From snake-charmers to mouse-charmers: that’s how Anuradha
Goyal sees the evolution of brand India in her digital-entrepreneurship based
work The Mouse Charmers. Goyal, who earlier co-authored CII’s India Innovates
Series, has produced a masterpiece on what she explores and elaborates best:
business innovation. The book is essentially a case-by-case exploration of some
of India’s best and most popular online businesses—and encompasses everything
from their origins and modes-of-operation to their revenue models and
technologies involved.
She has clubbed the digital innovators into three distinct
categories: commerce, content and connectors—based on the purpose that they
serve. The commerce category stars some of India’s biggest online businesses:
Flipkart, MakeMyTrip, CaratLane and BigBasket, while the content category
features names like Zomato, ImagesBazaar, Games2Win and Chai with Lakshmi. The
connectors mentioned are Shaadi, RangDe, CommonFloor and IndiBlogger. Enterprises
such as RedBus and Edewcate receive brief descriptions, too. There’s also a separate
chapter devoted to the entire ecosystem that makes it all happen at the speed
of a click.
Goyal’s research is thorough and detailed. She finds out how
high-end e-tailers like CaratLane sell precious stones online, how they manage
the now ubiquitous Cash-on-Delivery option, and how they even provide upto 5
options to be selected for trial at home. On the other hand, she also finds out
how online grocery store BigBasket fulfills orders for perishable food-stuff
whose quality simply cannot be ascertained by the user online. BigBasket is
particularly a very intriguing study, simply because of the nature of products
that it sells. How they maintain the inventory of different types of produce
with different types of shelf-life— from packaged FMCG goods to fresh fruit and
vegetables, how they manage their procurement and logistics and the kind of
customer service they deliver makes for engrossing reading. The author recounts
an experience that perfectly illustrates the personal touch: she had to reject
an order of bananas because they were too ripe for consumption. A credit note
was issued to her account, but what’s more, the local service manager sent her
another bunch at no cost. When she enquired, he said, “Ma’m you wanted bananas
today and though I may have returned your money, your need is not fulfilled.
So, I have sent you bananas.” That’s some customer service!
Technology, of course, plays a key role in the interactive
user-experience that boosts these portals. The book shows how most of the
online enterprises prefer to keep the technology innovations in-house. Most of
them tried outsourcing, but, as is the common refrain, the pace of innovation
required to keep things simple and business-attracting is possible only with an
in-house team. You’d be amazed at the numerous types of customized systems
developed to suit each enterprise’s unique nature.
The book hasn’t focused only on the retailers, though. The challenges
faced by content sellers such as Zomato and Games2Win are well documented.
You’d be interested to know how the former ensures authentic reviews for your
palate, for instance, or how the latter created Indianised games, one of which
features our Prime Minister and how they actually wrote to the PM’s office to
try it!
Goyal picks some very interesting cases of social-impact
entrepreneurship, too, such as RangDe, which picks up from Mohd Yunus of
Grameen Bank fame, providing microfinance through crowdsourcing. Their amusing
and extremely creative campaigns are a great feature: World Cup Fever where you
could make whacky pledges on cricket outcomes and win a prize or the Mother’s
Day Campaign where you lent money to mothers for their children’s education and
the site send your mother a greeting card mentioning the good work that you are
doing!
This is a book offering great insights into the world of online
entrepreneurship, and is ideal for those wanting to study it as well as those
wanting to create their own space in it. For the rest, it is an intensely
satisfying experience to look ‘behind the page’ and involve ourselves more
closely with it.
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