“In the world of Internet Customer Service, it’s important to remember
your competitor is only one mouse click away.”- Doug Warner
I`ll
start this article with a question, what`s the first word that comes in your
mind when I say ‘Big Billion Day’? If you are going to answer this
question with negative words such as fraud, cheating, fake discounts,
e-commerce lies etc then probably you are a disgruntled customer who expected a
lot from Flipkart`s 'Big Billion Day'.Indian
E-commerce giant, Flipkart decided to celebrate 6 October, 2014 as
‘Big Billion Day’ and promised the greatest sale with unbeatable offers,
discount, deals and surprises. For many Indians, 6 October was claimed to be the
Black Friday that they have been waiting for a long time. For small E-commerce
entrepreneurs like me, 6 October was expected to be the start of a golden era
and we believed that everything is going to change now, Indian consumers`
mindset, perception towards online shopping, knowledge about E-commerce
business etc. But we all were wrong!
Since its inception Flipkart has been growing steadily and recently raised $1B hoping to win the e-commerce battle in India against Snapdeal and Amazon. To get money from customers' pocket early before festive season starts, and to acquire more customers than competition during the festive season, Flipkart came up with the ‘Big Billion Day’ idea.
However, even before the sale began, controversy mounted as people realized that the prices of most of the products have been increased back to the MRP instead of the actual selling price - to compensate the huge discounts and products were costlier than the regular days.
Worse
was that Flipkart was struggling to keep up with the high demands. Products
were sold out in a matter of seconds, which shows just how limited the sales
really were. Another big issue was the number of technical problems users were
facing. People wanting to buy, and those having bought products on Flipkart during
the Big Billion Day repeatedly had to deal with issues such as ‘Server
Breakdown’, in addition to the unrealistic discounts and auto-cancellation of
orders.
Even though Flipkart announced revenue of $100 Million
on the day of the sale but it left customers with disappointment, frustration,
and distrust. There were many first-time online shoppers who had never trusted
the online shopping before; there were many who had never heard about Flipkart
before but now they knew about it and were amazed to see advertisements showing
90% discounts; there were many who had bad experiences with online shopping in
the past and wanted to give it another try; and there were many who wanted to
give a supporting hand to home-grown dreamers, Bansals.
And then there were small e-commerce entrepreneurs who
believed that this day will break all the barriers and myths that people have
in their minds regarding online shopping. We believed that Sachin Bansal and
Binny Bansal will pave a way for budding Indian entrepreneurs like me.
Going forward, Indian consumer will have difficulty
trusting another e-commerce company, another breakthrough promise and another
genuine offer. You not only did hurt your credibility but also damaged trust
that Indian consumers were gradually putting in the online shopping.
I appeal to E-commerce giants such as Snapdeal,
Healthkart, Amazon, Myntra etc. to be honest and genuine to the customer.
Now-a-days customers are very skeptical as well as intelligent. By maneuvering
numbers and showing catchy advertisement, you can win them for a short period
of time but will lose in longer run. Brand royalty is the thing of past; you
can only win their hearts by providing the best services with honest efforts.
Well what's done is done but now it's time to fix it.
LET'S FIX IT and take a vow to put customers before stakeholders
and financial charts!
LET'S FIX IT and take a vow to focus on building credibility and
customer relationship than revenue!
LET'S FIX IT and take a vow that we'll never doubt customers' intelligence
and manipulate discounts!
About Writer: Pankaj Gupta is CEO and Founder of Mera Medicare, mHealth start-up in India.
Mera Medicare is an online platform that enables
patients to purchase medicines and Body Care Products online and
cost-effectively. It`s currently operational in Delhi-NCR.
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