eCOMMERCE MINTS MONEY

The global e-commerce industry generates over USD 1.2 million every 30 seconds, with a major chunk of the sector's revenue being cornered through social media, says a joint study by Assocham-Deloitte. Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter contribute USD 5,483, USD 4,504 and USD 4,308 respectively every half-a-minute to the figure. The study report added that the maturity of social media and its reach across masses and classes makes it a suitable platform for online sales. Social media pages provide information regarding new products in the market, user reviews and ratings of the product, recommendations and IT products, it said. "Social media helps e-tailers to build brand awareness by responding to customer queries. Seasonal sales and offers are displayed in social networks to reach maximum number of people. "E-tailers have even started to motivate customers with reward points to provide feedback on the product on social networks," Assocham Secretary General D S Rawat said. According to analysts, product reviews and ratings, as well as product recommendations, were the most popular social commerce features integrated into leading e-commerce sites. "Social networks have direct links to e-commerce sites, which provide complete product description, availability status, pricing and delivery information, and access to product reviews and ratings, all of which help prospective buyers to make a purchase," the study pointed out. Besides, payment gateways help the e-tailers receive money instantly rather than waiting for the Cash on Delivery payments, thus reducing chances of theft and fraud, it said. The retailers are slowly moving towards payment gateways for improving security and dealing with other complexities which arise with financial transactions. Banks as well as the e-tailers are offering different offers like cashback and Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) to encourage customers for card-based payments. The availability of e-commerce applications on various mobility devices is helping to drive sales and revenue. E-tailers like Flipkart, Amazon and Jabong now get 50 per cent of their revenues from consumers shopping on their mobile phones, the study added.