1. MACRO

2. History of Ecommerce
One of the most popular activities on the Web is shopping. It has much allure in it —
you can shop at your leisure, anytime, and in your pajamas. Literally anyone can have their
pages built to display their specific goods and services.
History of ecommerce dates back to the invention of the very old notion of "sell and
buy", electricity, cables, computers, modems, and the Internet. Ecommerce became possible
in 1991 when the Internet was opened to commercial use. Since that date thousands of
businesses have taken up residence at web sites.
At first, the term ecommerce meant the process of execution of commercial
transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies such as Electronic Data
Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which gave an opportunity for users
to exchange business information and do electronic transactions. The ability to use these
technologies appeared in the late 1970s and allowed business companies and organizations to
send commercial documentation electronically.
Although the Internet began to advance in popularity among the general public in
1994, it took approximately four years to develop the security protocols (for example, HTTP)
and DSL which allowed rapid access and a persistent connection to the Internet. In 2000 a
great number of business companies in the United States and Western Europe represented
their services in the World Wide Web. At this time the meaning of the word ecommerce was
changed. People began to define the term ecommerce as the process of purchasing of
available goods and services over the Internet using secure connections and electronic
payment services. Although the dot-com collapse in 2000 led to unfortunate results and many
of ecommerce companies disappeared, the "brick and mortar" retailers recognized the
advantages of electronic commerce and began to add such capabilities to their web sites (e.g.,
after the online grocery store Webvan came to ruin, two supermarket chains, Albertsons and
Safeway, began to use ecommerce to enable their customers to buy groceries online). By the
end of 2001, the largest form of ecommerce, Business-to-Business (B2B) model, had around
$700 billion in transactions.
According to all available
data, ecommerce sales continued
to grow in the next few years and,
by the end of 2007, ecommerce
sales accounted for 3.4 percent of
total sales.
Ecommerce has a great
deal of advantages over "brick
and mortar" stores and mail order
catalogs. Consumers can easily
search through a large database of
products and services. They can see actual prices, build an order over several days and email
it as a "wish list" hoping that someone will pay for their selected goods. Customers can
compare prices with a click of the mouse and buy the selected product at best prices.

3. Online vendors, in their turn, also get distinct advantages. The web and its search
engines provide a way to be found by customers without expensive advertising campaign.
Even small online shops can reach global markets. Web technology also allows to track
customer preferences and to deliver individually-tailored marketing.
History of ecommerce is unthinkable without Amazon and Ebay which were
among the first Internet companies to allow electronic transactions. Thanks to their
founders we now have a handsome ecommerce sector and enjoy the buying and selling
advantages of the Internet. Currently there are 5 largest and most famous worldwide
Internet retailers: Amazon, Dell, Staples, Office Depot and Hewlett Packard. According
to statistics, the most popular categories of products sold in the World Wide Web are
music, books, computers, office supplies and other consumer electronics.
Amazon.com, Inc. is one of the most famous ecommerce companies and is located in
Seattle, Washington (USA). It was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos and was one of the first
American ecommerce companies to sell products over the Internet. After the dot-com
collapse Amazon lost its position as a successful business model, however, in 2003 the
company made its first annual profit which was the first step to the further development.
At the outset Amazon.com was considered as an online bookstore, but in time it
extended a variety of goods by adding electronics, software, DVDs, video games, music CDs,
MP3s, apparel, footwear, health products, etc. The original name of the company was
Cadabra.com, but shortly after it become popular in the Internet Bezos decided to rename his
business "Amazon" after the world's most voluminous river. In 1999 Jeff Bezos was entitled
as the Person of the Year by Time Magazine in recognition of the company's success.
Although the company's main headquarters is located in the USA, WA, Amazon has set up
separate websites in other economically developed countries such as the United Kingdom,
Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and China. The company supports and operates retail web
sites for many famous businesses, including Marks & Spencer, Lacoste, the NBA, Bebe
Stores, Target, etc.
Amazon is one of the first ecommerce businesses
to establish an affiliate marketing program, and
nowadays the company gets about 40% of its sales from
affiliates and third party sellers who list and sell goods on the web
site. In 2008 Amazon penetrated into the cinema and is currently sponsoring the film "The
Stolen Child" with 20th Century Fox.
According to the research conducted in 2008, the domain Amazon.com attracted
about 615 million customers every year. The most popular feature of the web site is the
review system, i.e. the ability for visitors to submit their reviews and rate any product on a
rating scale from one to five stars. Amazon.com is also well-known for its clear and user-
friendly advanced search facility which enables visitors to search for keywords in the full text
of many books in the database.
One more company which has contributed much to the process of ecommerce
development is Dell Inc., an American company located in Texas, which stands third in
computer sales within the industry behind Hewlett-Packard and Acer.

4. Launched in 1994 as a static page, Dell.com has made rapid strides, and by the end of
1997 was the first company to record a million dollars in online sales. The company's unique
strategy of selling goods over the World Wide Web with no retail outlets and no middlemen
has been admired by a lot of customers and imitated by a great number of ecommerce
businesses. The key factor of Dell's success is that Dell.com enables customers to choose and
to control, i.e. visitors can browse the site and assemble PCs piece by piece choosing each
single component based on their budget and requirements. According to statistics,
approximately half of the company's profit comes from the web site.
In 2007, Fortune magazine ranked Dell as the 34th-largest company in the Fortune
500 list and 8th on its annual Top 20 list of the most successful and admired companies in the
USA in recognition of the company's business model.
History of ecommerce is a history of a new, virtual world which is evolving according
to the customer advantage. It is a world which we are all building together brick by brick,
laying a secure foundation for the future generations.

5. Start of online shopping:
Amazon.com is a Fortune 500 e-commerce company based in
Seattle, WA. Amazon was one of the first big companies to sell goods
over the Internet . The company was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994,
and launched in 1995. They started out as an online bookstore and
then quickly diversified by adding other items, such as VHS tapes and
DVDs, music CDs, software , video games, electronics, MP3s,
clothing, furniture, toys and even food items.
In 1999 Time Magazine named Bezos its 1999 Person of the Year. This was largely in
recognition of the company's success in popularizing online shopping.
Ecommerce Today:-
Ecommerce today is a remarkable experience. It has transformed traditional shopping
beyond recognition. It is so much better than any other way of shopping that it has already
attracted a great many of ecommerce-lovers.
If some years ago ecommerce was a buzz word, now it has become the order of the
day. People seem to shop literally everywhere – at their workplaces during lunch times, in
rush hour when there is nothing else to do but switch on their laptops and start surfing.
Ecommerce today gained so much popularity because its underlying technologies are
evolving at giant steps. We are even offered to ―feel‖ the product with a 3D mouse to better
understand its shape, size and texture. Why go somewhere out when all you have to do is
make an order, choose the shipping method, put up your feet and wait till the order is
delivered right to your door-step?
Ecommerce today offers so much luxury that even conventional stores have already
signaled the alarm. Although, every one agrees that it is a long way for an ecommerce to
replace ―brick-and-mortar‖ stores, it has every chance to happen in the future. Ecommerce
which we are witnessing today brings in so much adventure into our lives that it is enjoyed by
the whole online community.
Ecommerce today does have some drawbacks but they say ―he that fears every bush
must never go a birding‖. A lot of consumers do put up with minuses since they trust the
online world and want it to be a better place.
Ecommerce today reflects what we created at the very dawn of online electronic
commerce. It is made by us and meant for u

6. Future of Ecommerce:-
Experts predict a promising and glorious future of ecommerce in the 21st century. In
the foreseeable future ecommerce will further confirm itself a major tool of sale. Successful
ecommerce will become a notion absolutely inseparable from the web, because e-shopping is
becoming more and more popular and natural. At the same time severe rivalry in the sphere
of ecommerce services will intensify their development. Thus prevailing future trends of
ecommerce will be the growth of Internet sales and evolution.
Each year number of ecommerce deals grows enormously. Sales volumes of on-line
stores are more than comparable with those of ―brick-and-mortar‖ ones. And the tendency
will continue, because a lot of people are ―imprisoned‖ by work and household duties, while
Internet saves a lot of time and gives opportunity to choose goods at the best prices. Present-
day Internet sales boom is the foundation for magnificent ecommerce future.
The ―quantity to quality‖ tendency of ecommerce is also becoming more and more
obvious, as the Internet has excluded geographical factor from the sale. So it doesn’t matter
any more whether your store is situated in New York or London or in a small town. To
survive, merchants will have to adapt rapidly to the new conditions. To attract more
customers e-store-owners will have not only to increase the number of available services, but
to pay more attention to such elements like attractive design, user-friendliness, appealing
goods presentation, they will have to opportunely employ modern technologies for their
businesses to become parts of ecommerce future.
Of course, those, who acquire e-stores earlier, get better chance for future success and
prosperity, though an ecommerce site itself doesn’t guarantee you anything. Only an
appropriate ecommerce solution in combination with thorough emarketing and advertising
can buy you business insurance.

7. In India to compare with the total population, around 2.5 crores are the internet users. The
most of the study found that, most of the shoppers access the internet from office, followed
by those who access it from home. Some also go to cyber cafes. The business module is cost
effective, easily accessible and profitable in many functional areas. Consumers and retailers
both desire a safe, simple and complete online shopping. From this we can findout what is the
actual and real power of internet now a days.
According to the Preti Desai, President, Internet and Online Association of India "E-
commerce is coming of age in India. Chaining lifestyles and shopping habits" Now a days
most of the metro and non metro corporation cities are basing completely on the media and
internet and multiple internet access points.
As per the survey reports, of Internet and online association of India, the total value of e-
commerce activities within India crossed Rs.570 crore during 2004-05. On the basis of that,
the present and the next couple of years it may be crossed to Rs.2,300crore worth of e-
business in India. In India most of internet users are purchasing their commodities and
services through online shopping through internet and e-business.
As per the reports, out of 3099 online shoppers, the average of 55% i.e., 1,716 shoppers are
benefiting for online services, that are getting services through online and use of internet by
way of e-commerce. The rapid development of E-commerce in India is forcing companies to
adopt business strategies revolving around the internet. As per the Chairman of IOAL "The
report reflects the chaning face of business trends in India. Today, the internet population is
25+ million and is expected to grow at 100 million by end of 2008" So on the basis of
reports, we can imagine how the India is growing with online shopping and e-commerce.
India is the second most populous country and the largest democracy in the world. Now India
has improved its position to the 43rd rank in the World of E-Commerce activities. The rapid
development of e-commerce is forcing companies today to adopt business strategies rotating
around the internet.
Finance Minister of India Mr.P.Chidambaram announced recently that expected growth rate
of Indian economy is 9 % for the year 2008 and that is excellent by any means.Though
impact of Indian economy growth may not be considerable on world scale but atleast all
Indians will be very very happy.

8. Online shopping is the buzz, the sensation in the current scenario. Getting anything by a click
of the mouse right from fashion accessories to jewellery, apparel, electronic items, crockery,
home appliances, personal care products, and more has led to the popularity of the 'online
shopping mall' phenomenon. It is the easiest and fastest way of shopping. At an online
shopping mall, you can catch a glimpse of new product releases, combo deals, packages,
discount offers, seasonal products, etc. and accordingly grab the best deal. Time is not the
constraint; you can shop anytime - the facility is available round the clock. Besides saving
your time of visiting an offline store and staying away from the hassles involved, you can
gain an additional advantage, i.e., saving a lot on the money factor.
Another plus point of online shopping is that you can compare products in terms of brands,
specifications, features and prices and buy the right ones. It is discount shopping that attracts
customers to shop online. There are a number of shopping platforms. Focus on one particular
portal that provides complete products and offers the best deals. Get yourself registered to
avail various benefits. For example, you can feed in your contact details so that you need not
enter the same every time you shop. With every purchase, you earn redeem points. Many an
online shopping mall offers special/combo deals and great discount offers. There are counted
few platforms that facilitate group bargaining, helping buyers collectively avail maximum
discounts in addition to enjoying voice video text chat, meeting new shoppers, earning
redeem coins, winning prizes, and more.
The scope of discount shopping is not only limited to one particular section. Many an Internet
literate individual encompassing the young and the old alike of both the sexes prefer online
shopping. For the same you need to have a bank account. You can use your credit card or
debit card to buy the desired products. Most online platforms provide payment facilities in all
available modes right from Internet banking, paying by cash, paying cash at the time of
delivery, etc.
At a shopping mall, you can explore similar products representing some of the biggest brands
at the national and international level. If you are fortunate, you can avail discounts over more
than fifty per cent. You can always find something new and interesting. So shop online and
stay benefited!

9. Apparel, footwear and accessories focused ecommerce venture, Myntra.com has raised $21 million,
in a fresh funding round led by Tiger Global. The news of the funding was first reported by Pluggd.in.
According to MukeshBansal, CEO of Myntra, the company intends to use the funding to invest
further in its technology platform, for improving the brand, and to invest in supply chain to build
capacity for future growth. He said that the company is also expanding its team and hiring across the
board. With this funding round, the company has raised a total of $40 million since its inception,
from investors such as Tiger Global, IndoUS, IDG and Accel Partners.
Traffic, customer base and Avg transaction size: In terms of traffic, the site claims to receive about
200,000 daily visitors, and a user base of 2 million customers. On sales conversion, i.e the number of
visitors who actually convert into shoppers, Bansal told MediaNama that it was roughly in mid-single
digit ranging between 3%-4%. He did not comment on the cart to order conversion percentage but
informed that the average cart size in terms of value is Rs 1400 and majority of transactions were
between Rs 500 to Rs 3000. However when we asked the number of monthly orders, Bansal said
that it was close to 80,000 to 90,000, with half of the orders being placed by new and the other half
by repeat customers.
Sales across geographies:Bansal informs that about 50% of all orders are from top-10 cities while
the rest are from tier-2 and 3 cities. He said that during the last 6 months, tier-2 and 3 cities have
grown at a good rate due to improvements in distribution, since, a lot of brands were not available
in these regions. The company offers Cash on Delivery to 4,000 pin codes out of the 10,000 pin codes
which it delivers to.
Sales across categories: In terms of categories, 90% of the total sales is from the apparel and
footwear segment, while the remaining 10% is contributed by accessories. The leading segments in
terms of sale are sports wear, casual wear and ethnic wear. These are also the segments with
extensive catalogues, he adds. The company is now working on building up its formal wear
catalogue.
Impact of tv campaign:Myntra had run a big tv campaign. We asked Bansal about its impact, to
which he responded that the company got a huge lift in brand perception and awareness and its
efficiency for online marketing also increased substantially. He added that it helped in getting new
brands on board, and instead of putting efforts in brand acquisition, the company was being
approached by brands. Myntra’s catalogue is spread across 200 brands. He informs that customer
acquisition cost has declined by almost 50% after the campaign.
Warehouses & Logistics: The company has its own warehouse in Bangalore and intends to set-up 3
more warehouses including ones in Delhi and Mumbai in the next 6 months. The company is already
handeling logistics on its own in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.
Myntra is aiming at revenues of Rs 500 crore in FY12-13, but is that a realistic target?: According to
Bansal, the category offers a lot more growth. ” To get Rs 500 crore we just need a million active
customers and at the moment we have 10 million ecommerce customers. There’s enough headroom
and the user base will grow from 10 million to 15 million in the next two years, ” said Bansal. He
added that the company plans to achieve this growth by expanding its catalogue, improving

10. distribution, and acquiring more customers. He said that success in the category was mostly about
building the right customer experience.
On the entry of Amazon:Bansal said that he did not consider Junglee.com a threat, since it was more
of a price comparison service. He said that Myntra was approached by Amazon to join the service, to
which it declined.
On expanding into new segments: The company intends to remain focused on fashion and lifestyle
and would at best look at affiliated sub categories within the segment. Also, Myntra does not plan to
offer deals or flash sales and is happy with the current season pricing model.
I just spoke to MukeshBansal, CEO of Myntra, who told me that the company intends to
expand first to Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai. They currently have offices in
Bangalore and Noida, and will be setting up mostly sales and marketing offices in a new city
every 3-6 months. They’re in expansion mode for 2 years, and expect this round of funding to
take them to break even by the next financial year, and last them around 2.5 years. Myntra
also intends to expand their team from a current size of 50 people to 100 by June 2008.
I was wondering why they’d need to expand offline – ideally, an online merchandising
business should be operating primarily online, with a small team, and leveraging distribution.
Bansal said that they don’t look at it at just an online business – there’s a fair amount of
supply chain management, which needs to be automated and scaled. Myntra works with over
20 vendors, and will also have to invest in setting up their own operations for new products
that they intend to bring into the market – including sports and fashion accessories.
Myntra currently claims to have a client base of over 150 companies and over 50 colleges.
Their business has two segments – Individuals, which account for 1/3rd of the revenues (and
affiliates and parters account for 1/3rd of that), and Institutions, which account for 2/3rd. A
few months ago, they crossed around $1 million (Rs. 4-5 crores), and are growing 10-30
percent every month. The raw material costs are high, so I asked Bansal about their EBITDA
margins – he declined to comment, but said their gross margins range from 25-60 percent,
depending on the product.

11. Online service of videotext, Minitel was launched in France in 1982 and was accessed using
telephone lines, similar model failed in UK. It was a real success till WorldWideWeb.
The researchers who were working on Videotex in US with services like ―The Source‖ and
―CompuServe‖ in 1979 (contemporary of UK based research: BBC with Prestel,
BritisTelecom with Viewdata, ITV with ORACLE) got interested in creating a solution for
customer-targeted payment processing whose target audience would be the software
developers and shareware authors, they created Swreg in 1987 in US, thus enabling the first
Online market for the developers community.
In 1990 Tim Berners-Lee a British scientist working at CERN laboratory wrote the first web
browser WWW which then changed most research processes and ways of businesses seeing a
whole new market to evolve (rather a whole new world ―The web world‖).
People saw new technologies evolving with new market and then around 1994 a company
called Netscape released a browser, enabling anyone to type a name in the Navigator browser
and visit a webpage (which might look dumb right now, but was a real exploration making
them the real champs of the market and even challenging market leaders).Soaring stock
prices, Pizza Hut taking orders online and a wide variety of products being available online.
Then transactions and business started happening over the web urging every company to have
a ―.com‖. To address security issues Netscape 1.0 introduced SSL encryption, for secure
transaction. Online retailer ―Amazon.com‖ launched selling each and everything online. ―E-
bay‖ the online auction house founded by computer programmer Pierre Omidyar. [Yipee
everything on internet]
United States postal service goes online, Acquisitions of majors overtaking smaller ones for
technological advancement; the whole environment was so ―technologically charged‖. This
went on till the year 2000 when finally the Bubble (The Dot Com bubble) burst with record
high in stock prices.
When money was involved in doing business over the internet ―PayPal‖ was launched and
practically has share of 70% till date, it provides facility for online payment.
Aggressiveness in the market especially in the online shopping market giving way to new
tricks like giving out Coupons for customer loyalty and in an attempt to keeps clients
reverting back major benefits are being offered with decent discounts to promote online
shopping.

13. Amazing, e-commerce is huge in India!
A report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India hasrevealed that India’a E-
commerce market is growing at an average rate of 70 percent annually and has grown over
500 percent since 2007.
The current estimate of US$ 6.79 billion for year 2010 is way ahead of the market size in the
year 2007 at $1.75 billion. The following chart depicts the growth of E-commerce in India in
the last couple of years:
Apparently, more online users in India are willing to make purchases through the Internet.
Overall e-commerce industry is poised to experience a high growth in the next couple of
years. The 70 percent year on year growth is expected to continue and India’s e-commerce
market is forecast to reach a whopping $US 10 billion by the end of 2011.The e-commerce
market in India was largely dominated by the online travel industry with 80% market share
while electronic retail (E-Tailing) held second spot with 6.48% market share.

14. E-Tailing and digital downloads are expected to grow at a faster rate, while online travel will
continue to rule the major proportion of market share. Due to increased e-commerce
initiatives and awareness by brands, e-Tailing has experienced decent growth. As far as
digital mobile downloads are concerned, the increasing use of smart phones, availability of
3G services and cheap data plans will also boost the growth process While e-commerce rises,
there is a need to place one eye on cyber crimes and scams in India.