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Alok's Posts / Startup

Look Mummy, I just became friends with a JUNGLEE!

WOW!

Man!

I am in LOVE!

With JUNGLEE.COM!!!

So, I heard about it yesterday on the viral channels (NO ADVERTISING) and instantly felt CONNECTED.

[ps – In case you live in the Himalayas and still don’t know, Junglee.com is an AMAZON Company and has been launched in India as a Price Comparison Portal (for starters).]

Ok – So, WHY do I like Junglee.com so much and so fast?

Check this:

Junglee.com lets me figure out WHERE I CAN BUY STUFF.

In short – the stuff I want, can be ANYWHERE – Junglee helps me FIND OUT WHERE!

Example:

– I want a ‘No Country for Old Men’ DVD 

I type the same on Google. I see Jack Shit (in relevance to what I want)

Ok, so I click on the Left Hand side ‘Shopping’ tab (after setting Mumbai as my location). I see Monkey Dung (none of these sites or prices make any sense to me)

Ok, so now I go to FLIPKART and see that the movie is out of stock 🙁

Hmmmm…. So, I go to my newfound friend – JUNGLEE.com

I FIND what I am looking for in 2 options – Blue Ray and normal DVD!!

And, I BUY THE DVD – from a Store I HAD NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE!!

So, what just happened, thanks to JUNGLEE? 

– I found what I wanted!

– I got a choice of formats!!

– I discovered a new site for buying Movies that I had never heard of before!!!

Now, consider another angle:

JUNGLEE GIVES ME A CHOICE THAT IS BEYOND PRICE!!

I type ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ on Flipkart.

This is what I see:

Ok, cool. But when I do so on Junglee.com, I see some awesome VARIATIONS of the book I HAVE NEVER SEEN BEFORE!

There are Audio Books, special old editions (that I may like just for the collector in me), etc. And, for Me the MARWARI – the price range is also there!

Check out:

If you look carefully, Junglee is ALSO offering me to buy books that are cheaper than Flipkart – BUT the point is – SOMETIMES, I MAY WANT something MORE than just better price.

This is why I think JUNGLEE is gonna SMASH the Balls of all the e-Commerce players in India:

– Price discovery and end purchase is now taken to a nuclear level.

– By being a discovery and comparison portal ONLY (so no e-commerce), JUNGLEE remains UNBIASED in showing ALL the options available [ps – Flipkart is not there :-)) ]

– I get into the habit of CHECKING FIRST at Junglee. So Junglee is my Google for Shopping.

– If I want DVDs that WORK (yeah – the Indian ones don’t sometimes), I can buy them from AMAZON directly (part of the options provided by Junglee). So, I can fulfill my intent – buy BETTER, not just cheap. This is also because of the rating engines of Amazon etc. 

– e-Commerce Portals will survive ONLY if they have UNIQUE STUFF to sell – NOT CHEAP PRICE ONLY!!!

– All the stupid money spent in BUILDING BRAND AND IMAGE AND ALL THAT Frog Spit gets washed out. I had never heard of Movie Mart and never will – but who cares? They got my business of Rs 450 today!!

– Junglee (Amazon) will become the Chief Lead Provider. If you don’t feature here, YOU ARE DEAD! (dead, as in, you will then spend crores fighting for your brand and to make me remember to come visit you)

– Over a period of time, AMAZON learns what Indians WANT and WHY – and then, they just do it themselves!!!

YEAH, I like this kinda e-Commerce, man….!

Lotsa credit to Asha for editing !!!

******

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55 Comments

  1. You said it Alok ! “Junglee is now the Google for shopping”

  2. You’re right boss! I think they nailed it well. 🙂

    And the brand has a connect with Chimpoo too 😛

  3. Alok

    when I am typing Junglee.com in google, its giving me the option of junglee.org.in

     

     

  4. yep ….. it surely shows some ‘never heard of’ kinda sites. good job Amazon …

  5. I use to compare prices of books at https://www.indiabookstore.net for a while now and it has always been a help to me, but at https://www.junglee.com , you can compare many other things too. Thats neat.

  6. :-)))))

  7. yeah! That’s just an auto suggester!!

    When u know the URL, why are you going to google??

    Why don’t u just type the url in the browser?! 

  8. And for a while, Chimpoo has been missing his GURGAVAAAAAN uncle also…

  9. Smart thinking by Amazon.com by not trying to do a swadesi to pardesi  transformation but keeping the roots simple and making all of us swadesi’s go junglee !

  10. I disagree with you guys.Yesterday I checked Junglee.com for buying a laptop.All it had shown me 4 stores ..I.e, homeshop18,futurebazar,dell india and some XYZ store.Their prices and models ain’t radical either.They r showing same old bull crap products .Flipkart is doing much better in this aspect .Why are u guys HYPING Junglee.com so much? cuz,its a PHOREN MAAL?

  11. So,

    1) Enter the market and help others win (Customers and Ecommerce sites)

    2) Become famous and one shop destination for online shopping comparison 

    3) Understand the demographics, buying patterns of customers, and give yourself enough time to set the stores here

    4) Buy may be 1-2 or 4 major e-commerce sites

    5) Become an major e-commerce destination 

  12. Did you see this message – “Junglee.com’s Artificially Low Price Quotes & Hidden Charges” – https://www.medianama.com/2012/02/223-junglee-coms-artificially-low-price-quotes-hidden-charges/

  13. hey Alok,

    this all sounds good initially, I’m only unsure of quality of service and delivery guarantee when there are multiple sellers unheard of before. Records say that Flipkart is a trusted brand just coz of it’s service and people are (somewhat) sure of getting their products delivered/replaced when they order from Flipkart. Recently when they faltered various blogs published consumer stories of having bad experience with FK. What happens when hundreds of sellers fail to deliver?

  14. Nothing. They get filtered out. Its like Google. Some links are junk. 

  15. on the positive side Amazon giving an oppurtunity for smaller players to reach out customers in an effective and economical way.In the end of the day ,shops which offer better services and value to consumer going to stand out.

  16. yes junglee is slick but the value prop you mention in your article has been around for years now through baazee and ebay.in ….great range and lots of sellers and great prices…like junglee’s execution though but this isnt ground breaking its been around….

  17. Hi Alok

    Loved your writing style.I think juglee is a good idea and its given a platform like our company to prove our self.The Amazon had done its homework before bringing these sellers on board.Indian eCommerce is going to grow many folds and there is room for everybody to grow.The bad ones will get filtered out.Flipkart has done a good job too.I buy my books from them and they are good.

  18. Happens all the time at my office – ie, folks type amazon.com into their search bar and THEN click on to the (hopefully!) first search result link. In fact, it’s the younger guys who use this “technique”! Used to drive me crazy; now, I just accept that this accounts for a lot (most?) of Google’s traffic. 

  19. Hah!! Come on, don’t be that guy. Yes Junglee.com looks good, they already are getting 1/2 to 1/6 the traffic of e-commerce sites in India, probably through the initial hype. 

    While its a force to reckon with, I don’t think I am looking at Junglee to buy anything yet, it points me to sellers I don’t know or true, as in the other e-commerce site exist, I’d rather buy something off flipkart or infibeam than actually junglee. 

    Its all awesome for us tho, power to the consumer, the more options we have the better it is. Other than that, its just a service from Amazon, didn’t find anything to write home about it yet.

    I am not against early adoption, but there is nothing really to adopt, all they are is a good affiliate site, with links to Amazon or other unknown ecom websites, so lets wait for Amazon to “really” come into india with all the bells and whistles with their inventory and Kindle, then we can make some noise, right now .. its just another site :). 

  20. Hello Alok, 

    Indeed, Junglee.com is a great platform for consumers in India. I really like the price comparison feature on Junglee.com

    Its just a Startup!! They will sweep the competition and will become the necessity of ours. 

    Keep it up! 

  21. Are we reading about a case on “first impression is the last impression”?

  22. Good question. All my life I have been a first impression guy. I make up my mind about people, places, businesses in 10 minutes MAX.

    And that has served me for good and for bad 🙂

  23. That is an interesting thought Alok. May be in other post you could touch of some aspects of ‘making up the mind about people’. Will be interested to know. I for one agree and believe that first impression goes a long way, but having thought and gone through some experiences few times in life think that people change and evolve through the time and judging and treating the person based on the first impressions might not serve me nor the receiving person well.

    Best,

    Tejas

  24. Well written ! But Sorry Alok, I totally disagree with your observation. I don’t have stats but few anecdotal observation of customers (i know) and my rationale as a e-commerce user ( I buy for me and my company atleast Rs 1 lac products every month).

    1. In India for e-commerce to go ‘mainstream’ the single most important point is trust. Early adopters like you and me are only handful. Trust is either by developed long term focus on service by a new (as relative description) player (amazon, cleartrip, flipkart, BMS) or brands like Tata (chroma), Pantaoons, Shopper stop and few others. I know that they are yet not on e-commerce but what if chroma wants to launch a flipkart for electronics, it can be a game changer. Didn’t CROSSWORD missed a golden opportunity ? Again, it has got to do with Indian mentality.
    2. Junglee.com exposes a user mostly to sites unheard of. Assimilate this with a guy who wants to buy a shiny new smartphone. He sees that phone on some random.com (through junglee.com). Will he take the risk ? This is no story (It happened with my friend. He wanted to buy Samsung NOTE (which was cheaper by Rs 400 in junglee.com). He instead brought it from flipkart. He got his delivery today. He is happy. Could that random.com buy him the mental peace ?
    3. What is the difference between ebay.in and junglee.com. Broadly they are same. Technically ebay.in is better as it offers more features (like paisapay, EMI, ebay USA). Isn’t Junglee.com a sophisticated version of ebay.in in terms of UX and branding. What if ebay start advertising to highlight its experience and hire an awesome UX team? If you would have search your options on ebay.in, you would have got more results (and better paying options than junglee, try-I bet !
    4. Why will mainstream Indian Audience bother to go to Junglee to see the comparison and pull his hair to understand the internal equation between junglee and partner sites. How much percent does Indian mainstream knows and sleep Amazon to trust junglee.com ?
    5. Think how much will 1 bad user buying experience will affect junglee in comparison to flipkart. It will smash the faith in the 3rd party dealers for ever. No ? Flipkart can easily move on.

    I rest my case. Debate folks !

    Rupesh | rupeshkumarshah.com/about

     

  25. THIS IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT!

    yes!!

  26. i searched for Samsung HM1100 which is a very popular low priced handsfree which i also sell on ebay india. the results were funny!!

    so were the results for Lakshya DVD when i was hoping to see the Hritik Starrer movie

    However search for Sandisk 32GB did show up microSD card which i was hoping to find and i did find at a particulalrly attractive price.

    So i guess, the concept is defintiely rocking!! but a lot needs to be done on it. Bet it will be done in super time what with Amazon having made up thier mind to enter Indian Market. only hope that the 2G license cancelling does not cast a sahdow on their plans!

  27. Also i was wondering why the replies to an article show up here in Ascending order. i mean does it not make more sense to read what has been said about it last rather than the first time…i am always kind of searching for what i have just remarked about an article.. 🙂

    may be some food for thought

  28. Junglee is just the aggreagator of information .. The key element of fulfillment is still beyound the purview of Amazon .. 

    This was the reason that eBay could make a mark in indian e-commerce..You are never sure of the seller and the track record and what kind of stuff that is going to arrive at ur doorstep..

    So, Junglee will definitely make a mark with people as its a new animal in the Zoo .. but how it fares is yet to be seen..

  29. Alok, you should try the google “shopping” filter on google.co.in. I find it really useful and it obviously crawls a helluva lot more sites than amazon is listing on Junglee now. 

    See results for your first query:

    https://www.google.co.in/#q=no+country+for+old+men&hl=en&prmd=imvnsb&source=lnms&tbm=prc&ei=v5EtT8uRLIrUrQff2uTzDA&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CBwQ_AUoAQ&prmdo=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=4d2d336272d7f6a3&biw=1366&bih=667

    You get the VCD, DVD and Bluray here 🙂

    A friend of mine is running mysmartprice.com for some specific categories, and I think that works well too for specific categories like mobile.

    Don’t see what magic Amazon is doing that Google search doesn’t when you do it on .co.in.

  30. Other day on one of your post we were discussing e-commerce in India. Concept of showing other store price is not new. Sites like frys.com buy.com already did that earlier. It though requires balls to show competitor’s items. (Eventually when Amazon sells at indian price).

    Biggest hurdle here is services. We have 100s of eComm portals coming up. prices are comparable. Issue is service. Delayed deliveries,fake products,poor customer care. Sites are just copying marketing model of coupons (and sending all VC money to hell). Very few really score well in services. Like flipkart. They don’t need that many eyeballs. Word of mouth /online advertising has give them a lot. They don’t have heavy discount offers.What they have is trust. Which they have eventually earned.  In India, that will matter. As people are very skeptical buying online (even tech savvy ones too)

    There were services like junglee, though they are not as clean as what junglee has. Not sure if they any how doing it just with crawling or manual changes too. Looks like its hybrid. Several (very famous) products dont show up even from sites they r crawling. 

    Challenge will be to get volume. Google search shows volume. But they are not dynamic. they dont show context. Just price. I think no one is lookin into it…All smart ones are on that +thing …:) But no doubt they crawl much better then junglee. They just need clean up. challenge will be to monetize this.

  31. Each Goliath has his weaknesses :

    Try searching for “Mastering Change – by Dr. Ichak Adizes” on Junglee and then on Flipkart.

  32. what happens? why don’t you add the content here and help us all!

  33. This quote aptly suits here ..LOL..

    “If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends.”

  34. So true

  35. Junglee.com looks like a way to increase the cost of customer acquisition for flipkart and other larger ecomm sites. Sounds like a page from a war strategy manual – Weaken your enemy before you attack them.

    So any site which has not raised millions has a chance to compete with FK and stake out its area. So FK (and others) has to try harder now

  36. Amazon wants to smash bigger indian e-commerce players like flipkart and capture complete market .They are going to make smaller players and suppliers as their puppets   later like wallmart did in USA .”A BIGGER CONSPIRACY IS ON OFFING”..

  37. And I DID receive my DVD!!

  38. Rohit 

    It happens all the time.The smaller players will still be gainers if they become Amazon vendors later.One of my friend was selling gift items online in USA.He was on the verge of closing when he got connected with Amazon and became their vendor.Now he is doing appx 50 orders a day and profitable.If you can’t beat them join them.

  39. Flipkart is in the process of acquiring letsbuy.com for 25 million $

    https://www.dealcurry.com/2012029-Flipkart-To-Buy-Letsbuy-com-For-25Mn.htm

    Letsbuy.com is termed as the India’s 2nd largest E-Commerce portal. The first being Flipkart.

    If letsbuy is 25 mill wondering how big Flipkart can be in real !! 

  40. Hehe..  i do the same. Search is really pathetic.  

  41. yeah…junglee.com looks pretty “breakthru clutter” kinda e-comm portal !!

    Cheers!!

    HJ

  42. there shud be some norms by the finance & tech ministries to control the FDI in e-commerce or else people like amazon will eat up oall fish in the indian e-comm sea, like a shark !! – u have a point RohitN

  43. Will take a while for Junglee to come anywhere close to others in India. Ordered a book on Junglee. Still waiting for the order to get processed.. forget getting the book!… over a week now and I even forgot what I ordered!!

  44. Samir, I am equally confused!

    Are you sure you ordered on junglee.com?

    Coz thats a Comparative Search Engine for Shopping – not a shopping site itself!

    It’s one step ahead of google – they list AND let you compare who is offering what and then you click OUT and buy!?

    I bought my movie in the above example from moviemart.in – not from junglee.com!?

  45. Alok, I know Junglee is the aggregator. So I went to the site, it showed three options on where I can buy my book from. I chose the option and my order was under process… and then nothing! Now for me, their partner is not at fault.. Junglee is.. simply because they are my interface… that is where I login. It is like the airport authority and DGCA might screw up to delay my flight but usually airlines is held responsible for the delay!

  46. then i guess flipkart is best for you!

    (Ps – Junglee IS THE AIRPORT – the vendor is the airline!!)

  47. awesome analogy 🙂

  48. Ah but that is the point of difference! Online shopping space is the AIRPORT… and Junglee is one of the airlines for me! just like flipkart is another airline.. Am at the airport looking for the best and the experience drives my preferences.

  49. That’s lucky – for what you wanted was Out of Stock at Flipkart. Had it been IN STOCK –

  50. Junglee needs to do some serious auditing. 

    I check for Galaxy Note on Junglee.com and was shocked to see it priced at Rs. 29,999 as I knew it is not available for below 32,000.

    https://www.junglee.com/Samsung-Galaxy-Note/dp/B0072I7WI6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331021020&sr=1-1

    In a hurry, I click to view the sellers site (Buytheprice.com) and when the link got directed to the official website, the price listed there was Rs.32,700. 

    https://www.buytheprice.com/shop-online-deal/samsung-galaxy-note__7146

    Ridiculous promotion!!! 

  51. Caveat Emptor!

  52. This will always happen with Junglee….and if this remains the same – JUNGLEE wouldn’t work.

    1- Junglee doesn’t collect price information – Its the sellers who upload it. And sellers most often put in lesser prices in order to appear at the top in the price list. ( Bad means to drive traffic )

    2- Sellers keep changing the prices, and its an additional WORK for them to upload the latest prices on junglee.

    3- Junglee has large number of local stores (who are not online stores) – They are here for free Ad. They’ll be too busy managing their counter than uploading price information daily on Junglee.

    Same thing happens with naaptol – its all wrong information when you compare prices.

  53. Juglee has a robust system in place to check price variations it immediately warns the seller if their is a price difference in sellers site and display ad on junglee.The seller is suppose to update the price at Junglee as soon as he  changes the price on his website.In the Galaxy note case I guess the seller is intentionally doing it or not that efficient to update the price on Junglee website.I am sure Junglee is quite capable of sorting out these issues going forward.

  54. I also use indiabooks to compare its really good for books but lots of stores are still missing like Govasool , they should also start for other products like mobiles and other electronics.

  55. You can visit Favkart.com https://www.favkart.com also An online book store, providing authentic book with very fair price tag

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