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India's leading value e-commerce platform that has helped Indian e-commerce grow beyond just brands & urban users. Nearly 80% of Snapdeal's users come from non-metro locations highlighting its deep reach across the length and breadth of the country. Snapdeal hosts a wide selection of good quality, value-priced merchandise across fashion, home, beauty & personal care, general merchandise, and other categories. With more than 200 Mn app installations, it is one of India's top online shopping destinations.  

According to a recent industry report by global consulting firm Kearney, the growing number of value-conscious online shoppers is reshaping India's e-commerce landscape. Value-conscious online buyers focus on finding affordable products that meet their needs of desirable quality, durability, and trendiness. The typical shopping behaviors and demands of these consumers have led to the rise of value e-commerce - differentiated business models optimized to serve the needs of value-conscious online customers. Currently estimated at $4Bn, value e-commerce in India is expected to see fast growth at 26% CAGR and reach $40 Bn by 2030.

Snapdeal is part of the AceVector Group and one of India’s best-known e-commerce companies with an exclusive focus on the value segment.

Snapdeal | AceVector Group

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Kunal Bahl said irrespective of whether we are fluent in English or not, we should feel absolute confidence in speaking our mother tongue in business settings just like we do in social settings.

Snapdeal co-founder shares his reaction when a pitcher asked him: 'Can I present in Hindi?'

Mr Bahl suggested many founders feel pressure to present in English, appearing polished.

Snapdeal Co-Founder Kunal Bahl Recalls Investor's Pitch: "Can I Present In Hindi?"

Oh Yeah, I've Heard of Algolia Before

Delta-4 is a theory on how to evaluate your startup idea coined by , the founder of App, and former founder of Freecharge (Acquired by for $450M). Kunal Shah CRED Snapdeal It can be used as a framework for self-assessment for evaluating ideas or startups to see whether they are on a path towards creating wealth. This blog post is a summary of some research and notes prepared by me while watching Kunal’s talk at TechSparks Summit. If you prefer watching a video (it’s 30 min long!) instead of reading this post, . click here Efficiency Scoring of an Idea Since human beings are hacking evolution, all inefficient things are in the past and efficient things are in the future. Wealth is generated when businesses help humans from point A to point B in a more efficient manner. This theory can be used to test an idea or an existing business. The efficiency score of a business solution or approach can be represented on a scale of 1-10 by the amount of efficiency it creates. For example, booking tickets via the (Indian Railways official booking platform) can be given a score of 8 or 9, and going to the railway station can be given a score of 2 or 3. IRCTC app The Delta-4 Theory “Every time the Delta of Efficiency is greater than 4, you unlock the pot of gold.” According to Kunal, if the delta of the efficiencies is greater than 4, the business or the solution will unlock the pot of gold. Once the business or the product achieves the delta > 4, it becomes unstoppable and becomes a wealth creation machine. Examples include Uber (Allowing to book cabs easily and efficiently), Google (Helping to search the world of the web faster), Truecaller (Helping to identify an unknown call received), Whatsapp (Making text communication faster, efficient and free), and more. Traits of Delta-4 Irreversible Once Delta 4 has been established, it’s impossible for people to go back to the previous state of inefficiency. A person who has booked a flight/train ticket online will never go back to the station or airport to book a ticket again, as delta 4 has been already achieved. Universal Bragworthy Position (UBP) > Universal Selling Point (USP) Delta-4 products have UBP so high that it grows organically without the need for any aggressive marketing. One example given by Kunal is that of Truecaller which became popular without any advertisement. The product was so good that people were talking about it and it organically grew itself. High Tolerance Once Delta 4 is established, people will have a high tolerance towards the product. For example even if Uber is down for an hour or if the ride got canceled due to some error, people continue to use Uber. This is contrary to the businesses which haven’t achieved delta 4. For example, while purchasing clothes online, if it goes wrong one time say due to misfit, people tend to abandon buying clothes online completely and prefer going back to the brick and mortar store. Exceptions for Delta-4 Affordability Even if Delta4 is achieved, if the technology or product is not affordable, wealth cannot be unlocked. For example, people travel by train in India even though flights are way efficient since flights are comparatively expensive considering the average Indian household’s income. Readiness of the Market If a supporting ecosystem is not present in a market, wealth will not be created even when delta 4 is achieved. An example is introducing a cab booking app in a country where smartphones are not popular. Delta-4 may be achieved by a business in such markets where SMS-based cab bookings are offered until smartphones become popular. Efforts to Learn If the new business or approach involves a difficult or time-consuming learning curve, wealth cannot be unlocked. One example would be a new software as a replacement for Tally software used by accountants. Since there is a new learning curve, the product may not be successful. Micro-Configurations More configurations people have done to an existing product, more would be the friction to adopt a new product. People tend to change operating systems(OS) very little since adapting to a new OS and making those micro-configurations would be time-consuming and tedious. Collective Participation If an existing product has already a large user base like Whatsapp, it will be hard to create momentum for a new product that has better features. Branded Lanes or Verbs When the state changed from A to B and a brand or verb has been created, it is very difficult to move people from the current state. One example would be phrases like, “Whatsapp me!” or “Google it!”. People are so used to these products that even if a better solution arrives, it will be difficult to onboard them to the new solution. Faking Delta-4 Fake Inefficiencies FMCG companies often create to achieve Delta-4 state. For instance, nobody cared about dandruff or being fairer 50-60 years ago. FMCG companies created this notion to promote their . fake inefficiencies anti-dandruff shampoos Influencers Delta-4 can be faked by using influencers in the market. If an influencer, say a sports star or a media personality pretends to follow a product, people tend to adopt the product. Also if a bigger brand uses a service or a product, the smaller brands tend to follow the trend. Piggybacking Delta-4 can also be achieved by piggybacking another Delta-4 product. For instance, liquid will sell as long as people continue to buy spectacles. It will survive until the achieves Delta-4 state ad people abandon spectacles. Anti-fog glass cleaning Laser treatment for blindness How to Evaluate your Idea? Delta-4 Theory can be used by entrepreneurs while formulating ideas for startups or even existing products. It acts as a framework to self-evaluate whether the product or solutions is creating extraordinary value and will create wealth in the future. Problems are a subset of inefficiencies. The theory can also be used to reverse-engineer existing inefficiencies to find a problem and thereby a product. If you’re looking to evaluate an or our existing business, I believe that this article will help you in the process. Please if you’re trying to analyze your product or business using this theory. I would love to feature you in a post! idea reach out to me Enjoyed this article? If so, check out my that I send out every Saturday. It contains 11 interesting Things I thought were worth sharing including books, articles, projects, and other things I'm curious about. if you would like to check out the previous issues and may be subscribe! 10+1 Things Newsletter Click here

How to Validate Your Startup Idea Using Delta-4 Wealth Creation Theory

Launched in , Java is being used by like ESPN, SnapDeal, Alibaba, etc. In its journey of 24 years, Java has proved itself to be the top general-purpose programming language for custom software development. 1995 134, 861 websites Java is popularly used in various industries like science & education, finance, law and government, and many others. In the pie chart given below, you can see the usage of the Java language in various industries. This open-source programming language is object-oriented which was developed with the purpose to give app developers the liberty to write once and run anywhere (WORA). This allows the compiled Java codes to run on every platform that supports Java. The latest version of this programming was launched in . According to the TOIBE index (calculated on the basis of highest ranked 25 search engines), Java has been ranked on . Java 13 September 2019 number 1 Here is the table showing ratings of various programming languages: The constant position of Java at number one makes it one of the most celebrated software programming languages of all time. The timely updates and launch of new versions have kept it a dynamic and competitive programming language. The selection of this language for your next web app development project is not enough. You need to make the right choice while choosing the correct Java web frameworks. Are you wondering how you will select an apt Java framework for your project? Undoubtedly, it is not easy and it requires a deep insight into the pros and cons of choosing a specific java framework for software development for a business of a specific industry. Let’s explore the top Java frameworks for 2020 in detail. Top Java Framework #1: Spring This framework is ranked on number one because it has an excellent capability to develop complex web applications that are acclaimed for high performance. It enables Java developers to create enterprise-level applications with complete ease. Web app developers can vouch on Spring frameworks’ capability. This is why spring has become the favorite of Java developers. Here is a stat that gives proof to this statement. Here is what developers (who choose Java as one of their top three preferred programming languages) have to say about the frameworks of Java: Spring MNV and Spring Boot are way ahead of other Java technologies in the developers’ choice. A big advantage for developers here is they can free other modules and concentrate on one as spring utilized Inversion of Control (IoC). One can and avail the various benefits of Java. hire java developers in India Some other advantages of this framework are an all-inclusive configuration model, support traditional as well as modern databases like NoSQL, and allows cohesive development by supporting aspect-oriented programming. It provides some of the modules like Spring MVC, Spring Core, Spring Boost, SpringTransaction, etc. Top Java Framework #2: Hibernate Being an object-relational-mapping (ORM) database, it has changed the way we previously used to look at the database. Although it is not a full-stack framework, it offers extreme ease to convert data for multiple databases. Its ability to support multiple databases makes it easy to scale no matter the size of the application or number of users. It is speedy, powerful, easy to scale, modify, and configure. Top Java Framework #3: Struts This framework helps custom software developers to create such enterprise-level applications that are easy-to-maintain. The USP of this framework is its plug-ins. They are JAR packages that mean they are portable. Hibernate plugin and spring plugin can be used for object-relational mapping and dependency injection respectively. Application development with this Java framework can reduce the processing time as it provides well-organized Java, JSP, and Action classes. Top Java Framework #4: Play Top-notch companies like LinkedIn, Samsung, The Guardian, Verizon and more. This only speaks volumes about its credibility. This framework provides speed, scalability, and performance. Its user-interface is extremely simple which allows mobile app developers to understand it quickly. It is mostly used for the development of apps that require consistent content creation. Top Java Framework #5: Google web Toolkit This framework is used for client-side development like Javascript. It is an open-source Java framework which means it is available for free. Google uses this framework extensively and Google products like AdSense, Google Wallet, and AdWords are written using it. Ajax applications can be easily developed and debugged with the help of GWT codes. Java developers prefer this framework to write complex apps. Bookmarking, cross-browser portability, history, and management are some of its features. Top Java Framework #6: Grails This open-source framework is quite popular for Enterprise Java Beans. It can be used for creating robust and scalable applications for content management systems, Restful web services, and e-commerce sites. It can coordinate with other Java technologies like Java Spring, Hibernate, quartz, EE containers, and SiteMesh. Some of its advantages include simple GORM, flexible profiles, advanced plugin system, with multiple plugins, easy object mapping library, and a supportive and responsive community. Top Java Framework #7: Blade Any custom app developer can understand this framework quickly even in a single day. Java Blade was introduced in 2015 and known for its simplicity and light-weight. The brightest highlight of this framework is its ability to create web applications rapidly. It is a full-stack web development framework providing a simple and clean coding structure. Blade is based on Java 8 which provides a RESTful-style routing interface. It supports webjar resources and plug-in extensions. Top Java Framework #8: JavaServer Faces This java framework was developed by Oracle. It can be used for creating enterprise applications, native applications, and web app development. It provides a big advantage of connecting the presentation layer with the application code easily. It provides an API set that is used to represent and manage UI components. It has a clear architecture that distinguishes between application logic and representation. Instead of using Java, JSF uses XML for view handling. Top Java Framework #9: Vaadin A great platform used for streamlined Java development. You can use it to get custom web development services. A big advantage of this framework is smooth communication between server and browser. Direct access to DOM from Java virtual machine is provided by Vaadin. In its latest release, it has been split into two parts. Vaadin Flow, a lightweight framework allows server-side communication and routing. Conclusion: After reading about all the top frameworks of Java, I hope you got a more clear view. To know about the top frameworks is not a challenge but to find the most suitable one for your requirements can be one! Hence, it is always advised to consult with a reputed and communicate all your requirements and goals with them. Java itself is a promising programming language. Undoubtedly, choosing the right Java framework can create wonders. software consultant company Do you think this list is not apt? A framework should have been included or an already included framework should be placed at some other position. You are most welcome to share your views with us in the comment section below. Happy reading!

Top Nine Java Frameworks for 2020

Introduction It is hard to imagine that one small company can completely transform the way we shop. But that is exactly what has done. In 2007, e-commerce was still considered a niche business and most Indians did their shopping offline. Internet was taking over the world and Steve Jobs had just launched the world’s first iPhone in 2007 which was about to disrupt the entire smartphone industry in the years to come. Flipkart Two software engineers in India, and did notice the changing dynamic of technology and realized the potential of e-commerce. Even though there were only 50 million internet users in India at the time, they knew that with smartphones coming into the picture, it was only a matter of time when more Indians will be connected to the internet. They wanted to take this opportunity to create an online shopping platform that would take India’s shopping experience to the next level. Sachin Bansal Binny Bansal Fast forward to today, India has more than and the number of people shopping online has increased significantly. What started as a two-man mission to create India’s most trusted online shopping platform has transpired into Flipkart, which is India’s leading e-commerce platform offering a catalogue of more than 80 million products across 80 categories to more than 100 million customers. 570 million internet users In this article, we will examine the story of Flipkart and how Sachin and Binny were able to build India’s e-commerce industry from scratch. How did they meet? Before we start, you should know that if Sachin and Binny had been better students, there was a good chance that Flipkart would have never happened. Thankfully for us, they were not. Back in 2005, Sachin and Binny were pursuing their B.Tech from IIT Delhi. While most students had gone home during the summer break, Sachin and Binny were stuck in college as they had failed to complete their projects on time. It was while working on their projects in the same lab that the two met for the first time. On a side note, it was probably the best summer for Binny, although he didn’t know it at the time, but not only did he meet his future business partner Sachin but also his life partner Trisha at the same lab. However, Sachin and Binny only became friends after they had moved to Bangalore for their jobs along with a couple of other guys from their college. At the time, Sachin was working at a company called Techspan and Binny was working with Sarnoff. Sachin had started working with Amazon in 2006 and Binny followed him in Amazon later in 2007. Origins of Flipkart Soon the two got bored with their jobs at and started playing with ideas. Being fascinated with e-commerce, they decided to start a comparison-shopping website. Their plan was to create a website that would help users to compare prices of products across different websites and help them get the best value for their money. Amazon As they started looking at different e-commerce websites, they soon realized that all the websites were really bad. They knew that they would never purchase from those poorly designed websites and they didn’t expect others to do that either. While they had to shelf their idea for a comparison-shopping website, they started thinking if they could build a better e-commerce website and provide a better shopping experience to their customers. The duo was confident that being technology enthusiasts they could do it. Without wasting any time, the two quit Amazon, pooled together Rs 4 lakh and started Flipkart in September of 2007. They had decided to sell books on their platform as it was easy to list, ship and find vendors as compared to other categories like electronics or fashion which would cost them a lot of money. The journey begins As they started looking for vendors to list books on their platform, they soon found out that it was not going to be as easy as they had thought. People still did not understand the internet and doing business on the internet was not something that was very popular, so most vendors were highly skeptical and didn’t trust their business model. However, the duo remained persistent and managed to convince a few vendors to take a chance on them. With vendors convinced, they launched their website in October of 2007. By the end of October, they had received their first order from a young techie named VVK Chandra who lived in Mahbubnagar in Telangana (previously the state of Andhra Pradesh). Their excitement from their first order soon made them anxious as their vendors told them that the book was unavailable. After feverishly searching for the book all across Bangalore, the duo managed to get hold of the book and successfully delivered their first order. With that order, Flipkart was officially in business. At this time, there were barely any good e-commerce websites in India and the founders were set on putting their customers first and wanted to use technology to provide them with a better shopping experience. Their efforts to deliver their first order showed their commitment towards their customers and it would serve them well in the future.  Being a two-man startup, they took care of everything from developing their website to delivering books. They had managed to deliver 20 shipments in 2007 itself. Within six months the startup was operationally profitable and in 2008, they had moved into a 2BHK apartment in Kormangala, which would serve as their office for the coming years. Slowly, their business started to boom and by the end of the financial year of 2009, Flipkart had managed to sell books worth 40 million rupees. Flipkart was a hit with book lovers and investors were starting to take notice. In 2009, Flipkart got its first venture capital investment of $1 million from . By the end of 2009, the startup already had more than 150 employees and 3 offices across India. Accel In such a short span of time, Sachin and Binny had managed to grow their company at a tremendous pace and they had also developed their own personalities as entrepreneurs. Sachin was good at dreaming big and was the man behind ideas and vision of Flipkart, while Binny, a shy individual was known as the operations guys. They had found in each other a great partner who complemented each other’s skills. Whatever Sachin dreamed, Binny made it a reality. India’s e-commerce was still a niche business and a large population was still hesitant to shop online. However, Flipkart had built a brand of trust among its loyal customers and continued to instil confidence by providing 24×7 customer support and their growth continued. But things were going to change drastically, once came on board as their new partner with its first investment of $10 million in 2010. Tiger Global Now that Flipkart had already become a platform of choice for book lovers in India, the startup was ready to take its next step. With new partners and more investment, Flipkart was ready to dive into the electronics category. So they started selling mobiles in 2010. But months went by and while book sales continued to grow, mobile sales remained stagnant. It was clear that customers were willing to pay small amounts of money like Rs 500 rupees online but they were not quite ready to pay large sums of money like Rs 10,000 or 15,000 for mobiles without first touching and feeling their products. Flipkart still had a long way to go to build that amount of trust among its customers. This problem forced the founders to think differently. And they were able to come up with a brilliant idea of introducing Cash on Delivery. Flipkart was among one of the first e-commerce startups to introduce cash on delivery option for its customers. The founders were hell-bent on building trust among Indian consumers and they doubled down on that dream by introducing no questions asked return policy and followed it up by a replacement policy. They were willing to sacrifice growth for customer satisfaction. Today, these three features are offered by every e-commerce website in India but it was unheard of back in 2010 or 2011. Customers loved these options as they offered them flexibility in paying and buying products on their own terms. Thanks to Sachin and Binny, Indians who were afraid of shopping online were now warming up to this novel idea of online shopping and getting the products delivered right at their doorsteps. Now just like offline shopping, they had the option of either just returning the product if they didn’t like it or get a complete refund. This was a game-changer and Flipkart’s sales started to grow even more rapidly then they had ever grown. From merely, 40 million rupees in revenues in the financial year of 2009, Flipkart expanded its revenues to 750 million rupees by the end of the financial year of 2011. Almost a 20X growth. Soon there was no stopping Flipkart, they had cracked the code to Indian consumers. They continued expanding across categories and money came pouring in from investors. By 2012, Flipkart had already become a unicorn. It was probably the second unicorn in India after InMobi. In fact, the term unicorn only became popular after it was coined in 2013 by Aileen Lee, who is the founder of Cowboy Ventures.  Flipkart became a company that other startups would look up to in the coming years, while Sachin and Binny became the face of India’s growing startup ecosystem. Competing with Amazon Flipkart was the undisputed leader of e-commerce space in India. The company was a big reason for enabling millions of customers to shop online. However, things were about to change as Amazon entered India in 2013. Apart from Amazon, Flipkart was also going to face some competition from another Indian e-commerce startup . While Snapdeal was still small compared to Flipkart, Amazon was going to be a force to reckon with. Snapdeal This did not deter Sachin and Binny, as they knew their customers intimately and had built a brand of trust which was supported by their technology platform that had been built over years of customer feedback. Their confidence was shared by their investors who helped Flipkart raise nearly $2 billion in 2014 alone. One of their oldest investors Tiger Global and Accel continued to put their faith in the company. Armed with a $2 billion war chest, Flipkart acquired in 2014 to expand into fashion e-commerce. Later in 2016, Flipkart acquired another fashion e-commerce startup to scale rapidly in online fashion commerce. This proved to be a smart move by the founders as they realized they were better off acquiring two of the leading fashion e-commerce platforms rather than building one on their own, which would have cost them time and money. Myntra Jabong With Amazon competing for the market in India, Flipkart didn’t have the luxury of time that it had during the early days. Thanks to that acquisition, Flipkart is now a leader in fashion e-commerce space with more than 60% of market share. Flipkart’s ability to understand the Indian market and the experience of their founders and team in creating a company from the ground had given them the advantage over Amazon which helped them to stay competitive and ahead of Amazon. As of 2018, Flipkart remains India’s leading online retailer with a , compared to 31.2% of Amazon. After adding the sales of Myntra and Jabong, Flipkart’s total market share increases to 38.3%. market share of 31.9% Flipkart Failures With all of Flipkart’s success, the founders had to face a lot of challenges and suffer more than a few failures as well. It was their ability to experiment quickly and scale what worked rapidly, which helped them build Flipkart into an e-commerce giant it is today. In 2011, Flipkart had acquired a digital content platform Mime360 and tried to expand into online music streaming with the launch of its music streaming service Flyte in 2012. Piracy was a major issue at the time and there was no dearth of new torrent websites offering free music popping up every day. With numerous online platforms available for downloading free music, Flipkart’s latest experiment was bound to fail. Flipkart had to shut down Flyte in 2013. Before the company found success in digital payments through , it tried to launch its own payment gateway called PayZippy in 2013. Unable to onboard merchants, its payment gateway was shut down in 2014. PhonePe Then there was Flipkart’s app-only experiment where the company blocked access to its website for mobile users and directed them to download its app. While the majority of their traffic came from mobile users, this move was still unsuccessful and Flipkart had to reinstate its website, giving users back the option of accessing both mobile website and app. Walmart-Flipkart Acquisition Despite all the setbacks, Flipkart founders continued to focus on what their customers wanted and that helped them to make Flipkart into one of India’s most successful startups. However, in 2018, Sachin and Binny’s decade long journey at Flipkart ended after Walmart acquired Flipkart for $16 billion and valuing the company at over $20 billion. Sachin had served as Flipkart’s CEO until 2016 when Binny took over the reins and remained the CEO until their exit from Flipkart in 2018. While their exit was seen as controversial by many media outlets and people in the Indian Startup Ecosystem, the two have moved on to start their own ventures. Sachin went on to start to focus on India’s growing fintech space, while Binny is using his experience at Flipkart to help startup founders scale and grow their business through his latest venture called . Navi Technologies xto10x Technologies Now that Flipkart doesn’t need to look for outside investment, there is no doubt that the company will continue to grow tremendously and help Walmart establish a stronghold in India. Conclusion Even though the founders might have left Flipkart, let us not forget that Flipkart wouldn’t have reached where it is today without the long term vision of Sachin Bansal and operational skills of Binny Bansal who worked at making Sachin’s lofty dreams a reality. So what is it that these founders did right that most entrepreneurs do wrong? Firstly, it is clear that Sachin and Binny always put the needs of their customers first. They knew from the get-go that Indian customers lacked trust in e-commerce websites. They built the trust of their customers by understanding their needs and giving them exactly what they wanted. They already had an engineering background, which helped them built a website that was better than their few competitors and which only improved as more feedback they got from their customers. Things were kept simple for the customers by introducing options like cash on delivery, replacement and refund policies. Apart from focusing on their customers, they had kept Flipkart profitable before they went to look for outside investment. During the first two years, they had grown Flipkart out of the revenues they generated from their sales. They proved to their investors that this was a sustainable business, which made it easy for them to get investment. This approach is different from most entrepreneurs, who go looking for investment before they have even tested their business model. However, the story of Flipkart is different today, as the company is losing billions of rupees as it competes with Amazon by offering heavy discounts and cashbacks. Flipkart had its own set of failures but that did not deter the founders to take a step back but they kept on experimenting until they found the winning formula. It was their persistence and bouncing back from failures that helped them discover new and innovative methods to keep building and growing Flipkart. Today, Flipkart is a huge company with massive revenues and thousands of employees. However, Sachin and Binny are still two passionate engineers who are just looking for new problems to solve, even if their journeys have taken them on different roads after a decade of building Flipkart. Originally Published on The Indian Wire.

Books to Billions: How Sachin and Binny Bansal Built Flipkart to 100+ Million Customers 

The Amazon Effect: How do Ecommerce Companies Make Money? Amazon is the ecommerce titan the industry has been waiting for. Net sales have been rising since 2014. In 2016, Amazon grabbed 70% of the total sales, and service sales have only been growing since then. For all those wondering is ecommerce profitable, the answer lies in Amazon’s undeniable success, so much as that the “Amazon Effect” has even entered the lexicon of industry analysts. In terms of operating income, growth has been driven by high margins from service sales. Revenue sources, AWS services and Amazon Prime subscriptions have been rising at phenomenal rates, too. A revenue generation model is a critical component of the ecommerce business plan. Anybody looking to understand how to start a successful ecommerce business needs to understand that is the key to thriving and not just surviving. The ecommerce business model unlocks value and is the key driver of value. It makes all the difference between a unicorn and a failed startup. Scaling up to a billion dollar value is a dream come true for many ecommerce businesses. For understanding how to do ecommerce businesses make money, business models offer further clarity. making money Getting Into the Unicorn Circle Whether it’s through commissions, asset sales, subscription plans, ads, usage fees, licensing and rent or lease, getting into the unicorn circle is not just about following a model. Ecommerce businesses like Amazon don’t follow one model. They follow many in a hybrid way, unlocking value in the long term. Here’s what drives ecommerce money-making ventures: #1 Fixed Subscriptions Registered sellers can host products on the ecommerce platform for a fixed rate of subscription. Fixed closing fees may also be charged by the ecommerce company. #2 Commissions Based on the product category, the company charges registered sellers certain percentage commission based on the value of the product sold. This commission generally ranges from 5 to 20%. #3 Logistics Logistics and shipping are addition sources of revenue for ecommerce companies. The ecommerce brands like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal, Myntra or even Jabong earn delivery and shipping fees. #4 Deep Discounting Justification for deep discounting of products for online retailers is that discounts are being offered, in turn, by the registered seller. The benefits of deep discounting benefit every ecommerce business from Flipkart and Amazon to Snapdeal and Myntra. The ecommerce brands come equipped with cutting-edge analytics capabilities and dedicated resources for comparing prices of products across stores and websites. Based on the price-linked research, registered sellers can then peg their price. Further, sellers get compensated for discounts offered by online retailers, leading to a win-win outcome, besides a level playing field for even the smallest ecommerce seller. Online shopping remains at the core of successful ecommerce businesses, which essentially focus on buying and selling of goods or services online. Given that ecommerce is the fastest growing retail market, estimated to reach USD 4 trillion in sales by 2020, the question “is ecommerce profitable?” is just an empty one! #5 Finding the Right Niche Before they build their online stores, these ecommerce businesses focus on what to sell and how to source it. Finding a successful niche is the key to mastering the markets. Keeping a finger on the social media pulse can also make sure your ecommerce business is heads and shoulders above competitors. Suggested products, reviews and YouTube videos can prove to be valuable for researching which niches to concentrate on. #6 Tapping Social Media Once the store is up and running, all you need to know is spread the word. For this, social media remains a powerful marketing tool. Leading ecommerce brands like Amazon and even niche sellers have their own Facebook business page. Cashing in on Instagram influencers is another key to successful ecommerce growth. #7 Targeting the Right Audience Leading ecommerce retailers target the right customers. For example, if the ecommerce business is selling fitness watches, the focus is on active people who visit the gym regularly. If diet formulas are being sold, your target is those trying to lose weight. #8 Reinvesting Profits As the business scales and demand grows, reinvesting profits makes sense. After all, ecommerce businesses will only sustain the growth momentum if they put money back into the business to cater to a new influx of customers. #9 Using Marketing Collateral To Drive Traffic The hardest part of an ecommerce business is the generation of traffic, whereby most online retailers rely on exceptional marketing collateral to cut through the noise and build a powerful voice and brand narrative that resonated with customers. An effective inbound marketing campaign drives growth. Content marketing by these ecommerce giants focuses on the customer research journey and addresses the client’s pain points. #10 Set Up Targeted Ads Another way ecommerce businesses make money vital to their long-term growth is through targeted ads that aim for customers and profitable niches right from the start. Using product specific ads has helped ecommerce companies to grow. Remarketing ads have also served as catalysts for the growth momentum. #11 Using Multichannel Product Distribution Methods Ecommerce businesses need to be in more than one location online to propel growth. Growing the ecommerce business commences with diversification, backed by clear channels of distribution is the key. Whether it’s Amazon, or eBay, Walmart, Rakuten among others, companies that focus on optimizing and listing products on win hands down. They also have registered trademarks and warranty when products are sold through authorized resellers. Clear distribution agreements also are in place with retailers and distributors regarding what they can and cannot sell including quality control, measures and anti-diversion. This remains an awesome strategy for growing your ecommerce brand. multiple channels #12 Automate Processes The more ecommerce processes are automated, the faster and easier it is to grow for the business. Setting up systems can be time consuming, but it’s well worth the effort. From order fulfillment to accounting and marketing, automation can make a huge difference to efficiency, bottom lines and profit margins for any ecommerce startup. For instance, sales data are automated from the ecommerce cart onto accounting software. Email follow-ups are also automated based on customer behavior and profiles. The more automated processes and systems are, the more ecommerce entrepreneurs can focus on high value growth activities for their business. #13 Invest in Search Marketing Organic reach notwithstanding, platforms like Amazon rank products as well. So online retailers need to be clear on search marketing strategies relating to the store and industry keywords. Software tools, case studies, reports, metrics and data are equally essential. Case Study 1: Flipkart B2C ecommerce company Flipkart offers sale of products through multiple channels, such as websites, apps(mobile and web), tele sales, affiliate networks and social buying. Percentage commission depends on product and sale type. It can range across 5–20% depending on taxes and discounts as well. Flipkart is a Singapore registered company with Indian subsidiaries to carry out diversification and derisk the revenue model from competitors. The web portal is the prime source of income. There are listing fees and convenience fees levied alongside as well as shipping and delivery charges. Flipkart operates its own payment gateway, logisitcs, digital media and wholesale division. It also competes in the fashion category through companies like Myntra. Phone Pe is its mobile payment interface which directly competes with Paytm and other mobile payment apps. Flipkart also sells co-branded banner opportunities on its home page, besides targeted search results and physical products on an online platform, deriving ad revenue from this. Flipkart’s enormous user base, daily visits, page views offer incredible returns. A case in point is Flipkart’s partnership with Xiaomi in India. Case Study 2: Amazon Driven by Jeff Bezos’s vision, a customer-centered focus is the defining strength and USP of Amazon. Amazon identifies strong trends to embrace these. Consider its focus on AI and machine learning to accelerate business growth. As per Similar Web estimates, Amazon notches 2.7 billion visits per day in the US alone. On an average, people spend more than 6 minutes on the site and look through as many as 9 pages to purchase what they want! Amazon is the 4th most popular ecommerce site in the United States. The focus for Amazon is on selection, price, convenience, and by extension customers. The website is designed to allow easy access. Amazon is also a manufacturer on the side, selling electronic devices like Kindle e-readers and Fire tablets. Deep discounts, free shipping courtesy Amazon Prime and a host of customer-focused initiatives make Amazon an exceptional ecommerce player. It also offers programs that enable sellers to grow their business, sell products on their sites and their branded websites and fulfill orders through Amazon. For its seller programs, Amazon earns fixed percentage fees among other types of compensation. Amazon also serves developers and enterprises of different sizes through its AWS or warehousing system. Broad set of global compute, storage, database and service offerings are available. Through its Publishing service, the ecommerce business model it follows lets authors and publishers choose a 70% royalty option and make books available through Kindle and Amazon Publishing. App developers, musicians, filmmakers further publish and sell content on Amazon. In a nutshell, Amazon works to generate value for several stakeholders. How Does Amazon make Money? Amazon makes most of its revenue from product sales. Products have high costs, so margins Amazon makes on them are thin. Their operating income is powered by services like AWS, Amazon Prime and seller services. Amazon’s business model derives its profits from Amazon Advertising, Amazon Prime, Amazon AWS which run with higher margins. The online stores are a foundation for further growth. Amazon collects payments from customers fast, then paying vendors with longer payment terms. The short term liquidity is used by the ecommerce giant to invest back to speed up its growth. Through this, Amazon has become a disruptive force, offering agility for the entire industry. The Numbers Amazon has doubled ad revenues from the first 9 months of 2017 as against 2018. Revenues went up from USD 2.92 billion in 2017 to USD 6.72 billion in 2018. Compared to Facebook’s USD 38.37 billion and Google’s more impressive USD 83.68 billion, Amazon is still an emerging player. But given that it runs a diversified ecommerce business, with several revenue streams, Amazon has donned many avatars. It’s mantra for success is its ad business which netted USD 6 billion in revenue in the first few months of 2018 alone, besides its impressive infrastructure. Amazon Prime remains a powerful business catalyst as does Amazon AWS, the latter being worth USD 17 billion in 2017. The Bottom Line Affiliate links, online ads and sponsorships can bring in revenue. But building an entire business with diverse sources of revenue in the ecommerce industry requires innovation. Ecommerce is a common business model for online retailers and companies to make money. As long as margins are managed and processes are scaled up, these businesses thrive and flourish. Concluding Thoughts Jeff Bezos, who founded Amazon, is quoted as saying his online behemoth strives to be “an ecommerce destination where customers can find and discover anything.” At a larger scale, technology is the answer as margins will grow, when ecommerce prices come down, instead of shooting up. Companies that scale besides offering deep discounts in the long run are succeeding in the ecommerce industry. That is the secret sauce behind their growth and the recipe for their success!

The Amazon Effect: How do E-commerce Companies Make Money?

El efecto Amazon: ¿cómo ganan dinero las empresas de comercio electrónico?

A Startup Unicorn is a company which has passed the billion dollars mark of valuation. Based on CB Insights research on Startup Unicorns. Variants of Unicorns include a Decacorn, made of companies valued at over $10 billion. And a Hectocorn, made of companies valued at over $100 billion. The top ten Startup Unicorns as of January 2019, comprise Bytedance, Uber, Didi Chuxing, WeWork, Lu.com, Airbnb , SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, Stripe and JUUL Labs. The US remains the country with the highest numbers of Unicorns, followed by China. The top five industries for Startup Unicorns comprise Fintech, Internet Software, and Services, E-commerce/marketplace, On-demand, Healthcare. The methodology used for the FourWeekMBA Unicorns Business Models Map Classifying a isn’t a simple task, a business model is made of many moving parts. And creating a representation of a company on a single characteristic or feature is too reductive. business model There are . Each aims at understanding how a company works, and how its engine moves. That engine is made of things like key partners, resources, processes and how a company makes money. several approaches to define a business model Those approaches start from assumptions about what a company is and what aspects to focus on. Therefore, any attempt at classifying business model might never be complete enough. For the sake of this article, I’ll put a label on each , by picking what I think is the most qualifying ingredient for the organization in the current moment. The aim is to provide you with as many business insights or at least stimulate your curiosity about these organizations. business model As any labeling system, it has many limitations. Just like putting a label on a person is reductive, putting one on a complex organization is even more simplifying. It is important to remark that this is not a science. A business strategy itself is made of assumptions about how the world works. In my opinion, the role of the entrepreneur is to test those assumptions in the real world as quickly as possible. When those assumptions turn out to be wrong, we’ll call them “failures.” Yet in reality, those are feedbacks about the world at that moment. For instance, an idea might be too early for the world to accept, and an entrepreneur which is trying to push it to the market will fail. It is important to notice that complex organization (think of , , and ) don’t rely on a single , but have combined them to create a unique organization that can capture a long-term competitive advantage. Amazon Google Microsoft business model pattern For instance, , from a subscription-based, to cloud as a service, to an online store, third-party stores and more. Amazon runs on several models While this is true for larger organizations, consolidated over the years; for smaller organizations, or unicorn startups a simpler business model allows them to scale up to a billion dollar valuation. I did my best to put the right label on each of the Unicorns, part of the FourWeekMBA Unicorns for 2019. This label comprises the main feature of that company from both product and monetization standpoint. Business Models The Unicorns come from a list of 311 companies by . CB Insights I hope you enjoy and get as many insights from it! The FourWeekMBA Unicorns Business Models For 2019 : digital short-video format model powered by AI Toutiao (Bytedance) business model : ride-sharing on-demand marketplace model Uber business model : digital media on-demand marketplace model Didi Chuxing business model : office space sharing/real-estate-as-a-service model WeWork business model : online finance marketplace model Lu.com business model : e-commerce/on-demand home-sharing marketplace model Airbnb : space transportation model SpaceX business model : big data-based enterprise SaaS model Palantir Technologies business model : payment marketplace model Stripe business model : consumer electronics model JUUL Labs business model : digital games marketplace model Epic Games business model : digital advertising model Pinterest business model : crypto mining blockchain-based model Bitmain Technologies business model : biotech-based model Samumed business model ride-sharing on-demand marketplace model Lyft business model: : ride-sharing on-demand marketplace model GrabTaxi business model : multi-tenanted data centers-as-a-service model Global Switch business model : cloud-based enterprise SaaS model Infor business model : drones products-based model DJI Innovations business model : marketplace and virtual bank model One97 Communications (operates Paytm) business model : mobile-based eCommerce/Marketplace for consumer products Coupang business model : digital currency exchange marketplace model Coinbase business model : on-demand grocery delivery services and marketplace model Instacart business model : team-communication-as-a-service freemium model Slack Technologies business model : daily-deal e-commerce/marketplace model Snapdeal business model : biotech in-license drugs and development model Roivant Sciences business model Other 60 business model patterns FourWeekMBA has put together in partnership with BMI Lab . Originally published at fourweekmba.com on January 19, 2019.

Visualizing Unicorns Companies For 2019

Ever-growing business requirements and technology evolution make companies chase sophisticated software solutions that should be both powerful and attractive for end-users. Apart from the need to keep in step with tech trends, organizations also have to take care of their up-and-running systems, as well as ensure the cohesion and integrity of the IT environment. While solutions and IT ecosystems become more intricate, the risk of drawbacks within the software lifecycle augments substantially. As a result, companies constantly face a variety of software-related issues ranging from small bugs to severe code flaws that may harm the entire business. That’s why it is critical for every organization to not only focus on the software development process itself but also prioritize software quality assurance and testing activities that guarantee the following important aspects: · The implemented software performs well and fits business specifics optimally. · The software doesn’t contain vulnerabilities or security flaws, thus ensuring a safe work and robust protection of sensitive data. · The software matches users’ expectations and enables them to fulfill daily activities with the minimum effort. If you are looking for the optimal tech partner with the relevant software testing and QA expertise, here is the review of 30 companies. Each company was ranked according to a predefined set of criteria: online reviews, market presence, geographic strategy, industry experience, customer experience, portfolio. Each provider has its strengths, so you are welcome to find the one that fits your needs and budget best. 1. QualiTest QualiTest is a Software Testing Company that delivers quality assurance and software testing services. Advancing testing methodologies is the distinguished feature of the company. QualiTest strives to provide superior QA solutions and improve their customer’s software quality. 1997 Founded: USA Location: 1000–9,999 Employees: Philips, Microsoft, Intel Major Clients: Mobile Testing Services, Website Testing, Cyber Security Testing Core Services: Website: https://www.qualitestgroup.com/ 2. A1QA A1QA.com has delivered more than 1500 projects to the customers worldwide. Highly qualified staff provides independent software QA and testing services in various industries. The company is constantly improving their automated, manual and security testing methodologies to anticipate any changes in the field. <a href="https://medium.com/media/7403e222cbf5136c6b8f959dc3cd1e6d/href">https://medium.com/media/7403e222cbf5136c6b8f959dc3cd1e6d/href</a> 2003 Founded: USA Location: 250–999 Employees: Adidas, SAP, Acronis, Kaspersky Lab, Pearson, Telekom Austria Group, National Bank of Jamaica Major Clients: Application testing; Cybersecurity Core Services: 25$-49$ Rate per hour: Website: https://www.a1qa.com/ 3. Cigniti Technologies Limited Cigniti is a Software Testing Company with offices in India, USA, UK, South Africa, Canada, and Australia. The company provides enterprises with high-quality expertise and service. Offshore test execution and quality control procedures are the distinguished features of the company. 1998 Founded: USA Location: 1,000–9,999 Employees: Atom Bank, Subway, Southwest Airlines, Bank of America, Snapdeal, Hertz, HP, Ryanair Major Clients: Quality Assurance, Quality Engineering, Digital Assurance, Advisory Core Services: Website: https://www.cigniti.com/ 4. QATestLab QATestLab was founded in 2005 and has been delivering high-quality service for more than 10 years. The professional staff is ready to meet the challenges to ensure the best possible result in a variety of industries including E-commerce, Healthcare, Mobile, Media, and Entertainment, Training and Education. 2005 Founded: Ukraine 50–249 Location: Employees: Jobalign, Bosch, Shell, Snap, G5Games, Sweetrush, Wargaming.net, Cinemagram Major Clients: Manual Testing, Test Automation Core Services: Website: http://qatestlab.com/ 5. Abstracta Abstracta improves customers’ processes by implementing software quality engineering and testing. With 10 years of experience, the company applies cutting-edge tools to its projects in financial, retail and other technology-driven spheres. The agile partnership model is the company’s prominent feature. 2008 Founded: USA Location: 50–249 Employees: PedidosYa, Shutterfly, GeneXus, Republica AFAP, BBVA Major Clients: Test Automation, Mobile Testing, Performance Testing, Software Testing Core Services: $50 — $99 Rate per hour: Website: https://abstracta.us/ 6. QualityLogic QualityLogic combines a flexible service model and software testing procedures to deliver the best services to its customers. Technology experts from the company implement adaptable and scalable engagement model into the working process with in-house customers’ team. 2002 Founded: USA Location: 250–999 Employees: IBM, Broad Vision, Adobe, Riverdeep Major Clients: Automation Testing, Mobile QA, Manual Testing, Security Testing, Performance Testing, API Testing Core Services: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Website: https://www.qualitylogic.com/ 7. Testlio Testlio is serving its clients by implementing Testing as a Service model. The company helps to launch customers’ products adhering to 4 main principles: devotion to improving QA practices, commitment to consolidate testers community, meeting the highest standards in work and cooperate with reliable apps providers. 2013 Founded: USA Microsoft, Hotels.com, USA Today, OfferUp, Flipboard, Grammarly, GoDaddy, CBS Interactive, Vimeo Location: Major Clients: Mobile Testing, Functional Testing, Localization Testing, Automated Testing Core Services: Website: https://testlio.com/ 8. Ubertesters Ubertesters ensures the best launch of the product by providing mobile and web applications beta testing with a cloud-based, process management tool. Ubertesters professionals help organize and monitor the whole beta testing process for high-quality results and a perfectly working mobile and web apps. 2012 Founded: USA Location: 50–249 Employees: Verizon, T-Mobile, Orange, Houzz, Golf, Intuit Major Clients: Application Testing, Application Management & Support, Cloud Consulting & SI Core Services: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Website: https://ubertesters.com/ 9. Zymr Zymr offers expertise in product engineering and product support services. The company combines agile development culture with software development standards. Professional staff will the proven previous achievements focus on the customers’ needs and the requirements of end-users. 2012 Founded: USA Location: 50–249 Employees: ILearn2Trade, Vodafone, Nimbler World, FixStream Major Clients: Product Engineering Services, Product Support Services Core Services: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Website: https://www.zymr.com/ 10. QA Mentor QA Mentor professionals work in all time zones which guarantees anytime customers support. The distinguished feature of the company is a testing laboratory with more than 200 browsers and operating system combinations. The company uses its own special methodologies to ensure the highest quality of software testing. 2010 Founded: USA Location: 50–249 Employees: Zyto, HSBC, Citi, Hitit, Sterling, Morgan Stanley, DivisionOf, GameCloud, Chefmod, GrayHair, Nicopanda Major Clients: Agile QA Services, Automation QA Services, Security Testing Core Services: < $25 Rate per hour: Website: https://www.qamentor.com/ 11. QA InfoTech QA InfoTech is committed to delivering top-notch solutions for its clients. The company applies best practices and strategies to everyday activities and procedures. Client’s needs and goals are their main priority. 2003 Founded: India Location: 1,000–9,999 Employees: Fortune 500s to start-up companies Major Clients: Functional Testing, Automation Testing, Mobile Testing, Performance Testing, Security Testing, Usability Testing, Cloud Testing Core Services: < $25 Rate per hour: Website: https://qainfotech.com/ 12. ThinkSys ThinkSys offers tailor-made solutions for its customers. The company is the place where new software testing methodologies are developed. The professional staff strives to increase the productivity of their customers’ business processes and help to meet their client’s business aims. 2012 Founded: USA 50–249 Location: Employees: Shutterstock, WealthSage, Allegro, BlackBox, BayTech, ProActive Major Clients: Functional Testing, Security Testing, Usability Testing Core Services: Undisclosed Rate per hour: Website: https://www.thinksys.com/ 2012 Founded: USA Location: 50–249 Employees: Shutterstock, WealthSage, Allegro, BlackBox, BayTech, ProActive Major Clients: Functional Testing, Security Testing, Usability Testing Core Services: Website: https://www.thinksys.com/ 13. Testbytes Testbytes is a group of software testers who deliver the best results applying up-to-date software testing methodologies. Reusable automation frameworks, templates, and repositories are the key factors shaping the company’s success. 2011 Founded: India Location: 50–249 Employees: Avalara, Fixle, Taskr, iProgrammer, LearnPick Major Clients: Game Testing, Automation Testing Core Services: < $25 Rate per hour: Website: https://www.testbytes.net/ 14. QASource QASource concentrates on customized solutions and quality assurance services helping their customers’ control the whole process and expected results. Company’s quality assurance services help to anticipate and avoid any risks connected with the testing process. Being among the leading software QA providers, QASource professionals make every effort to deliver high-quality software testing services serving their customers’ needs. 2002 Founded: USA Location: 250–999 Employees: IBM, Broad Vision, Adobe, Riverdeep Major Clients: Automation Testing, Mobile QA, Manual Testing, Security Testing, Performance Testing, API Testing Core Services: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Website: https://www.qasource.com/ 15. TestingXperts TestingXperts is the company that combines the knowledge of major business processes and the best software development practices. The company strives to exceed the customers’ expectations by providing high-quality Functional and Non-Functional testing and Professional Expertise for Mobile and Cloud Technology. 1996 Founded: USA Location: 50–249 Employees: TestPlant, Query Surge, Smart Bear, Perfecto Mobile Major Clients: Functional Testing, Non-Functional Testing, Specialized Testing Core Services: $50 — $99 Rate per hour: Website: https://www.testingxperts.com/ 16. Testhouse Testhouse has been providing functional and non-functional test services for 17 years. The company specializes in Software Quality Management, Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) and DevOps. Testhouse applies its expertise to a wide range of domains helping its customers to anticipate any risks. 2000 Founded: India, UK Location: 51–200 Employees: Purple Bricks, FlyBMI, DoveTail Services, Emirates NBD Major Clients: Managed Testing Services, Functional Testing, Security Testing, Mobile Testing, Performance Testing, Test Automation Core Services: Website: https://www.testhouse.net/ 17. BugRaptors BugRaptors delivers innovative solutions for obtaining optimal business results. They evaluate the customers’ needs in details before working out the full software development lifecycle. They offer a wide variety of services to exceed the customers’ expectations. 2016 Founded: India, USA Location: 250–999 Employees: the UK and US-based clients Major Clients: Standardised QA Services, Automation Testing Services, Specialized QA Services, Test Consultation Services Core Services: < $25 Rate per hour: Website: https://www.bugraptors.com/ 18. TestArmy TestArmy is a team of professionals offering Quality Assurance Consulting, Security Tests as well as Functional Testing and Performance Testing. Company’s employees support their customers from the start of the project and after launching the product. Certified testers are always ready to find the best solution to the client’s need. 2010 Founded: USA, EU Location: 50–249 Employees: Samsung Electronics, Philips, Yves Rocher, Empik, Nomtek Major Clients: QA Consulting, Functional Testing, Security Testing, Performance Testing, Test automation Core Services: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Website: https://testarmy.com/ 19. Acutest Acutest pays special attention to customers’ business, technical and user requirements. Software testing, business processes. The company always gives emphasis to the main business activities of its clients for delivering excellent testing service and superior results. 2002 Founded: UK Location: 1–50 Employees: BBC, Costa, Appian, FT, HP, Dell, SAP Major Clients: Managed Testing Services, Specialist and Non-functional testing, Test Automation, Test Transformation Core Services: Undisclosed Rate per hour: Website: https://www.acutest.co.uk/ 20. KiwiQA Being highly experienced in a variety of industries, KiwiQA is a company that not only ensures complete test coverage but also constantly checks the accuracy of software performance. Quality assurance and testing service are characterized by the innovative approach and on-time delivery. 2009 Founded: India Location: 10–49 Employees: Mercury, Lodie, SimpleTix, KPMG, ZingHR Major Clients: Automation Testing, Performance Testing, Mobile Testing, Security Testing, Code Verification, Manual Testing Core Services: Website: https://www.kiwiqa.com/ 21. TestMatick TestMatick provides high standard mobile app and software testing services. Company’s team is ready to solve any existing problem and improve current customers’ processes by performing technical tasks of any difficulty. Flexibility and strive for excellence are the key features that determine their work. 2009 Founded: USA Location: 50–249 Employees: Hubrick, Subscribe Pro, Dahmakan, Improbable Major Clients: Mobile Testing, Functional Testing, Automated Testing, Usability Testing Core Services: $25+ Rate per hour: Website: https://testmatick.com/ 22. CresTech CresTech is a customer oriented software testing company providing functional and non-functional validation for software applications. The company puts stress on effective communication with its customers by identifying their key technical requirements and business needs. 2005 Founded: India 201–500 Location: Employees: Pearson, Adobe, CSC, Siemens, HCL, Intel Major Clients: Test Automation Solutions, Mobile Testing Solutions, Product Quality Management Core Services: Undisclosed Rate per hour: Website: http://crestechglobal.com/ 23. QAwerk QAwerk is a software testing company that applies its experience and expertise to a wide range of industries including electronic government, business automation, and data mining. Professional business analysts and testers guarantee the quality of all the processes as well as bug-free on time and budget work delivery. 2015 Founded: USA 50–249 Location: Employees: Hosting.com, ClearData, Cygnet Cloud, MarketOne, Elsewhen, Unfold Major Clients: Web Solutions Testing, Mobile Application Testing, Desktop Application Testing, Manual Testing, Automated Testing Core Services: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Website: https://qawerk.com/ 24. TestFort Being the finalist of the European Software Testing awards 2016, TestFort QA Lab complies with the customers’ demand for excellence and professionalism. Its QA engineers have knowledge and expertise in manual and automated testing. The main goal of the company is to deliver exceptional software testing and QA services in different industries worldwide. 2001 Founded: Ukraine Location: 50–249 Employees: The Huffington Post, Symantec, Skype, RebelMouse, Dashlane Major Clients: Manual Testing, Automated Testing, QA Consulting Core Services: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Website: https://testfort.com/ 25. Global App Testing Global App Testing is known for its customer-oriented approach. Company’s DevOps and Agile teams are in a constantly developing process aimed at improving working process quality and speed. Crowdsourced testing platform for mobile and web apps was created for boosting customers’ development. 2013 Founded: UK 51–200 Location: Employees: Evernote, Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, WhatsUp, LiveSafe Major Clients: Exploratory Testing, Test Case Execution, Mobile App Testing, Web App Testing Core Services: Website: https://www.globalapptesting.com/ 26. DeviQA DeviQA is a team of professionals in Quality Assurance and Testing. With over 10 years of experience and more than 100 clients, the company focuses on effectiveness and delivering reasonably priced Quality Assurance solutions. Transparency is their priority in the process of project teams set up. 2010 Founded: Ukraine Location: 50–249 Employees: Sprinklr, CipherHealth, LykeBox Major Clients: Full-cycle Testing, Automated Testing for Web, Test automation for Mobile, Performance/Load and Stress Testing Core Services: $25 — $49 Rate per hour: Website: https://www.deviqa.com/ 27. Codoid Codoid delivers top-level service providing its customers with a flexible team and quality control procedure during the whole process of testing. The company has been working successfully with companies of different sizes for more than 15 years and applied an integrated approach to its procedures. 2012 Founded: India Location: 50–249 Employees: Companies from different industries Major Clients: Application Testing, IT Strategy Consulting, Custom Software Development Core Services: < $25 Rate per hour: Website: https://codoid.com/ 28. Testrig Technologies Testrig works with the companies of different types and sizes. The company combines high-quality service and cost-effectiveness of the delivery process. Company’s employees do their best to simplify all the software testing processes as well as communication with the customer making it transparent and efficient. 2015 Founded: India 10–49 Location: Employees: Invezza Technologies, SEOSitecheckup, Cloudaeon, Avorra, BoardingSchoolReview, CompanyIQ Major Clients: Web and Mobile App Testing, Performance Testing, Security Testing, Automation Testing, Usability Testing Core Services: < $25 Rate per hour: Website: https://www.testrigtechnologies.com/ 29. iBeta iBeta delivers a wide range of software testing services including mobile testing and performance testing, acceptance testing and security testing. The company aims at customers who would like to outsource their testing quality activities and achieve effective results. 1999 Founded: USA 51–200 Location: Employees: Web Testing, Mobile Testing, Security Testing, Assessability Testing Core Services: Website: https://www.ibeta.com/ 30. UTOR The main goal of UTOR is to meet the customer’s needs. They work with companies of different sizes offering software testing services for the companies who do not have an in-house Quality Assurance department. The company is proud of its pioneering solutions designed for a particular customer. 2016 Founded: Ukraine Location: 10–49 Employees: Round Pegs, Itau, Lift and Squat Major Clients: Automation Testing, Performance Testing, Security Testing, QA audit Core Services: < $25 Rate per hour: Website: https://u-tor.com/

Top Software Testing Companies in 2019

The worrying thing is they are succeeding Last night, I was talking to a friend who was trying to persuade me to switch my online shopping back to the local offline merchants. He feels that if we don’t, we will end up helping the Amazons and Flipkarts, which are non-Indian business entities, to put more and more small Indian businesses out of business. Once that happens, these big businesses will become monopolies or duopolies and we will be at their mercy, be it in terms of price or choice or availability of things or whatever. Oddly enough, I have been advocating a boycott of Amazon for the same reasons, as well as Amazon’s lack of ethics, which is . In fact, I have managed to avoid shopping online for long stretches of time. Sadly, to my own mortification, I eventually end up going back to the Amazon. There are two reasons why this keeps happening: convenience and price. another story The Convenience Factor The other day, my wife dropped her iPhone and shattered its protective tempered glass screen guard. Now, this isn’t expensive to replace, but it’s really inconvenient. I have to make an hour-long, hot and stressful expedition through clogged traffic to my city’s commercial zone, struggle to find parking, and finally locate a store that sells screen guards. Whereas on Amazon, it’s just a couple of clicks, and the screen guard will be delivered home in a couple of days. The battle was over even before it began. My orders from Amazon over the last year show me I mostly shop online when I need things of a specific dimension or meant for a specific purpose or available at a specific price. The Price Factor Despite my misgivings, I recently bought a smart TV from Amazon. If I had decided to buy the TV from local offline dealers, I would have had to buy a brand of TV that didn’t match my needs, and cost at least a couple of thousand bucks more. That was just a bit too much money for me to put where my mouth was. Here’s how Amazon persuaded me to shop with them. With internet costs dropping in India and data becoming more available, smart TVs are finally becoming practical here. But I didn’t want to invest too much as technology is changing fast. Most tech things including TVs go obsolete in no time, and I didn’t want to end with a white elephant on my hands. So I had zeroed in on a 32" smart TV from Xiaomi which had the right mix of features and price. Now Xiaomi has made a name for itself as India’s top-selling cellphone. Its strategy is to offer high-quality phones at affordable prices and make them only available via online channels (to cut out the middleman). So when Xiaomi offered a 32" smart Android TV for the then unheard price of ₹15000 ($210), I was definitely interested. This is where Amazon came in. They tied up with Xiaomi to be their exclusive partner for online sales of the latest 32" and 49" Mi TV models. Amazon took Xiaomi’s price-cutting strategy a step further, by again reducing the price. They did this by tying up with banks and their own payment wallet for additional discounts. I ended up getting that TV for around ₹13000 ($181). Of course, big-ticket purchases like this don’t happen too often, with an IFB washing machine from Flipkart a year ago being my last such purchase. But even in that case, I noticed that the price on Flipkart was lower than the manufacturer’s own price. In fact, I observed that during the installation, the IFB guy desperately tries to push accessories like stands, filter, and detergent. I’m guessing IFB is doing its best to make the sale viable as its margins must be suffering due to the online shopping. However, I know the Flipkarts and Amazons won’t sell stuff to me at a loss unless they stand to benefit in some way. I don’t know how exactly, though there are many theories floating around like this on Quora. What I do know for sure is the losers in this transaction are the other TV manufacturers. I (and my family) have previously bought TV brands like Philips, Sony, and Samsung from local retailers. But the price difference is now so huge that I didn’t even bother to go check out those TVs. At ₹13000 ($181), I can afford to upgrade my TV every two years, whereas this thought would not even cross my mind with a Sony or Samsung bought from a local merchant at prices that are 2–3 times as much. discussion The problem is if a majority of Indians start thinking like me, those retailers are going to go out of business and close down, leaving the market to Amazon. At which point, Amazon would be in a position of power. If not shopping, then what? India is still a developing country, and most Indians have fixed or limited budgets for shopping. But corporates believe they must grow every year, and not doing so is equivalent to death, and Amazon is no exception. Personally speaking, my spends on Amazon haven’t really grown in the last few years. My guess is there are many more customers like me. Now Amazon lives by data, and they would have noticed this trend. So they have started looking for other ways to increase my use of their services. In a way, it reminds me of the old days when Yahoo wanted to be a portal that would serve all my needs. The difference is where Yahoo failed miserably, Amazon is succeeding. Video & Film Take Amazon Prime. I initially signed up for the free delivery services. It was a bargain at just ₹500/year ($7) as I was buying a lot of low-value stuff from Amazon in its early days. However, once I realized it was affecting local merchants, I cut down on online shopping. And it didn’t make sense to renew the service last year. But Amazon persuaded me by sticking to the ₹500/year price tag and sweetening the deal by adding Amazon Prime Video for free. Netflix costs ₹500/month ($7) for video and film content. But that’s as much in a month as Amazon charges in a whole year for the entire Amazon Prime package. I must add that Netflix does offer a lot more variety than Amazon Prime Video, which is a dealbreaker for binge watchers. Music This year, Amazon Prime tightened its grip on me by adding Amazon Prime Music to the package. There is a catch though. I can’t use it as a single source for all my music because Amazon Prime Music does not have all my favorite songs. Its collection is limited to two million songs. This would not be an issue if Amazon allowed me to upload and store my own music online, but they stopped offering this earlier this year. service Amazon has another music service, Amazon Music Unlimited. It offers tens of million songs for a price, but that service isn’t available in India. Spotify, which has a free tier, offers 30 million songs, and is rumored to be opening up in India but that hasn’t happened either. Apple Music is accessible in India and has 50 million songs, but costs ₹120/month ($1.67). I gave Apple a pass, as I prefer one time payments to subscription services as they tend to add up. There were other factors that made me stick with Amazon Prime Music. One reason is music is just part of the Amazon Prime bundle. Secondly, I have set up Amazon’s own Echo smart speakers as my default music players at home. Apple Music is as of now, not allowed on the platform though I believe that’s changing as I type. Thirdly, Google Music has a free storage service, where I have uploaded around 10,000 songs. I can stream and listen to these any time I want, but unfortunately not through Amazon Music. Fourthly, I’m on the Jio mobile and have access to Jio Music, which is restricted to only those on the Jio network. Though the Jio Music app’s interface is clumsy, Jio has a vast collection. I find unexpected gems there that I don’t find elsewhere. Like yesterday, I had the urge to listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain.’ Amazon only had covers of the song, but Jio Music had the original (Creedence reappeared on Amazon the next day). Since I’m talking music, I must add that I did not include Indian music in the discussion. That’s because the local Indian music apps like Gaana, Saavn, and Wynk have huge collections. They also have an option for a free, ad-based service, which is more than sufficient for me. There are some problem areas. Like I can’t play Google Music on my Echo speakers. But this may not be an issue for long, in India, Alexa/Echo does allow me to choose between Amazon Music, Saavn and Gaana as the default music library for Alexa. So with Jio and Saavn merging, I assume I will be able to access Jio’s online collection within Amazon Music soon. Whether Jio Music will be free for long, and free of ads is an unasked question of mine that Jio seems to have answered (see below right). Books Somewhere along the way, Amazon started offering Prime members in India a large selection of Kindle e-books to read for free. There’s a lot of good stuff in there for adults and kids. I’m also using the Audible free trial to see if it’s worth signing up for the audio books service at ₹199/month (after the 3- month extended trial for Prime members). I get to listen to one book a month. And since I’ve always wanted to be a fly on the wall of the White House, I’m currently listening to Michelle Obama’s biography, recorded in her own voice. It would have cost me ₹888 ($12.52) if I were not on Prime. Made by Amazon With so much business happening on Amazon, it didn’t surprise me when Amazon decided to join the fun and make and sell products under its own brand name. I resisted buying those ‘Made by Amazon’ products for a year or so. But Amazon finally got me by aiming for my Achilles heel: they gave massive price cuts. So I ordered a 6-inch long lightning cable, aptly enough during a lightning sale, from Amazon (for ₹500 or $37). Sold under the Amazon Basics brand, the cable is Apple certified, and just the right size to carry with my portable charger. A year later, I picked up an Echo speaker, and another one this year to make a home speaker network. I got them both during the Great Indian sale when price drops make the deals irresistible. The fact that Alexa is listening to everything we speak at home is a worry, no doubt. But, like the proverbial ostrich, I bury my head in the sand because of the incredible convenience of pulling up any song I want, just by asking Alexa. Bill Payments Paying monthly bills is something that everyone does, and Amazon is trying to take its cut by offering me cashback for routing my payments through their wallet, Amazon Pay. The cashbacks are small amounts and can be used only for payments via Amazon pay but something is better than nothing. As of date, I have paid bills for my landline, mobile, internet cable, TV (DTH), and electricity. Besides if there are many bills, the cashbacks can add up to sizable savings every year. Travel I have also used my Amazon wallet to pay for bus trips and flight tickets. I got ₹1000 off on a ₹7000 flight ticket a couple of days ago, with half as an instant discount, and half as cashback to my Amazon Pay. Hard to pass that up. Insurance This is a new service that I noticed Amazon advertising in its wallet via a tie-up with a new online-only insurance company called Acko. Anyway, a couple of days ago, my car’s insurance came up for renewal. The insurer said it would cost me ₹9600 ($137) or so. Out of curiosity, I went to the ad in my Amazon app, clicked on it, filled in a few details about my car, asked for a comparative quote and was surprised to see it was just half (₹5000 or $71) what my current insurer was asking. I did a bit of research online to confirm it was a good deal and see reviews on Acko. It seems Acko can afford to offer this deal and still make a profit because they are an online entity with minimal infrastructure and staff. In fact, it was I who had to do all the paperwork for the policy by typing in the details online, and if I wanted a physical copy of the insurance policy to carry in my car, I would have to print it out myself. It was a convincing argument and I signed up. Similarity with India’s telecom price wars While Amazon has been waging price wars in online shopping, an equally bruising price battle has been happening among the cellular network providers of India. Jio, a new entrant launched by the powerful Reliance Group, shook up the artificially high priced rates of cartelized incumbents with drastic price cuts. Two years later, half the competition has shut shop, while the remaining ones have merged and consolidated leaving just three major players in the market. Airtel who was the largest player when Jio was launched, is now №2 behind the consolidated Vodafone-Idea group, with Jio being the third major player. Consumers have been the beneficiary of this price war. ₹300 used to get me 1Gb of 3G speed data, per month, with voice calls, messages and roaming fees all being extra, which would easily double the monthly bill. In fact, Indians used to save money by signaling via ‘missed calls.’ Now the same money will get you 1.5GB of 4G data every day (that’s not a typo), plus unlimited calls and messages to and from anywhere in India. Today, the ‘missed call’ phenomenon no longer exists. Amazon’s price cuts have had a less obvious effect, but overall, customers have benefited. Like I wouldn’t have considered Acko for my car’s insurance and saved myself ₹5000 ($71) if it hadn’t been backed by Amazon. When one door closes, another opens Amazon’s discounts and expansion into other activities are beginning to affect the competition. Offline stores are often empty, and though they are fighting back with discounts, they have overheads like rents and will find it hard to match Amazon. Even other online stores are feeling the heat. eBay India was swallowed up by Flipkart, which itself was taken over by Walmart. Let’s say the worst-case scenario of a majority of offline shops shutting down happens, and Amazon starts hiking prices massively. I believe that if that happens, the market forces will create alternatives. For example, I recently ordered a pack of three snap-on lenses for my phone from China, via Snapdeal, a competitor to Amazon. I didn’t really want the lens kit, but I just ordered it to test the service. The pros were prices were good, and quality and finish acceptable for that price. It cost just ₹250 for this 3-lens kit. The con was the delivery took two long months, as I was ordering directly from China, and it had to be literally shipped all the way to make the deal viable. Snapdeal has a returns policy with 100% refund, but I recall at some stage of the order seeing a disclaimer that this product was not eligible for returns. My conclusion is that even if I quit Amazon altogether at some point in time, I will still be able to get things at reasonable prices if I’m willing to compromise on delivery time. As for the returns policy, I don’t see that no-returns disclaimer anymore so I guess Snapdeal found a solution. Power Corrupts I don’t know what the future holds but I can’t help recall that old saying about power. Will Amazon help me save as much as it’s doing now, once most of its competition shuts down? Amazon treatment of its employees doesn’t make me feel too optimistic. If you missed that news, read about it and . There’s even a movement going on to your Amazon Prime account. here here cancel Wait and Watch Considering the similarities, India’s cellular network industry could be a forerunner of what will happen in online shopping. As of now, mobile data prices are down, calls and messages are free, and there are lots of freebies. For instance, besides the free Jio Music service, Jio offers a free Jio TV app which allows me to watch live TV like NBA matches for free on my smart TV. Likewise, the free Jio Cinema app has a good collection of movies. The question is will Jio’s added services be free forever. When I figure out the answer to that, I will probably also be able to predict what Amazon will do. With things being so uncertain with both Jio and Amazon, I think it makes sense not to cross any bridges till I reach them. If somewhere down the line, Jio Music is converted into a subscription service and priced at ₹120 (on par with Apple), I will most probably ditch Jio Music and stick with Amazon Prime Music. Alternatively, if Amazon Prime Music does the same, and Jio Music remains free, I will switch to Jio. Finally, if both services become paid, I will probably see where I can get the best deal amongst Amazon, Apple, and Jio. For instance, my kid uses Amazon Prime Music a lot, and if all three are priced at ₹120, I would get her Apple Music at a student discounted rate of 50% off. It all depends on the situation at that point in time. Doing my two bits I do my bit to support the local merchants by shopping offline wherever it’s practical. Like I buy all my provisions at the local supermarket. The price difference is not much and there are several positives. I get fresh locally grown food, and I don’t pollute the environment with Amazon’s packaging. I must admit it will be harder to do this if Amazon Pantry comes to my city. But for now, it hasn’t, so I lug my groceries home twice a week, and don’t feel guilty the way I do when an Amazon delivery guy buzzes me at my gate on a Sunday evening. I intend to continue shopping offline as much as possible unless the price difference is so large as to make it impractical to avoid online shopping. Why worry My friend who was trying to persuade me to go completely off Amazon does not agree with the above. He believes the local merchants are under immense pressure to survive and need all the help they can get from each and every one of us, right now. I admit to him it’s hard for me to give up thousands of rupees on principle. I know Amazon sees this as a honeymoon phase in India, and is using its money muscle to woo me with lots of mouthwatering goodies. It’s probably even losing good money on some of these offers. The way I see it, I might as well as take whatever I can, while I can. Because once the competition is killed off, Amazon will probably squeeze the market for all it’s worth and extract whatever it gave away with interest. Pragmatism rules However I tell my friend I admire his principled stand, and we cordially agree to disagree. As I’m about to bid him goodbye, I notice he’s on the Vodafone network, and a light goes off in my deal-seeking brain. My Amazon Prime is due to expire in a day or two, and Amazon is not offering me the 50% discount on the ₹1000 annual fee like it did the last two years. But Amazon wants new customers, and it’s tied up with Vodafone to offer the network’s postpaid users a free 1-year of Amazon Prime. I ask my friend if I can take up Amazon on that offer since he doesn’t plan to. He graciously agrees, unlocks his phone and hands it over. I go to the Vodafone app on his phone, locate the offer, apply for it, and soon get a request to sign on with my Amazon account to activate the one year trial of Amazon Prime. I sign in, and the deed is done. All good things will come to an end, and I might as well enjoy it while I can.

Amazon wants to be a portal for all I need

Top Rated E-Commerce Companies & Platforms Around the World As per the data shared by emarketer company, with the rise of m-commerce, the eCommerce industry has seen . High growth rate has seen not only in the USA or Europe but also in the Asia Pacific region. Read this post to know, how the eCommerce industry is growing all over the world and which are top commerce companies in the UK, USA, India, Australia, & Middle East. Additionally, you can read, which are the best e-commerce platforms to start an online business. unprecedented growth in the last 3–4 years 1. Which are the top 10 E-Commerce companies in the USA? USA e-retail market has grown by 24.8% in the previous years. Here is a graph by Statista, that shows the steady growth rate of ecommerce in the USA: Here are the names of USA top ecommerce companies · Walmart — Established in 1962 · Amazon — Established in 1994 · Overstock — Established in 1995 · Ebay — Established in 1995 · Best Buy — Established in 1966 · Wayfair — Established in 2002 · Macy’s — Established in 1858 · Costco — Established in 1983 · Apple — Established in 1976 · The Home Depot — Established in 1986 Data Source: https://www.emarketer.com/Chart/Top-10-US-Companies-Ranked-by-Retail-Ecommerce-Sales-Share-2018-of-US-retail-ecommerce-sales/220521 2. Which are the top 10 E-Commerce companies in India? Ecommerce sector is growing equally well in India. Here is a graph by statista, that shows the high growth rate of eCommerce industry in India: Here is a list of India’s top 10 ecommerce companies: Amazon India — Established in India in 2013 FlipKart — Established in 2007 Snapdeal — Established in 2007 Indiamart — Established in 1996 MakeMytrip — Established in 2000 Paytm — Established in 2010 Myntra — Established in 2007 BookMySHow — Established in 1999 Yatra — Established in 2006 Ebay India — Established in India in 1995 Data Source: https://www.fundoodata.com/learning-center/top-10-e-commerce-companies-india-2/ 3. Which are the top 10 E-Commerce companies in UAE? Have a look on the growth rate of eCommerce in the middle east countries: source: thenational.ae Here are the names of UAE’s top eCommerce companies: Souq — Established in 2005 Mumzworld — Established in 2011 Aido — Established in 2015 Jadopado Established in 2010 — Dubizzle — Established in 2005 Alshop- Established in 2008 Awok — Established in 2013 MarkaVip — Established in 2013 Axiomtelecom — Established in 1997 Data Source: https://www.go-gulf.ae/blog/ecommerce-sites-middle-east/ Must Read: Live the startup dream — Start your online business with these ready to launch ecommerce systems 4. Which are the top 10 E-Commerce companies in the UK? Ecommerce industry is booming in the UK and 87% of retail purchases have made online. Here is a graph by statista on UK’s eCommerce industry growth: UK’s top ecommerce companies Names: Amazon UK Boux Avenue — Founded in 2011 Play.com — Founded in 1997 Apple Tesco — Founded in 1919 Marks & Spencer- Founded in 1884 John Lewis — Founded in 1929 Superdry — Founded in 1929 Easy Jet — Founded in 1929 Farfetch UK — Founded in 2007 Data Source: https://blue-shark.co.uk/blog/top-10-uk-e-commerce-websites/ 15 of the UK's fastest-growing retailers - Insider Trends 5. Which are the top Ecommerce Companies in Australia? There is an exploding growth of eCommerce in Australia in the last 2 years. Fashion industry reported a 27% growth in 2017. Here is a graph that shows, the rise of users in the eCommerce industry year by year: Australia's top eCommerce companies names JB Hi-Fi — Founded in 1974 Ebay Australia — Founded in 1999 Amazon Australia — Launched in Australia in 2017 Office Works — Founded in 1994 Kogan — Founded in 2006 Woolworths — Founded in 1924 The Iconic — Founded in 2011 Red Balloon- Founded in 2001 Appliances Online Founded in 2005 — Dick Smith — Founded in 1968 Data Source: https://www.slideshare.net/cloudwayshosting/top-20-ecommerce-sites-in-australia 6. Which are the top Ecommerce Companies in Spain? As per the stats on eshopworld website, in 2022, there will be 30.50 million online shopper in Spain. Fashion industry is booming in Spain and has turnover of 5.5 billion euros. Here is a list of top ecommerce companies in Spain: Amazon Alibaba El Corte Inglés Ebay Mil Anunacios Pc Componentes Zalando Lets Bonus Zara Apple Data Source: https://www.export.gov/article?id=Spain-ecommerce 7. Which are the top Ecommerce Companies in Italy? Italy has over 19million online shoppers & most popular online industries in Italy are travel, information technology, & computer electronics. Here is a list of top 10 ecommerce companies in the Italy: Amazon Italy Ebay Italy Trovaprezzi Yoox Apple Kelkoo IBS Zalendo Euronics BonPrix Data Source: https://ecommercenews.eu/ecommerce-in-europe/ecommerce-italy/ How to Start an Online E-commerce Business? Considering the growth rate of eCommerce all over the world, it won’t wrong to say that starting an online eCommerce business is a win-win idea. First and foremost step while starting an online store is the selection of an eCommerce platform. This is where you can might be go wrong because you need to to start your online store. consider various factors while selecting an eCommerce platform Top Platforms to Start an Online Ecommerce Business: Here, I am sharing the list of best ecommerce platforms, by which you can start your online store quickly. Please note, all the below platforms are built to purpose different business requirements, so choose a platform that serves your needs best. — One of the best platforms to start an online retail store. Shopify — Best platform to start a similar to Amazon, eBay, Flipkart, at a minimal investment. A user-friendly platform for people who have little to no technical knowledge. YoKart multi-vendor ecommerce store - Highly recommended platform to start a large enterprise. Magento — Woocommerce could be your choice if you are looking to start a small scale online store on the WordPress. Woocommerce — A ready to launch platform to start an online grocery store swiftly at a small investment. Growcer — A tough competitor to shopify platform and often considered the best option for those who have little to no technical knowledge. Bigcommerce — With the slogan ‘We believe in the artist’, Big Cartel targets artists & other small-scale home-based businesses run by individuals. BigCartel — A cloud based ecommerce platform with a password free checkout Vtex — Start a food marketplace like Zomato, GrubHub, Just Eat with YoYumm multi-restaurant platform at a price of $499. YoYumm : Volusion platform caters to stores of a broad range of industries, and given its comprehensive list of in-built features and functionalities. Volusion Hope it helps you. If you believe, I have missed the name of any major eCommerce company or platform, please share in the comments. I would love to add to the post.

Top 10 E-Commerce Companies & Platforms Around the World

Pricekart.com The last couple of years have been a turning point for India in terms of online shopping. We live in a digital world where things are constantly evolving. The internet has pretty much taken over the way we buy and sell products. People prefer shopping from the comfort of their homes instead of walking around malls or stores. It was back in 2015, that online shopping started booming in India all thanks to e-commerce giants like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal. According to Statista, which was approximately a 40% increase when compared to 2014. online shopping increased to 93.4M buyers, With every online store having a wide range of products online shoppers had to visit multiple e-commerce websites, compare prices, read reviews before making their buying decision. It was during this time that Ruturaj realized the tediousness of going through multiple websites to find a single product. Even price comparison websites failed to provide the real-time prices of products. This became the main reason why online shoppers picked the first thing that they saw online, eventually spending more than they should. That was the beginning of an Indian startup called ‘Pricekart’. In the midst of completing post-graduation, batch mates Ruturaj Kohok and Nitin Nagar realized the challenges that buyers face to find the best deal and lowest price for a product online. With their educational background in IT and previous experience of working with UK and US based e-commerce clients, they came up with the idea to start a price comparison website called ‘Pricekart’. The initial motive of the website was to help buyers find the real-time prices of products and best deals on a single platform. Ruturaj and Nitin during the initial days of Pricekart Start of Pricekart In early 2016, the entrepreneurial-duo made their entry in the e-commerce segment with the beta version of Pricekart called Mobikart, which was solely dedicated for mobiles. The beta version allowed users to compare and find the lowest prices of various smartphones across various e-commerce websites with their real-time price. The website managed to get almost 500,000 monthly visitors within the first six months of its launch. Mobikart Google Analytics data for 6 months The road to success is never easy. There are a lot of ups and downs that every new startup and entrepreneur goes through. The journey started off with a small team, with every member being extremely motivated to see their company grow. It was the multitasking capabilities of these members and Ruturaj’s extensive knowledge in SEO and digital marketing that brought Mobikart on the road to success. Within the first few months of its launch, Mobikart was nominated for the Best Website of the Year 2016 award under the Price Comparison category by MetrixLab. Ruturaj Kohok was presented with the ‘Most Promising Entrepreneur’ award at by Mr Ronnie Screwvala and Radhika Agarwal (Co-Founder, Shopclues) in 2016 Upgrad Ruturaj receiving the ‘Most Promising Entrepreneur’ Award during the Upgrad event in 2016 Entering the Market with Other Categories After seeing the success of the beta version, Pricekart.com was launched in 2017 with added categories like televisions, refrigerators, laptops, washing machines and much more. Pricekart is an online portal which collects data like price, coupons and deals from over 100 online stores. This platform will help users compare prices, read reviews and find the best deals and coupons for a diverse range of products. Pricekart is a result of a set of machine learning algorithms and data intelligence devised to act as a shopping assistant to its users. Additionally, real-time prices of products are updated from various online stores constantly. This makes it easier for online shoppers to save a lot of time and money by finding the best deals and the lowest prices on products at a single place. Along with the categories, even the extensions and app of Pricekart made their appearance to make it easier for users to compare prices of products on the go. This eventually led to Pricekart becoming one of the top 10 leading price comparison websites in India, within the first 18 months. The website recently also included the voice search feature which will help users find products just by giving a simple command. Merchant System After Pricekart made its base in the price comparison market, both Ruturaj & Nitin identified that major online sales were grabbed by the Ecommerce giants like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, etc. While small online e-tailers were completely overlooked inspite of having much better deals & customer service. It was then that the duo decided to offer a platform that would benefit these small scale business retailers who did not have the budget for marketing their products. Thus, Merchant Center was introduced on Pricekart to help them boost their business. While other price comparison websites allow users to compare prices only from the top 5 online stores, Pricekart aims to offer a wide array of products & deals to their users by integrating these small online retailers. This will not just provide users with more options to choose from, but also help in empowering these retailers display their products on a larger platform. A report titled ‘Digital Retail 2020’, forecasts the total no. of online shoppers will increase by 175M users and in order to meet the rising demand, . As the number increases, Pricekart will integrate data from these small online stores, whose websites are based on platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, KartRocket and GetMeAShop. online shoppers will increase by more than 5 times Pricekart’s Merchant Center allows these retailers to upload their products in a single click. However, the retailers that are registered on the website are first evaluated and verified by the dedicated team at Pricekart to ensure their genuinity to make sure that the users only get the best deals and products. The Growth Ladder Every startup requires initial capital and funding to make their presence known in the market. However, Ruturaj and Nitin decided to break free from this trend and chose to begin Pricekart as a bootstrap startup. Pricekart took off its journey as a bootstrap startup, wherein the company funded itself without any external help which has made the journey so far a memorable one. Along with the Beta version of Pricekart being nominated for ‘Website of the Year 2016’ in the price comparison category by MetrixLabs, it also managed to get more than 10,000 fans socially in the initial months. The CEO of the company, Ruturaj Kohok was invited as a speaker to and Sumago Infotech. Josh talks Ruturaj along with the team of Josh Talks In 2017, out of the 650+ applicants, Pricekart was among the top 60 applications that were chosen to pitch at the ‘ ’ event which took place in Hong Kong. Rise Conf Ruturaj presenting Pricekart at Rise Conf 2017 Ruturaj and Nitin at Rise Conf 2017, Hong Kong Another milestone for the startup was when Pricekart achieved over 1.5 million page views and drove sales of over 150 million towards its partners in its first 8 months. Recently, Pricekart was also featured on websites like , , , and much more. DNA The Indian Express Business Standard ANI News Pricekart Today From celebrating and being exuberant after seeing 1000 viewers per month in the initial months, Pricekart has grown to witness over 16,000 viewers per day. It is certainly a huge milestone for the website and the entire team. The dream of seeing Pricekart on the top keeps the team motivated and driven to work together and accomplish their goals. Pricekart users increased by 375.06% in 2018 As per the mission, Pricekart has always focused on providing users with real-time prices and offering a platform to small online retailers. And at the same time, working on its vision to become India’s leading price comparison pre-shopping destination. The next agenda of Pricekart is to include various categories like Fashion, Finance, Travel, Furniture, Kids section, etc., and at the same time to expand its reach to International locations. Pricekart Team in 2018 As per studies, India is going to see a rapid growth in small scale retailers in the next 3 years. The next goal on the agenda for this start up is to provide a platform to over 18000 small online stores. This number is expected to rapidly increase in the next 3 years. In order to enhance user experience, Pricekart is currently developing an online shopping assistant bot. This shopping bot will communicate with the users at any given time to help them zero in on a product that they are searching for. But that’s just not it! Pricekart will also soon be integrated with Amazon’s Alexa so that the users can carry their shopping assistant anywhere & everywhere. Pricekart has gained rapid growth and it is going to keep growing. The website has already made a place for itself in the price comparison category of India. With Pricekart in the market, users will not have to worry about spending too much while shopping online. It is going to continue on its vision to help save a billion INR for 100 million online shoppers by the end of this year.

Pricekart‘s Startup Story

How to Build an e-Commerce App : Entrepreneur’s Guide

How much does it cost to make an Mobile app? Whether it is , booking a flight, with your friends or reserving a cab, the one thing that comes to the mind is your smartphone. ordering food chatting It is the same for the rest of the world too. have become a need of the hour to capture the huge market that is rapidly going mobile. Mobile apps Developing mobile apps is the new money-making move for businesses. Image Source This brings us to a critical question: How much will it cost to develop a mobile application? There is no single answer that suffices the question. A lot of factors including the platform on which app is being made, complexity in-app, the experience of the developing team and several other factors too. Confused? So first, let’s understand the variables that affect the app development cost. The Business Model: The journey of developing an app for your business starts from the very core which is the business and revenue generation plans. The revenue or business model is the biggest driving force behind the cost of developing the app. Here are a few points to consider: • The platform preferred by your target customers • The product you are trying to sell • The devices that need to be integrated to make the app responsive • Free App or Paid • In-app Purchases • The role of visual design in the app’s interface • The advertisements — third party or of your own product These and numerous other factors play a very important role in the cost and time needed to develop the mobile application. For instance, the monetization strategy plays a very important role. A paid app is easier to develop that applications that need to integrate in-app purchases. An e-commerce app involves even more time and cost. Where are your customers? The most important part of your business model is to know your customer. It is easily possible to lose focus on what is it that customers need. In short, what problem are you solving via the app? The answer to the question helps determine the target audience or as Gary Halbert puts it, your “starving crowd”. Image Source Even the biggest of startups have made mistakes on similar lines. , for instance, failed to win the trust of its customers as it had compromised quality over quantity. Snapdeal It also failed an in on the electronics markets, especially since Amazon and Flipkart gained a huge market traction by inking exclusive smartphone launches. As a result, its market share dropped from one-fourth to 4% in a year. You won’t make a penny out of an app if there is no real hunger. Found the market? Now let’s determine the monetization strategy. Paid apps, free apps or e-commerce? is the marketplace revenue model based mostly selling their own products or earning commissions from sellers listed on the app. E-commerce Paid apps make upfront money through downloads. The ability to generate revenue or even cover the cost of developing the app largely depends on the number of time the app is downloaded. There are several paid app in the android market and app store listed from anywhere between a dollar to $25. Therefore, setting the right price determines the hold you might have. It is important to consider the willingness of your customer to pay for your app and do a competitive analysis. Free apps are free to download from the app stores but have a different revenue generation model. Now, how does a free app make money? Here are a few: • Free apps are a great way to expand your existing customer base or build a user base that you can later sell to. • These apps also initiate a trust-based relationship between you and your customer helping build up the value of an existing product. • Direct revenue can be generated from advertising and affiliate marketing • In-app purchases are also a direct revenue generation, especially for addictive games. A definitive model depends on your goals and your customer preferences, in any case, a mobile app can be highly profitable. Types of Applications: A mobile app, in layman terms is a software program developed to program, specifically on mobile devices and tablets. Essentially, it may perform the same tasks as your website but the process is made significantly more efficient and user-friendly. “Ease of use” is, therefore, a significant prerequisite in an app. Image Source Now, are all apps the same? Definitely not. There are three types of mobile applications — Web, Native and Hybrid. Let’s take a look at the development process of each of these types. 1. Web Application: Several surveys have found conclusive evidence that over 80% of smartphone users prefer apps over mobile websites. Web apps are your websites optimized for the mobile phone users. 2. Native Application: A native application is a type of mobile app developed for specific operating systems that is either Android or IOS and can be downloaded from apple store or google play store. Native apps are more complexed but provide an unmatched user experience. They have to be developed separately for Android and IOS Platforms and need to be approved to be listed. 3. Hybrid Application: A relative simpler app to develop, a hybrid app functions on a single programming language and can work on both platforms. They generally perform like native apps, easier to develop and manage. However, the user experience on native apps is better. Platform: Now that we have set a base, it’s time to figure out what platform to use. The app can be made accessible across several platforms like IOS, Android, Windows, and Web or all together. The answer to this depends on where the customer is. Android and Apple IOS have significantly different interfaces and systems, therefore apps developed for these platforms are definitely different. Android vs IOS is not an easy choice. It is advised to go for both if the pocket allows. Knowing that two different apps have to be developed for the respective platforms and the cost will be accordingly. Image Source If a choice has to be made, here’s an IOS vs Android summary: IOS Applications — Pros: • IOS apps are quicker to build and generally cost lesser than android apps. • Apple IOS has a more spending audience; therefore, a paid app is more likely to have downloaded on IOS. • IOS users generally stick to IOS devices and up-gradation is also integrated. • The App store has strict guidelines and ensures quality in apps. IOS apps of same business perform better than Android apps. • IOS as a platform is more engaging and easier to use, with fewer software malfunctions. Android Applications — Pros: • The number of Android users greatly exceed the number of Apple users, especially in Asia. Thus, an Android platform-based app will garner more response. • The cost per download on IOS is high compared to Android. • The apps do not need to be regularly updated as is the case with IOS. This reduces the maintenance cost of an android app. • Cost of developing and hosting an app on Android market is lower and easier since the guidelines are not as strict as in IOS. IOS Applications — Cons: • IOS applications cost more to host on the App Store, close to $200 compared to $25 on the Play store. • Approval from the App store may become tedious since guidelines are strict. • In Asia-Pac, Android users are numerically more. Android Applications — Cons: • Users on Android are more likely to be spendthrift and a paid app may not perform the same as on Apple Store. • An android app needs to cater to wide variety of devices in different sizes, screen resolutions, and performance. • Android apps take a longer time to develop. Deciding between the two depends largely on your target customer and their behavior. For instance, if your target customers are based in India or China, it makes sense to develop an android app because of the large customer base. But, on the other hand, if you target the rich class in the same countries, an IOS app would be a better option. The Functionalities of the App: As mobile apps are becoming more and more advanced, there is virtually no limit to what an app can do. The cost, therefore, can start at a few hundred dollars and go skyrocketing to more than thousands. Take into account the following types of App: — The app is a mobile-optimized version of the website and will generally list out in various categories, all the information. It is simple to develop and will not cost a lot. A List App — Apps based on Facebook, for instance, will need to be connected to a server to gather the information from the app. A Dynamic App These apps work alongside other platforms and applications through APIs. The complexity of such an app and its APIs can result in great variations in terms of cost. — There are the most complex apps to develop and arguably the most expensive. With complex games using Artificial Intelligence gaining heavy traction, the 3D environments and advanced physics can definitely cost a bombshell. Games These three are categories that may define applications broadly, apps these days are so varied that it may not be possible to have definitive categories that incorporate them all. Every unique functionality will carry an additional cost. While some seemingly complex functionalities may not cost a lot, integrating a simple thing may vary the cost. Features in the App: When you have decided what your app should do — that is the basic functionality, the features that needed to do that will come into play. Let’s take a look at a sample app like Facebook. What features does Facebook have? Image Source 1. — The app after downloading asks for a login via email or by phone no. Most apps will have this feature. This can be the same as Facebook using email id or phone no. or a social login. Most apps use the Facebook login to make it easier for the user. Login 2. — Facebook asks for a detailed profile being a social app. Apps can integrate the data from Facebook to create the profile of their user. Profile 3. — This keeps the user updated with what’s new on the app. Push notifications 4. — It is a user-friendly and trending new way of generating leads and converting sales. Chat-bots are interactive and more engaging from the perspective of a user. Chatbots 5. — Integrating social media platforms makes the app easier to use and of more value. Social Integration 6. — For certain apps, geotagging can be an essential feature. For example, apps like Uber work entirely on geo-location. Geo-positioning 7. — For an e-commerce app, this is one of the most important requirements. Even for apps that integrate in-app purchase, having a payment system is needed to complete the purchases. Payment All of these and other app-specific features require time and in turn, more cost to develop. Therefore, the cost of the app will depend largely on the features that are needed for the application to perform seamlessly. Visual Design and UI/UX: Whether it is a date, a new car or the virtual design of an app, the first impression counts. Make a good one! The first look of the app can be a maker or a deal-breaker. The app market is competitive and it kind of makes sense that all companies are quickly wanting to enter the stores. However, the design is an important element of innovative and disruptive apps, which is very often ignored. The importance of good design exceeds what an app looks like, it’s about the experience. The stats are not far behind on it and state that companies that foster good design enjoy 1.5x larger market share. Image Source Then, what sums up a good design? These few points are important to consider: • Innovative and in tandem with emerging technology • Emphasis on the product and its usefulness • Aesthetically brilliant • Understandable and easy to use • Purposeful • Robust and long-lasting • Simplicity — ever heard less is more! • Consistent on all devices and platforms Great designs come at a price. You will note serious differences in the designs of $200 designer and $2000 designer, and to make an app look fantastic shelling out a few dollar bills is an investment rather than a cost. Graphic design is indeed important, User Experience is everything. How your app performs its functionality and how easily navigable it is will depend on the UX development. A cluttered app which is difficult to understand will quickly be uninstalled. Great app designers can make your app look so good that users wouldn’t want to put their phones down. Check out our portfolio here. Development What platform you get your developed on, what’s the business model, what features you want and what are the functionalities are important determinants of your cost. There is another determinant — who you hire! While the option of hiring freelancers and newbies seems likewise now, it may cost you a more in the long run. Freelancers are individual developers who may be skilled or may not be skilled depending on their experience and exposure. While there are a lot of freelancers out there, the skill-set and consistency can be a huge question mark. Freelancers may not have a complete skill set to develop the app and you may need to hire more than 1. And even then, you might end up with a mediocre app. Freelancers are conservative option to get an app developed but then again there are risks of your project getting delayed or not getting delivered at all. Small and new agencies serve as a middle ground between freelancers and an experienced team. They cost higher than freelancers but will generally be more consistent and skilled. They are typically a team of 3–10 developers working on specific criterion app. Although small teams may not be able to develop even slightly complexed app. Image Source Big teams of experienced developers come at a cost which is higher than freelancers and small companies. However, they bring their experience and guarantee with them. Usually, such teams are more equipped with addressing your needs and understanding business models. It is also important to go through the work done by the team in the past. Legalities & Licenses While you may have thought that developing an app will be the last cost determining factor but there are some costs that may not be direct but are usually important. Your intellectual property in the app is of value and should be protected. Copyrights, Patents, and Trademarks will do that. If the information on your app is your IP it’s important to patent it prevents people from profiting from it. Trademarks protect the names. If you’ve got a name that sticks out, it’s worth trademarking. Copyrights protect your visual and written content from being plagiarized. Several apps are developed on templates that have to be licensed for the use. And to deploy apps on Android store or the App store of Apple, the license has to be bought. The licensing service is a secure means of controlling access to your applications and to protect it too. Support and Maintenance: Image Source Technical support for managing updates, APIs, user profiles and data and even monitoring customers is a crucial part of an app’s functionality. With appropriate support, the app will not be able to do what it was developed for. New features will cost you. About 20% of your total cost will be spent on enhancing existing features and refining of the app. This is an on-going process and with every change in technology, new updates are required to make your app frictionless. The Total Investment: The time and cost of app development will largely depend on the complexity of the app. It is difficult to put a number on how much your app might cost because of the numerous and subjective determinants. Though here are some average costs, to help you get an idea. A basic app, without back-end database, API functionality or social media integration will cost between $2000 to $10000. In the US, it may cost around $8k however, in India the development cost of the same app may be half. The time may range from 1 to 3 months and can be done by new developers as they are easy to develop. A moderately complex will cost anywhere between $10k to $40k. The cost may vary according to the platform and the country where the app is being developed. The same app may be developed in India for half the price as compared to the US with no compromise on the skills. The development of such an app takes anywhere between three to six months. A complex app will need experienced developers to work on it due to APIs, social media integration, backend support and complicated functionalities. Such apps will be more expensive to develop generally around $40k to $80k. An Android version of the same app may cost over a $100k in the US. In India, it is likely to cost $35k. Image Source The average time is taken to develop an app, according to a research by Hyperlink Infosystem, is 8 weeks i.e., 320 billable hours. A simple app will cost $4800 in India compared to $48,000 in the US. A complex one might cost $38,000 in India and $250,000 in US. A lot of app development project is hence outsourced to India. The core developing behind an app consists of the following: Team MemberDutiesHourly Cost. $35 Project Manager Communicates with the team and the client to avoid gaps and keeps a check on deadlines. $20+ Developer : Develops the app by writing the codes and fixes bugs. $25+ Back End Developer : Ensures effective and uninterrupted communication between servers and database for proper functioning of the app. $20+ Designer Responsible for the way the app looks and user-friendliness of the app.. $15+Tester Ensures the app performs as per requirements. As it may be clear, an average cost may not suffice the question. Your app will have obviously different functionalities and features, with some consistent pricing methods. You can also get more details on price by reading reviews and how much other customers paid https://clutch.co/profile/engineerbabu#reviews — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — - Read My Other Hackernoon Articles 2. 3. 4. 5. How my non-tech female cofounder built 45 CTOs for top-notch Startups! How to Build a Dating App? An Ultimate Guide on Dating Mobile App How to Hire a Right Designer or Developer How to Build a Food Ordering App? An Ultimate Guide on Food Ordering Mobile App How Mayank Pratap built EngineerBabu- A Profitable IT service company staying bootstrapped _| mayank@engineerbabu.com_In addition Help startups, enterprises, and owners to grow their business by building high class IT solutions. 95% of projects developed by them were completed on-time. , Win most innovative Premier Design Award, selected in Y-Combinator 2016 & 2017. I am Mayank, Cofounder of EngineerBabu . Feel free to reach out to me on Linkedin EngineerBabu 30+ funded by VCs

How much does it cost to make a Mobile app?

What the media doesn’t tell you about the VC industry in India

Photo by on Tom Sodoge Unsplash These last few days, a phone hacking video clip has been doing the rounds on India’s social media. This guy, Saket Modi, is giving a live talk onstage. While talking, he borrows a phone from a man in the audience, and casually hacks it, in just 20 seconds. Saket was able to see the list of phone calls, read all the SMS messages, view the contacts, access the GPS to figure out where the phone is at the moment, and even turn on the phone’s microphone to listen to what was being spoken in the phone’s vicinity. Since Saket had access to the phone’s browser, he could view the owner’s email, see his OTPs, reset his email password, take over his email, and repeat the process to take over all his social media. The only catch was the phone had to be connected to the internet, and which phone isn’t these days? I was a bit shocked at how easily Saket hacked the phone, a Samsung S8, one of the world’s most expensive and advanced phones. There was nothing on the phone’s screen to alert the owner that it had been hacked. I had heard of this a year ago, but it was the first time I had seen the clip. See below. The hack is possible because a phone’s operating system currently easily gives any app easy access to your messages, microphone, location and so on. The apps do ask for permission when they are being installed but most people grant this permission as the app says it will not work otherwise. Unlike Androids, Apple restricts such permissions so it’s relatively harder to hack an iPhone. Google is aware of this shortcoming, which is why the latest version of Android, Oreo, reduces such easy access. This particular hack is worrisome in India because we customarily hand over our phones to anyone who requests it to make a call. Like my kid’s school does not allow phones so whenever I go to pick her up from school, a kid or two will invariably ask to borrow my phone, and I usually lend it. You can’t say no to a kid, can you? I needed to figure out a solution. Basically, I should be able to lock down the phone in a jiffy. So that when I hand it over to a stranger, it will only allow him to access the phone’s dial function, and nothing else. The equivalent in PC terms would be a second user profile or login for the phone, which has limited access to the phone and its apps. I don’t even know if this is possible. Besides, I carry two phones currently, an Android and an iPhone, so I needed to do this on both. The One-Touch Solution from Android Surprisingly enough, I was able to set up a simple, one-touch solution in just a few minutes on my Android. That speaks a lot for the easy customisation of Androids. Having said that, my Android, Xiaomi’s Redmi Note 4, has its own customised version of Android called the MIUI, which simplified my task. But I’m sure most Android phones will have similar solutions. Anyway, I knew that MIUI has a feature called ‘Second Space.’ It’s like a second independent phone (software) on the same handset, with its own set of apps, but with no access to the main phone’s data. MIUI allows you to set up a different fingerprint to open up your Second Space. It also allows you to lock any app. So all I had to do was set up the Second Space, set up a new fingerprint to unlock the second space on the phone, and then lock all apps, except the phone app. Accordingly, I set up Second Space. My First Space has my forefinger as the access fingerprint. So I used my middle finger to access the Second Space. And that was it. If I want to use my phone, I use my forefinger to unlock the phone, and it automatically opens up into my first space, giving me access to all apps on my phone. If a stranger wishes to use my phone, I use my middle finger to unlock the phone, and then hand it over. The stranger can only use the phone app to make calls, as all other apps are locked in this Second Space. That was a pretty slick solution to my phone hacking worry. Now that people who borrow my phone can’t misuse it, I also needed to make sure the existing apps on the phone were not misbehaving. Restricting existing apps The more savvy know Android now allows you to revoke the permissions but few bother, and I must admit I was one of those few. On my Android (Redmi Note 4), I just have to click on the Security icon, and go to Permissions to see what apps were using what features (this will differ in other Androids). After viewing permissions, disabling an app is just a matter of a couple of clicks. For instance, 36 of the 76 apps on my Android had access to my contacts. I went through each of the permissions, and revoked them wherever it seemed unnecessary. I mean why should Facebook have access to my contacts? And that was that. My Android is now a bit more secure, though I doubt if any of the above will keep out a professional phone hacker. The Triple-Click Solution for iPhones iPhones also have a simple built-in solution to restrict access to any one app. You do this by enabling the Guided Access feature. Once that’s done, all you have to do before handing over the phone to a stranger is open the phone app, and triple click the ‘Home’ button. The iPhone is then restricted to just that one app. To exit the app, a password is required. There’s even a feature to deactivate ‘touch’ on parts of the screen. That’s essential in this case as it’s possible to access the tabs in the bottom bar of the phone app like contacts, favourites, recents… Deactivating the touchscreen in this area also, means the only part of the phone that is active is the keypad area. In short, your smart iPhone is temporarily turned into an old style phone with just a dial pad, and nothing else. It will look like the image below, and to unlock the phone from this screen, you have to have access to the app lock code or Touch ID. My iPhone screen after it has been ‘locked’ to dial keypad screen. Buttons at bottom are also inactive. I know ‘Guided Access' has been around for a while but it was only when I saw the phone hacking that I felt the need to use it. Anyway, to use this feature, you go to Settings->General->Accessibility->Guided Access, and turn it on. Oh, never mind, it’s easier to use iOS 11’s screen recording feature to demo how Guided Access works. Keep in mind you can’t see the part where I triple click the home button to pop up the app lock screen. In general, Apple seems to restrict access to apps better than Android. Anyway I checked to see if Facebook was accessing my contacts. It wasn’t. But Snapdeal, an Amazon competitor was. So I disabled it. Conclusion I found the iPhone solution to be more secure than the Android as the phone is locked to just one app screen which you can’t exit without a password. The Android solution still exposes the call record. You can also exit the app, and open some of the other apps (like Settings, Security, Weather, etc) though I had locked all the apps visible in the Settings. However you can’t really do much within those apps. Maybe there’s a better way to do this on an Android, but it has to be simple or most people won’t bother. Before I wrap up this post, I must warn you about a mistake I made on the iPhone. Don’t take the obvious route of enabling ‘Restrictions’ in Settings to lock apps in the iPhone. It’s pretty pointless as most of the apps and functions work even after enabling this. Warning: But the real disaster happened when I disabled ‘Restrictions.’ I discovered to my horror that all my home pages had been destroyed. My apps which were tidily grouped in folders, had been pulled out and strewn all over the phone in no particular order. The neatness freak in me nearly had a heart attack! To add insult to injury, the empty folders still remained on the phone. Fortunately, my phone is set to automatically back itself up whenever I connect to my Mac, which I had done a couple a days ago. So I was able to restore my iPhone. It took nearly an hour as I had to go through the painful process of entering passwords for my wi-fi, iCloud accounts. I even had to scan my credit card for Apple Pay, though the system does not work in India. The phone kept insisting I do it and I felt sorry for it, I guess. What I had forgotten is that restoring a phone meant that all existing apps which have logins, would require me to re-enter username and passwords. Quite a painful affair! I should have just dragged the apps back into the folder instead of restoring the phone. Apple seriously needs to have a warning built in whenever someone enables ‘Restrictions.’ Stay away from ‘Restrictions’ if you value your time.

The phone hacker is coming

There are businesses out there that help you fetch and delete/suppress negative reviews. Not resolve, but suppress. It’s the wrong thing to do. Both on moral and business grounds. I received the most disturbing message on LinkedIn today. Here it goes. The email was from the relationship manager at a “Online Reputation Management and Digital Marketing company” More often than not, such messages are ignored, but I do skim through them to see if there is something of value there. As I went through this one, this caught my eye. Suppression of the negative content and links. Suppression?? Really? The next two points were equally disturbing. Permanent Deletion of the negative content, videos, news, blogs, etc. De-indexing of the negative links. Holy fuck! Now, I am not naive. I know some brands do engage in such practices, and when there is a demand, it was logical that businesses would spring up catering to that demand. The point is — that demand shouldn’t exist. I DON’T BLAME HER FOR REACHING OUT After all, she was just doing her job. To a large extent, I don’t blame her employer as well. They saw an opportunity to make a quick buck, so who am I to question their readiness to make the best of that. I blame the brands, the businesses who have created the demand for such services. And I pity them because they are spending thousands of dollars into a futile exercise, and wasting away what could have been a tremendous opportunity to grow as a business. WHY NEGATIVE REVIEWS MATTER All reviews matter. A lot. If you’ve gone through the I had shared earlier, right there at the beginning (the second slide itself), I talk about the power of in today’s world. deck on referral marketing **social proof** Positive reviews, even from strangers, helps us make the buying decision with more ease of mind. Negative reviews cements our skepticism. And that is why this market — one to eliminate and make negative reviews go — exists. poof But the fact is, there is nothing more reinforcing in front of a customer than watching a negative review get turned around. It demonstrates the will and resolve of the business to attain maximum customer satisfaction and shows that they would even go the extra mile to achieve that. Don’t eliminate negative reviews. Turn them around! In my previous organization, one of the first mandates I passed on to the person handling our app store pages was that all negative reviews should be brought to my attention and the attention of the direct stakeholder within hours. And then we would see if we could turn that frown upside down. Negative reviews also help you understand two things: What do you need to change/modify/alter in your product, operations or approach? What is it that is preventing your users and customers from achieving that wow moment when they simply fall in love with you? Essentially it helps you get a lot of info that you need to become a better business. So, the way I see it, negative reviews work. Why the hell would you want to eliminate them?? Work with them. That’s it for today; see you tomorrow. Click here to join the mailing list. Well, frankly that’s all I wanted to talk about. But, while we are on the subject of reviews, let us talk about it a bit more. You can skip this part if you would like to. REVIEWS ARE A FUNNY BUSINESS It doesn’t matter which line of business you are into, you cannot and willnot be perfect. That’s a fact. There may be shortfalls in your operations, or you may be doing everything right, but even then perfection is largely perceptive. So — you will not be perfect for everybody. Anyway. There are a few things that you need to come to terms with. #1. Just because you are providing the best possible services, people won’t leave you positive reviews As disappointing as that may sound, it is the truth. Your customers aren’t exactly fast and loose with doling out raves and praises. They would love your services, and either praise you in their heads, or just dismiss it thinking its your job to provide a good service ( ). which is not a wrong notion, to be honest Best case scenarios? They have had some bad experiences in past with service providers in your domain, so you surprised them. And for that, they will remember you for life. They loved your service, so there is a 40–70% chance that the next time they need a similar service, your name would be the first to pop in their heads. They are having a conversation with a friend, and the topic of a particular service crops up. Incidentally, that is the very service you provide. They will talk about it. Now, you have a referral. But other than that, yeah — you aren’t getting any positive reviews. Unless you ask for it. Yes. If you know your customer has been delighted by your services, ask them to leave a positive review for you. Follow some simple rules though: Make the process of leaving the review simple, easy and non-time consuming. Get it at the earliest. As soon as you have wowed the customer. The more time lapses, the chances of you getting that review go down and down. But even then, not all would leave that much coveted review. Think for yourself. How many times has a customer service representative asked you to take a min. to leave a review for him/her after having resolved your issue over the call/chat, and how many times have you actually done that? **successfully** Your consumers aren’t any different. #2. Your consumer will go out of his/her way to leave a negative review as soon as you cross a threshold. It is easy to evoke a negative emotion in your consumers, and if they are even slightly pissed, they would feel more compelled to leave a negative review for you. Putting that in context, you need to make the customer feel overjoyed for them to even remotely consider leaving you a positive review on their own. For a negative review, even a typo on the delivery slip might be enough for some people. Different people have different ideas on what line can’t and shouldn’t be crossed by a business. The minimum service expectation they have off of you. Fall short and you are inviting a backlash. #3. Some consumers will leave a negative review just because you ticked them off. Whether you deserved it or not, it won’t matter. Don’t believe me? Take the example of Snapdeal witnessing TENS OF THOUSANDS of app uninstalls and negative reviews on the playstore. And why did that happen? Because Snap’s (which is still popularly known as Snapchat) CEO allegedly made some anti-India remarks. Someone on Twitter messed up and wrote Snap_deal_ instead of Snap_chat_. And from there it just snowballed. Sure, even the backlash Snapchat had to face was something I don’t agree with, but Snapdeal? They just got caught in the crosshairs for nothing.

Why ‘managing’ negative reviews is the worst idea

I’ve been closely following the craze for many months now, ever since demonetisation sent Bitcoin prices rocketing in India. Bitcoin _Bitcoins are trading nearly 10% higher in India as compared to the international markets after the demonetisation of Rs…_factordaily.com Bitcoins rally in India on the demonetization move Being a part of numerous shady groups finally paid off when someone posted of an Indian site that allows for booking domestic flight tickets using Bitcoins. cryptocurrency For those who don’t know, Bitcoin is digital money used for secure and instant transfer of value anywhere in the world. It’s the first example of a growing category of money known as cryptocurrency. It is not controlled or issued by any bank or government — rather it’s value is determined by buying and selling in the open market, similar to stocks or property. A bitcoin’s price changes in real time based on the number of people who want to buy or sell it at a given moment. It was worth roughly $13 in early 2013, went upto $260 in early 2015, before sky-rocketing to a record-high of $3000 in June this year. It currently hovers around the $2600 mark. India accounted for almost 11 percent of global cryptocurrency trade in the past month, according to data from a Bitcoin trade analyst, Chris Burniske. This isn’t particularly surprising as the meteoric rise in Bitcoin prices recently has led to it becoming a viable alternate investment vehicle with the potential for quick short-term gains. The value of Bitcoin in India has soared to Rs 1,70,000 today. There are a number of startups that have opened Bitcoin exchanges in India, making it easy to buy Bitcoin in INR. Unocoin, Coinsecure and Zebpay are the three main bitcoin players in India, with over a million users between them. Till now, while Zebpay and Unocoin allowed you to recharge your mobile, DTH, datacard and buy movie tickets on BookMyShow, most Indians aren’t really using Bitcoin for purchases. Because of the ubiquity, security and ease of use of fiat currency (legal tender backed by the government, unlike cryptocurrency), bitcoin today fulfils the ‘store of value’ function of money more than the ‘medium of exchange’ function that economists traditionally use to define money. While Bitcoin has many advantages over traditional currency: It is inherently scarce (the protocol specifies that only 21 million bitcoins will ever be created), is decentralised (its price cannot be manipulated by any government), is readily transmissible over the internet, easily stored and infinitely divisible; to the average person all of this means nothing. While we early-adopters in the tech industry may try something for , it can only cross the chasm into the mainstream, by transforming that potential into actual . potential experience The average person on the street today needs to have many more experiences where using Bitcoins is so much more easier, secure or advantageous in some way than using fiat. For them to use bitcoins without knowing any of the underlying protocols just like you can use the Indian rupee without really knowing how the Reserve Bank of India functions. While there have been a few cases of merchants in India who’ve started accepting Bitcoins, which makes for a great tweet, there hasn’t been a clear articulation of why paying in Bitcoins is substantially better than using other means to pay. _In Indiranagar, a posh neighbourhood in Bengaluru dotted with upscale pubs and theme restaurants, is an eatery that…_factordaily.com An eatery in Bengaluru may be India’s first to accept Bitcoins, but geeks show no love For a new entrant to disrupt an incumbent solution, it has to be better, not just by a few degrees, but by a margin big enough so as to shake users out of their inertia. And strikes at India’s sweet spot — cheaper prices! Flybit I checked prices for a Bangalore — New Delhi flight on India’s most popular OTA — MakeMyTrip. The price for the ticket after adding a convenience fee came to around Rs 3508. When I checked the price for the same on Flybit, I was pleasantly surprised to see it being more than Rs 450 lower at just Rs 3049. Cheaper prices on Flybit! Flybit asked me to pay 0.01843519 in Bitcoins to a specific bitcoin address, and sent me the tickets within a couple of minutes of payment. According to Prayank Gahlot, who runs Flybit, the prices on most domestic routes are discounted by more than 15% to the traditional OTAs, but he wouldn’t reveal the name of the travel third party that provides the APIs behind Flybit. He also plans to provide a free Ola/Uber coupon with every domestic flight ticket soon. Flybit calculates the Bitcoin-INR exchange rate by taking the mean of all the rates on the Indian exchanges at any moment in time, which also means that those who buy their Bitcoins from US exchanges (where it’s cheaper by 1.5–2%) can save even more money. Flybit is currently running on break-even basis to provide the cheapest possible domestic air tickets for users, to promote adoption of Bitcoins in India. More and more such cryptocurrency projects are cropping up in India: meet — that lets you buy any product from e-commerce sites like Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal with Bitcoins. Pocketbits Sohail Merchant, who is bootstrapping PocketBits, told me that while the potential of the market has attracted a lot of speculators and traders, the whole ecosystem around bitcoins has to come up (and not just Bitcoin exchanges) for the mainstream, ‘noob’ crowd to get in. He started Pocketbits, after having being the victim of multiple credit card frauds and having seen the breeze of using Bitcoins to shop on international e-commerce sites. Since launching in February, he claims Pocketbits has crossed more than 15,000 signups and transactions worth more than 1200 Bitcoins have taken place on the shopping service. Money essentially works because . it is a universal system of mutual trust Even people who do not believe in the same god, obey the same king or are part of completely different cultures are more than happy to take the same coloured piece of paper. . — Yuval Noah Harari, Author of Sapiens “Money is the only trust system created by humans that can bridge almost any cultural gap, and that does not discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, race, age or sexual orientation. Thanks to money, even people who don’t know each other and don’t trust each other can nevertheless cooperate effectively” Money then, is the ultimate network effect and it kind of only works because everyone believes in it. If I believe that you’re going to accept bitcoins as money, then I want more of bitcoins and you want more of them too and so it goes, to create a network effect. The attraction of bitcoins is even more so as it is completely decentralised and no government can declare it worthless as happened in India late last year. While Bitcoin crossing the chasm into the mainstream may still be a number of years away, for now, I’m happy getting a good deal on my flight tickets. https://upscri.be/hackernoon/

India’s first mainstream big-ticket merchant service to accept Bitcoins has arrived. . .

The E-Commerce industry across the globe is at an ever-competitive, crackling space. The fact that all the 3 giants in the domain (Amazon, Snapdeal and Flipkart) are operating at an annual cash burn of more than INR 3000 crores ($30bn), just to ride out the rivals, speaks for itself. If this is the ordeal of the companies with majority of the market caps, you can only imagine their effect on the younger players. Hence, it is crucial for younger players to optimise their marketing funnels to the core for better customer engagement and conversion. Let’s look at some of the best digital marketing practices in the E-Commerce space that would help you boost your purchase funnels. Image Source To understand this point better, let’s visualise a scenario. 1) Syncing the Checkout Page with the Website Imagine that you are at a merchandise store of a reputed brand. You casually enter the store to window shop. Twenty odds minutes later, you are checking out stuff worth a quarter of your month’s salary. What pushed you to do so? The setup of the store itself — right merchandise displayed at the right places, store employees helping you with your shopping experience as well as the range of choices offered by the inventory itself. But while checking out, what if you are asked to pay to a shady guy outside the store instead of at the counter? You are sure to bail out. Why? Because the last link in the chain is not synchronised with the overall shopping experience. The same goes for E-Commerce. One can do everything right and still end up losing buyers in the checkout page stage if it is not in sync with the website. The reason is simple. It impacts the trust quotient of the customers. You need to make sure that the checkout page has the same design scheme as your landing pages so that the customer is comfortable while making the purchase. There is a story hidden in every data pool. If you have not turned your attention to the statistics churned out by your purchase funnel, you are missing out on some great optimisation opportunities. 2) Focusing Where Customers are Dropping Off in the Purchase Funnel Let’s take a look at a sample funnel report here: Image Source Can you notice the issue highlighted in this report? Clearly, the product landing pages need to be optimised more in order to increase the product checkout ratio. If you look even closer, you will notice that more than half the ‘products in cart’ sessions have been abandoned by the customers. This indicates further synchronisation problems with the cart that need to be resolved. Steps like using tools for detailed funnel reports and A/B testing different orientations of the pages would go a long way here. In other words, create urgency. 3) Tap on the Impatience of the Customers Last week I chose Amazon over Flipkart to buy a pair of curtains just because the former hooked me with a clock that promised a one-day delivery if I order within the next hour. Tapping on the insecurities of the buyers can really give you an edge over your competitors. Another great example would be making your inventory live and displaying the number of product units left. A fast moving product will always keep buyers on their toes (just like the railway seats of an airplane on a travel website) and hence, exceptionally boost the time they take to consider their buying decision. Videos have become the latest marketing norm around the Internet. Even Facebook allows you to upload profile videos now. Then why not make their best use in E-Commerce too? 4) Deploying Product Videos Along with Images Here are some facts. think that videos explain the product better and videos boost the conversion rate by 73% when compared to images. 71% of the customers Consider the following product video of a baseball bat: If integrated with your product landing page, I bet this will sell more units than a few images ever will. The reason is simple. Videos are more engaging. It is easy to attach a story with the product and help the customer to better connect with it. If you haven’t launched an app for your online store yet, you are missing out on a huge chunk of potential business. App notifications are a goldmine to capture recurring business leads from loyal customers. 5) Targeted App Push Notifications Imagine yourself using the Amazon app, adding products in your cart only to change your mind and exit the app later. If you receive a notification motivating you to check-out the products the next day with an update of an additional 5% discount, aren’t you more likely to go ahead and make this purchase? Image Source The E-Commerce industry has been subject to colossal growth over the years with the market now standing at a whopping $23 trillion according to UNCTAD estimates. There are tremendous opportunities to capitalise on in the digital wave sweeping the country, if businesses play their cards right. Optimising the purchase funnel is a crucial step in that direction. OnlineSales.ai offers an intelligent performance marketing platform for E-Commerce, and clubbed with expert business strategists it focuses entirely on driving RoI, RoAS and CPT benchmarks. OnlineSales.ai innovates and lets retailers track profits for every marketing buck they spend. You can watch the product explainer video of our platform here! This article was originally published on OnlineSales.ai

5 Amazingly Productive E-Commerce Purchase Funnel Boosters

Recently I had the opportunity to travel around , interact with entrepreneurs and consumers, and witness the incredible change in consumer behavior. I’m jotting down some of my observations that I feel are worth sharing: India Digital consumerism India’s consumers are increasingly becoming digital at a pace much beyond our . They are multi-faceted, and transcend the boundaries posed by urban differentiation, age, literacy, and technological savviness. Here are some of my observations — imagination a. My 67 years old mother was technologically illiterate until six months back. I gifted her a smartphone so that I could connect with her when she stepped out of the house. I soon realized I had underestimated her tech ability when she sent me a whatsapp message and told me she had shopped online with a friend’s help. She had ordered a blender that wasn’t available in her Tier 4 town of Govardhan in northern India. She was thrilled to know that the product was 30 per cent cheaper online. She has now installed Flipkart on her phone and browses through it for good deals. As she learned more about the online world, she joined Facebook to connect with her children and grandchildren, turned to Facetime for a virtual experience, and became a YouTube user to watch devotional songs. b. A good friend of mine, who recently returned to his hometown, Jaipur (Tier 2 City) from New York got a re-entry shock when he discovered the rapid digitalization of India. He has replicated his American consumer behavior in Jaipur and uses e-commerce actively to buy and sell a vast range of items ranging from grocery to furniture. Here are some of his recent transactions- i. Bought a brand new sofa at Snapdeal and got it delivered within a few days. ii. Used OLX to sell his old sofa at a very reasonable price. iii. Uses PayTm for a regular supply of high quality dry fruit from a different state. c. In the US, we recently moved to online grocery shopping but it took my wife a long time to give up retail shopping for perishable items. During this visit, I was surprised to see that in India, a large number of people are graduating to online order services like Big Basket and Grofers. This trend is not limited to only Tier 1 cities in India but becoming mainstream in Tier II cities as well. d. In the last one or two years, there has been a major shift in the behavioral pattern of car owners. Instead of commuting in their chauffeur driven cars, many now prefer to switch to on-demand taxi services like Ola and Uber. They feel it’s more convenient to limit themselves to a single car given the lack of parking space. Additionally it’s more economical and it eliminates their dependence on a personal driver. e. In addition to digital consumers, SMEs are increasingly conducting businesses on Whatsapp. Vendors are taking orders and getting immediate confirmation from their customers through this mobile app. Not to be left behind, religious leaders have also discovered the efficiency of whatsapp to disseminate their thoughts to their followers. Passion and energy of Indian entrepreneurship The next wave of growth is not only being led by Tatas, Birlas, and Ambanis of India. Matching their steps or sometimes surpassing them are the forward looking first generation entrepreneurs. Most of them are in their 20s and 30s, have a bold vision, and the determination to achieve their big, hairy, audacious goals. Here’s what I gleaned from my interactions with the following entrepreneurs- Naveen Tewari, a good friend, who operates from Bangalore (India’s silicon valley), is focused on disrupting the way mobile advertising industry operates globally. While a lot has been said about how his company has already made a dent in the industry globally, what stood out for me is the culture that he has created for employees to grow and realize their full potential. The philosophy is to create a culture which helps grow employees vs. manage their performance. For instance, if an employee has an idea, which could help the company grow, he or she is encouraged to pursue it. More interestingly, if an employee wants to take the entrepreneurial route, Inmobi’s ecosystem provides the required support (e.g., use of office space, support network, mentorship). Such a culture is a new phenomenon in India, and Naveen is one of the pioneers in India. a. InMobi: Vineet Saxena, another good friend who was a co-founder of Myntra, a popular online fashion retailer, is one of the pioneers who helped shape the e-commerce market in India. He is now working on an audacious goal of creating at-scale private brands for ethnic wears in India through his latest venture, Indusdivas, an Indian ethnic wear portal. b. Indusdiva: Founded by twenty-something IIT Roorkee alumni, Shashank Kumar and Harshil Mathur, Razorpay, aims to revolutionize the online payment industry in India. In a market where the competition is high for the online payment gateway solutions, they claim to have a much superior product tailored for the Indian market (e.g., slow connection, unreliable network). They are hoping to capture a lion’s share of the market without being caught in a price war c. Razorpay: Deepak Garg, a former McKinsey consultant has taken on the mammoth task for transforming the traditional inter-city logistics industry via technology. He feels that the problem in India is at the supply side: be it the quality of trucks, driver efficiency, or the optimum route. He has established a fleet of trucks equipped with technology for optimal fuel efficiency and route, and created hubs around the country to minimize truck downtime, and improve the quality of life for drivers. He is looking to streamline the highly fragmented trucking industry in India (which could be over $100 billion in India) and could potentially be going global. d. Rivigo (earlier Trucksfirst): Finally I met a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking to solve India specific problems (e.g., commuting, skill development, online education, e-commerce repeat delivery cost). A common thread that runs through their stories is that they are dreaming big while being grounded in reality in terms of solving real pain points. They are also brave enough to let go of their traditional paychecks and are brimming with confidence to help shape a new India. More to come…. �sS �

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