If you are doing e-commerce business in India and want to tap the hidden clientele base to emerge in your business! Read on............
I like to bring your focus on one interesting phenomenon! Many people in India resist paying for online products through credit card (though many people are also there who do online transactions through credit cards). And, due to this reason, many e-commerce businesses failed to tap that hidden potential market.
My suggestion is; provide them ease of purchasing! Here are 2 approaches, I believe, can influence the purchasing decision of those potential buyers.
Direct Cash Approach - Don't force people to pay online, instead when customers order something online; ask them to provide the billing information including Landline Number! Call on their Landline numbers (No Cell number!) to confirm the order (to check out if it's fake or genuine). And, once order is confirmed, send them product and your delivery guy can get the cash from customers directly!
I believe more companies should try this method in India so as to be more customer friendly.
InDirect Cash Approach - Have one or two 'Store- houses' in Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities depending on your business and majority of customer base (Geographically). Idea is; if you think that sending a delivery guy for each order is not a feasible option, than what you can do is; when customer places order online than as mentioned above, confirm order through landline number provided by customer.
Than dispatch the products from your main warehouse to that city's storehouse (where order was placed) and within say 2-3 days (sort out number of days as per your calculation),customer can directly come to store house in his/her city, pay the cash and get his/her product( store-house staff can call the customer when product arrives).You may further enhance the flexibility of picking up products by customers, for example-within 5-7 days!
Your turn! What do you think about the feasibility of both approaches?!