E-commerce assignment

IndiaMart.com

Introduction:

Today, e-Commerce is entering the third phase with the focus on how the internet

can impact profitability. We call this phase e-business and it includes all the

applications and processes enabling a company to service a business transaction. In

addition to encompassing e-commerce, e-business includes both front and back

office applications that form the core engine for modern business. Thus, e-business

is not just about e-commerce transactions or buying and selling over the web; it’s

the overall strategy of redefining old business models, with the aid of technology,

to maximize customer value and profits. To paraphrase Business Week, “Forget

B2B or B2C, e-Business is about P2P – path to profitability.

Thus, e- Business is not about mere presence in the website, but all about how we

can setup an integrated business model for the handicrafts. To make the model

flexible and so that it can Grow Big Fast7, the model should outsource almost all

of its non core activities to business partners who specialize in those areas.

India MART is an Indian internet limited company headquartered in Noida. It is an

online business-to-business B2B marketplace which matches buyers and suppliers.

It has about 1.5 million suppliers listed on its website, with as many as 1 crore

buyers visiting the company's platform every month. In 2009, IAMAI conducted a

study, which declared that India MART has a 60 percent market share in India's

online B2B marketplace. It has also been declared as the world's second largest

online B2B marketplace by Economic Times.

IndiaMart.com

Origin of the e-commerce platform:

After returning from the US in 1996, Dinesh Agarwal started Intermesh, a

company that made websites for Delhi-based companies like Nirula's. He then

created India MART, a website directory of the sites that his company created. In

1998, he set up the second office in Mumbai. By 1999, around 1,000 clients were

added to the list. After the US terror attack on 11 September 2001, India MART's

revenue fell by nearly 40 per cent but the company overcame the slump. In early

2009, IndiaMART raised an undisclosed amount of money from Intel Capital. A

total of $23 million was invested in India MART 197 Communications and Global

Talent Track. Building on the platform for suppliers, it also created a buyer-

dedicated forum in 2011. Today, India MART has 40 offices in 100 cities across

the country and total employee count of 2600. Of these, 800 employees work at the

head office in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. India MART roped in Irrfan Khan as its brand

ambassador for its latest brand campaign that went live in November 2014.

Idea generation in the words of Dinesh Agarwal,CEO IndiaMart:

Since I was a computer analyst and among the early Internet users, I thought of

starting something in software services. I settled on building a platform for

businesses to display their products via dedicated Web pages. I named the venture,

India Mart Intermesh. The idea was to help the small and medium enterprises in

the country market their products and services. I had purchased a flat in Delhi

while I was working and set up my office in the flat in 1996. I had a saving of Rs

40,000 and it was invested in the business. I faced several challenges. The

computers were costly and few businesses used them.

IndiaMart.com

So, convincing customers to first buy computers, which, in turn, would help in the

promotion of their business was quite a task. Besides, the Internet speed was very

slow in those days. Uploading and downloading small files would take several

hours. Still, we managed to get fast-food chain, Nirulas, as our first client. The deal

was to develop and manage their website for an annual fee of Rs 32,000.

I employed a few marketing and sales personnel to help generate business. We

came up with an innovative way of marketing. We began holding exhibitions at

Pragati Maidan, in New Delhi, to showcase our services, with the staffers wearing

T-shirts highlighting our brand. We offered businesses free listings on our

platform. Once their company profile was on the Web, it would start generating

business queries from potential customers from across the globe. We would

monitor the response and our sales personnel would apprise the company about the

interest it was creating on the Internet. Having proved the value of Web presence

to the companies, we would then offer them a customized, full service to enable

them to draw even bigger numbers for their businesses. This strategy helped us bag

several clients. By the end of the first year (1996-97), we had a staff of nine and

the firm recorded a turnover of around Rs 6 lakh. As our business started growing,

we had to deal with several issues and the most irksome among these was looking

for bigger office space. This is the reason that between 1996 and 1999, we changed

four offices. Besides, for every employee who was hired, we had to invest nearly

Rs 50,000 since it involved the purchase of a new computer and relevant

accessories, which proved rather expensive. Though most of the queries related to

our clients' businesses would come to us via emails, very few clients had the e-mail

facility.

IndiaMart.com

So we had to save the query, take a printout and fax it to the respective client. It

was quite cumbersome, but we managed. In 1998, we opened our second office in

Mumbai. By 1999, we had added around 1,000 clients to our list. The firm had a

staff of nearly 100. One of the things that has helped our business grow is the

dedication of our employees. Several of the staffers who had joined us at the

launch of the company are still with us. After the US terror attack on 11 September

2001, our business revenue fell by nearly 40 per cent. It was tough to pay salaries,

but none of our employees quit and we overcame the slump together. Now, we

have 50 offices in 20 cities in the country and a staff of 2,500. Of these, 800

employees work at our head office in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

Events and awards:

In 2010, IndiaMART.com joined hands with financial news channel ET Now to

present 'IndiaMART Leaders of Tomorrow Awards'. The awards are aimed at

recognizing the significance of SMEs (small and medium enterprise) in sustaining

economic growth, increasing trade, generating employment and creating new

entrepreneurs in India.

IndiaMART, in association with Zee Business presents Emerging Business Forum,

with a view to provide practical solutions to various problems and difficulties

faced by Indian SMEs in these areas.

Mobile App & Website:

IndiaMART.com introduced IndiaMART mobile site — m.indiamart.com and

Android App on Google Play in 2013. m.indiamart.com — is available on all

mobile phones that support Internet.

IndiaMart.com

The App operates on all mobile devices having Android Version 1.5 or above

installed in them. Both enable users to easily search for suppliers in their preferred

area and location. It also allows them to send business enquiries and SMS directly

from their mobile phones. Buyers can even call suppliers directly by clicking on

their displayed number.

Tolexo.com:

In June 2014, IndiaMART launched Tolexo.com, an e-commerce platform that

enables SMEs to sell their products, besides listing them. With Tolexo, the

company wants to make its service more easily accessible to both the consumers

and sellers. Initially, for Indiamart, the project was that of collecting the queries

and forwarding the same to the merchants free of cost. It seemed to be a big boost

for the SME (small & medium enterprise) who otherwise would never have even

thought of selling their goods globally on their own.

The road to this stage was not an easy ride, in the words of Dinesh “We did not

base our plan on any external funding possibilities, investments were made only

after the cheques had come in as easy money was never taken and therefore capital

wasn’t squandered. In fact, Dinesh was never interested in VC funding, coming

from a background where the business was a way of life. His family business was

trading in petroleum products. Since money was a hard earned, the expenditure

was also kept on a tight leash. In fact, Dinesh goes on record saying that Indiamart

did not send a penny on advertising; he believed that conservative promotion

strategic was the right way in going bout rather than the much talked about theory

of high voice being equivalent to high viewership leading to high business.

IndiaMart.com

One of the models, which suited India mart best, was getting the site maximum

visibility on all major search engines. Coming back to their main business that of

online directories, as it was offering free listings, one would be forced to think that

there is no revenue here. Yes, first glance one does get the impression but while

having a closer look it can be seen that Indiamart encourages those listed under

different sections to have a web presence of their own. Indiamart offers its

expertise on site building for which it charges its merchants a fee. Those the

service to India mart. The other source of revenue is from the registration that is

done of the firms who are listed on the Indiamart site. Although most firms are

listed free of cost but those who are registered are provided some exclusive

services which a free listed firm will not be entitled to. The total revenue earned

from these catalogues for the financial year 2000-2001 was Rs 205.61 lakhs which

was also the major share of revenue earned by Indiamart.

Search engine optimization and marketing of the company:

IndiaMart.com

With this was born Indiamart the first company in India to provide directory

services for exporters and importers on the net. Initially, for Indiamart, the project

was that of collecting the queries and forwarding the same to the merchants free of

cost. It seemed to be a big boost for the SME (small & medium enterprise) who

otherwise would never have even think of selling their goods globally on their

own. The next important revenue source is the B2B auctions, which was launched

last year in December. In fact this addition of auctions on to the site has given

Indiamart a opportunity to cash to the high visibility that it has earned for itself for

the past few years.

The Auction platform, which is the biggest in Asia, caters to over five lakh global

B2B buyers that visit Indiamart every month. Here suppliers can register online

and list their inventory for auction on an annual basis. The seller decides on the

Reserve Price, Minimum bid price and bid increment amount. Interested buyers

can bid on the items listed free of cost after going through the product information

online. After the auction times out the seller is introduced to the winner to

complete the transaction. The success of the B2B auction portal can be gauged

from the fact form its introduction in Dec 2001 it has already earned through

commissions Rs. 0.48 lakh for the last financial year. The other income streams

for Indiamart are Web advertising which accounted for Rs 35.86 lakhs, e-business

solutions worth Rs. 24.21 lakhs and co-branded online promotion campaigns for

Rs 21 lakh.

Speaking about the B2B auctions Dinesh says “Our strategy of network expansion

to reach larger SME markets and offering multiple business services and solutions

thereby generating multiple revenue streams has done the trick for us. We made it

IndiaMart.com

a point to run our business just like any other conventional business and not to get

carried away by the media hype about dotcoms or the easy availability of VCs in

the market. We only held the ground strongly and kept a close eye on our costs and

revenues.”

The next step in auctions which Indiamart plans to unveil very shortly is the new

B2B transaction platform aiming to offer facilities like B2B reverse auctioning,

ETOs (Electronic Trade Offers), REQ/REP (Request for Quote/Request for

proposal) along with business support services like business finance, logistics and

insurance to facilitate online trade.

Today as discussed earlier Indiamart has been making profits, according to the

summary of financial results for the year ending 31st march 2001 shows a growth

of 128% with revenue earned from its operations at Rs 287.16 lakh. The growth of

India mart has been phenomenon with just one office in Delhi today it has branch

offices in Mumbai, Chennai and Lucknow while its marketing offices are located

across 24 cities. While its other global trade partner’s yourimporter.com a Dallas

based online B2B auction platform and Indiafrance.com a France based enterprise

gives India mart a much needed global foothold. A system of preferred mobile

numbers was set up for suppliers. These virtual mobile numbers were mapped to

each supplier, and behind each number was an intricate system allowing each call

coming in to the number to be diverted to up to eight mobile or landline numbers

given by suppliers.

That one call went to all provided numbers simultaneously, and as soon as one

buyer picked up, the others were instantly dropped. This minimized the call

duration of the buyer and ensured that someone would always answer. As opposed

to other systems, the call charged to India MART began only on pick-up by the

IndiaMart.com

supplier. Once the inquiry was made and answered and both parties hung up, a

text and email was sent to buyer and supplier instantly, thanking them for their call

and sharing contact details of both parties with each other. A solid lead with a

chance of conversion was passed to the supplier, while the buyer received the

requested information and quotes needed to make a business decision.

India MART now had the power to monitor the progress and duration of every call

made through these numbers using an online panel. With it, the company got a

deep level of understanding of the interaction happening between the two target

audiences. The system also offered the flexibility to change numbers associated

with each supplier. In essence, it was a solution that enhanced the scope of India

Mart’s business through credible leads and a quick connection between its buyers

and suppliers.

Internet Profile:

As part of the free registration, these SMEs get to be listed among their peers in

that industry and also get a free website on India MART domain. They can

upgrade to a paid membership after experiencing the practical results achieved

IndiaMart.com

through it. As part of this, we design web catalogues for SMEs and provide them

with premium listing, among other things. For these services, members have to pay

a minimal annual fee. Company has also introduced a pay per lead model, which

is the first of its kind in the world. Through this SMEs can buy a business lead

from a buyer after evaluating its relevance for their business. Once they find it

relevant, they can buy it for a nominal amount. Through this model, suppliers are

able to choose from the listed business leads and can then pursue them to grow

their sales.

IndiaMART.com, has introduced a service for small and medium enterprises,

which puts buyers in touch with suppliers, Called ‘Buy Leads’, it is based on a

“pay per ‘seen’ lead” model. It is a slight modification of the “pay per lead”

model, with the buyer of the lead being able to see the contents of the lead before

he decides to purchase it. It allows suppliers to assess buying requirements,

evaluate them and move further, if they find it relevant. The company introduced

the service as a pilot last year, garnering 10,000 sign-ups in the pilot year and

registering monthly billings of over Rs 1 crore. It is targeting 30,000 sign-ups in

the next three years, Agarwal said.

Buyers and sourcing agents come to IndiaMART.com and post their purchase

requirements free of cost. Each requirement is manually screened and followed up

with the buyer post, which is listed in the ‘buy leads’ marketplace. From this

marketplace, suppliers can view the content of the purchase requirement and then

decide to buy or not. Lead prices start at Rs 50. Once suppliers purchase a lead,

contact details of the buyer become visible.

How does the business model work in practice?

http://www.business-standard.com/search?type=news&q=Indiamart.com

IndiaMart.com

We offer free as well as paid membership to our users who are mostly SMEs. Each

SME is eligible to register on the marketplace for free. As part of the free

registration, these SMEs get to be listed among their peers in that industry and also

get a free website on India MART domain. They can upgrade to a paid

membership after experiencing the practical results achieved through it. As part of

this, we design web catalogues for SMEs and provide them with premium listing,

among other things. For these services, members have to pay a minimal annual fee.

We have also introduced a pay per lead model, which is the first of its kind in the

world. Through this SMEs can buy a business lead from a buyer after evaluating its

relevance for their business. Once they find it relevant, they can buy it for a

nominal amount. Through this model, suppliers are able to choose from the listed

business leads and can then pursue them to grow their sales.

India Mart has been successfully doing it since 1996 through various B2B

solutions and services like online directory offering free-listing and business query

forwarding facility, building and promoting online catalogs for businesses, and

building content & database-rich industry portals, etc. It has now wished to further

benefits member businesses from an online catalog based trade-lead system to B2B

auctions that offer a more direct method of online trading and negotiations".

IndiaMART.com attracts international buyers looking for exporters, suppliers and

manufacturers from India for their business needs. The online marketplace

generates more than one lakh B2B trade queries every month through which its

member SME businesses are estimated to have conducted a business worth Rs

600 crores in the last financial year alone.

IndiaMart.com

Already fetching 5.6 million pageviews, representing one of the highest figures in

the world in the B2B segment, IndiaMART.com offers its visitors online B2B

directory with over 60,000 businesses listed under more than 450 product/service

categories. Visitors to IndiaMART.com can browse through over 1000 business

catalogues and can interact online with member businesses. The marketplace also

offers a lot of useful B2B information on key Indian industries, interactive

community tools and business support services to facilitate B2B trade between its

visitors and member businesses.

Through auction, it will now offer a more direct and interactive trading and

negotiation platform to fuel online trade across countries as well as locally. "Our

new online platform offering B2B catalogues, auctions, trade offers and other

online business support services will bring online the 'action' that was so far being

initiated at IndiaMART.com, but being finalized offline in the form of a

transaction. Through online B2B auctions, whereby sellers will get the highest

price for their inventory and buyers will be able to interact with multiple sellers at

the same time for their business requirements. Such e-marketplaces make B2B

sourcing process highly efficient, especially for industrial and international buyers.

This process is similar to window shopping. Promotion of the website, publication

of e-catalogs in popular portals especially B2B platforms like www.indiamart.com,

www.alibaba.com etc will encourage e-browsing.

E-BUYING:

In any such process the following things have to be taken care of:

IndiaMart.com

a) Provide e- catalog: Customers go through it to find desired products.

b) Configure Solution: If required, customer can customize the product to suit his

requirements.

c) Determine price: depending on the type of product chosen by the customer and

the level of customization, the price should be determined. Some of the elements

that should be considered for determining the price are:

i) Quantity

ii) Distance

iii) Product

iv) Purchase Amount.

Overview:

Indiamart created an online platform, which enabled the global market reach and

access for the MSMEs. It bridged the accessibility gap between the MSMEs and

global buyers by creating an online b2b platform. during the initial years after

inception, it focused on market building by acting as a connection between offline

customers and offline MSMEs it collected the queries from different customers by

different means like phone, fax etc, and forwarded the same to the MSMEs in its

database, free of cost.

These developed a positive relationship with the MSMEs who didn’t have any

alternative access to the global market place. The subsequent launch of the global

platform or the e-hub helped the customers and MSMEs to connect with each other

IndiaMart.com

online to interact, negotiate and conduct actual transactions. Gradually, as the

market acceptance and transactions started increasing, it expanded its value

offering by including an extensive range of value added products and services

across various industries and verticals, including apparel and fashion accessories,

auto components and spare parts, medical pharmaceuticals and scientific

equipments, home decor, gift and crafts, engineering and industrial products etc.

Strategy view:

The strategy view of indiamart.com is being evaluated from two perspectives.

This includes value chain analysis and strategic frame work analysis.

Value chain analysis:

The value chain analysis for indiamart brings forth the key primary activities are;

Maintaining database of suppliers.

Directory listing and categorization.

Manage queries and buy-sell transactions.

Delivery and payments.

Suppliers rating.

Key support activities include;

Focus on product, process and business model innovation.

Setting up technology and operational benchmarks.

IndiaMart.com

Setting up infrastructure (Technology and physical setup)

The increasing number of members availing the indiamart platform generated the

word of mouth publicity and created the economies of scale from the larte volume

of transactions conducted online between MSMEs.

IndiaMart.com

IndiaMart.com

Value proposition:

Indiamart defined its business around the key objective of more buyers, more

suppliers and more business. The rationale behind this objective was that the

creation of a technology platform as a virtual market place would lead to growth in

business by bridging the connectivity and accessibility barriers between small-

scale suppliers in India and global buyers.

For suppliers, the value proposition included;

Increase in revenues by having access to global buyers.

Access to information on competitive market trends.

For buyers, the value proposition included;

Access to network of suppliers offerings.

Access to feedback and rating of suppliers.

Ease of evaluation and transactions.

IndiaMart.com

IndiaMart.com

Generating leads for suppliers:

Every month IndiaMART.com generates over 250,000 leads from buyers in the

form of buy requirements. Ad Words plays an important role to generate these

leads. In Q2 2014, IndiaMART.com added dynamic remarketing to its marketing

mix in Ad Words. The company chose dynamic remarketing for its ability to re-

engage buyers with personalized messages, increase the conversion rates for its

display ads, increase lead volume and meet a target cost-per-lead. These, in turn,

help the company build lasting customer relationships.

Using dynamic remarketing best practices:

India MART followed a number of best practices to set up its dynamic ads to show

relevant products to past site visitors. This involved implementing remarketing

tags, a product feed, a dynamic ad template and conversion tracking. IndiaMART’s

remarketing tags, product feed and dynamic ad template were set up together to

ensure that ads reaching past site visitors would be personalized based on the

products and company web properties each had visited.

In addition, IndiaMART prepared to optimize for conversions by setting up

conversion tracking, critical to facilitating the full lead generation power of

dynamic remarketing. The level of personalization in the ads built upon

IndiaMART’s 18 years of experience in the B2B segment. On the IndiaMART

platform, the company already segmented suppliers and products on various

parameters in order to offer suggestions to buyers. Dynamic ads allowed the

company to apply this in-house expertise to showcase the most relevant products

among a catalog of over 10 million products. This has significantly increased the

satisfaction level of users and even increased its Net Promoter Score.

IndiaMart.com

After completing the dynamic remarketing set-up in just three weeks, IndiaMART

started running dynamic ads with a manual bid strategy focused on clicks. Within a

few weeks it had enough conversion history to change the bid strategy to optimize

for conversions.

Buy Leads:

Buy Leads is a centralized enquiry system that brings globally spread genuine

business leads to your doorstep. And thus enables you to reach out to the authentic

buyers quickly and easily. It also helps you review your buying pattern, your

transaction history and your purchased Buy Leads. Buy Leads section allows you

to manage all your buy leads activity efficiently with easy-to-use interface.

Easy Steps to Receive Most Relevant Trade Alert:

Step 1 - Visit http://my.indiamart.com

Step 2 - Sign In with your e-mail id and password

Step 3 - Go to Trade Offers -> Manage Your Trade Alerts

Step 4 - You may here add / remove categories & keywords

http://my.indiamart.com/

IndiaMart.com

Transaction History:

This section allows you to check your entire buy leads transaction history with

some basic information such as transaction date, description, summary, total

amount paid, credit purchased, credit used and balance credit.

IndiaMart.com

Benefits:

View your current credit balance and purchased history

Help you to review your buy leads purchasing pattern

View transaction specific to particular date and amount

Check your buy leads transaction history instantly

Listings:

This section helps you to review your company and product listing. Here, you can

check if your company or products are listed in the right categories. It also allows

you to update or suggest changes in your listing and helps you promote products

and company across multiple pages all over IndiaMART.com network.

Buy leads is application created by indiamart for the buyers through trade alerts.

For that it provides listings to the buyers, most of all it contains with directory

listing and categorization of products and MSME buyers. B2B exchanges are

online marketplaces for businesses to buy and sell goods and services from other

businesses. They can create customer-driven value chains that substantially reduce

costs for both buyer and seller and better align the entire supply chain with the

customer’s needs.

IndiaMart.com

Target Audience - Business Types:

SME’s Exporters or Manufacturers

Small scale industries.

Wholesale Suppliers.

Then premium listings started for suppliers who were willing to shell out more

money for better visibility. Next, Indiamart created a paper lead system, wherein a

buyer enquiry is verified by call center employees and then enquiry is sold to

suppliers for credits. As competition grew, so did the revenues which added up to

Rs 150 crore during last financial year. Most online ventures, apart from pure-play

IndiaMart.com

online models like Face book, Twitter or Yahoo have substantial offline

operations, which is the hardest bit to crack. Indiamart established 75 offices

across major cities with a staff of 3,000, out of a total of 3,500 employees, just

reaching out to SMEs. "Internet is only the medium, business is largely offline.

Business model:

The company followed a Freemium (free + premium) business model, where it

offered certain services for free to the MSMEs and charged for the registration fee

for the premium services. This approach helped to build awareness and acceptance

among the MSMEs, especially those who are not willing to avail the fee based

services without seeing the results. The free registration on indiamart enabled the

MSMEs to get an online presence and access to global market. Once the MSME

felt happy and found value in having presence with India mart, they had the option

of upgrading themselves for a paid membership, which entitled them an access to

premium services like web catalogues, priority listing and trusted seal rating. The

company also introduce pay per lead model to the MSMEs which provided the

facility of choosing relevant business lead at India mart website with nominal

amount and continuing the same. The platform will also avail support services

including logistics, insurance buyer verification and sampling services online to

participating members through a tie-up with global verification giant SGS (Société

Générale de Surveillance, Geneva) to help build trust in online trade. India

MART is already talking to ICICI and Citibank for provision of online payment

gateway services for B2B transactions through the portal.

IndiaMart.com

A conservative estimate by the company reveals B2B transactions worth Rs 1,200

crores through the portal in the current year, resulting from estimated 3000 online

auction deals. In addition, IndiaMART is confident of achieving at least 2,500

online0 catalogues of member businesses on the portal by the end of the year,

making IndiaMART.com the largest Indian B2B portal, not far behind those largest

in the world. IndiaMART.com offers products that enable small & medium size

businesses generate business leads (online catalogs/store-fronts), establish their

credibility (third party verified trust profile) and use business information (finance,

news, trade shows, tenders) for their business promotion.

India mart’s space creation for Indian suppliers in global market

IndiaMart.com

Auction:

The new auction platform offers suppliers to register online and list their inventory

for auction on an annual subscription basis. Based on English Auction, the seller

decides on the Reserve Price, the Minimum Bid Price, Bid Increment amount etc.

for an item. Interested global buyers on the other hand, can bid on the items listed

for auction free of cost after going through the product information online.

Participating sellers and buyers can easily track their auctions online, and once an

auction is timed out, the seller is introduced to the winner of the auction to

complete the transaction. Through auction, it will now offer a more direct and

interactive trading and negotiation platform to fuel online trade across countries as

well as locally. "Our new online platform offering B2B catalogues, auctions, trade

offers and other online business support services will bring online the 'action' that

was so far being initiated at IndiaMART.com, but being finalized offline in the

form of a transaction. Through online B2B auctions, whereby sellers will get the

highest price for their inventory and buyers will be able to interact with multiple

sellers at the same time for their business requirements. Such e-marketplaces make

B2B sourcing process highly efficient, especially for industrial and international

buyers. India MART intends to leverage this potential in favour of the large SME

segment in India engaged in exports by bringing to them global business

opportunities. The success of the B2B auction portal can be gauged from the fact

form its introduction in Dec 2001 it has already earned through commissions Rs.

0.48 lakh for the last financial year. Most of the people have their own sizing,

colours, quality parameters and the deals are not in few thousand rupees but mostly

in few Lac Rupees.

IndiaMart.com

Buyers and sellers have to talk 5-10 times before they can settle on a price. For

example, if there’s an offer to buy 50,000 pairs of socks – there someone is going

to make a pitch that I can offer you one variety in 30 days for 1$, another for $1.25

or this kind for $1.3 etc, depending on quality and size. So the price discovery

would not take place on a B2B Market Exchange. But India mart facilitate buyer

and supplier discovery, and whether they do business depends on their

requirements.

ICT usage is imperative for seamless business operations. Thus, the 'Free for

SMEs' conference would elaborate on the ICT applications and tools which are

economical and effective for different business divisions, resulting into higher

efficiency and productivity of SMEs. The conference would have eminent speakers

including thought leaders, entrepreneurs, etc. deliberate on the subject.

IAMAI has started an aggressive drive to recruit start-ups as members. It is a part

of their long-term strategy to include all stake-holders in the digital space such as

telecom operators, venture funds, ISPs in addition to its existing constituency of

online and mobile value added services companies within its ambit.

IndiaMART.com and IAMAI had organized this first-of-its-kind conference 'ICT

for SMEs' last year as well to focus on technology-driven growth avenues for the

SME sector. The hugely successful conference was attended by over 300

stakeholders from the ICT and SME sector. The distinguished guests had

applauded the conference for the thoughtful theme selection and fillip intended for

the SMEs through the same. This year too, the conference shall synergize ways for

SMEs to reach out to a larger base of buyers while running their business functions

optimally.

IndiaMart.com

Company has been working very closely with SMEs in order to bring them online

and also help them gauge benefits of the online medium for their business. We

have been organizing conferences and seminars in association with bodies such as

IAMAI [Internet and Mobile Association of India] and TiE, among others. These

conferences have seen strong SME attendance. Company has been participating in

about 260 domestic and international trade events and tries to facilitate B2B

matchmaking through these trade forums, which triggers business networking and

knowledge sharing. And the online marketplace kept a strong offline self-

promotion agenda too as they participated in 200 different trade fairs in India and

across the world each year to collect more yet suppliers and buyers.

IndiaMART.com join hands with tenders.hellotrade.com for offering Worldwide

Tenders Information to you. Any of our members from all across the globe can

subscribe to this service and avail the benefits.

This service keeps you updated with the latest Global Tender Notices, International

Project News, Expression on Interest (EOI), Request for Quotation (RFQ), Request

for Information (RFI), Pre-qualifications & any corrigendum issued by different

Government, Public or Private organizations from all over the world. We have a

database comprising of more than 175,000 global business opportunities and 3000

new tenders are uploaded every day.

IndiaMart.com

The Benefits Offered is:

More than 200 Countries coverage.

Over 3000 new business opportunities classified every day.

Tenders are categorized up to micro level to save your time & efforts in selecting

the relevant tenders.

We offer you both online access and tender alerts through email in the same plan.

Select relevant package and pay for what suits your business requirement.

You may browse the business opportunities using any of the following options:

By Country

By Product/ Service Category

By Keyword Search

Special offer for IndiaMART.com members Flat 25% discount on any

subscription plan of 1 year period for any country or industry.

Help sellers to

Promote their brand and conduct business

IndiaMart.com

Generate Business leads

Test market products

Post trade offers

Find suppliers

Provides

Business directory

Online catalog

Call from buyers on Mobile

Trade leads

Business Tenders

Enquiry Alerts through SMS

Assists buyers and sellers to trade with each other at a common, reliable &

transparent platform. Offer personalized assistance to buyers and sellers for

almost everything they need to buy/sell using IndiaMART.com Committed

to provide value for time and money to our customers. Help our clients to

improve operational efficiency and productivity of business processes of the

enterprise. Include a range of business solutions such as payment gateway,

travel deals, recruitment solutions, ERP solutions et al.

Explore hidden Markets

IndiaMart.com

Lowest client acquisition cost

24*7 Global presence

Time & Cost Effective

Reduce Marker Time & Lead Time

Seller Tools

Managing Products

How to add Products in My.IM?

What are hot Products?

What is Push to top option do?

What Is Private Buyer Catalog?

Why do I receive quotations that are not relevant?

How can I subscribe/ manage my Trade Alerts?

How will my Free Website get promoted?

Where can I see my listed product/services on IndiaMART.com?

How to add Products in My.IndiaMart?

Please follow the below steps to add products in My.IndiaMart

Go to Seller Tools

Click on Add New Products under Product/Services tab

Fill in required information

Add Image

http://www.indiamart.com/help/seller-tools.html#rb13








IndiaMart.com

Click on "Submit" to add new product in your catalogAlso, in order to add your

product on IndiaMart.com, it is mandatory to add image of your product. Adding

image also increases your product chances to come in top list.

What are hot Products?

The products on which you would like to emphasize the most and keen to sell.

In order to mark your product as Hot Product, kindly follow the below steps:

Visit http://my.indiamart.com

Sign In with your e-mail id and password

Go to Seller Tools -> Manage Products

Select your product

Mark it as Hot Product by clicking on checkbox

What is Push to Top option do?

By pushing your product through 'Push to Top' option, it will get better visibility

on IndiaMart platform.

What Is Private Buyer Catalog?

This tool enables you to create BUYER specific catalogs and circulate them by

Invitation

You can show your latest design to your buyers, with a personalized touch

These catalogs can be viewed by invitation only


IndiaMart.com

First you need to upload your products/designs by using the Manage My Products

link

Why do I receive quotations that are not relevant?

In that case, you may change your product preference settings to add more product

categories. Second, you may change the location preference settings as per your

preferred business region. If you still do not get relevant Buy Leads in SMS Alerts,

then please mail us at: [email protected] or you may call us at:

09696969696.

How can I subscribe / manage my Trade Alerts?

Registered members of IndiaMART.com can log in to My.indiamart.com using

their username and password. Follow below steps to subscribe to Trade Alerts:

Click on 'Buy Leads'

Select 'Product Preference'

Browse, search and select categories

To change the selected categories, click on 'Remove'

When appropriate categories have been selected, click on 'Submit

Categories'

You are now subscribed to business categories of your interest & will

reveive alerts shortly.


IndiaMart.com

Get Genuine Suppliers:

How can I search Supplier/ Product at IndiaMART?

How can I search Supplier/ Product from a particular location?

From search results, how can I contact the Supplier(s)?

Where can I browse Suppliers/ Products at IndiaMART?

How can I get quick response from Suppliers?

Is IndiaMART's assistance for providing me Suppliers chargeable?

1. Can IndiaMART assist me if I am unable to search right Supplier?

How can I search Supplier/ Product at IndiaMART?

Go to http://www.indiamart.com and type the product/ company name in the

search text box, then click Search button.

Tip: When you start typing characters of the product which you wish to search,

IndiaMART suggests you various list of items, among which you can choose your

best possible product.

How can I search Supplier/ Product from a particular location?

Go to http://www.indiamart.com and in search box write the supplier/ product

name along with city/ state name (e.g. Leather bags fromAgra or Leather bags

in Punjab) and click on search Button

From the search result page, you can also choose/ enter the preferred city of

product/ supplier you wish to source from.

From search results, how can I contact the Supplier(s)?

http://www.indiamart.com/


http://www.indiamart.com/help/buyers.html#gs7







IndiaMart.com

When you search supplier/ product at http://www.indiamart.com, the result page

appears with a list of suppliers with Send Enquiry button. You can click the send

enquiry button of the supplier and send your business enquiry directly to him.

Where can I browse Suppliers/ Products at IndiaMART?

You can browse: Suppliers/ Products at http://dir.indiamart.com

How can I get quick response from Suppliers?

For getting prompt response from suppliers, Click Here to submit your buy

requirement. Describing your requirement in detail and correct contact information

(e-mail & phone) will help suppliers respond you at the earliest.

http://my.indiamart.com/eto-post-buy.html

http://dir.indiamart.com/


IndiaMart.com

Is IndiaMART's assistance for providing me Suppliers chargeable?

No, this assistance it totally FREE.

Can IndiaMART assist me if I am unable to search right Supplier?

Yes, Indiamart can assist in searching right suppliers for you:

You can submit your buying requirement here

Email BUYERS HELPDESK at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://my.indiamart.com/eto-post-buy.html

IndiaMart.com

Call Us: 09696969696

How will my Free Website get promoted?

In order to promote your free catalog, kindly follow below steps:

Add your Profile

Add Products

Make sure to have personalised URL

Go to My Promotion -> Promote URL

You may promote your URL with any available social platform

This is an attractive feature that allows you to promote your company URL on the

given social media platform. Some of them are: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook,

StumbleUpon, Digg, Google Bookmarks, My Space and many more to go.

Where can I see my listed product/ services on IndiaMART.com?

You can simply see your listed product/services on IndiaMART.com by search

your listed product/ services or company name atdir.indiamart.com.

My product is a separate platform provided for both the MSME buyers and sellers

to find out and register their product. After this registration Buyer will call the

Seller and the will be supplied to seller in 90 minutes.

IndiaMart.com

Google Apps for Business is a web-based suite of messaging and collaboration

applications, that includes Gmail, Google Calendar, and integrated IM, as well as

Google Docs and Google Sites, Google’s word processing, spreadsheet,

presentation and website creation tools. Dinesh Agarwal, CEO –

IndiaMART.com, said, “At IndiaMART.com, we have always been proactive in

adopting new technologies for seamless business operations. It is this outlook that

prompted us to utilise Google Apps, which promises better infrastructure and

management than what is ordinarily possible with on-premise solutions, while

IndiaMart.com

serving millions of users simultaneously. Google has created a wonderful suite of

applications that tend to help organisations save time, money and resources. We

are optimistic that these innovative apps would definitely trigger many

organisations like us to move on to cloud.”

“We are pleased to have IndiaMART.com join the Google Apps family here in

India,” said Pradeep Agarwal, Country Head, Google Enterprise in India. “They

serve as a great example of how organizations are able use cloud-based messaging

and collaboration tools to connect their employees, customers and business

partners in various offices and cities for enhanced productivity and better decision

making.”

The migration to Google Apps for Business allows IndiaMART.com to move its

employees onto one common email platform. The company is also in the process

of rolling out collaboration tools such as Google Docs, which allow employees to

share files and collaborate in real-time, keeping versions organized and available

wherever and whenever they work.

IndiaMART.com plans to transition other custom on-premise apps to the cloud

using Google App Engine in future.

IndiaMart.com

Marketing Efforts

IndiaMART.com has great confidence in the power of social media marketing as a

medium of reaching out to the target market. It has a presence on various social

networking sites. The company began using Facebook in 2009. The company sees

Facebook as a “consistent medium of brand promotion.” IndiaMART.com uses its

Facebook account to provide SMEs specific latest news and information about

current trends. It does this through regular updates on its wall. Through this

medium, the company is able to share information about various business aspects,

such as trade shows, with its members.

IndiaMart.com

IndiaMART.com has a meager presence on Twitter. Its Twitter account has less

than 500 followers. A restricting factor could be that most of the tweets are

promotional, rather than what social networking is actually about, i.e. being social.

IndiaMART.com also uses Youtube to share videos of their media coverage,

including interviews of their CEO, as well as success stories of their clients. The

company uses Photbucket and Flickr to share pictures of their products and events.

Blogger has been used to educate SMEs (small and medium enterprises) on how to

better handle their business operations, share key announcements from

IndiaMART.com and related news. IndiaMART.com also has a presence on social

bookmarking sites like delicious and Stumble upon. “Social media marketing has

become a very strong medium to reach out to a wider audience. Social media

platforms in the form of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube have made it possible to

broadcast messages and news to a larger base of business persons and the like. Its

ability to engage with the stakeholders irrespective of geographical barriers has

helped us penetrate SME space to a large extent,” says Dinesh Agarwal, Founder

& CEO, IndiaMART.com.

Result of Efforts

IndiaMART.com has 58,351 fans on Face book. Many of their fans are very active

and freely exchange their thoughts, suggestions and opinions here.

IndiaMART.com and other marketplaces generate more than 40 million page

IndiaMart.com

views per month. IndiaMART.com’s three-month Alexa global traffic rank is

1,391. Its Indian traffic rank is 108.

E-commerce assignment

Documents

Transcript of E-commerce assignment