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Sunday 23 November 2014

On 23:29 by Vishal Sawlani in    1 comment
Twitter began with simplicity in mind- It started as a text message service and has transformed into a global service but has always revolved around bringing people closer to their interests. Your business is of someone’s interest...so are you on Twitter?

500 million Tweets are sent out a day. There are 230 million active users on Twitter. Do you use Twitter? Have you thought about the basics? Will you ReTweet, @reply, use hash #tags, add links, photos, videos!

If you want to harness the global power of social media marketing, in particular Twitter, you can’t just set up a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Tumblr – you name it – account and expect the world to come to you.

Let us check out the Best Practices of Twitter usage which in turn helps to build your personal brand.

1) Upload an engaging and professional individual photograph of yourself (size 500*500 pixels)
2) Upload engaging cover photo of 1500*500 pixles
3) Include a username that is easy to identify as you
4) Describe yourself  in your bio
5) Choose to use the new Twitter layout
6) Include a URL to your company/website/blog in your bio
7) Include your physical location in your bio
8) Share timely news; useful information.  5-7 tweets in a day.
9) Share your thoughts/observations using interesting hashtags
10) Give your opinion about trending hashtags
11) RT influencer’s tweets which can be helpful to your followers
12) DO show your personality on Twitter: Add commentary to retweets and share what you are rereading on- and offline
13) Include photos and images every now and then. Use pic.twitter.com extension
14) Share your passions and your voice.
15) Tweets that have 100 characters or less, can boost your engagement by as little as 18%, as do tweets with just 3-4 words.
16) Be choosy with hashtags- Don’t hashtag everything
17) Choose your passion and develop a niche and define your online brand.
18) Ask Questions - Don’t be afraid to reach out to a celebrity, sports team, school, etc. You never know when they will tweet back!
19) When using cards or links in your tweet, stay clear of hashtags and usernames as it can put users off!
20) DO Facilitate conversation: Leave room in tweets so others can retweet with commentary. Always remember to use #hashtags
21) Do create twitter lists of your favorite Twitters Set up a feed from blog to twitter and from Facebook to twitter
22) Develop a schedule for twitter posts
23) Thank your followers
24) Engage with your followers- Favorite, Retweet, Respond
25) Unfollow everyone that’s inactive.
26) If you notice that a particular tweet received a lot of engagement, consider paying to promote the tweet and see if it generates any new leads
27) Using more than one exclamation mark in a tweet can plummet the engagement rate! So be careful when sharing something exciting!!!!!!
28) Be a good Twitter community member - Retweet great tweets. Give mentions. Don’t steal others tweets and make them seem like they’re your own.
29) Participate in #FF (Forward Friday) and Twitter chats.
30) And finally, Twitter is a great way of showcasing your business’ unique personality, so don’t try too hard to create an amazing tweet. The first thing that comes into your head is usually the best and most natural thing to tweet

It would be very interesting if I get to know more about from you guyz. As they say, everybody has different and unique experience for the same situation so keeping learning agility as one of the strengths into consideration, I would welcome all inputs from all of you.

Please share this article as it may reach out to others and probably, that is how we can maximize our learning.


Friday 21 November 2014

On 00:06 by Vishal Sawlani in    5 comments

We know that E-commerce is at a very nascent stage in India. Everyday, we come across new player in this realm with bunch of similar services and products with some tweaked features.

As I told you in my earlier blog about my observations and recommendations based on study of top 3 eCommerce giants of India. To my observations, I was not very surprised to know that all 3 companies which are valued more than $1bn in market but yet have lot to do to make eCommerce Platform as "5 star Shopping Mall" from typical "Fish Market".

In the similar line, I have made following observations and recommendations based on my understanding and experience.


Common Observation 1) Surprisingly, these top 3 eCommerce players have been following into
each other's shoes and not doing any path breaking innovations and lead by example
2) Flipkart and Snapdeal are experimenting with Indian audience by introducing
marketing gimmicks i.e. big billion day, singles day, big savings day similar to US and China instead focusing on building strong technology platform
3) These 3 players are well funded and supported by investors and have full capacities to set benchmark for rest of the world
4) Digital Marketing strategy is limited to Facebook and twitter only and all other platforms are currently ignored or not focused adequately
5) These 3 players are very optimistic about mCommerce business and have been trying very hard to increase revenue proportion from mobile
6) Recently, these top 3 players have adopted or followed a new trend of providing their online platform for exclusive launch of products
7) Print ad, Commercial ad and digital ad seem to be very important part of their
brand building exercise
8) Targeting biggest events or shows by sponsoring it is the fasted way of getting
attention from shoppers
9) These top 3 players will certainly shift the trend of shopping drastically by
targeting rural and semi urban areas
10) Surprisingly, north east and southern shoppers are the one who prefer to search and shop online more frequently
11) 85% of the shoppers are between 18-40 age
12) Handling customer queries and complaints is something a very major area of concern for all these players
13) Brand Loyalty is missing due to lack of experiential marketing and personalized engagement as 95% shoppers buy only because of coupons and deals
14) Unlike amazon and flipkart, snapdeal does not have any inhouse service and products to differentiate its brand.
15) Taking conversations off social media and then continuing to not address them properly, all 3 eCommerce giants are failing constantly.
16) The customer grievance mechanism fails to curtail negative sentiment
around customer services. Comments and posts do not resonate with customer satisfaction. Even positive posts from the brand’s end turn into venting grounds for frustrated customers.

Common Recommendations 1) Focus on other social media platforms to give one class above unique experience to users across social media world.
2) It is important to have unique strategy in place specific to each digital platform i.e. linkedin, youtube, google+, pinterest, instagram etc.
3) Path breaking innovation in services and products is much needed to give reasons to shoppers to visit online store.
4) Usage of predictive analytics and sentiment analysis to give personalized and customer centric experience to each shopper.
5) To increase eCommerce transaction volume, it is important to target northern, central and western part of India
6) They should target shoppers of all generations i.e. age above 40 and try to bridge the generation gap of online shopping.
6) Flipkart to have exclusive youtube channel in order to offer visual content to viewers
7) Flipkart to be aggressive at PPC and have strong mobile Re-marketing strategy in place to gain first time buyers
8) Flipkart to have transparent and seamless affiliate program to increase sales.
9) Amazon to have customer complaint resolution service process in place to improve brand opinion score.
10) Amazon and Snapdeal to ensure adequate social engagement activity on across all digital platforms
11) Snapdeal to invest in R&D and innovation to come up with its own inhouse services and products to ensure sustainable business and revenue model.
12) Classifieds could be new revenue stream for these big players
13) The customer grievance mechanism should be made with strong processes and online complaints should be addressed online only instead dragging it offline.


It would be very interesting if I get to know more about from you all. As they say, everybody has different and unique takes for the same situation so keeping learning agility as one of the strengths into consideration, I would love to welcome all inputs from all of you.

Please share this article as it may reach out to others and probably, that is how we can maximize our learning.


Thursday 20 November 2014

On 23:19 by Vishal Sawlani in    19 comments
The $4 billion Indian e-commerce market is witnessing aggressive competition from global giants as well as home-grown players. Led by increasing Internet penetration and youngsters shopping online, India's e-commerce market has seen huge growth in the past few years.

Given the country's large consuming public, people do not have the required access to goods but e-retailing today is one of the hottest form of marketing and has a good potential in the country 65cr people of the country are the consuming public.

This is in continuation to my earlier 2 blogs written on decoding Flipkart's and Amazon's Digital Marketing Strategy.

Here I have to come with study of 3rd largest player in term of valuation of eCommerce Industry of India. Recently this company has been in the news as giant investors like Ratan Tata and Softbank has invested in Snapdeal considering eCommerce potential and growth in India which has been very impressive and remarkable from Investor's point of view.

eCommerce Giant Snapdeal
Founders Kunal Bahl & Rohit Bansal. Owned and Operated by Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
eCommerce Drivers Mobile and Internet for location-based marketing , Personalization and Customization to meet the needs of each customer, User friendly shopping experience, Easy accessibility and availability, Wide range of products, Competitive price through offers and discounts 
Started in 2010
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Business Model Online Market Place
Revenue Model of eCommerce Industry Comprise of  Pricing, Packaging, Shipping, VAS etc. Selling goods it stocked to consumers at prices lower than traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Working with min. profit and gaining from economic of scale is how it works. Selling Inhouse branded services and products to customers.
Size of the Market Place No of Sellers - 50000
Unique Visitors per day - 15mn(Oct'14)
Registered Users - 25mn
Product Categories - 24
Products Listed(Catalog) - 5mn
Fulfillment Centres - 40
Total Sales FY 12-13 - $330mn
Financial Scenario 1) Recently raised funds from Tata
2) Market Valuation - $1bn
3) $340bn funds raised in 5 rounds since its launch
Top Investors Nexus Partners, Bessemer Patners, eBay, Indo-US Venture Partners, Intel Capital, Kalaari Capital, Saama Capital
VAS Same Day Express Delivery, Cash on Delivery, SD Cash, 7 day return policy, 100% money back guarantee, Order Tracking, 
Inhouse Products/Service 1) TrustPay - Buyer/Seller Online Protection Service
2) Snapdeal Express - same day delivery
3) Safeship - Logistics for Sellers
4) SmartFeed - Personal Shopping Guide
5) Courier Service delivery method
Payment Options 1) Internet Banking (Tie up with 22 banks)
2) EMI (HDFC, Citi bank credit card) min. value of Rs.3000/-
3) Cash on Delivery (on certain products only)
4) Credit card/Debit card - Visa, Master Card
5) SD cash
6) Mobile payment
Sales Promotion Techniques  Deals, Offers, Coupons, Promo codes, Discounted vouchers, referal reward system, Savings Day
Advertising budget 2014-15 Rs. 40-50cr
Ad Agencies FCB Ulka
Digital Marketing Startegy Focus 1) Building Brand equity
2) Increase Repeat Purchases
3) New Customer acquisition
4) Providing unique online service
Website Rank Google Page Rank - 5/10
Alexa Website world Rank - #265
Daily Page Views - 4.2mn
SEO  Load Speed - 2.8 sec
Backlinks - 3923
User Interface - very Good
Alexa Site Navigation Rating - 4.7/5
Keywords - Snapdeal, Online Shopping, Buy books online, online book store, online shopping India, online shopping website, online shopping store
Organic SEO Rank - 6 or 7
Consumer Search Trends of Past 12 Months (Google) Part1 Web Search - 36
Image Search -34
News Search - 15
YouTube Search - 0
Consumer Search Trends of Past 12 Months (Google) Part2 Top Web Searches - Mizoram, Tripura, Meghlaya, Goa
Top Image Searches -Tamilnadu, Gujarat, UP, WB
Top News Searches - Tamilnadu, Delhi, karnataka, Gujarat
YouTube - NA
Google Adwords PPC Search ad- Category based text ads
Display - Product's offers based ad images
Gmail - Content/Topic based Text ads
Keyword Targeted - All category based keywords
Paid ad rank - 8 or 9
Overall Paid Search Performance - Below Average
Re marketing Remarketing activates if customer visits site and clicks any display/search ad
Successgul Brand Campaigns  "Bachatey Raho", "Yam - Dude", "Shake Karo aur Save Karo", "Big Savings Day"
TV Commercial Strategy 1) Objective is to build brand and increase brand recall value
2) Targeting biggest event of the year Big Boss 8 as lead sponsor in a deal of Rs35cr to penetrate into tier 2 market.
3) 50 ad films, 30 celebs, 85 national and regional channels until Diwali to make history in sales nos.
4) Mobile shopping app download TV ad aiming at shopping at anytime anywhere besides offering monetary savings.
5) use of celebrity in tv ad to convey strong message of Savings in your hands which goes inline with its slogan "Bachatey Raho"
6) Launching campiagn i.e. biggest sale of the year to gain maximum volume share
Facebook Strategy 1) only one official Facebook Page
2) Likes - 2.4mn
3) Facebook ads with image and into title
4) Product launch based cover photos
5) Updates on new products and offers
6) Avg posts per day - 1 or 2
7) Response on customer complaint is above average
8) Runing contest to ensure user engagement
9) Avg response rate per post - 40-45
10) Focus is on customer engagement and service
11) Social Listening/Emotional Connect - Above Average
12) Recently they launched campaign called Selfie with Snapdeal
13) SuperSavingsDay campaign for user engagement
Twitter Strategy Engagement Based Marketing
1) Followers - 54,000
2) Updates on new product based contest besides offers and discounts using interactive title and images
3) Other Inhhouse Products/Services focused twitter channel
4) Avg. 6-7 tweets on product/contenst based  per day
5) Launched Mega Campaign on Micromax Canvas Nitro
6) 24*7 customer service channel - Snapdeal_Help
7) Real time connect
8) response on customer query is on real time
9) Focus is on customer service and engagement
10) Social Listening/Emotional Connect - Good
Linkedin Strategy 1) update on company info, news, events, culture, technology, hiring updates via posts, video, image ads
2) Followers - 22,000
3) Interaction with followers is zero
Youtube Strategy 1) Exclusive channel on youtube
2) Subscribers Base- 1500
3) Total Video views - 3.8mn
4) Service/Product launch/Brand Promotion specific video
5) Good Partcipation from viewers on Snapdeal channel platform
6) Engagement/partcipation with viewers is lacking
Pinterest Strategy 1) Followers - 750
2) Teme based 55 boards i.e. Nail art, DIY, Excl offers, perfumes, watchubuy, worth a read etc.
3) Each Pin is redirected to its official webpage
4) Each board and image is very appealing
Google+ Strategy
1) Followers - 6,37,000
2) 1 or 2 category based Posts everyday.
3) Less focus on Deals/offer specific posts
4) Category/Product feature based posts with attractive image ads
4) Follower engagement is area of improvement

Content Marketing Strategy 1) It has its own official blog page(http://blog.snapdeal.com/)
2) Blog posts on "how to"on categories i.e.fashion, home, travel, gadgets, health, entertainment etc.
3) PR release page also exists
4) PR release about company info, events, exclusive product/service updates
Integrated Channel Across social media platforms 1) No of offers post varies across social platforms
2) No of post per day per platform also varies
3) quality of experience management/query response /service also varies across all platforms.
4) Level of engagement with users/followers also varies across platforms
Mobile Marketing Strategy 1) Mobile optimized website is available
2) Mobile app on all platforms(iOS, Android, Windows)
3) 1mn downloads, 4.2 rating, doesn't reply to negative reviews
3) 18% sales via mobile
4) Exclusive Cashback offers for shopping on mobile app
5) Campaigns - Shake Karo aur save Karo
6) Product offers, Order Tracking, Seamless experience  Secure payments are mobile apps specific features
7) mobile website - m.snapdeal.com
Affiliate Marketing Straetgy 1) Earn upto 20% for each purchase via content site and upto 12% for each purchase via shopping site
2) Payment via EFT options
3) Referral Payout for each month/category is communicated
4) Payments made 60days after the month of sale
5) various reports are released to help Affiliates
6) very transparent and accurate program
Brand Association and Acquisition 1) Grabbon.com, esportsbuy.com, Shopo.in, Doozton.com
2) Tie ups for exlcusive electronic launches i.e. Micromax Canvas Nitro, Micromax LED TV, Karbon mobile, Kriya Jewelllery, Intex mobile
3) Recently, company has tied up with Karbon for exlcusive launch of thier Android one based low cost phone.

It would be very interesting if I get to know more about from you guyz. As they say, everybody has different and unique takes for the same situation so keeping learning agility as one of the strengths into consideration, I would love to welcome all inputs from all of you.

Please share this article as it may reach out to others and probably, that is how we can maximize our learning.

And yes, I would request to read my next blog which would be on my observations about which things these 3 companies are doing in common and recommendations in order to make out unique brand image.


On 22:50 by Vishal Sawlani in    1 comment
In my last blog, FLIPKART's DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY DECODED, I mentioned that 21st century belongs to India and yes, when we see  Seattle-based Nasdaq-listed e-commerce company Amazon entering India by launching its market place model immediate after India allows 100 per cent FDI only in Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce and not in retail trading online and this shows how important it is for global leaders and investors to explore India as an business opportunity keeping one fact in mind that is E-commerce is at a very nascent stage in India.

So this is in continuation to my earlier blog on FLIPKART, here I come with my study specific to Amazon's Digital Marketing Strategy.


eCommerce Giant Amazon India
Founders Jeff Bezos
eCommerce Drivers Mobile and Internet for location-based marketing , Personalization and Customization to meet the needs of each customer, User friendly shopping experience, Easy accessibility and availability, Wide range of products, Competitive price through offers and discounts 
Started in 2013
Headquarters Seattle, Washington US
Business Model Online Inventory and Market Place 
Revenue Model of eCommerce Industry Comprise of  Pricing, Packaging, Shipping, VAS etc. Selling goods it stocked to consumers at prices lower than traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Working with min. profit and gaining from economic of scale is how it works. Selling Inhouse branded services and products to customers.
Size of the Market Place No of Sellers - 4000 plus
Unique Visitors per day - 18mn(Oct'14)
Registered Users - 18mn
Product Categories - 28
Products Listed(Catalog) - 17mn
Total Sales FY 12-13
Financial Scenario 1) Recently announced $2bn investment
2) Market Cap - $148bn
3) Global Annual Revenue - $75bn
Top Investors Capital world investors, vanguard group inc, Price T Row assoc, Capital research global investors, State Street Corp
VAS Free return pickup, Guaranteed 1 day delivery, cash on delivery, Gift Wrap, Fulfilled By Aamzon (Free shipping), AtoZ Guarantee, Delivery Tracking to the doorstep, 
Inhouse Products/Service 1) Amazon Pick up Service
2) Amazon Studios - online social movie studio
3) Amazon Kindle - eBook, digital service
4) Klickpay - Amazon's preferred payment solution
5) Amazon Prime($99/year) - Prime membership service,
6) Amazon fulfillment centres - fulfilled by amazon/seller
7) AmazonBasics - amazon branded electonic products
8) Amazon Cloud Drive - Cloud computing
9) Amazon Instant Video - Video on demand service
10) Amazon web services - collection of web services giving cloud computing platform
11) Amazon MP3 - online music store
12) Amazon appstore - interactive venue for developers and buyers
13) Amazon Cloud Player - sync music and playlists 
Payment Options 1) Internet Banking (Tie up with 22 banks)
2) EMI (HDFC, ICICI, Citi bank credit catd) min. value of Rs.3000/-
3) Cash on Delivery (max order value of Rs 50,000)
4) Credit card/Debit card - Visa, Master Card
5) Mobile payment 
Sales Promotion Techniques  Deals, Coupans, Rebate, Qunatity Deals/gifts, 
Advertising budget 2014-15 Rs. 100-150cr
Ad Agencies Taproot Inida, Initiative Media
Digital Marketing Startegy Focus 1) Increase brand reach to Tier II and Tier III cities
2) Communicate Brand promises
3) Offering unique and global service
4) Interactive and one class above Experience
Website Rank Google Page Rank - 8/10
Alexa Website world Rank - #221
Daily Page Views - 5mn
SEO  Load Speed - 2.2 sec
Backlinks - 6562
User Interface - very Good
Alexa Site Navigation Rating - 4.5/5
Keywords - Amazon, Online Shopping, Buy books online, online book store, online shopping India, online shopping website, online shopping store
Organic SEO Rank - 4 or 5
Consumer Search Trends of Past 12 Months (Google) Part1 Web Search - 32
Image Search - 45
News Search  -17
YouTube Search - 35
Consumer Search Trends of Past 12 Months (Google) Part2 Top Web Searches - Goa, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur
Top Image Searches -Kerala, Karnataka, Tamilnadu,WB, AP
Top News Searches - Haryana, kerala, karnataka, Tamilnadu,AP
Top YouTube Searches - karnataka, Tamilnadu, AP, WB, Kerala
Google Adwords PPC Search ad- Category/Product based text ads
Display - Product's offers based ad images
Gmail - Content/Topic based Text ads
Keyword Targeted - All products/category based keywords
Paid ad rank - 1 or 2
Overall Paid Search Performance - excellent
Remarketing Remarekting activates if customer visits site and clicks any display/search ad
Successgul Brand Campaigns  Service specific Campaigns i.e. Gigantic Amazon Box, Guaranteed 1 Day Delivery, Easy Return Policy, 
TV Commercial Strategy 1) Objective is to Introduce brand and connect with an audience
2) Target biggest event of the year i.e. IPL T20  2014 to increase amazon brand awareness.
3) Ads targeted to offline shoppers who don’t use internet
4) Ads aimed at increasing awareness of their VAS and products
5) Creative ad depicting chemistry of husband and wife
6) Ad of guaranteed 1 day service depicting quick family solution
7) Drive the purchase using preemtive occassions
Facebook Strategy 1) only one official Facebook Page
2) Likes - 3.6mn
3) Interactive questions based Facebook ads
4) Seasons to Festives to Product launch based cover photos
5) Updates on new products and offers
6) Avg posts per day - 3 or 4
7) Response on customer complaint is below average
8) Runing contest to ensure user engagement
9) Avg response rate per post - 20-25
10) Focus is on customer enagagement
11) Customer Service is huge area of improv.
12) Social Listening/Emotional Connect - Below Average
Twitter Strategy Engagement Based Marketing
1) Followers - 23K
2) Updates on new product, offers and discounts using interactive title, good quality videos and images
3) Other Inhhouse Products/Services focused twitter channel
i.e. AmazonCloudDrive, Amazon Prime,AmazonMusic etc.
5) Avg. 4-5 product offer/launch based posts per day basis
8) 24*7 customer service channel - AmazonHelp
9) Real time connect
10) response on customer query is on real time
11) Focus is on customer service and engagement
12) Social Listening/Emotional Connect - Good
Linkedin Strategy 1) uodate on company info, news, technology updates
2) Followers - 860K
3) Interaction with followers is zero
Youtube Strategy 1) Exclusive channel on youtube
2) Subscribers Base- 37K
3) Total Video Views - 24mn
4) Other channels i.e. FBA by Amazon, Amazon Kindle, AmazonFashion, AmazonWebServices
5) Service/Product/Brand/Performace specific video
6) Good Partcipation from viewers on Amazon channel platform
Pinterest Strategy 1) Followers - 8.5K
2) Theme based 23 boards i.e. lifestyle, tech, gadget, party
3) Each Pin is redirected to its official webpage
4) Each board and image is very appealing
Google+ Strategy
1) Followers - 5.9K
2) 1 Posts on fortnightly basis
3) Deals/offer specific posts
4) The whole strategy is lacking
5) Interaction and participation level is very poor
Content Marketing Strategy 1) PR Release page exists
2)  PR release about company info, events, exclusive product/service updates
3) Amazon has various blog pages i.e. Amazon Associates blog, Amazon web services
Integrated Channel Across social media platforms 1) No of offers post varies across social platforms
2) No of post per day per platform also varies
3) quality of experience management/query response /service also varies across all platforms.
4) Level of engagement with users/followers also varies across platforms
Email Marketing Strategy 1) One promotional mail in every 2-3 days
2) Emails with subject line is not that appealing
3) All categories offers in one mail
4) Email ad/text image quality is average
5) Product launch and deals based email
6) Deals, upto % off, flat % off
7) End of season sale, festival sale, season based sale
Mobile Marketing Strategy 1) Mobile optimized website is available
2) Mobile app on all platforms(iOS, Android)
3) 20% sales via mobile
4) Inbound Targeted Marketing
5) Campaigns - Product launch, Engagement and Retention
6) Mob App Distribution Portal
7) Product offers, Order Tracking, Reviews, Recommendations, Search scaning, Secure payments are mobile apps specific features
Affiliate Marketing Straetgy 1) Earn upto 20% for each purchase on website
2) Payment via EFT options
3) Referral Payout for each month/category is communicated
4) Payments made 60days after the month of sale
5) offer higher commission compared to competition
6) various reports are released to help Affiliates
7) very transparent and accurate program
8) Amazon Associates Mobile Policy is in place
Brand Association and Acquisition 1) Junglee.com, audible.com,zappos.com, fabric.com, askville.com, lovefilm.com, dpreview.com, lexcycle.com, pets.com, diapers.com
2) Tie ups for Exclusive Electronic Launches i.e. Lenovo tablets,  Microsoft Entertainment products
3) Recently, company has tied up with Micromax for exlcusive launch of Android one based low cost phone.

It would be very interesting if I get to know more about from you guyz. As they say, everybody has different and unique takes for the same situation so keeping learning agility as one of the strengths into consideration, I would love to welcome all inputs from all of you.

Please share this article as it may reach out to others and probably, that is how we can maximize our learning.

And yes, I would request to read my next 2 blogs which would be on Snapdeal's Digital Marketing Decoded and Ofcourse my common observations and recommendations in order to make out unique brand image.

On 22:20 by Vishal Sawlani in    23 comments
India has been recently added into emerging and ever shining Digital world and eCommerce has played very vital role besides mobile and internet penetration. In such scenario, every top investors are trying their best to leverage this opportunity as every top leader of the world has admitted that 21st Century belongs to India and the pace at which innovations are taking place in this realm is something I would say unstoppable and incredible.

So keeping this new digital wave into consideration, I was curious to know about what these top eCommerce giants are doing in this space as this concept has now shifted from introduction to growing stage and how they are taking an advantage of this 24*7 connected world. I have started analyzing top 3 leaders of eCommerce industry that actually drive the major part of the eCommerce show.

To begin with, Here I wanted to show you the comparison of all 3 big giants of eCommerce Industry but due to space constraint, I opted for sharing my study by each company as an individual. In next 2 blogs, I would like to share my study of other two companies and in the 4th blog, I would like to share my common observations and recommendations based on my study and understanding.

eCommerce Giant Flipkart
Founders Sachin Banssal & Binny Bansal. Owned by Singapore based holding company
eCommerce Drivers Mobile and Internet for location-based marketing , Personalization and Customization to meet the needs of each customer, User friendly shopping experience, Easy accessibility and availability, Wide range of products, Competitive price through offers and discounts 
Started in 2007
Headquarters Bangalore, India
Business Model Online Inventory and Market Place 
Revenue Model of eCommerce Industry Comprise of  Pricing, Packaging, Shipping, VAS etc. Selling goods it stocked to consumers at prices lower than traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Working with min. profit and gaining from economic of scale is how it works. Selling Inhouse branded services and products to customers.
Size of the Market Place No of Sellers - 3000
Unique Visitors per month - 28mn(Oct'14)
Registered Users - 22mn
Product Categories - 24
Products Listed(Catalog) - 15mn
Total Sales FY12-13  - $1bn
Financial Scenario 1) Recently raised $1bn funding from investors
2) $1.7bn total funding raised since its launch 2007
2) Valuation - $5bn to $7bn
Top Investors Naspers, Tiger Global Management LLC, Accel Partners, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, GIC, ICONIQ, Sofina and Vulcan, Dragoneer Investment
VAS 30 day return policy, Delivery withini 2 days, cash on delivery, Free Shiping, Card Swipe on Delivery
Inhouse Products/Service 1)Flipkart Flyte - Online Music Store
2) Flipkart DigiFlip- online digital products store
3) FlipkartFirst- Annual Subscription Service,Free shiping In a day & same day guarantee, 24*7 service
4) PayZippy - Payment Gateway Solution
5) eKart - Logistics Service arm
6) Fliptomania - First Brick and Motor Store
Payment Options 1) Internet Banking (Tie up with 45 banks)
2) E-Gift Vouchers
3) Cash on Delivery (max order value of Rs 50,000)
4) Credit card swipe on delivery
5) Credit card/Debit card - Visa, Master Card
6) Wallet (Topped up, Store credit, Promotional balance)
7) mobile payment
8) EMI (HDFC, Citi, SBI, ICICI) min order value of Rs 4000/-
Sales Promotion Techniques  Rebate, Deals, Refunds, Coupans, Qunatity Deals/gifts, Full Finance @0%, Instant cashback
Advertising budget 2014-15 Rs. 75cr
Ad Agencies Happy Cretive Services
Digital Marketing Startegy Focus 1) Customer Service Information
2) Brand Building and Positioning
3) Customer Enagagement and acquisition
4) Trageting Youth
Website Rank Google Page Rank - 6/10
Alexa Website world Rank - #109
Daily Page Views - 10.1mn
SEO  Load Speed - 3 sec
Backlinks - 12214
User Interface - very Good
Alexa Site Navigation Rating - 4.5/5
Keywords - Flipkart, Online Shopping, Buy books online, online book store, online shopping India, online shopping website, online shopping store
Organic SEO Rank - 1
Consumer Search Trends of Past 12 Months (Google) Part1 Web Search -100
Image Search - 100
News Search - 70
YouTube Search - 16
Consumer Search Trends of Past 12 Months (Google) Part2 Top Web Searches - Goa, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghlaya
Top Image Searches -Haryana, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Top News Searches - Haryana, Odisha, kerala, karnataka, Tamilnadu
Top YouTube Searches -karnataka,Maharashtra,Tamilnadu, AP
Google Adwords PPC Search ad- Category based text ads
Display - Product's offers based ad images
Gmail - Content/Topic based Text ads
Keywords missing - Online books shopping, online shopping are not showing top of page 1 rank for flipkart
Keyword Targeted - FLIPKART
Paid ad rank - 6 or 7
Overall Paid Search Performance - Good
Remarketing Remarekting activates if customer visits site and clicks any display/search ad
Successgul Brand Campaigns  “Fairy tale”, “No kidding, No worries”, “Shopping Ka Naya Address” and "Don't Shop, Flipkart It”, "Shope Anytime, Anywhere!" "Big Billion Day", "Singles Day"
TV Commercial Strategy 1) Objective is to build brand as a verb for shopping
2Target biggest event of the year i.e. IPL T20 2014
3) Total 29 ads released since 2011
4) Portraying kids as adults in ads gives higher brand recall
5) Ads targeted at Pan India shoppers of all generation
6) Ads aimed to popularise the brand as a verb
7) Testimonial based creative campaigns to demystify the fear of online shopping experience
8) Mobile App download TV ad to increase mcommerce value
9) Luanching Campaign i.e. The Big Billion Day on 6th oct'14
Facebook Strategy
1) Category Focused FB page i.e. books, gaming, fashion etc. which is for building engagement with fans
2) Deals and Offers based FB page which is for customer acquisition
3) Likes - 3.3mn
4) Seasons to Festives to Birthday based cover photos
5) Avg. 3-4 posts per day basis
5) Updates on new products and customer quiries
6) response on customer complaint is average and inconsistent
7) Running contests/gamification
8) Exclusive customer tab for support
9) Avg Response per Post - 40-50
10) Focus is on customer acquisition and engagement
11) Customer queries response is area of impro.
12) Social Listening/Emotional Connect - Average
Twitter Strategy Engagement Based Marketing
1) Followers - 160K
2) Updates on new product, offers and discounts using appealing videos and images
3) Tech@Flipkart execlusive channel on tech updates
4) Running Product/Service based contest like Flipkartfirst, AcerA1onFlipkart
5) Avg. 2-3 product offer/launch based posts per day basis
6)FlipkartSupport Exclusive channel on quiries solution
7) Flipkart-Offers Special offers based channel
8) 24*7 customer service channel
9) Real time connect
10) response on customer query is on real time
11) Focus is on customer service, engagement and acquisition
12) Social Listening/Emotional Connect - Good
Linkedin Strategy 1) uodate on company info updates
2) Followers - 70K
Youtube Strategy 1) It does not have its own channel
2) It executes lots of youtube campaigns i.e. search page, display ad, video ad etc.
3) Total 29 videos uploaded
4) Total Video Views -1.4mn
Pinterest Strategy 1) Pinterest startegy is very unclear
2) deals/offer based pinterest
3) 8 boards and 290 followers.
Google+ Strategy Theme Based Marketing
1) Followers - 500K
2) 1-2 Posts on per day bsis
3) Less focus on deals/offer
4) More focus on company updates, product launch update besides Festive/season/customer mood based posts
5) focus is on more on engagement and brand building rather customer acqusition
6) Interaction/engagement with follower is area of improvement
Content Marketing Strategy 1) It has its own official blog page(http://blog.flipkart.com/)
2) Blog page gives updates about company, Industry, tech etc.
3) It has its own unique tech focused blog too(http://tech-blog.flipkart.net/)
4) PR release page also exists
5) PR release about company info, events, exclusive product/service updates
Integrated Channel Across social media platforms 1) No of offers post varies across social platforms
2) No of post per day per platform also varies
3) quality of experience management/query response /service also varies across all platforms.
4) Level of engagement with users/followers also varies across platforms
Mobile Marketing Strategy 1) Mobile optimized website is available
2) Mobile app on all platforms(iOS, Android, Windows)
3) 5mn downloads, 4.3 rating, responding to each negative review
4) 25% sales via mobile
5) Campaigns aiming towards Product launch, Acquisition, Engagement and Retention
6) Mobile Remarketing does not seem to be part of strategy
7) Mobile weekend offers to target repeat purchases.
Affiliate Marketing Straetgy 1) Earn upto 15% for each purchase on website
2) Payment via Gift Voucher and EFT options
3) Referral Payout for each month/category is communicated
4) Payments made 45days after the month of sale
5) offer lower commission compared to competition
6) various reports are released to help Affiliates
7) lack of transperancy and inaccuracy in the program
Brand Association and Acquisition 1) Flipkart + OLX Joint Marketing Campaign
2) Flipkart Acquired Myntra - Online Fashion Portal
3) Tie ups for Exclusive Electronic Launches i.e. Xiomi, MSI gaming laptops, Samsung Galaxy S5 mini, MOTO G etc.
4) Recently, company has tied up with Spice for exlcusive launch of thier Android one based low cost phone.

It would be very interesting if I get to know more about from you guyz. As they say, everybody has different perception for the same situation so keeping learning agility as one of the strengths into consideration, I would love to welcome all inputs from all of you.

Please share this article as it may reach out to others and probably, that is how we can maximize our learning.

And yes, I would request to read my next 3 blogs which would be on decoding Amazon's and Snapdeal's Digital Marketing  besides one blog specific to my common observations of how these 3 top giants are actually performing and recommendations in order to make out unique brand image.