Saturday, May 30, 2015

Markets that come to Existence [The Era of E-Commerce]

"AMARKET comes to existence when a buyer and a seller are in mutual contact with each other with the intention to fruitfully complete the transaction of aCOMMODITY or a Service"
Adam Smith
The platter of choices on your finger tips
If this definition ofMARKET has come to its true existence then it is today. We used to study this when we were in our 9th grade briefly introduced to economics and the introduction started with the first page definition of Adam Smith. I am understanding this today a great deal and what better to understand than the surge of E-Commerce that has happened over the years. 
There is definitely a charm of going to the malls and the retail shops to make purchases by seeing the display of the products lying here and there, however in the present times convenience overpowers charm and taste in a great way and shopping onlineFROM HOME is definitely comfortable. You are watching the TV or just out of your shower and you remember that you need to buy groceries, bingo you have a website or an app where you can just login and then buy the stuff and the stuff is delivered to you at your doorstep. You want to buy clothes, electronics, books, food and what not it is available on your fingertips. 
The internet brings the market closest to you and where you have your choices of brands and goods. One has to be less inhibitive when one buys articles from the e-commerce site because here you are seeing the image of the article and not the article itself. However let us face it you never check each and every grain of rice, or each lady finger before buying them in bulk, therefore it is really not worth to actually travel the distance and spend time hunting for that perfect pumpkin or potato. 
You have online invoices for the goods and you have good tracking mechanisms to actually track down deliveries so in short this is convenience personified. You are sitting on your couch and shopping. 
But let us now see what isREQUIRED in the backend and how much opportunity it creates for the people who are willing to extend their markets for goods deliveries. People who do not have the amount of capital to invest and construct a retail shop but have quality goods for sale can make a tie up with this E-Commerce portal and then can have their goods being sold. They get access to the markets which they could not have even accessed physically in their dreams. A chikan cloth seller of Lucknow does not have to wait for the tourist from New Jersey to come to his shop to sell his goods, he is now connected by the E-Commerce portal to the buyer and is now having better business. 
E-Commerce if it has to be really successful has to help these small vendors who have immense talent and provide rich quality products but lack ofMARKETINGskills and lack of product placement. The handicrafts from Gujarat, Shatiniketan. Kanjeevarams from Tanjore and the brass works from Moradabad need this boom of E-Commerce. 
We will talk about this new way ofMARKETING more as we go on towards our next post. But till then let us understand one thing, no technology can evolve or change the world if that is not efficient to be used for the upliftment of the poorest of the person in that demography. 
To that idea.... Have a wonderful weekend. 
Cheers, 
Kalyan

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