Currently only books and TV shows. If I was rich and in India, I'd buy hundreds and hundreds of dildos to get them to the front page.
Amazon India is now live
41–50 of 125 posts
Re: Amazon India is now live
#42The key thing that people need to be aware of is that Amazon is still not allowed to sell anything in India. They are exclusively a marketplace because the Indian govt does not allow foreign investment into e-commerce. Instead for now they are an intermediary. The end customer pays Amazon the money who passes it onto the actual seller (after taking some commission). Amazon might even handle the logistics for some sel…
Allowing foreign investment into e-commerce can't come soon enough. The main reason the e-commerce space in India has not picked up fast enough is this.
Re: Amazon India is now live
#43I hope they could enable the Kindle store soon for amazon.in
Re: Amazon India is now live
#44The key thing that people need to be aware of is that Amazon is still not allowed to sell anything in India. They are exclusively a marketplace because the Indian govt does not allow foreign investment into e-commerce. Instead for now they are an intermediary. The end customer pays Amazon the money who passes it onto the actual seller (after taking some commission). Amazon might even handle the logistics for some sel…
Allowing foreign investment into e-commerce can't come soon enough. The main reason the e-commerce space in India has not picked up fast enough is this.
Why do you feel that foreign investment into e-commerce is the solution?
Re: Amazon India is now live
#45Interestingly amazon is in the backseat here and it will be interesting to see how they succeed. From my understanding http://www.flipkart.com/ is the dominant player in the online shopping marketing in India
The reason they are in the backseat is that protectionist legislation prevented them from trading in India. The end result is that Indian book prices are quite high for a country with largely third-world living standards.
I was under the impression that the books sold in India (and some other Asian countries) are low-priced international editions of those books. This is specially true for college textbooks with foreign authors.
Re: Amazon India is now live
#46As a Canadian, let me just let you know you're going to have to wait a few years for it to stop sucking. Amazon Canada was a joke for most of its existence, and had only gotten close to the American offerings in breadth and pricing in the last year or two.
Re: Amazon India is now live
#47I think the key to successful ecommerce model in India is hybrid of online and offline experiences. I had the following idea floating in my mind for long time now . Let me know if it makes sense a) You franchise out "ecommerce" physical shops. This is a physical location where customer can come in surf ecommerce websites and place an order. b) There is someone at this shop who will collect money on behalf of ecommerc…
This is quite similar to way convenience stores work in Japan. You can pay at a convenience store and get Amazon to ship your goods to a convenience store. Japan (similar to India) is still very much a cash based society and I suppose some people prefer to pay in cash at a convenience store instead of paying online.
India also has loads of tiny convenience stores, I think this is an excellent idea. It also simplifies the logistics. The eCommerce company only has to build out a supply chain to the convenience store instead of having to deliver to each customer or rely on the Indian postal service.
(I have lived both in India and Japan)
Re: Amazon India is now live
#48I think the key to successful ecommerce model in India is hybrid of online and offline experiences. I had the following idea floating in my mind for long time now . Let me know if it makes sense a) You franchise out "ecommerce" physical shops. This is a physical location where customer can come in surf ecommerce websites and place an order. b) There is someone at this shop who will collect money on behalf of ecommerc…
This is quite similar to way convenience stores work in Japan. You can pay at a convenience store and get Amazon to ship your goods to a convenience store. Japan (similar to India) is still very much a cash based society and I suppose some people prefer to pay in cash at a convenience store instead of paying online. India also has loads of tiny convenience stores, I think this is an excellent idea. It also simplifies…
In China you can have Amazon (and other major e-commerce firms) ship things to your home or office and pay in cash on delivery (for most items).
The amount of delivery people in Beijing, especially near lunch time, is quite impressive.
Re: Amazon India is now live
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
The COD part is somewhat cultural. Very few people in India will trust a credit card based system that requires you to hand over your credit card number online and accept delivery at some point in the future. Cash usage in general is disproportionately higher than other forms. I think direct payments from bank accounts is next. Cards rank a distant third.
It is also the case that Debit Cards are insanely popular in India, a lot more than Credit Cards. Secondly, Online Banking (banks exposing merchant APIs) is also very popular for internet purchases as it removes the middleman.
What's an example of "banks exposing merchant APIs"?
Re: Amazon India is now live
#50Interestingly amazon is in the backseat here and it will be interesting to see how they succeed. From my understanding http://www.flipkart.com/ is the dominant player in the online shopping marketing in India
The reason they are in the backseat is that protectionist legislation prevented them from trading in India. The end result is that Indian book prices are quite high for a country with largely third-world living standards.
Take a look at e-commerce in China. Lots of people forget, that the big Chinese players are now orders of magnitude larger than the Amazon's and Ebays in the west.
The "end result" thanks to "protectionist legislation" is not as straight forward as people imagine.
If it was wouldnt Alibaba have been allowed to buy Yahoo ;)