Online Business Surge in India and its Future Prospects

If you study the recent trend in the online business in India, you can easily find out three major market players. Namely: Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon. For traditional India where online purchasing was a taboo and thus was limited to few online tickets booking, these companies together have introduced a new culture of online business culture in India. A business that is forecasted to grow from sales of $ 2.3 billion (As of 2014) to $32 billion (as of 2020).

For Flipkart which is largest internet company by its market value of $7 billion, it went through rough ways to arrive at this position to bust the myth that consumers like to see and feel the product before buying. Reluctance of customers to give details of their credit cards, fear about the delivery of the product, suspicion to get exact product etc. were of paramount amount which pioneers like Flipkart had to go through. 

These companies are at the verge of cut-throat competition as they have been going with massive marketing strategy to boost the sales. Recent humongous sales made by e-tailers like Flipkart of $100 million in 10 hours as "Big Billion Sales day" and Snapdeal retaliating the same with sales of a crore per minutes proves this. As such there is a humongous sale that these companies have been able to make. And thus large amount of profit. While the competition is tough over a small profit margin, these companies are also facing challenges. The recent challenge is not because of the competitors in online commerce, but because of the competition/conflict between these e-tailers and brick and mortar models. It should be understood that it is until recently that brick and mortar business have been dominant in doing business in country like India. But this culture is changing rapidly. 

Challenges to Indian e-tailers:

1) Tough competition from competitors who are coming up with innovative strategy to increase sales.

2) Problems from top brands having brick and mortar outlets like: LG, Sony, Samsung etc. who are accusing the e-tailers of making predatory sales (selling below cost), thus damaging their sales and brand names.

3) The customers in Tier-I cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore etc. who prefer see-feel-buy approach in contrast to online modes. Luring them for online business might be relatively difficult.

4) New entrants in the industry which might reduce the price of product offerings sharply in contrast to the old market leaders. Similarly, it is also more likely that manufacturers and brands might offer product offerings via their own online sites. 

5) Another possible challenge would be large brick and mortar group like: Reliance Industries, Future Group, TATAS group planning to go online to expand. etc

Brighter side:

It can be seen evidently that Indian e-tailers have been inspired from Chinese mega online internet retailer: Alibaba's success, which raised record high of $21.8 billion IPO. The statement of Flipkart CEO and Founder Sachin Bansal to make Flipkart a $100 billion club member in upcoming 5,10 or 15 years provides a hint that they are planning for a rapid growth of company business in near future. 

Now lets us put light on the basic facts that hints us about the brighter aspects of growth of online business in India.

1) Online retailers selling product-offerings in a cheaper price as they save on rent and other infrastructures are sure to attract large untapped customer segment in future.

2) Online markets are growing rapidly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities where physical outlet are absent or are few. They will penetrate the market deep enough before physical outlet set-up there and start to attract the customers.

3) Indian is a country with population of 1.2 billion out of which the population of age group of 18-40 is 40% (as of census 2011). And this is the chunk of population on which online retailer have been finding a dip in sales. This trend is supposed to increase even more. 

4) The service that these companies offer is almost flawless. Delivery before the delivery date, free delivery, 30 days replacement period, etc. will lure more customers to try these sites.

5) The online market has moved towards growth phase of business cycle in which the startup has dried up in recent years as investors are focusing more in larger companies. Thus the prospects of larger companies to grow are even more.

6) Proliferation in the use of smartphones in Indian market which have enabled large base of customers to go online regularly and thus have access to these sites will increase the sales even more in near future. 

Around the World in Eighty Days

Round the World in Eighty Days is an travel adventure novel written by French writer Julis Verne. Published in 1873, this creation is one of the most acclaimed work of Mr. Verne. 

I had wanted to read this novel since a long period of time. But it is just recent that I finished reading this book and would like to give a brief review of it.

Background of the Novel

Phileas Fogg is a well-to-do Londoner, who lives a lonely life. Nothing is known about him beside a fact that he is a member of prestigious Reform Club. Mr. Fogg is less communicative, with restricted social contacts, making him a more of enigmatic character. Though Mr Fogg is rich, of which source is not known to anyone, he is not lavish, nor a miser and prefers to use his resources for noble and benevolent purposes.  In the story, Fogg gets involved in a discussion with his friends from the Reform Club based on a article in The Telegraph which mentions that the circumnavigation across the world is possible in 80 days because of extended Railway tracks in Indian subcontinent. Fogg believes that the journey was possible within the stipulated time frame which his friends deny. Thus more for prestige than for rewards, Fogg enters into a £20,000 wager with his friends in Reform Club to circumnavigate the world in 80 days. The day of wager was October 2, 1872 and Fogg was supposed to be back by December 21, 1872, 8:45 pm. 

Following characters, circumstances make the novel really interesting that you just want to finish it within one sitting.

Mr. Fogg a man of Enigmatic Personage

Mr, Fogg is a man of extreme mathematical precision, such that he dismissed his servant, James Forster, for serving him water at 84 °F rather that 86 °F. Then after he appoints a Frenchmen named Jean Passepartout, who accompanies him to the journey across the world. His mathematical precision becomes instrumental for him to complete his journey in time. Throughout the journey his personality traits like: calmness, cleverness, benevolences, etc makes him a man of great mystery, making the readers believe that he is  the accused robber. 

The itinerary of the journey is as follows:

Source: Wikipedia

Fix: The Detective

They reach Suez canal in time from where they embark journey to Bombay. While leaving Egypt, they are marked by a detective from England, name Fix, who mistakes Fogg for a bank robber in  England who was in large after robbery of £50,000, for the latter had same description like that of the bank robber. Because of failure to attain warrant, Fix keeps following Fogg and boards the same streamer to Bombay and from Bombay to Calcutta and infact the whole world, to realize at the end that Fogg was not a bank robber.

Aouda: A young Indian Women

The only ladies described in the novel, Fogg and Passepartout, along with their guide meet her while travelling a section of Bombay to Calcutta in an elephant. During the journey, they come across a procession whereby a Aouda, who is a sutte(sati- a widow), is to be sacrificed by burning in a pyre of wood along with her husband. Passepartout wit-fully pretends to be the dead husband and scaring off the priests, rescues her away. She now becomes the added member of the tour.

Circumstances makes Aouda to remain in the Journey

Aouda was supposed to be left to her affluent relative in Hongkong. But Fogg learns that her relative have already left Hongkong and currently resides in Holland. As such Fogg takes Aouda along with him to London.

Fix the desperate detective creates obstruction

Failing to get warrant, Mr. Fix tries to hold Fogg in Hongkong (last British soil in the journey). To do so, he gets Passepartout drunk in an opium den. By this Fix becomes partly successful in stopping Passepartout to not to tell his master about the premature departure of the ship.

Undeterred Fogg

Throughout the journey Fogg remains undeterred and only thinks of best possible way to win the wager. The wager was a matter of pride to him and he was very careful of not making any mistakes along the journey. On way from Suez to Bombay, he paid good reward to streamer engineer to advance their journey by two days. In India he purchased an Elephant at a heavy sum of money and in the end gifted it to his guide who remained faithful in performing his job with utmost sincerity.  In Hongkong, having missed the journey, Fogg hires a boat to escort him and Aouda to Sanghai for a hefty sum of money. The plan was to catch a streamer to Yokohama from Sanghai Similarly to travel from Hudson, US to Liverpool-UK in time he purchases a whole ship for a hefty sum of $60,000 and similar stories continues. Upon reaching to London, he would put himself in a position whereby he would already have had spent as equal to the amount of wager. 

Passepartout: A faithful servant 

Passepartout remains very obedient to this master Mr, Fogg. He risks his life to rescue Aouda from a sacred procession, amidst a risky situation. In another circumstances, though Fix tells him that his master is a bank robber, Passepartout doesn't believe on him. He feels very sorry for his master when he knows that because of him his master missed the ship in Hongkong.

Fogg gets arrested, gets clean chit but losses the Wager

It was not necessary for Fogg to delay his journey by saving life of a unknown Indian women (Aouda). But he risks his wager and his life to save her. Similarly when Passepartout was captured by Indian in America, he takes help of American soldiers to rescue him alive. What can be learnt of Fogg is that he was morally correct and kind  person. Upon arrival to Ireland, Fix arrests Fogg in charge of Bank robbery, later to realize that the original bank robber had already been caught. Disappointed Fogg reaches London just five minutes late thinking he lost the bet.

Passepartout makes Fogg win the lost Wager

Fogg was disappointed as he thought that he had lost the wager and apologized Aouda for having brought her to London in a situation where circumstances had made him poor. Then Aouda confesses her love to Fogg and asks him to marry her. Fogg ask Passepartout to take appointment from Minister. While Passepartout goes to take appointment the next day, he realizes that the date was December 21 and not December 22. The fact was that they gained one day travelling eastward. Passepartout hurries to inform Fogg who comes in the last moment to claim that he has won the wager.

The story ends whereby Fogg wins the wager and gains  £20, 0000. But to the end of his journey he spend about  £19,000 on the way. He divided the remaining amount between Passepartout and detective Fix.

Though Fogg didn't really earn any amount from the wager, he was happy and content that he held his pride high. Most importantly the biggest gain to him from the journey was to get beautiful Aouda as his wife.

Conclusion
Overall these characters and plots make the whole novel very interesting and worth reading. As the story flows, writer also describes the plot in a wonderful way. The writer has really done a good research and made the whole sequence of the story very lively and moving.  At times I felt that I was also travelling with Mr. Fogg across the globe. This book would be a nice read and would like to rate it 8/10. To get book for free flip through "free books section" of Kindle books  download it. If you are lazy enough to read the book, there is a movie based on same story.