Amazon India Launched Prime Subscription Service, Focus on Customer Loyalty Renewed

Bengaluru: Amazon has launched its Prime Subscription Service in India, in order to grow its customer base and sustain customer loyalty. Reports are that the e-commerce giant will introduce its Prime services to 100 Indian cities ‘to drive more loyalty among its growing customer base here.’ Amazon will also offer faster delivery option, with free one and two day delivery to customers who will subscribe to Prime. Customers will also b facilitated with ‘early access to its exclusive offers’. All the services will be available on Amazon app and site.

Prime Subscription Service had helped the American e-commerce portal to ‘build customer loyalty’ and increase subscription in the global market. Sources said that Amazon Prime is currently available in the Indian market for a free 60-day trial and will soon be introduced on a special introduce try price of Rs. 499. 

“Prime will be available to customers in 100 Indian cities, and members in 20 cities can choose also same-day, morning or scheduled delivery at a discounted fee of Rs 50 per order on over 10,000 products. These deliveries typically cost Rs 150,” said Amit Agarwal, vice-president at Amazon India. He also added that the Indian customers of Amazon can experience one day delivery, as it will ‘become an everyday experience instead of an occasional indulgence.’ Prime subscription service will not compel customers for minimum purchases and will offer unlimited convenience 365-days of the year.
However, this step by Amazon has put forward hard competition among the Indian e-commerce players like Flipkart and Snap Deal, who was only focusing on growth.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, Indian e-commerce great Flipkart has acquired rival Jabong in $70 million.

Amazon India Partners With Vodafone India to Boost Offline Sales

Amazon India is expanding its offline presence in the country as it looks to further localise its offering and bring on board customers who are still reluctant to shop online.

The e-tailer has tied up with Vodafone India, the country's second largest telecom operator by customers, to provide touch and feel experience of smartphones like OnePlus 3, which sell exclusively on the platform. 

Amazon India and Vodafone have started pilots of this service in Bengaluru, across 40 stores owned by the telco.  The tie up with Vodafone follows expansion of Amazon's assisted shopping programme, called Udaan, to over 1,000 outlets in tier II & III cities across the country.

While Vodafone declined to comment to an emailed query, an Amazon India spokesperson confirmed the development.  As part of the tie up, each Vodafone store now has a display case with mobile phones listed on Amazon and a product specialist trained by the e-tailer. Customers can try out phones, especially as several smartphones are now exclusively launched and sold on Amazon India without any offline presence. Customers can order the product online from the store, and also come back to it for any post-purchase help.

While still in a pilot stage, the project is likely to be rolled out across the country. There are about 10,000 Vodafone Stores of different sizes across India, giving Amazon access to a wide network.

Besides expanding its offline presence, the move will also strengthen Amazon's presence in the key smartphone space where it has been catching up on rival Flipkart, snagging exclusive tie ups with Lenovo K4 Note, Redmi Note 3, OnePlus, Coolpad range and Moto G4 Plus. Smartphones, which are part of the consumer electronics category, form the largest share of gross merchandise value for online retailers in India. 

According to Amazon, the idea behind this pilot is to acquire customers who are still “hesitant to shop online”. “With an aim to acquire incremental set of customers who are not yet shopping online, we are focusing on providing them with opportunities to experience the benefits of shopping on Amazon.in and build trust in the brand,” Arun Srinivasan, category leader of consumer electronics at Amazon India, said in an emailed statement. 

How Surging Ad Sales Did Wonders To Facebook’s Revenue

Social media is everyday showing how new approaches to maximize the potential of advertising. One of the major benefits of social media advertising is that advertisers can take advantage of the users’ demographic information and target their ads appropriately.

Facebook’s quarterly revenue rose more than 50 percent, smashing Wall Street expectations, as its popular mobile app and a push into live video lured new advertisers and encouraged existing ones to boost spending.

The revenue surge helped shares climb to nearly triple the value of its initial public offering four years ago. Facebook also revealed a new class of non-voting shares that will allow founder Mark Zuckerberg to give away his wealth without relinquishing control of the social media giant.

Some 1.65bn people used Facebook monthly as of 31 March, up from 1.44 billion a year earlier.

Zuckerberg claims users are spending more than 50 minutes per day on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. Facebook is benefitting from advertisers shifting money from television to web and mobile platforms.

Some 1.65 billion people used Facebook monthly as of March 31, up from 1.44 billion a year earlier. Zuckerberg said users were spending more than 50 minutes per day on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, a huge amount of time given the millions of apps available to users.

Advertisers are shifting money from television to web and mobile platforms, and Facebook is one of the biggest beneficiaries. It faces fierce competition in the mobile video market, where rivals Snapchat and YouTube also garner billions of video views every day.

Last year, Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced that they would give away 99 percent of their Facebook shares to fund charitable endeavors.

Last week, Zuckerberg and Chan were included in Time’s 100 Most Influential People 2016 list.

Facebook recently expanded its live video product, rolling out several new features and making it more prominent on the app to encourage users to create videos and share them. The quarterly results showed success attracting advertisers with the move, and the company was able to expand its operating profit margin to 55 percent from 52 percent a year earlier.

Total revenue rose to $5.38 billion from $3.54 billion, with ad revenue increasing 56.8 percent to $5.20 billion. Mobile ad revenue accounted for about 82 percent of total ad revenue, compared with about 73 percent a year earlier.

The news once again proves the power of social media and its influence over netizens.

The Rise Of Online Shopping

If we look back a couple of year back, we will see that it was common to see many people shop in their local stores complete with parking and weather problems, long lines, and wobbly shopping carts. Even when online shopping was available, people felt uncomfortable using their credit cards and giving their personal information to cyber-shops. But things are not same anymore. Online Shopping is a rage now. EXIN Deals brings for you the growth and rise of Online Shopping.

Consumers may still be concerned about the security of online shopping, but more and more of them are prepared to buy products on the web. Faster delivery, easier return policies, and the increasing number of sites offering free shipping have also increased the desirability of online buying. 

Growth of online shopping has been characterized by strong consumer demands and the increasing number and type of goods available. The internet is only going to become more and more popular as time goes by and purchasers worldwide become more comfortable about the security and on-time delivery of their purchases. This is the one area of merchandising that continues to have a positive outlook far into the future.

With changes in the lifestyle and perceptions, the growing e-commerce sphere has truly influenced those who have been shopping the conventional way. Shopping at a mall might be a great way to catch up with friends, but fighting through a super crowded maddening rush during the sale season, is an area of frustration offline shoppers can do without.

And it is not just at the mall, where “crowds” come in. The traffic you have to go through while driving to the store and the parking issues that you will face after you reach the destination are enough to make you want to re-think your shopping plan. And these are problems that you do not have to face while you shop for a sale at home.

Online is a better place to avail discounts. Often we see festive discounts and off-season sales where one can avail discounts from 20 percent to 70 percent at any time of the year. These reasons definitely make one’s shopping experience online quite pleasant.

The Edge Of Online Shopping

The rate at which online shopping has gained popularity in India truly speaks of how fast the citizens are being adaptive of new age unconventional methods of shopping. Within a span of less than ten years, online shopping has become a rage. EXIN Deals brings for you some of the benefits that give online shopping the edge over conventional shopping in today’s times.

The vast majority of online stores offer prices that are much lower than what you will find at a physical store. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first is because many people use internet to find cheaper items. Online business owners understand this. They will usually reduce their profit margin to get more customers.

Online shopping stores are open round the clock 24/7 and 365 days. It is very rare to find any conventional retail stores that are open 24/7. You don’t need to get dressed and drive to your favorite store. You can easily visit their website, find the product you want and buy it without getting out of your pyjamas. 

When buying items online, there are no long lines you have to endure just to buy your merchandise. The idea of shopping online is cutting down those bad habits of standing in a long line and just waiting. 

It is tiresome to shop from one location and transfer to another location. Online shopping helps in saving time and energy as you don’t need to move from one store to another.

Most physical stores have a limited array of products. They can only hold so many items, and there are often many policies affecting the availability of products. For example, there might be a certain item that is only available to those versions of the business that exist in the mall. Shopping online allows you to find many products that you wouldn’t be able to find in a physical store.

So, no wonder more and more people are taking it to the internet to browse through popular e-commerce stores and search engines to find whatever they are looking for. If online shopping could achieve this much success at such a short period of time, then, in the upcoming years, sky is the limit for it.

Online Shopping Is Best For Reducing Carbon Emission

Online shoppers already have multiple reasons to remain glued to ecommerce websites. Add to that the fact that it is a greener option than taking out your car and heading for the mall and it’s the perfect recipe for increasing the sales figures.

Research indeed shows that online shopping is beneficial for the environment. It is much better to have a truck visit your lane and deliver all the goods rather than ten cars heading for the nearest store every single day of the week. The carbon footprint made is nearly one-third lesser than that of a brick and mortar store.

In case of traditional shopping each person drives nearly 14 miles to the shop and back and purchases three different products on each trip. But a truck delivering several packages from EXIN Deals on a daily trip will use much less energy than many individual vehicles making their way to the market. The process is much more organized allowing customers to order multiple products at the same time in a hassle-free manner. The more organized the consumers become, the better it is for the online shopping websites to offer their products and further reduce energy consumption. The computers and data centers also consume energy but that is relatively small for ecommerce.

The ecommerce industry is a billion-dollar one which is likely to increase exponentially in the years to come. With coordinated effort from consumers it can save highly on energy demands and reduce environmental pollution.   

Top Five Mistakes Online Shoppers Should Avoid

The benefits of online shopping are huge and practically undisputed. But while you hurrying to grab the best deals don’t forget adhering to the security measures that can save your hard-earned bucks and a great deal of hassle. The path of deep discounts can have multiple booby traps that you overlook. It is better to recognize and tread the path carefully.

Read the return policy

Going through the return policy is extremely necessary even before placing the order. The fine lines reveal information regarding financial responsibilities in case of the return of a purchase and other information like whether a restocking fee will be levied and the time span within which the return has to be made.

Shipping charges

Shipping charges can vary from one ecommerce site like EXIN Deals to another even if the product is same. Sellers are sometimes lured by the idea of making extra money by adding greater handling charges and increasing the shipping. Compare the rates before zeroing in on the right online shopping site. It can help save a few bucks.

Same password for every site

A single password for all online accounts is the perfect recipe for a disaster. But survey reveals that nine out of ten people use the same password for all their accounts because it is easier to remember.

Using unknown sites

The boom in ecommerce has prompted most of the retailers into luring people to their sites with discounts and ample number of attractive products. So before shopping, the website’s online reputation and security credentials need to be checked.

Pop-up ads

Such ads can be very annoying not to mention harmful because most automatically allow malware to enter your computer. Many people while trying to close the pop-up ads end up launching some new software in their devices.   

  

Conscious shoppers can reap the best discounts but it is important to purchase from trusted sites like EXIN Deals which offer secured shopping and great discounts.