The E Commerce Debate

Lately with the flow of venture capital slowing down in E commerce start-ups, a debate has started on the future of e-commerce industry as such, the dazzling valuations and their sustainability. The spurt in the number of E Commerce ventures came because the entrepreneur thought that there exist pain points, which can be addressed by an e-commerce solution. But the challenge is to find the number of people who actually face the pain on a daily or regular basis and what is the cost they are willing to pay for its mitigation, daily or at a high frequency. Heavy advertisements & big discounts have been the pathway for sustainability. Also quite a few start-ups thought they could also get large funding and high valuations just by being there, and that is where they went wrong and bust. Consumers turn to E Commerce solutions as they feel a difficulty in finding a solution or ease through the conventional means. But the reverse is also equally true. As an example, consumers adopted Uber or Ola because they were fed-up with the auto drivers tantrums. But with surge pricing, they are getting easily disillusioned with the cab services as well. A regular auto user is more willing to pay a little more for an APP Cab, but is not willing to pay exorbitant surge charges. Unpredictability on the availability of APP Cabs at odd timings like early mornings especially for the airport or railway station drop, has maintained the consumers connect with the local taxi stand.
 A health lunch food delivery start-up shut shop in a couple of months as the menu was incorrectly priced. Repeat orders weren’t coming, and getting new customers was a challenge at the entry price point. So in this case, though there is a demand for such menu by office goers and the pain point is the availability of such an option, but consumers are not willing to pay a high price.
I needed a clothes drying stand but found it too bulky to carry it in my hatchback. It wasn’t available at the nearby stores, from where I could hand carry or have it delivered. The solution was E Commerce, ordered online and got it delivered, no sweat and no hassle.
However I feel that a consolidation of sorts is happening in the E Commerce space. E Commerce players can grow if they are able to provide the consumers options of ease of access, reasonable cost on availing the service, variety in product or service offer and reliability of the service. It’s not going to be about the discount being offered but the entire customer experience.
* Look forward to the readers comments, views, bouquets & brickbats