Sulekha.com estimates that about Rs. 280 crore of electronic gadgets were sold online through the top 15 e-commerce portals in India in August 2012. This study is an analysis of the top 2,400 products sold through these 15 portals between July 15 and August 31, 2012. The study has been conducted using a range of automated techniques. Sulekha.com has validated the findings of this study by going through the gadget prices given by Junglee.com, a leading price comparison site. Sulekha.com has also validated the study by comparing the savings against MRP (Maximum Retail Price) and MOP (Minimum Operating Price) as mandated by different manufacturers. The analysis also covers coupon codes given by different e-commerce sites.
Key findings of the ‘Gadget E-commerce’ study:
Ø Consumers saved about Rs.42 crore in the month of August 2012 by buying mobiles, laptops and other electronic gadgets from the top 15 e-commerce players.
Ø Consumers are saving 11-15% on e-commerce sites, when compared to buying at offline stores.
Ø For feature phones e-commerce companies offer heavy discounts of 50-60% on the actual MRP. Whereas, the offline retailers offer only about 5-8% discount on the actual MRP. Consequently, consumers are buying feature phones online at almost factory price.
Ø Consumers save 15-20% on buying Smartphones online.
Ø Consumers look for bank-specific or product-specific coupon codes to save additional money on buying gadgets online. (Please refer attached report for examples.)
Ø Consumers seek deep-discounted products/deals that are offered by e-commerce companies on various occasions. (Please refer attached report for examples.)
Ø Consumers of certain popular banks like Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, etc. get preferential treatment from several e-commerce sites – to have them start shopping on their site.
Commenting on the analysis, Param Parameswaran, Chairman of Sulekha.com, said, “Consumers in India are hugely benefiting from free shipping, no additional credit card costs (that are common in offline retailers), free 3-month EMIs and other facilities – besides the low prices offered by leading e-commerce players, including Sulekha.com. I see this trend continuing for next 6 to 12 months.”
Speaking on the release of this study, Satya Prabhakar, CEO of Sulekha.com, said, “Today Sulekha.com is a large player in the gadget e-commerce market. As indicated by this study, we find that consumers are buying several mobile phones and laptops at almost factory price because of the intense price competition in the e-commerce market in India. As per our estimate, consumers can continue to save Rs. 40-70 crore per month for the next 6 to 12 months. Consumers can save even more if a bigger fraction of buyers moves online (currently 98% of gadget sales happens offline, as per our estimate).”
Annexure: The complete report on GADGET E-COMMERCE
About Sulekha.com:
Sulekha.com is India’s leading ‘Digital Marketplace’, a need-based site with a strong focus on LOCAL NEEDS on the Home, Business and Entertainment fronts.
Sulekha.com started with blogging in early 2000 and today has a diverse set of offerings – Classifieds, Yellow Pages, Local Search, e-commerce, Blogging and much more. As per the latest comScore ranking, Sulekha.com is the fifth largest Indian Internet site (in terms of visitors). Sulekha.com recently won the award for the Best Multi-Utility Website at IAMAI’s annual India Digital Awards (2011).
Sulekha has 14 offices across India (including Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai) and 3 offices in New York, Toronto and Austin. The corporate office is in Chennai and the company has more than 1,300 employees across India. Sulekha has 75,000+ businesses listed and offers services across 50+ cities. Please visit www.sulekha.com.
