The Online Customer In India

Last week I flew back to Chicago from Delhi and although I cant really say that I enjoyed any part of that 14 hours + flight, I did get a lot of time to think about the cultural differences between American and Indian consumers. For retailer to be successful in India, it is important to take into account these differences and customize the offerings to better meet the motivations and preferences of the Indian customer.

1. Love to Touch & Feel

First and foremost, Indian customers love to touch and feel the products before making the purchase decision. This is one of the major disadvantages for an eCommerce environment where the touch and feel aspect is almost missing from the shopping experience. However, there are technologies and solutions that the retailers can implement to help reduce this gap. For example, Endless.com does an outstanding job of offering high resolution imagery and dynamic HTML to help customers look at every minute detail of the product before making a purchase decision. Augmenting this information with detailed product description, specifications as well as unbiased customer reviews can actually serve as a good proxy for the physical product.

2. Love to show off

One of our neighbors in India invited us for dinner because they wanted to show us the brand new LCD TV that they just purchased. One of the traits of Indian culturekaboodle.png (especially northern Indian) is that people love to show off what they purchase. Whether it is that expensive piece of jewelry or that new car or the latest home theater system, a purchase cycle is not complete until the friends and neighbors have seen and appreciated the product. An online retailer can provide a channel for its customers to show off their purchases to the virtual community and get their instant feedback. In addition, these online lists can also help other customers make their own purchase decision. Kaboodle.com does a good job of letting communities create the list of products and share with others.

3. Big Brother is watching

As my neighbor was demonstrating every excruciating feature of that LCD TV during the dinner, he inquired about my job. When I told him that there is a huge opportunity for eCommerce in

4. EMI means more than Electromagnetic Interference

5. Bargain, where?