) member. In short, I trust my retailer and do not expect unrealistic discounts. 

If the above reasons look agreeable, then I would like to highlight one more thing.

Treat me the same on all channels- Physical retailers need to know that we customers know our Pantaloons and Lifestyle very well and would not allow them to make mistakes which homeshop18.com or flipkart.com(just examples) may make. For us, you are same, whether online or offline. If I want to return my defective shirt bought online, I would prefer to walk up to the store and do so. If I am not home, I would need an option of picking up my online order from your store. Remember, I am the same customer and I need not be discriminated across channels.