Comments on: Why Amazon Is Yet To Capture The Indian Market..and Mindset

By: Vishal Jain

Vishal Jain — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 05:22:35 +0000

Well, the biggest problem that most of the time that stops me from buying it from here is the delivery time and the delivery cost.If you want to buy a book here, it will take about a month to reach you and the average shipping cost will be around $10-$15 .On the other hand, if the same book is available on say landmark, then you don’t save on the time, but the shipping cost is as low as Rs 100/-.
Another thing is that you can’t order a few things because they are not shipped to India. I wanted to buy a couple of softballs for my son, but no one was shipping them to India. And $10 of items with shipping cost of $15 anyway does not feel right in the pocket.

By: Atul

Atul — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:11:06 +0000

Sorry don’t recollect now, will try and get that information. But there are laws against it right now is what we were told..

By: Amit

Amit — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:05:21 +0000

Hi Atul,
Do you know what are these limitations?
Are they taxed differently than any other business?

Amit

By: Shantan

Shantan — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 03:57:25 +0000

@vikram: not really. i am not an MBA myself
yeah..there are the ones who really read books and get knowledge. But for the most part…most of us, just want to graduate and get on with our careers. We rarely have time for reflecting on knowledge…..and reading books! Dont we give up our books the moment we end our exams?? well..to a great extent, yes!!
But i see what you are saying…..you have a point! Its true..but certainly not the norm!

By: Vickram

Vickram — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:34:13 +0000

Hi,

I disagree with 4. Apathy to books…..Though being an MBA student tht might be the only option u had but as for other disciplines ppl do use books

By: Shantan

Shantan — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 07:18:28 +0000

Hey Atul: that was a useful piece of information. But even if the indian laws permit..we havent seen other ecommerce companies in india take on the books space in a big way. We dont have any real desi web brands that sell books.

Some part of me says this is a real big opportunity for a web-based online book store…..for india! We need an Indian Amazon!

By: atul

atul — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:32:16 +0000

Shantan, more than anything else, the reason behind this, as we figured at a PPT from Amazon in our IIMC Campus, is that the Indian Laws do not allow Amazon to setup their network in India yet, unless they part with a significant part of their profits. That’s the main reason.

I am sure, the day Amazon steps into India, payment gateways will automatically take a step towards improvement!

By: sriram rajagopal

sriram rajagopal — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 08:09:05 +0000

Nice article.

1) Large scale proliferation of used book vendors on the streets.

I think this is THE big reason.. Everyone wants their money worth.. When there are places such as Nai Sarak(Delhi),College Street(Kolkata), Moore Market(Chennai),etc where one can buy a new book at a 20-25% discount or a used book at around half the price, people are more inclined to purchase books from such places rather than shelling out a premium through online purchases.. I wonder if this trend would ever change !

By: Bijay Rungta

Bijay Rungta — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:02:32 +0000

2) Lack of secure or trusted or reliable ecommerce payment channels.
3) Slow traction from partner banks in providing support to ecommerce payment products.

This is the most Important aspect from my Perspective.

This is also the reason even ebay or any ECommerce Product Service is not used as mush as in these European and American Market…

Only the biggies like Shadi.com, Times, not to mention Indian Railways, etc are able to avail Payment methods which will work for almost all types of Visitors. Credit Card, Debit Card, Bank Accounts etc.. Reason… They have Direct Tie ups…

Small Businesses can’t afford this…

The Monopoly and NOT Sharing(Contrary to the last Point where shantan pointed out Indian mindsets as fundamentally built on the culture of sharing, I haven’t seen much of Open Source Projects Contribution by Indians, But yes the Point is indeed valid in other Aspects(People not Businessmen Share…)) the Infrastructure

Have more to say but there is Power Cut here and the UPS is blinking…

@rungss on Twitter

By: Deepak

Deepak — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 05:32:49 +0000

Another problem for students:
As the international editions are little costlier, they tend to go for having photocopies versions.
Nonetheless, for the upcoming employed personnel, there is a growing trend of using online shopping for books.