INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, LUCKNOW

Supply Chain Challenges of E-Commerce Companies in India and Scope for Improvement
Group 10 | Section E | IIM Lucknow, 2012-14
3/21/2013

PGP28237 Aishwarya Kirthivasan PGP28239 - Bharti Yadav PGP28240 - Muhammed Rijas PGP28249 - Sruti Pujari PGP28250 - Anju R. Gothwal PGP27276 - Pramesh Chand

Contents
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................................2 REVOLUTION RETAIL: KEY FINDINGS AND INSIGHTS ........................................................................................3 CREATE A SURVEY TO UNDERSTAND THE PRACTICES AND SUPPLY CHAIN CHALLENGES FACED BY ECOMMERCE COMPANIES IN INDIA ......................................................................................................................7 Introduction: ............................................................................................................................................................7 Areas of Focus: .......................................................................................................................................................8 Survey Creation: .................................................................................................................................................. 10 SURVEY TO IDENTIFY POSSIBLE AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT FOR E-RETAIL COMPANIES SELLING MULTIPLE PRODUCTS SUCH AS BOOKS, APPARELS AND ELECTRONICS. ................................................. 15 Hypothesis: .......................................................................................................................................................... 15 Questionnaire ....................................................................................................................................................... 16 ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................................................ 20 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................................... 21 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................................... 22 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................................ 23

INTRODUCTION
Retail is the sale of goods and services from individuals or businesses to the end-user. Retailers are part of an integrated system called the supply chain. A retailer purchases goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers directly or through a wholesale, and then sells smaller quantities to the consumer for a profit. Retailing can be done in either fixed locations like stores or markets, door-todoor or by delivery. Retailing includes subordinated services, such as delivery. The term "retailer" is also applied where a service provider services the needs of a large number of individuals, such as a public. Shops may be on residential streets, streets with few or no houses or in a shopping mall. Shopping streets may be for pedestrians only. Sometimes a shopping street has a partial or full roof to protect customers from precipitation. The new technological revolution has taken retailing into a completely new space, online retailing. Online retailing is a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions and mail order which are forms of non-shop retailing. Once a particular product has been found on the website of the seller, most online retailers use shopping cart software to allow the consumer to accumulate multiple items and to adjust quantities, like filling a physical shopping cart or basket in a conventional store. A "checkout" process follows in which payment and delivery information is collected, if necessary. Some stores allow consumers to sign up for a permanent online account so that some or all of this information only needs to be entered once. The consumer often receives an e-mail confirmation once the transaction is complete. Less sophisticated stores may rely on consumers to phone or e-mail their orders, though credit card numbers should never be accepted by e-mail, for security. This document involves a brief analysis of the report Revolution Retail by Kevin OMarah, Head of Faculty, SCM World. The analysis is followed by a survey to understand the practices and supply chain challenges faced by ecommerce companies in India and a survey of existing and potential customers who buy using ecommerce sites and suggest possible areas of improvement for ecommerce companies with special focus on products like books, apparels and electronics.

REVOLUTION RETAIL: KEY FINDINGS AND INSIGHTS

This report is based on a research that was carried out to understand todays customer value chain and the future as seen by the retailers with respect to e-commerce and multi-channel customer satisfaction. Fundamental Forces of change The transition from general store to super markets to television and finally to e-commerce and multichannel indicates higher operating efficiency in the value chain as the retail medium becomes more advanced. In this process it is essential to understand the different roles played by physical stores and e-commerce sites. The two have varying cost structures and also call for competitive and marketing strategies on different lines. For instance, physical stores aim at humanized, tactile benefits while the e-commerce medium differentiates itself by catering to price sensitivities and enhancing assortment for better product complementarity. Both require different supply chain capabilities to sustain their competitiveness. This report studies various retailer concerns such as impact of e-commerce on physical stores, store associate and shopper behavior, the future structure of retail organizations and how to manage the changes in this sector. A survey carried as a part of this research revealed that 74% of retailers expected the store to still be important in the e-commerce era however, its role in the value chain will change. Important Store functions in the future The relative importance of physical stores with respect to e-commerce in future points towards the changing role of stores in the buying process. For instance store may act as a showcase for certain electronic items that a consumer may land up buying online. For other categories like perishables and apparels stores may play yet different roles. In case of perishables like grocery, stores may act as warehouses for online order fulfillment (eg. Tesco). On the other hand the charm of trying on a fashion garment helps sustain the growth of garment stores. Playing so many roles requires flexibilities which might prove to be a costly affair. The key to success lies in making strategic choices regarding what role the store will play and how e-commerce might complement its objectives. Multi-channel functions The two key e-commerce enabled functions that future stores may need to fulfill are buy-onlinepickup-in-store and buy-online-ship-from-store. While both these capabilities are expected to be common across various formats, the latter is significantly less certain as a requirement of the ecommerce enabled retail future. Interestingly, 70 % of the respondents believe that pick-up in store is essential. As retailers looking the e-commerce enabled future expect additional duties at the stores, managing these new processes will be challenging for them. This will further call for enhanced role of
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associates to match the demands of better informed customers with the capabilities of the supply chain. This will mean better training and tool improvements without which retailers will not be competitive. A smart associate with in-stock inventory access and lots of knowledge will become very useful to the shopper. Another element of the retail revolution will include job elimination at check out and elimination of floor staff. However, the importance of human capital in e-commerce future cant be ignored. Although, labor skill requirements will be decreased due to automation, many retailers feel that ecommerce will up-skill rather than de-skill the work. The skills required may change in two ways: either intensive sales support or more intensive logistics. Depending upon the format (apparel, grocery etc.) one skill may be more important than the other. Another aspect of the e-commerce enabled retail future is expectation of labor cost. As human capital gains importance, pays will rise. But, head-count reductions will offset higher wages. In other words, there will be fewer, more expensive associates in the stores. The future e-commerce enabled shopper will enter the store better informed (owing to online research). The scope of 4 Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) will become wider with variables such as express shipping vs. slow shipping, bulk order vs. single item orders, sale price vs. regular price and even discounts for survey participation. As rightly quoted in the article, the Google enabled customer can quickly map out a series of options along their personal demand curve before spending. Shoppers are willing to entertain offers catering to their product choice, price preference, availability and convenience. However, the art of balancing demand supply will call for more than just impressive assortment that is in-stock. There will be implications on sourcing, product design, and store layout and supply chain. One key insight is the supply chain implications of this finding. Customers making bulk orders at lower prices hold inventory for you. Those willing to wait for slow delivery allow you to ship in full truck loads or an optimized route. Some customers might narrow their selection requirements, which limits the SKUs that you must carry, thus making your operations leaner and in stock performance. These things will lead to significant opportunities of upstream supply chain savings. Brand power constitutes another area of concern. Direct selling to customers has become more prevalent through business formats of the likes of Amazon, or through third party entities like Digital River. Vertical integration by manufacturers/retailers is a cause of worry. Does e-commerce favour the manufacturer or the retailer? This is a rather important debate. Data suggest that retailers expect their ability to impress customers to decline in the e-commerce future. They see the emergence of ecommerce as an accelerator to brand building that favours manufacturers. Direct-to-customer shopping forms a link between the manufacturer and the shoppers, thus obviating the presence of the retailer. However, opinions regarding the importance of e-commerce in the retail future varies across formats. While grocery format is positive about the e-commerce future, apparel retailers foresee an opposite effect on their businesses.
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Organisational changes driven by e-commerce With the onset of the retail revolution, organizations will have to demonstrate certain degree of transformation. One aspect could be improvement in the integration between store and the supply chain. Improved visibility of inventory to the customer as well as to the DC will help improve overall service. Customers will expect supply chain information that will guide them towards a profitable configuration. Offering details of product, packaging and delivery cost, financing terms and service contracts may be too much of a compromise for the supply chain, but this is the direction in which the future retail is heading. Surprisingly enough, most retailers expect the lines of difference between e-commerce supply chain and in-store supply chain to disappear. The evolution of a unified supply chain approach has caused growth in various retail sectors, with the delivery of consistent prices across both e-commerce and store channels. The supply chain operations are becoming leaner as redundancy in inventory and operational expenses are being trimmed. Retail encompasses sequential process flows merchandise decisions through supply chain and into the store, and e-commerce tightens all these processes, thus compressing the calendar driven retail value chain. As cycle times shorten, there will be better information sharing across the process. This in turn will help improve decision making relating to volumes, assortment and pricing. The convergence of operational roles tosses the question of which of the three functional players should lead the game. Responses say that merchandising was best qualified for the same. Supply chain and store operations were ranked second and third respectively. Cutting the data collected by the type of format, grocery and apparel retailers gave store operations and supply chain precedence over merchandising. The apparel retailers did express their anxiety owing to the increased complexity of customer fulfillment in an e-commerce enabled future. Managing Change The key question raised with regard to change management in the retail future was whether a common strategy should be followed across functions or each function should be allowed to grow at its own pace. As different kinds of surveys revealed conflicting results, there was uncertainty over who should lead a converged strategy. This could be owing to the immaturity of the traditional value chain roles that do not have a clear strategy for the future. There is a need for e-commerce to be seen from a short term perspective rather than a long term problem. In this regard, retailers are hopeful that technology can come to their succor. As technology enhances the information flow across processes, it might make complex decision making possible within tighter time frames. Majority (about 68%) of the respondents felt the idea of using technology to this effect credible, as against a much smaller percentage of retailers who still believe that technology cannot replace human skills. Most retailers are looking forward to using technological advancements in handling data and interpreting it in real time.
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The revolution is slated to bring about a chance in the metrics of success in the sector. While traditional retailers used the metric same-store-sales-growth as a suitable metric, a large number of respondents felt that a new metric-same-shopper-sales-growth would be more appropriate in this context. An even larger percentage believes that some new metrics which are yet unidentified may prove to be more accurate in gauging success in an e-commerce enabled future. Conclusion This research primarily indicates that meeting the challenges and opportunities of the revolution retail will mean both- better pricing as well as satisfying in-store experience. Serious strategic implications are to be witnessed by stores as well as the supply chains that serve them. Finally, it has been suggested that in order to handle the retail revolution, retailers should: Understand the consumer better, not just the shopper. Use loyalty cards, kiosks and web stores to answer questions about what problems the consumers are trying to solve when they think of a particular retailers brand. Empower their associates to solve problems better. Retail success is defined by the lifetime sales given to a customer. So for enhancing customer relationships, associates should be paid better as well as trained better, and in turn can be hired in fewer numbers. Use the store as a supply chain asset. Traditionally, stores were considered to be the end of the supply chain. But ecommerce will force retailers to believe that the store marks the start of the supply chain. Hence, the assets of the store can be used to lean out logistics and cause customers to work with the retailer. Organize for value chain success, not just sales volume. As the supply chain becomes more linear, volatility and information silos increase. Retail revolution will require retailers to manage the trade-off between selling and delivery more effectively. Not ignore information technology. With the burgeoning popularity of ecommerce comes a data deluge, which can be managed only with better information technology. Therefore, it is imperative that retailers handle IT better and make more informed investments in IT. Finally, it has been said that revolution retail will enable a renaissance for many retailers, while for many, it will mean the end.

CREATE A SURVEY TO UNDERSTAND THE PRACTICES AND SUPPLY CHAIN CHALLENGES FACED BY ECOMMERCE COMPANIES IN INDIA Introduction:
A paper by WANG Jin-fu and ZHANG Ai-xiang describes the relationship between strategic context and supply chain decisions. The premise is that supply chain decisions must be evaluated in a strategic context based on the answers to the following three points: 1. The desired strategic position of the firm 2. The supply chain capabilities the firm needs to fulfill its strategy. 3. The structure to fulfill those desired supply chain capabilities. The goal is to create alignment between the desired strategic position of the firm and the capabilities of supply chain processes used to satisfy customer needs (Porter 1996). The desired strategic position can be expressed in terms of a priority ranking on the needs of the customer segments that are targeted by the firm. Typical dimensions of customer needs that may be targeted by a supply chain include timeliness, quality of service, accessibility, availability, customizability, and price. There exists a tradeoff between the level at which a set of customer needs is targeted and the cost incurred by the supply chain in meeting these needs, decision regarding which are tackled by using efficient frontiers. The efficient frontier represents the lowest cost of delivering a given level of a customer need using the best available supply chain processes. Each point on the frontier corresponds to a particular supply chain structure, employing the best available technologies, managerial policies, and inputs to deliver the desired level of a customer need at lowest cost. As such, the efficient frontier constitutes the state of best practices at a given point in time (Porter 1996). It also shows the inherent trade-offs that a firm must consider when selecting its strategic position given limitations in process technology and policies. A strategic fit between the firms objective and the supply chain hence becomes crucial for success. We look at the e-commerce retailers in India and specifically the Apparel segment. Some of the major retailers in e-commerce space are Fashionandyou, Myntra, Inkfruit, yebhi.com ,Jabong, Flipkart, Hushbaby, babyoye, letsbuy, Sanpdeal, dealsandyou, homeshop18, infibeam, rediffshopping, , zoomin, 20north, 99labels, ebay, indiangiftingportal, magazinemall, naaptol, fernsnpetals, caratlane, timtara, watchkart, bagskart, jewelkart etc. There has been a high splurge in the number of e-tailers in the last few years and hence, the space is quite cluttered. With booming e-commerce, several key themes emerged: 1. A shift from a push to a pull to a demand-driven supply chain
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2. 3. 4. 5.

Customers gaining more power in the marketing channel An enhanced role for information systems to gain better control of the supply chain The elimination of unnecessary inventory in the supply chain A focus on core capabilities and increased outsourcing of noncore activities to specialists

To understand the best practices and supply chain challenges from the supply chain perspective, we can assess the supply chain from the perspective of the firm or the perspective of the customer. We divide the entire supply chain in the following areas:

Areas of Focus:
Sourcing/ Vendor Management: Each of the manufacturer or distributor has their own individual and perhaps, not easily integrable systems of packing, logistics, billing and measurement. Reconciliation of all of them is not impossible but is a very cumbersome task. The e-commerce firm does not maintain inventory for all the items available on the website. Difficulties arise when a customer order has to be sources from multiple vendors and needs to be collated and then send. Moreover, the retailer has to deal with quality issues, since the product comes back to him and it is his brand that gets affected. Inventory Management: Decisions related to centralization or non-centralization of inventory also plays a crucial in determine how well can the firm meet the customer demand. It is also important to asses whether it will be beneficial to cross-serve markets by different warehouses if the inventory has a decentralized or regional system. Distribution networks & Transportation: Deciding on an optimal network design, analyzing which category of products to be drop shipped and which items to be kept in inventory is crucial. Such decisions also affect the lead time required to fulfill an order. The delivery time is of utmost importance. In India, it is difficult to find and address because of lack of properly standardized "physical postal address system". All of this is important as it plays directly into the overall customer experience of ecommerce. Companies like Flipkart are working around the issues in the logistics industry by setting up their own logistics Reverse Logistics: Reverse logistics is another function of distribution management. Faster product obsolescence and more generous warranties have escalated the number of returns. Reverse logistics not only encompasses damaged or returned goods but also products designed for remanufacture hazardous materials, and reusable packaging.
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Loss or damage in transit is also one the concerns for the supply chain. Some of the logistics challenges also assess the highly fragmented trucking industry, which carries most of the business-related transportation within India. The fragmented nature of the industry makes it hard for companies to manage the large number of carriers required to handle the shipment volumes. Although outsourcing of logistic activities to 3PL providers seems to be increasing, the organized 3 PL players are very limited in India. The situation is further compounded by Indias poor infrastructure facilities. India has one of worlds largest road networks, yet less than half of the roads are paved. The national highways account for less than 2% of the total road network, but carry 40% of traffic. Order fulfillment Rising customer expectations and short fulfilment deadlines call for effective planning that needs coordination and information sharing amongst all the players of the supply chain. To generate a practicable plan, all supply chain constraints should be considered simultaneously by the fulfilment- planning process. These include transportation constraints such as truck capacity (use of FTL/LTL) and weight, use of alternate modes (Air, water, pipeline) and availability of downstream resources such as loading/unloading docks. The process also may include packing, document preparation, customs brokerage, and inventory and warehouse management. One of the most important innovations here is the integration of distribution with transportation planning and scheduling through a comprehensive supply chain Other factors which are needed for customer satisfaction are On-time delivery, tracking of orders, providing after-sales support and a forum to address their complaints. It is also very important to assess those complaints and put mechanism to improve those service areas. The above parameters help us to look at the supply chain from the point of supply chain reliability and flexibility. Supply Chain Reliability Reliability is a measure of service quality and mainly depends upon the consistency of the supply chain to be able to deliver the right product to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity and in the right condition. On-time delivery is one of the important customer certain metric. This determines whether a perfect delivery has taken place or not and it acts as measure of customer service level. Supply Chain Flexibility Flexibility can measure a system's ability to accommodate volume and schedule fluctuations from suppliers, manufacturers and customers. Indeed flexibility is vital to the success of the supply chain, since the supply chain exists in an uncertain environment. 'To understand the alertness of the supply chain in responding to market place changes, Supply chain response time metric can be used.

Survey Creation:
This survey needs to be filled out by the supply chain team members of e-commerce firms. The data will be used only at aggregate level. Key for certain terms used in the survey: Does not Exist Functional Competitive Advanced Best in Class Functionality not present Functionality exists at basic level Some advanced functionality exists within capability Almost all advanced functionality is offered Leading practices and all advanced functionality within a capability is offered

E-commerce firm specific parameters Sourcing/Vendor Management related 1. How many vendors does your firm deals with?

2.

<20 <50 ___________________Number or Range

Do you face issues while dealing with vendors? No If yes, what are your most issues related with?

o o

Yes

3.

Quality of product Timing of delivery Pricing agreements Packaging and lot size issues Any other__________________________

Please elaborate on the issue:

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4.

If no, what competency, in your opinion makes your vendor management effective?

5.

What would you say about the functionality of performance metrics to evaluate your suppliers on an on-going basis?

Best in Class If it exists, what are the parameters?

o o o o o

Does not Exist Functional Competitive Advanced

6.

Is your sourcing process cost-effective? No Any specific practice that makes it so (either cost effective or non-effective)

o o

Yes

7.

Inventory Management Related 8. Is your inventory centralized?

o o

Yes No

Any specific thoughts on the decision of making it centralized or decentralized?

9.

If decentralized, do you use cross warehouse supplies to meet demand in market areas not covered by that warehouse? No Do you use drop shipping for any items?
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o o

Yes

10.

o o

Yes No

Category of Items: ____________________________________ 11. What are issues that you most frequently face in inventory management?

Distribution Network and Transportation 12. What is the distribution methodology that you use?

o o o o
13.

Warehousing to distribution drop points, then milk runs Warehouse to customer directly Use of 3PL Any other ______________________________

What would you say about the optimality of your network design?

14.

Best in Class What improvements, if any, are you planning to undertake?

o o o o o

Does not Exist Functional Competitive Advanced

15.

How do you handle the reverse logistics for return goods?

16.

Any issues peculiar to the reverse logistic handling?

17.

Is loss or damage in transit an issue for you? No Any specific steps taken to handle this issue?
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o o

Yes

18.

Customer specific parameters 19. What are your usual service levels? _________________ 20. What percentage of your orders are not delivered on time? ______________________ 21. Do you provide order tracking/ order status services to your customer, once the order has been placed? _________________ Are there issues coordinating with multiple vendors for a customer order of different products? No If yes, what kind of issues do you face?

22.

o o

Yes

23.

What would say about providing after-sales support to your customer?

Best in Class If yes, what forms?

o o o o o

Does not Exist Functional Competitive Advanced

24.

Call us option Chat with us option Email option Any other ______________________

Most of the customer complaints that you receive are related to the areas of

Mismatch between expected product and delivered product

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25.

Difficult to return items Any other issues you face in the supply chain that we have not captured?

Quality of product Delayed deliveries Payment issues Refund issues

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SURVEY TO IDENTIFY POSSIBLE AREAS OF IMPROVEMENT FOR E-RETAIL COMPANIES SELLING MULTIPLE PRODUCTS SUCH AS BOOKS, APPARELS AND ELECTRONICS.
The prime focus of any firm is to manage the attitude, trust and satisfaction of both its existing and prospective customers. The customer retention is an important factor which can be linked to overall growth and profitability of a firm The methodology followed here is 1. Hypothesis 2. Administration of Questionnaire (75 respondents) 3. Analysis of the Result 4. Recommendation based on the results We developed various hypotheses to test which factors are of importance to the customers.

Hypothesis:
H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 H9 H10 HYPOTHESIS UI and UX (User Interface experience) has a positive impact on customer satisfaction The quality of layout has a positive impact on trust of the customer Advertisements on 3rd party websites trigger purchase of a product Reduced Search time leads to more product searches by the same customer during one unique session Reduced number of steps to complete the purchase leads to higher customer satisfaction The Quality of Information has an impact on willingness to purchase Customers believe in the testimonials by existing and trusted buyers Use of Higher Security while payment transaction leads to a feeling of safety with the customer Use of past history website to recommend products on advertisements leads to sense of intrusion to privacy Positive impact of Recommended Products on ecommerce websites
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H11 H12 H13 H14 H15 H16 H17

H18

Processing Time post purchase has an impact on customer satisfaction Online order tracking gives a feeling of Safety of the product Ease of Access to customer care has a positive impact on customer satisfaction The lower Price Level of Products has a positive impact on customer satisfaction Large Product assortment has a positive effect on customer satisfaction Packaging of the product has direct impact on Perceived Quality of Service by the E-Retail Chain Instance of product not matching the exact specification as shown in the website lead to negative impact on trust on the retailer Delays in shipping have a negative impact on willingness of customer to purchase any products from the retailer

Questionnaire
Age *

Less than 20 20-30 31-40 40 and above Gender *

Male Female Layout of Homepage 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very Important
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Fast Loading time of the webpage 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Recommended Search based on your past history * 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Fast Search Utility 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Adaptive search this feature prompts you while you are typing 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Less number of steps to confirm an order 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Secured Payment Portals 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very Important
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10 Very Important

10 Very Important

10 Very Important

10 Very Important

10 Very Important

Low Order Processing Time 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Ease of Access and Clarity in Response from Customer Care 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Online Order Tracking services 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Packaging of the product parcel 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Variety of Different Categories of Products available 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Large number of alternate products available 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. On time Delivery of Products
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10 Very Important

10 Very Important

10 Very Important

10 Very Important

10 Very Important

10 Very Important

1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,.

10 Very Important

Intimation of Delivery through call or email a day prior to actual delivery 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Very Important

Delivery by Retailer Themselves and not from a third party ( Courier services) Do you feel that its safer that person delivering the product should an employee of the retail chain where you ordered from 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Product Matching the specification that you had ordered 1 Not Important Select a value from a range of 1,Not Important, to 10,Very Important,. Your opinion on advertisements in third party websites based on your past history

10 Very Important

10 Very Important

Helpful Irrelevant I feel they are intruding my privacy Do you trust the testimonials by Trusted Buyers and others on the e-commerce website 1 No Select a value from a range of 1,No, to 10,Trustworthy,. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Trustworthy

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ANALYSIS
Rank 1 Factor Secured Payment Portals Total Score 701 Scaled of 10 out Weights 0.0644894

9.34666667

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Product Matching the specification that was ordered 686 Fast Search Utility On time Delivery 656 648

9.14666667 8.74666667 8.64 8.62666667 8.6 8.54666667 8.52 8.49333333 8.36 8.13333333 7.92 7.65333333 7.57333333 7.36 7.28 6.49333333

0.0631095 0.0603496 0.0596136 0.0595216 0.0593376 0.0589696 0.0587856 0.0586017 0.0576817 0.0561178 0.0546458 0.0528059 0.0522539 0.050782 0.05023 0.0448022

Fast Loading time of the webpage 647 Ease of Access and Clarity in Response from Customer Care 645 Layout of Homepage Variety of similar Products available Low Order Processing Time 641 639 637

Online Order Tracking services 627 Intimation of Delivery through call or email a day prior to actual delivery 610 Packaging of the product parcel 594 Alternate products available Lesser number of steps to confirm an order Adaptive search Recommendations based on search history Trust on User Testimonials 574 568 552 546 487

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Delivery by Retailer Themselves and not from a third party ( Courier services) 412 TOTAL

5.49333333 144.933333

0.0379025

The responses of the survey can be found here.

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Recommendations
1. Security: Use of Trusted Payment Portal users noted that they linked trust with 1. Verisign logo 2. The Lock Logo 3. Https which shows that the page is secured Firms can use this to add more security features and take measures to ensure that the customers feel it is safe to transact with the retailers 2. Product should match all the specifications and described features and attributes such as shades of color and size Customers want the same product that has been ordered which matches the description which is shown on the retailers webpage Customers feel that sometimes the product given has lesser or different features or specifications such as size or color shade (apparels) when compared to what was shown on the webpage 3. Faster Search Utility and Adaptive Search Users want a faster search engine which should have adaptive search functionality which results in lessor time in finding the product 4. On Time Delivery Users want the product to be delivered on the promised date. As there is a high relation with a customers perception and trust on the retail firm ,which will directly impact the Repurchase intention 5. Real time Online Order Tracking services Users want to know where their product is and the quality of information given here directly impacts the perception on quality of retailer. 6. Low Order Processing Time Customers want shorter order processing time , and the product to be shipped as soon as possible. 7. Intimation of Delivery through call or email a day prior to actual delivery
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Customers feel that this gives them independence to negotiate the timing or enables them to know when to be available so that they can receive the delivery. 8. Packaging of the Delivery Users link the level of packaging directly the level of safety and quality measures followed by the retailers to ensure that the product reaches safely to the customers. 9. Delivery of Product either by representative of retailer or a reputed delivery firm Customers want the product to be delivered by a reputed company and link this to the safety of the product and quality of the standards adopted by the e-retailer. 10.Lesser Number of steps to confirm an order Customers want the least number of steps or clicks through which they can confirm their order and reach the a page which clearly specfies the following 1. 2. 3. 4. Date of Delivery Transaction Id and Timestamp Billed amount Tracking Link and other details

CONCLUSION
While Internet retail sales have increased tremendously in the past decade, they still represent a relatively small share of total retail sales. There are many retail firms that do not transact over the Internet yet. Understanding the drivers and barriers of e-commerce adoption has become increasingly important in the current day business. Better insight into entry determinants can help companies in improving their strategies and coping with the impact of new entry. Therefore, awareness of the industry evolutionary dynamics is important both for new entrants and incumbents. The focal contention is that while the entry to the Internet channel of early adopters might have been driven by the pursuit of strategic opportunities, for the majority of retailers, external influences played a key role in the adoption decision. As this particular segment is still in its maturing stage, continuous improvement and innovation holds the key. A flawless platform for purchase is what the organizations are striving for. The easier the platform is, more the customer is attracted towards this particular channel of retailing.

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REFERENCES

1. B.S. Sahay and Arun K. Gupta, The Supply Chain Critical Link to E-Commerce Success: An Indian Scenario, Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective 2001 5: 74 2. WANG Jin-fu, ZHANG Ai-xiang, 2009 Second International Symposium on Electronic Commerce and Security, E-Commerce in the Textile and Apparel Supply chain management: Framework and Case study 3. Darin Buelow, Raman Nath, Mohan Ram Akella. 2009. Optimizing the supply chain in India, Promise and peril , Deliotte 4. Toral Mehta, Hewlett-Packard Company, E-commerce and Supply Chain Management: Fitting the Pieces Together 5. Kavita, Dr. U.S.Pandey, E-Commerce Implementation, Problems, Solutions and Popularity in Managing Supply Chain: A Comparative Analysis of Different Top 10 Indian E-Commerce Companies

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