With increasing use of smart phones in today's life, most of the viewers are using smart phones for research and buying online. This is the biggest opportunity to the companies. Mobile is not just an e-commerce channel, but it can be used for building relationship with your customers. Brian Rigney (CEO at Zmags) in his article “Maximize Marketing Reach: A Glance at the Customer Is All You Get” at marketingland.com, discussed about four simple steps to deliver rich and creative campaigns at the right place and says, “52 percent of Web traffic to retail websites globally currently comes via smartphones and tablet devices.”  Steps are:
• Think for omni-channel and use holistic approach.
• Develop sites, offers and experiences in different ways to serve different channels.
• Create, adjust and preview the sites.
• Tap the knowledge base to understand what works for your organization.
To know more about these steps, follow this link: http://marketingland.com/reach-glance-get-often-small-window-130011

Flipkart , an e-commerce co., has decided to focus on social media, mobile interface and data mining to boost its position in the online retail market.  Data mining and technology improvements are going to take up a major role in the coming days. Up gradation in infrastructures and data centres are essential to maintain its position in the market.  The company also expects to achieve $8 billion dollar sales thus utilizing every resource at its disposal.  To know more, please follow:

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-04-13/news/61102918_1_mukesh-bansal-binny-bansal-billion-day

Mainstream retail companies are taking a heavy beating from their online counterparts. These companies are facing stiff competition due to discounts and lots of advertising from the e-commerce industry. Company reports indicate that the decline in sales for the brick and mortar firms are a steady affair, and sales do not increase even during the festive seasons. Revenue growth of these companies has slowed down impacting the distributors. Distributors are stocking less and there has been a significant decrease in inventory holding. With the number of offline firms growing day by day, these firms are looking for a change in their marketing strategies to counter online competition. To know more, please follow the link: http://info.shine.com/article/the-churn-in-the-retail-sector/8822.html

With mobile usage growing at a tremendous rate for apps and social media, e-commerce companies have realized the importance of collaborating with the mobile platform rather than using just website interface. Social Collaboration has become the new trend. Retailers are now creating experiences for mobiles that add to the website experience.

Consumers are also getting the benefit of convenience. The concept of digital shopping is now becoming their habit. With m-commerce continuing to grow, retail businesses are now seeing a vision of golden age of e-commerce, where convenience and collaboration will play the key role.

To know more, please read this interesting article by Jack Lowinger, Founder and CEO of Cartonomy, at entrepreneur.com:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244208

In the period of 1997-2000, Internet companies had become the favorites of investors. Despite incurring losses, they were highly valued because of their wide scope. This was the dot-com bubble and it burst on 6 April, 2000 with NASDAQ suffering an over $1 trillion loss in market value.

Now, 15 years later, a similar scenario is forming again. This time, it is not just in US, but also in Asia’s third largest economy, India. Tech investors, all over the world are queuing up to invest in Indian e-commerce firms. At the same time, NASDAQ also climbed above 5000 points for the first time since the Dot-Com boom. Rising valuations, massive losses and ambitious promises of future growth are some of the other similarities that can be drawn.

The following article by Shrutika Verma and Mihir Dalar at livemint.com, talks about the e-commerce frenzy in India today and draws its parallels with the Dot-Com Bubble. This article also cautions that this e-commerce boom should not meet the same fate.

Read more at:

http://www.livemint.com/Companies/PKYPXSiOwle8hOkgUi8mpL/Indias-ecommerce-frenzy.html

According to a survey, the Indian fashion industry is likely to touch $77 billion in a next five year. To understand the changing customer behavior and have a competitive advantage, e-commerce firms and retailers can use analytics. In a research from Technopak, the share of apparels and lifestyle in e-commerce is likely to increase by 30% and e-commerce will contribute about 6% of apparel sales. Fashion industry faces a challenge of understanding customers want and require quick access to market dynamics.  E-Commerce in retail is increasing, and all channels, firms are looking for advanced analytics to understand consumer behavior. Read more at: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/data-analytics-can-help-retailers-know-consumer-behaviour-115042000358_1.html

According to Saritha Rai (Contributor), e-commerce companies like Amazon, Snapdeal, ShopClues, Flipkart etc. find innovative solutions to timely delivery of their products by collaborating with Kirana stores, Dabbawallas in Mumbai, post office for reaching especially in rural areas and gas stations in Delhi and Mumbai. In a Morgan Stanley Report, Indian e-commerce market is expected to boom up to $100 billion in revenue by 2020. Timely delivery in the cities of India is a big challenge for e-commerce firms as roads are congested, streets are not numbered sequentially and customers many times don’t write zip codes or landmarks.  Finding these innovative solutions will not only benefit the e-commerce firms but it will also benefit local sources. To know more about these innovative solution read at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2015/04/15/from-dabbawallas-to-kirana-stores-five-unique-ecommerce-delivery-innovations-in-india/

On 8^th April, 2015, Snapdeal announced that it has acquired FreeCharge, an online recharge platform, for an estimated $400 million. This is one of the biggest acquisitions in the history of the internet industry in India and sets up Snapdeal to build the most impactful digital commerce ecosystem in India. According to Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl, “The joint entity would create the country's largest mobile commerce platform with over 40 million customers.”

To know more about this deal, read the following Times of India article:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Snapdeal-buys-Freecharge-for-400m/articleshow/46857876.cms

 E-Commerce is important for any business and customers are their greatest asset. In a recent report, it was found that some consumers follow retailers on social media channels to get their latest deals and offers, 34% said they would like to find products on retailer websites, and 76% say they want to know about retailer offers and promotions via email. Marko Luhtala (CEO of RapidCampaign), writes in his article link about the promotions that a company can undertake which customers will love and in turn will increase sales. Read more at: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/e-commerce-digital-marketing/five-steps-to-creating-promotions-your-customers-will-love/1701

Mobile commerce has outpaced desktop e-commerce in 2014. According to a report by Mobile Marketing Magazine, it was found that mobile advertising grew at a rate six times faster than that of global desktop marketing. Business Insider also forecasted that mobile payment volume in the United States will increase to $818 billion by the year 2019. So, according to Brett Relander (Founder, Launch & Hustle)’s article link now it has become important to look at the mobile marketing trends for 2015:  http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/mobile-marketing-trends-2015-0

The scenario in E-Commerce is changing at a fast pace. Patrick Salyer (CEO, Gigya), writes about some key points to be kept in mind while doing an e-commerce business. They are as follows: 1.  32% of online purchases are made over mobile. 2.   89% of consumers began doing business with a competitor following a poor customer experience. 3.  91% of eCommerce retailers saw a lift in their SEO rank thanks to social referrals. 4.     73% of consumers prefer to do business with brands that use personal information to make their shopping experiences more relevant. 5.     eMarketer predicts that worldwide B2C eCommerce sales will increase by 20.1% this year, reaching a grand total of $1.5 trillion. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/5-stats-every-ecommerce-business-should-know-0

The growth of e-commerce in present times has been a cause of worry for many analysts and they proclaim that traditional "bricks and mortar" shopping was going to extinct. But a new study shows the traditional shopping is still alive and well for many Americans. According to new study by global consulting firm A.T. Kearney, consumers continue to flock to physical retail locations and are actually crucial in generating online sales for retailers. According to the study, 90% of all U.S. retail sales conducted last year was done in a physical store versus only about 9% done online. Moreover, 95% of sales were accounted by retailers with bricks and mortar presence. Kearney noted that stores make a significant contribution to generating sales, even if the transaction is eventually done online. Through the five stages of a retail transaction - Discovery, Trial & Test, Purchase, Delivery or Pickup, and Returns - at some point along the chain, the majority of consumers will use a physical store. One could be in smaller mall operators. While Simon is the largest owner, smaller firms like CBL & Associates Properties Inc. (CBL), Macerich Co. (MAC) have all experienced faster funds-from-operations (FFO) growth than their bigger rival. The bottom line is Bricks and mortar stores aren't dead or even dying. Not by a long shot. For investors, that mean the owners of shopping malls, power centers and other retail real estate are in a prime position to continue paying strong dividends for years to come. Read more at: : http://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/080614/why-bricks-and-mortar-retail-remains-solid-bet-spg-cbl-mac-amzn.aspx

The word start-up was a global slogan in 2000. Start-ups are generally new companies, undergoing researches and growth for different markets. E-commerce is contract of business by e-mail. Recently, one sees an astonishing rise in the number of e-commerce start-ups in India suggesting the increase in the number of risk-takers and customers eager to procure online. Regardless of tangible and non-tangible goods, these businesses made customers buy from them. Some famous start-ups possessing assets, talent or ideas come up and they succeed. There are almost eleven e-commerce start-ups in 2014 such as circle, crinkle, fashion and u, flipboard, level money, lyft, oyster books, and many more.. Read more at: 

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/node/237276

Enhanced e-commerce is a trending reason nowadays for the uprising online retail shopping. It includes tracking code updates, data model changes, and new end-user reports that address many ecommerce-specific use cases. Together they help online retailers see farther and understand customer behaviors better than ever before. According to reports, online retail grew above 30% in year 2013. Digital data has played an essential role in that growth offering deep insights into online shopping behavior and letting retailers make smarter moves. But needs are rapidly increasing and retailers are requiring more sophisticated and comprehensive analysis tools to understand shoppers and improve product-level performance. We should analyze how far shoppers get in the shopping bag and understand which products are viewed most and which are frequently abandoned in cart. We should also create product lists for onsite merchandising rules, product landing pages to see which lists and products are best at driving customer engagement and analyze how internal promotions impact sales and act immediately on the results. Read more at: 

A presentation by Geoff Watts, Chief Executive Officer  & Co-Founder of EDITD, where he speaks about how big data is helping the fashion industry. As apparel brands are going global, huge amount of retail and consumer data are generated .To tap these data, the fashion industry is taking the help of different analytical tools to get a complete picture of the industry during different time periods and take a decision.

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