Do It Online - The Indian way

What do www.seventymm.com , www.compareindia.com and www.hungrybangalore.com have in common?

These are all internet ventures targeted at the Indian consumer albeit none of them is an online shopping site ( remember the baazee wannabes?). Indians just don't like to shop online, partly because there aren't a whole lot of really good (read cheap) deals available. Moreover , buying something more expensive or long lasting than an FMCG tends to be a see-touch-feel collective family shopping exercise for the vast majority who are "just" able to afford the widest TV, the hottest (literally) microwave or the tallest hatchback. This is the biggest reason Dell has not been able to make a dent in the Indian PC market. Note how even the advertisements position these goods for the whole family. This is the reality of a developing country with a growing,family oriented, middle class.

Does this make internet ventures obsolete? Far from it. Each of the three companies I listed above , I suspect , understand the psyche of the internet savvy Indian consumer. They address real needs - searching and renting a movie title for your movie buff daughter , comparing brands of washing machines for your mom(sorry, barring exceptions, this is a decision that moms make in most Indian households. Call me sexist if you will.) or ordering late night dinner from a restaurant 10 km away. None of these ventures claim to be substitues of real shopping , rather each provides a service where either a) Brick & Mortar mom-pop stores are unreliable,non-existent or unorganized , like movie rentals and food delivery or b) the website is just a precursor, like compareindia, to the actual shopping. Note the common theme is that the stakes for the consumer are minimal if the product- a movie rental or a family dinner- turns out to be lower than expected quality. And no one ever lost anything by visiting a comparison only site. The same lower stakes will make customers fickle- don't expect them to stick if your services ( delivery time for dinner , for example) are not of the best quality every time.

There are others , online bus ticketing (www.redbus.in) and comparing real estate ( www.magicbricks.com) , which are taking a similar approach and are worth a dekko.