E-commerce: Is it 'click'ing for the IT channel?

E-commerce
(Electronic
Commerce) is no more an unusual mode of business. Gone
are the days, when the common man thought twice before doing a
transaction through the electronic mode. It was further a highly
susceptible activity for the business class. However, some of the
then 'daring' busi nessmen and individual entrepreneurs took the
challenge of spreading the 'Internet phenomenon' and today, it is
because of these old companies and entrepreneurs that the industry
appears more mature in e- ommerce. In the current situation, where
each solution provider focuses on saving time, to increase business
opportunities; the e-commerce mode plays the role of a catalyst.
Through e-commerce, people can buy goods with a click of the mouse
button without moving out of their house or office. Online services,
such as-banking, ticketing (including airlines, bus, and railways),
bill payments, hotel booking and others, are tremendously beneficial
for the customers. Business-to-business (B2B) transactions also play
an important part in the Indian e-commerce market. Perhaps, the total
value of the B2B transactions is becoming much larger than that of
the B2C transactions.

This
is because typically B2B transactions are of much greater value than
B2C. Talking about the advantages of the business modus operandi on
e-commerce, Manoj Jain, MD and CEO of Kolkata- ased Ishika
Technologies said, “E-commerce has unleashed yet another
revolution, which is changingthe way people buy and sell products and
services.” To make a successful e-commerce transaction both the
payment and delivery services must be made efficient. There has been
a rise in the number of companies' taking up e-commerce in the
recent past. In the IT sector; Ingram Micro is one of those few
companies, which focused on e-commerce to swell its revenue. Ingram
Micro rolled out its e-commerce initiative in April 2004 and made it
available to its entire customer base in phases during the remainder
of the year. VARStreet, which was Ingram Micro's first certified
e-commerce partner, rolled out a new entry-level solution designed to
get resellers online quickly and at an attractive price point. “Along
with VARStreet, our 2 new partners deliver to VARs and their
end-users in the SMB, government, education and the enterprise
markets, a world-class flexibility and choice in how they can
establish, enhance and maintain their online presence,” said K
Jaishankar, MD, Ingram Micro.

The
company exapanded its e-commerce solution provider initiative by
signing up online storefront and quoting tool developers Flashecom
and Ingeniasoft. Flashecom and Ingeniasoft joins VARStreet in the
California-based distributor-Santa Ana's e-commerce portfolio,
which gives solution providers access to a menu of e-commerce
configurations, services and pricing to get a web storefront up and
running. The offerings range from low-maintenance, turnkey ASP setups
to self-hosted solutions that offer full integration with a solution
provider's existing back-office systems. Further speaking about the
success of e-commerce in the Indian IT market, Dileep Mehta of VR
Infotech said, “We have recently started doing our business
transactions on e-commerce. And, we see a lot of benefit in doing
business through this platform. Till now, we have not faced any
problem dealing with customers through online transactions. We
managed to sell a lot of IT products online and our e-commerce
business contributes to about 5-8 % in our annual turnover.” He
added to his views by saying that using the e-commerce mode the
company started meeting the updated demand of customers. He said,
“E-commerce really helps a lot. Prior to starting this e-commerce
business, we were facing real difficulties in supplying updated
products and were drawing a very thin margin of profit. But, with
this e-commerce initiative, we hope that in another 2 years, we will
be exceeding more than 50% in our turnover from e-commerce
activities.” Seeing the e-commerce benefit; some com panies are
even ready to take the risk.

Dharmendra
Panchal,
owner, Timely Infosystem said, “Although e-commerce is a
very risky business, but higher the risk higher the rewards. We have
invested a lot of money in our e-commerce, but now we are also
getting a lot of profit from our e-commerce deals, and we are
expecting to make over 50% of profit from it.” Atul Gosar of
Network Techlab said, “Doing e-commerce activities is very
interesting for an organization. It helps in saving time and money by
doing several transactions online. E-business is about using Internet
technologies to conduct business on a day-to-day basis. We see that
customers can purchase anything as per their interest comfortably
sitting in his/ her room. We are also distributing security solutions
online to our customers. Our online commercial transaction is
contributing to about 10-12% in the overall revenue of the company.
Seeing the growing trend of e-commerce, we expect that e-commerce
will bring in more profit to our organization.” Looking at its
benefits, Mumbai-based Pacific Infotech is also planning to enter the
e-commerce market. Kishore Jeswani of Pacific Infotech said, “Seeing
huge growth in the e-commerce activities among channel partners and
solution providers, we are also planning to launch a website by April
2012, where we can actively execute our commercial and financial
online transactions by selling our IT products to customers.”

Not
only the SMEs in the IT segment, but also several IT associations
have taken active initiative in e- ommerce. ACMA, an IT association
has developed a world-class community portal with lots of facilities,
services and e-commerce opportunities for IT vendors, distributors,
dealers and retailers to take advantage from the web portal. Kirti
Thakkar, president, ACMA said, “ACMA's 'e-ACMA' will help
partners promote their latest products and share information,
awareness and run a campaign online. Partners can share their ideas
with all their customers equally on daily, as well as, weekly basis.
Apparently, if any national or international company wants to promote
its roduct, it can also avail the services by paying the required
revenue to the association. The portal is connected with the SMS
gateway and email gateway, which will make it easier for companies to
connect with the people.” In fact, ACMA has already started
receiving advertisements and partnership deals from partners of other
cities on their portal. Partners, who want to flash their products or
companies can make an electronic transfer through credit/ debit card
at their own convenience.

E-COMMERCE IN INDIA:
STILL A CHALLENGE?

While
many companies, organizations, and communities in India are beginning
to take advantage of the potential of e-commerce, critical challenges
remains to be overcome, before e-commerce would become an asset for
the common people. Indian e-commerce space percentage is getting
higher, as more and more online retailers enter the market. Although
this level of entry in the e-commerce market is good from a long-term
perspective, the challenge is that most entrepreneurs do not have the
resources or capital to wait for years before they can get profits.
“To get into the online business, we faced some bottlenecks which
we managed to overcome. Initially, to start an e-commerce
transaction, we needed an updated technical team, as a lot of
technology is involved in building up the e-commerce business. Also,
a lot of finance is required, and so most solution providers or
channel partners are not able to establish online business,” said
Mehta of VR Infotech.

Many
firms have had trouble recruiting and retaining employees with the
technological, design and business process skills needed to create an
effective electronic commerce presence. Ajay Sawant, MD and CEO,
Orient Technologies said, “Frauds are not completely eliminated in
e-commerce transactions. Cyber laws are not properly enacted and the
existing ones are not clearly defined.” Adding to that, Bimal Raj,
CEO, Allied Digital said, “There is a good amount of momentum
building up in e-commerce in India; especially with new channels like
mobile apps and mobile devices being leve raged. But the big gest
concern in adoption has een the security and regulatory compliances.
Some companies feel that disa dvantages are not the biggest concern;
it is the mindset of people, which needs to be changed. Gosar said,
“When it comes to hurdles, the main barrier is the low awareness
level among public for e-commerce. Usu ally, con sumers have a mind
set that paying online is unsafe. But, we never lost hope and are
striving to make online business bigger for our company, as it is an
upcoming trend.”

INDIA'S 'E-COMMERCE'
MARKET: WHERE IS IT?

In
developing countries like India, where e-co m merce is still out of
reach of the endors doing busi ness in tier-4 cities, experts
believe that the low cost of personal computers, growing installed
base for Internet, and an increasingly competitive In ter net Service
Provider (ISP) market will help fuel e- ommerce growth in Asia's
second most populous na t ion. Highlighting the gro wing trends in
the e- om merce business, Jain explained, “India is showing
tremendous growth in e-commerce. The low cost of the PC and the
growing use of Internet is one of the reasons for that. There is a
growing awareness among the business com munities in India about the
opportunities offered by e-commerce. The future does look very bright
for e-commerce in India with even the stock exchanges coming online,
providing online stock portfolio and status.” According to some of
the major research firms, the growth of e- ommerce in India has been
the highest compared to other developing countries. This makes India
a real attractive market for e-commerce.

ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT

Undoubtedly,
anyone
could see, India doesn't intend to stay behind other
countries concerning all the spheres of technological progress and
processes of Internet and e-commerce development. Experts opine that
Indian Government plays a huge role in the progress, favoring the
development, with a lot of initiatives such as providing cheap
Internet access, inexpensive PC's for citizens and so on. It can be
believed, that in just a few years, India would reach the level of
the most developed countries referring to the Internet
infrastructure.

FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT

According
to
a report released by the Internet and Mobile Association of India
(IAMAI); fueled by the sustained growth of the online industry, the
Indian e-commerce market will gallop at an impressive growth rate of
47% to over Rs 46,000 crore in 2011. The report said, “This growth
is primarily driven by the online travel industry, which contributes
76% to the total e-commerce industry in India today.” The Internet
commerce industry in India has seen a manifold increase in the last
couple of years, with the total market size increasing from Rs 19,688
crore by the end of 2009 to an estimated Rs 31,598 crore in 2010.