Hi everyone,
This is my first post in the forum. Writing in to get validation on a few thoughts. I’m starting a project, WooPlaza, that aims to help small sellers with no background in technology start selling online.
[Note: As I logged in to post this, the first discussion I saw was Gurudutt Nadiger’s heartfelt post on the travails of an online seller. I completely empathise with it, and it vindicates some of my guesses below. But the concept below is targeted more at potential online sellers who are a lot less tech savvy than most of us on this forum]
Context:
- eCommerce in India should not be about the Amazons and the Flipkarts. It should not even be about the hundreds of smaller startups with innovative business models. Ultimately, it should be about the millions of sellers who form the backbone of the retail industry. It is essential to get them online to make the online retail industry in India truly successful.
- The US has nearly a million eCommerce websites, of which 100,000 make serious revenue. The are also a million sellers each on Amazon, eBay and Etsy (possibly with a lot of overlap). In contrast, India has about 10k websites and 50-100k sellers on marketplaces.
- The current business model promoted by the biggies, with heavy discounting, cash on delivery, and unrestricted return policies, might be good for consumers. But it is unsustainable for most small sellers. They need a credible channel and ecosystem independent of this model.
- The move to mobile devices hurts small sellers badly. Mobile apps are more expensive and less democratic than websites. It will harm the online retail industry unless it can somehow be made more accessible to the small players.
Some guesses:
- Small sellers are intimidated by technology. We haven’t reached a point where you can just open a store and start selling online.
- Small sellers are entrepreneurial. They are willing to take risks with a new channel as long as the rewards seem worth the investment.
- Small sellers would rather invest time and effort than money while trying out a new channel
- Small sellers, in real life, operate as small communities, helping each other out instead of totally competing against each other
Planned solution: This has three parts.
SaaS based online stores. Not very different from Shopify or Zepo, but a lot simpler, and free below a certain volume of sales. Mainly to get entry level sellers comfortable with the idea of selling online. Limited set of technical features to keep things easy.
Ideally, posting a product to sell should be as easy as composing and sending an email.Simplify further over time by:
- Supporting Indian languages
- Eliminating to need to separately set up Mailchimp, Google Analytics etc.
- Eliminating the need for a computer by having a truly mobile friendly backend interface
- Simplifying the interface for Google and FB ads and make them accessible within the store owner’s admin interface
- Integrating domain registration and mapping with store setup – make it as easy as signing up for a GMail account
An online forum for sellers to help each other out. Add the following over time:
- Support for Indian languages
- Help sellers form small specialized communities that co-operate to achieve larger goals
- Bring other ecosystem service providers – photographers, content writers, digital marketers etc. – into the mix
A mobile app where products of all sellers get automatically listed. Customers searching for products should get accurate results, unbiased by ads or premium listing fees.
The initial concept is available at https://www.wooplaza.com. Would love the community’s feedback on this.
It would be great if you could ask potential online sellers to fill out this survey: WooPlaza Survey (Google Forms)
I’m not necessarily looking at converting this into the next-big-money-making-idea. In fact, I don’t believe this model is likely to be highly profitable. The goal is to help as many non-technical sellers get online as possible. Any other ideas from the community on how to achieve this would be welcome too.
Regards,
Hari
Twitter: @wooplaza
yuvraj wadhwani
Hari,
I was thinking of a similar service a while back. My main goal was monetization btw. I will check out the product and share some feedback. 🙂
Ajay Sanghi
Hi Hari – Let us get together, there can be major synergy. I can be reached at ajay.sanghi@edisphere.com.
Jai Hind!
Ajay
Haribabu Thilakar
Thanks Yuvraj!
Monetization would be a huge challenge and a distraction to the main objective of getting lots of sellers online. The way I see it, there are three bands bands of online sellers.
The lowest (but largest) band comprises of sellers who are just starting out. Most of them will never become profitable. They will be either unwilling or unable to pay significant amounts for online stores. If the offering is not free, most won’t even get online. The ones who develop expertise and become profitable will move to the second band.
In the second band, they will expect more advanced features and customer support. While it is possible to offer these, it means competing with the likes of Zepo and Kartrocket, plus around 30 other smaller players. Not a game I’m keen on getting into.
The third band is sellers who have built serious businesses, running into several crores per year. They would need enterprise-level features such as proper inventory management, order fulfillment and logistics, marketplace integration, accounting etc. This band is wide open in the SaaS space. But it is a totally different ball game.
Haribabu Thilakar
Sure Ajay. Do let me know what you have in mind.
PS. To be honest, whenever I see words and phrases like ‘synergy’ or ‘paradigm shift’ without any other qualifying content, a hundred warning bells start ringing in my mind!
Ajay Sanghi
Hi Hari – Sorry, I should have mentioned some context. I have been fiddling with the idea of starting something like IndiaProductCatalogue.com that can seamlessly integrate with all ecommerce sites, large buyers, etc., besides being a one stop shop for selling the product for vendors (either directly and / or indirectly). There is lot more to it. I am looking for cofounders in that area. Personally – I have developed data integration products, with major expertise in seamlessly integrating different business application over internet. If this is of interest then please send me email, and let us get together.
Jai Hind!
Ajay
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
How different is this from Kart Rocket? Sorry! Just asking?
Haribabu Thilakar
Thanks Ajay. I’ll drop you an email tomorrow. You can also reach me at haribabu.thilakar@gmail.com
Haribabu Thilakar
Kartrocket’s studio and paid entry level plan (as well as entry level plans from Zepo and Shopify) are severely nerfed. They are limited in terms of ability to integrate Google eCommerce analytics, number of products, PayPal integration etc. Some of these features can be the difference between a successful store and a failed one.
I’m sure they have considered the tradeoffs before deciding on what features to offer for each plan, and decided to maximise their revenue (which is how it should be for a successful business).
With WooPlaza, anything that helps increase a store’s chances of success would be available for everyone. The compromise would be in terms of limited features and customer support. What will happen is that once sellers build a business and acquire some expertise, they will move to more comprehensive offerings from Kartrocket or Zepo.
That’s perfectly fine and is aligned to the objectives of the project. The hope is that a small fraction of sellers would stick around and become paying customers – enough to make it self sustaining.