Niche e-commerce players do it right

E-commerce market has seen an accelerating growth in India with the constant rise of smart phones, internet and the app business. With the international players also investing alongside the homegrown players, the market is going to further escalate. According to a research, the e-commerce sector in India has grown by 34% (CAGR) since 2009 to touch USD 16.4 billion in 2014. The sector is pegged to be in the range of USD 22 billion in 2015.

With the players constantly introducing fresh ideas to lure the consumer attention, there is increased focus on niche markets. Which niche segments would blossom and which would perish remains to be seen, however there is no segment that is not being tapped.  

Digital players, who are attempting to occupy these niches, believe that audience is ready for it. Adgully connected with a few niche e-commerce players to understand its nuances: 

icustommadeit.com, as the name suggests has been launched with the objective of customizing products as per the consumer requirements (desires?); humswadeshi.com is completely about made in India products; giftcardsindia.in deals with gift cards across categories while wudstay.com prides itself for offering unique stay offers.

According to Divya Sudan, Sr. Manager, Communications, icustommadeit.com ,“ In the case specific to icustommadeit.com, we know that there is audience out there thinking of products they desire but they do not know how and where to get them. We are just satiating their creative hunger for custom-make products and trying our best to deliver the best possible product that they can think of. Also, we are committed to deliver custom-make products to a much wider audience at a much affordable cost and revolutionize the way people buy! We want to shatter the belief that ‘Custom make is expensive’.”

Players emphasize that most products or services are launched to fill a need gap and same is true in niche ecommerce space as well. Kiran Dixit, Managing Director, Humswadeshi.com expresses, “E commerce startups are opting for Niche-er environment in order to stand out in the clutter. This decision is based upon customers’ needs or latent needs, else no one will put their time and money on it.”

Firoz Khan, Co-founder & CEO, giftcardsindia.in too echoes similar thoughts, “Definitely there is an audience for the niche-er market otherwise we wouldn’t have been in the business. You just need to find the right kind of audience.”

Prafulla Mathur, Founder and CEO, WudStay explains the reason for this fast changing e-commerce spectrum, “The Indian audience palette is evolving at a very fast pace. Especially, with the rise of ecommerce people have become more aware than ever and are doing their research before narrowing down on an option. It is precisely because of this that companies are coming up with niche offerings to be able to capture a larger audience.

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Since e-commerce is all about reaching the right audiences, each brand caters to a different target audience. Audiences are defined based on different parameters like purchasing power, age groups, location, gender, mobile usage (savvy) and psychographics among others.  Youth, however, continue to be the favoured target group, though many other parameters are kept in mind. Kiran says, “Given the largest young population in India, everyone is aiming for the same. However, as per the product / service offerings, target audience definition changes and various psychographic parameters come into play.”

The players are quick to explain that whole lot of research and analysis goes into defining target group for niche segments. As per Divya, “A deeper understanding of market demographics, identifying market challenges and gaps, understanding buying behavior in specific as well as holistic pockets is the ground work that no one can miss.”

Kiran takes the discussion on power of research a step further. “Every start up does engage itself into research before launching operations. However, startups are about how different an idea you have and whether that idea has 'takers' in the market. People employ research activities like primary or secondary research, interacting with customers. Time is invested in learning from what is happening in the ecommerce industry, identifying the customer pain point and how the business idea can address that pain point.”

Prafulla, on the other hand, says, “With a gamut of offerings being presented to the customers they have a variety of options to choose from. Therefore, prior to creating any platform one has to do a thorough research on the demand and what new can be offered. You also need to analyze the future prospects of the industry you are entering. One also needs to carefully keep an eye on the changing needs of the consumer. Only when you do this you can win in this game.”

Indian e-commerce industry is going through an interesting phase. While the key e-commerce players are already in India, the niche homegrown segment too is leaving no stone unturned to make their presence felt. As of now, we have no guesses on the customers they are able to lure, however in most cases their wares indeed are unique and eye catching.

anukriti(@)adgully.com