MAJOR PROJECT REPORT ON

Digital Marketing Campaign by IRCTC.in

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements of Bachelor of Business
Administration (BBA)

Guru
Singh

Gobind

Indraprastha University
Project
Submitted by:

guide:

SHRUITI BHUTANI
SIDDHARTHA GUPTA

Name:

Roll No. 13321401712

Jagannath
International
,VasantKunj, New Delhi

Management

School

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that this project report is a bonafide work of Soudipto Das
Enrolment number 13321401712 of BBA who carried out the
summer
trainingreport titled .in Digital Marketing Campaign by IRCTC .Under the
supervision of Ms. Shruti Bhutani
__________

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is with this sense of gratitude that I acknowledge the effort of a whole host of
well wishers who have in some way or the other contributed in their own special
ways to the success of this effort.
Individual effort alone I can never contribute in totality, to the successful
completion of any venture. Firstly,I would like to thank JAGANNATH
INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT SCHOOL for giving me an opportunity to
work on a valuable project and Secondly ,Mrs Shruti Bhutani for allowing me
to work on a very intrinsic part Digital Marketing Campaign by IRCTC.in. I
thank her for the ideas and basic concepts she delivered and shared with me, as
they helped me a lot in accomplishing this project of mine.
_________________

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that SIDDHARTHA GUPTAhave completed the Project titled
A Study on Digital Marketing Campaign by IRCTC.inunder the guidance of
Mrs Shruti Bhutani in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of
degree of

Bachelor of Business Administration at

Jagannanth International

Management School (GGSIPU), New Delhi . This is an original piece of work & I
have not submitted it earlier elsewhere.
Shruti Bhutani
________________

DECLARATION
I hereby declare that the work entitled Digital Marketing Campaign by IRCTC.in
submitted to "Ms. Shruti Bhutani" is a record of an original work done by me
under her guidance of "Jagannath International Management School , Vasantkunj"
and this project work is submitted in the partial fulfillment of the requirement for
award of graduate degree in bachelor of business administration.
Signature
________________

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Sr.No

Content

Chapter

Introduction

1
Chapter

Literature review

2
Chapter

Conceptual discussion

3
Chapter

Research and methodology

4
Chapter

Data analysis

5
Chapter

Findings ,Conclusion , Annexure

Page No.

INTRODUCTION
Digital marketing is marketing that makes use of electronic devices (computers) such as personal
computers, smartphones, cellphones, tablets TV and game consoles to engage with stakeholders. A
component of Digital marketing is Digital Brand Engagement. Digital marketing applies technologies or
platforms such as websites, e-mail, apps (classic and mobile) and social networks. Digital Marketing can
be through Non-internet channels like TV, Radio, SMS, etc or through Internet channels like Social
Media, E-mails ads, Banner ads, etc. Social Media Marketing is a component of digital marketing. Many
organizations use a combination of traditional and digital marketing channels; however, digital marketing
is becoming more popular with marketers as it allows them to target and track many aspects including
their Return on Investment (ROI) more accurately compared to other traditional marketing channels.
According to the Digital Marketing Institute, Digital Marketing is the use of digital channels to promote
or market products and services to consumers and businesses.
In simplistic terms, digital marketing is the promotion of products or brands via one or more forms of
electronic media. Digital marketing differs from traditional marketing in that it involves the use of
channels and methods that enable an organization to analyze marketing campaigns and understand what is
working and what isnt typically in real time.
Digital marketers monitor things like what is being viewed, how often and for how long, saleconversions,
what content works and doesnt work, etc. While the Internet is, perhaps, the channel most closely
associated with digital marketing, others include wireless text messaging, mobile instant messaging,
mobile apps, podcasts, electronic billboards, digital television and radio channels, etc.

Self-regulation
The ICC Code has integrated rules that apply to marketing communications using digital interactive
media throughout the guidelines. There is also an entirely updated section dealing with issues specific to
digital interactive media techniques and platforms. Code self-regulation on use of digital interactive
media includes: Clear and transparent mechanisms to enable consumers to choose not to have their data
collected for advertising or marketing purposes; Clear indication that a social network site is commercial
and is under the control or influence of a marketer; Limits are set so that marketers communicate
directly only when there are reasonable grounds to believe that the consumer has an interest in what is
being offered; Respect for the rules and standards of acceptable commercial behaviour in social
networks and the posting of marketing messages only when the forum or site has clearly indicated its
willingness to receive them; Special attention and protection for children.

History
The term 'digital marketing' was first used in the 1990s In the 2000s and the 2010s, digital marketing
became more sophisticated as an effective way to create a relationship with the consumer that has depth
and relevance. The rapid evolution of digital media has created new opportunities and avenues for
advertising and marketing. Fueled by the proliferation of devices to access digital media, this has led to
the exponential growth of digital advertisingIn 2012 and 2013 statistics showed digital marketing
remained a growing field.
Digital media growth is estimated at 4.5 trillion online ads served annually with digital media spend at
48% growth in 2010. An increasing portion of advertising stems from businesses employing Online
Behavioural Advertising (OBA) to tailor advertising for Internet users. Though an innovative resource,
OBA raises concern with regards to consumer privacy and data protection. Such implications are
important considerations for responsible communications. [8] Digital marketing is often referred to as
'online marketing', 'internet marketing' or 'web marketing'. The term 'digital marketing' has grown in
popularity over time, particularly in certain countries. In the USA 'online marketing' is still prevalent, in
Italy is referred as 'web marketing' but in the UK and worldwide, 'digital marketing' has become the most
common term, especially after the year 2013.

Why Digital Marketing Is Important

Digital media is so pervasive that consumers have access to information any time and any place they want
it. Gone are the days when the messages people got about your products or services came from you and
consisted of only what you wanted them to know. Digital media is an ever-growing source of
entertainment, news, shopping and social interaction, and consumers are now exposed not just to what
your company says about your brand, but what the media, friends, relatives, peers, etc., are saying as well.
And they are more likely to believe them than you. People want brands they can trust, companies that
know them, communications that are personalized and relevant, and offers tailored to their needs and
preferences.

Latest Developments and Strategies

As digital marketing is dependent on technology which is ever-evolving and fast-changing, the
same features should be expected from digital marketing developments and strategies. This
portion is an attempt to qualify or segregate the notable highlights existing and being used as of
press time.

1. Segmentation: more focus has been placed on segmentation within digital marketing, in order
to target specific markets in both business to business and business to consumer sectors.

2. Influencer Marketing: Important nodes are identified within related communities, known as
influencers. This is becoming an important concept in digital targeting. It is possible to reach
influencers via paid advertising, such as Facebook Advertising or Google Adwords campaigns,
or through sophisticated sCRM (social customer relationship management) software, such as
SAP C4C, Microsoft Dynamics, Sage CRM and Salesforce CRM. Many universities now focus,
at Masters level, on engagement strategies for influencers.

To summarize, Pull digital marketing is characterized by consumers actively seeking marketing

content while Push digital marketing occurs when marketers send messages without that content
being actively sought by the recipients.

3. Online Behavioural Advertising: Online Behavioural Advertising refers to the practice of

collecting information about a users online activity over time, on a particular device and across
different, unrelated websites, in order to deliver advertisements tailored to that users interests
and preferences[10]

4. Collaborative Environment: A collaborative environment can be set up between the

organization, the technology service provider,and the digital agencies to optimize effort, resource
sharing, reusability and communications

Challenges Facing Digital Marketers

Proliferation of digital channels. Consumers use multiple digital channels and a variety of devices
that use different protocols, specifications and interfaces and they interact with those devices in
different ways and for different purposes.

Intensifying competition. Digital channels are relatively cheap, compared with traditional media,
making them within reach of practically every business of every size. As a result, its becoming a lot
harder to capture consumers attention.

Exploding data volumes. Consumers leave behind a huge trail of data in digital channels. Its
extremely difficult to get a handle on all that data, as well as find the right data within exploding data
volumes that can help you make the right decisions.

Manage Customer Relationships Across All Channels

Digital marketing and its associated channels are important but not to the exclusion of all else. Its not
enough to just know your customers; you must know them better than anybody else so you can
communicate with them where, when and how they are most receptive to your message. To do that, you
need a consolidated view of customer preferences and expectations across all channels Web, social
media, mobile, direct mail, point of sale, etc. Marketers can use this information to create and anticipate
consistent, coordinated customer experiences that will move customers along in the buying cycle. The
deeper your insight into customer behavior and preferences, the more likely you are to engage them in
lucrative interactions.

Three Keys to Digital Marketing Success

So, what does it take to do digital marketing right? Here are three keys to digital marketing success:
1.

Manage complex customer relationships across a variety of channels both digital and
traditional.

2.

Respond to and initiate dynamic customer interactions.

3.

Extract value from big data to make better decisions faster

INTRODUCTION TO TOPIC
IRCTC is a popular online travel portal of India that is well known for its
Online Passenger Reservation System worldwide. IRCTC provides booking
facility of Railway tickets online and offers other services like checking
reservation status, hotel bookings, details of train etc. The thoughts below
are in line with Mr. Sanjay Agarwals (Manager, IRCTC) viewpoints who
recently shared his views on IRCTC in a summit, discussed the scenario of
eCommerce of IRCTC.
The Growth
As per the statistics IRCTC started in year 2002 when Internet penetration
in India was very limited. IRCTC sold 1.99 lakh tickets for 4.17 lakh
passengers in between year 2002 2003 that summed up to 4.17 lakh
tickets and reached revenue model of Rs. 27.16 crore.
The number of tickets sold in year 2007 2008 crossed the boundaries of
lakhs and reached to crores by selling 1.89 crore tickets for 3.52 crore
passengers and generated revenue of Rs. 704.91 crore. The growth ratio
increased by 100% .
Year 2009 2010 showcased 7.20 crores ticket sold for 12.90 crores
passenger, highest number of tickets sold with a revenue model of Rs. 6748
crore.
IRCTC has 16 million registered members today and with a revenue model
of Rs, 6748 crore +, it is still 35% of Indian Railways.
IRCTC ventured into air ticketing services in May 2010 which will add more
value to the Travel Portal and will generate more revenues in the coming
years as anticipated from the past growth.
The

Payment

Options

IRCTC has various payment options that could ease the purchase process of
a passenger. This is one of the main reasons why IRCTC is a favorite travel
portal amongst passengers in spite of the technical and server down
glitches. With various options available for people to make a payment IRCTC
has following payment options:

1.
Credit
Cards
(Master
Card
/
Visa
/
Amex)
2.
Debit
Cards
3.
Net
Banking
(PG
Consolidator)
4. Cash cards (ITZ Cash Cards, Done Cash Cards, I Cash Cards, Oxygen)
5. Rolling Deposit Scheme
38.4% of IRCTC users in India use Net Banking / Debit Card for purchasing
tickets online. 22.4% purchased tickets via Credit Cards and 15% via Cash
Cards. 23.7% people purchased ticket via other option available such as
agents, supported ecommerce etc. In India it is easy to avail Debit card than
the credit card thus Debit card is majorly used in transactions.
Assisted eCommerce
Indian Travel Portal has let a smart strategy of being physically available for
people for assistance. Not all can purchase tickets online due to lack of
payment options or due to lack of internet education. Travel sites like Yatra,
Makemytrip, and clear trip have their accessible office in real world and thus
helping people purchase tickets with cash. IRCTC works on an agency model,
it has got 1, 40,000 outlets thus creating employability opportunities for
people and penetrating deep into the market. These agents help people
purchase tickets online in urban and majorly in rural India. IRCTC outlet in
both rural and urban India brings about 40% contributions with more than
three million transactions per month.
Investing

in

Mobile

Commerce

IRCTC ventured into Mobile Commerce as they foresee huge potential in the
Mobile Commerce. In India penetration of mobile is three times of plastic and
penetration of telephone is 10 times of internet users. There are more than
600 million connections with growth of around 7 million per month. Along
with above compelling reasons Mobile is handy and is available 24 x 7 for
access. Compelled by the above reason IRCTC entered into Mcommerce with
HUTCH GPRS and Voice, Reliance World, Csam, NGPAY, Atom, Paymate, SMS
with ICICI Net banking etc.
Though Mobile commerce is a great concept but it didnt work quite well for
the India market. IRCTC sold 67 tickets via C-SAM, 27,400+ tickets via NGPAY
and 26 tickets via Atom. The reasons could be the pace of the process which
is too slow and security is the other major concern involved. The current
payment eco-system on a mobile platform is tedious and thus does not
account for credibility. In addition to above, the lack of awareness about
Mobile Commerce is a major concern.
Issues with IRCTC

Till now IRCTC is leading on the growth ladder and an infinite growth is
anticipated with the statistics. I dont remember when was the last time I
have gone to railway station to purchase a ticket. IRCTC has been a hit in the
country, there are still few obstacles that IRCTC faces today:
Negative perception by public or press on various issues
Concerns related to Infrastructure, user interference, website down etc.
Concerns related to banking, cards, online transactions, payment gateways
and
internet
service
providers.
Refund Issues

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation ( ), is

a subsidiary of the Indian Railways that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing
operations of the railways.

Services
Online ticketing
It is known for changing the face of railway ticketing in India. It pioneered internet-based rail
ticket booking through its website, as well as from the mobile phones via GPRS or SMS. In
addition to e-tickets, Indian Railways and Catering Tourism Corporation also offers I-tickets that
are basically like regular tickets except that they are booked online and delivered by post. The
tickets PNR status is also made available. Commuters on the Mumbai Suburban Railway can
also book season tickets through the website. It has also launched a loyalty program called
Shubh Yatra for frequent travellers. Through this program, passengers can avail of discounts on
all tickets booked round the year by paying an upfront annual fee.

Seeking to make it easier to book e-tickets, It launched a scheme called Rolling Deposit Scheme
(RDS). RDS is a hassle-free e-ticket booking scheme allowing passengers to reserve seats
against advance money kept with the corporation.[1] It has also added flights and hotels booking
facilities to their line of online reservation services.

And on 13th June 2014 IRCTC online booking has been migrated from the old version to the
Next Generation e-Ticketing website which has certain good features like Quick Booking,Saving
favourite journeys and made some major changes on the User Interface.[3]

Tourism
Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation also organizes budget and deluxe package tours for
domestic and foreign tourists. A popular tourism package for budget tourists covering important
tourist destinations across India is "Bharat Darshan". Luxury tourism packages are also available,
that involve special luxury trains such as Palace on Wheels, Royal Orient Express, Golden
Chariot, Deccan Odyssey, Royal Rajasthan on Wheels, Buddhist Circuit Train and it is a partner
in the Maharajas' Express operation.[4]

Apart from conventional tourism, it also offers adventure tourism packages that include water
sports, adventure and wildlife treks, etc. A provision for customizing tours as per specific
requirements is also an added attraction. Recently a new venture of Indian Railways, named as
RailTourismIndia has launched to provide direct catering and tourism packages to users.

Tatkal Booking
Under the Tatkal scheme, passengers who plan their journey at short notice can book their tickets
in almost all Mail/Express trains through the Indian railways internet portal. The booking starts
at 10:00 am daily, one day prior to the departure of the train from source station. [5] Tatkal
Reservation is criticized by numerous media releases, due to its inefficiency and slow server
speed. Many[who?] IT expert suggests that simple steps are not being taken by the Indian Railways
management which can easily resolve these issues and some time these are being linked to
corruption in the entire ticketing system. [citation needed] Since the new revision, all Tatkal bookings can
be done for trains departing within 48 hours. Passengers travelling on Tatkal tickets should carry
a photo ID proof along with them to be shown to the ticket checker. Earlier this year, the website
has launched Lite version which doesn't include ads, pop ups, etc.,

Records
As a biggest e-commerce portal in India, it made lot of records.

On 2 September 2013, nearly 572,000 tickets booked in a day.

On 19 March 2014, nearly 580,000 tickets booked in a day.[6]

On 1 April 2015, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) created a new
national record with 1345,000 tickets booked in a day.[7]

On 2 April 2015, nearly 1100,000 tickets booked in a day.[8]

E-Commerce (Electronic Commerce) has revolutionised the very concept of marketing with regards to
procedures and the mechanics. This revolution is due to technology which has shifted the firms
relationship with the customers from face to face to screen to face interaction. Amongst the
ecommerce transactions, the largest transaction is of e-ticketing.The present study attempts to analyse the
concept ofe-commerce and e-ticketing, analyse the strategies used by IRCTC in providing online
ticketing services and to consolidate.
its position in future.
in the country with a small capital base of 20 crores and with merely 27 tickets on the first day of its
commencement and 3,343 tickets in the first month when Internet penetration in India was very limited.
Online booking was a new concept in India and majority of the populations were apprehensive of using
this site for booking tickets. In 2006, IRCTC has tied up with the foremost IT companies TCS (Tata
Consultancy Services) to design its ERP-Entreprise Resource Planning. In 2008 the online booking went
up to 40,000. Number of tickets booked through IRCTC website during the year 2010-ll went up to 9.69
crores tickets as against 7.20 crores tickets booked during 2009-10. The company sold about 12 crores rail
tickets in FY 11-12, amounting to a gross value of Rs 10,000 crores a growth of 20% over the last
financial year.
IRCTC earned a service charge of Rs 160 crores out of the ticket booking business. However, at present,
in terms of online money transactions with online ticket selling around Rs.10 crores a month and after
completing more than a decade, today IRCTC has emerged as a largest in the country with more than 4
lakhs booking per day in terms of online ticketing, leaving behind several high-profile e-commerce sites
worldwide. Rightly said so, IRCTC website comprises more than 45% of all visitors to travel websites in
India and 19% of total Internet audience.

Strategies Adopted By IRCTC:

IRCTCs rapid growth in e-ticketing services is due to the successful adoption of right digital marketing
mix in providing e-ticketing service.
Distribution Strategy
IRCTCs distribution strategy of awarding the delivery contract to only one courier company has been
one of its USPs (Unique Selling Proposition). This policy has given more control to IRCTC over delivery,
with just a single channel of communication to take care of. At present, e- tickets are delivered in 102
cities across the country.

 People- IRCTC has some of the best processes, tools and teams who constantly innovate and keep the
portal update and relevant.
Assortment of Products offering- IRCTC offers products especially train tickets as its main core product.
Expanding its horizons, IRCTC ventured into marketing new products services such as offering flight
tickets, hotel reservations, tourist packages, car rentals and special tourist train services. It has also
increased it basket of offering by including e-shopping- books, mobile phones, clothing, and hand bags
and so on. It is successfully heading towards one stop for all tourism and other popularly purchased eshopping products under one portal.
Innovation Inorder, to create value for their customers, IRCTC has undertaken to innovate at all levels,
find innovations at ever level relating to constituent of its team structure, costing structure, link building,
interactive content page work and more.
Tie-ups with CompanyBeing the most popular site for e ticketing in India, a lot of companies have tied up with IRCTC, for
advertising their products providing considerable revenue as well, which is the primary source of revenue
for the site. Also, various travel portals like yatra.com, makemytrip.com have tied up with IRCTC in
order to offer ticket booking services through their own sites. IRCTC collects a fee from those agencies as
well.
Navigation made easy and user friendly
The IRCTC website lays down all possible options, allows one to customize his or her train options (core
product) based on start and end stations, desired dates, routes and possible fare classes. The interface also
allows one to keep a record of all past bookings, cancellations and upcoming trips. Additionally ticketing
is extremely useful as compared to offline ticket
booking.
Future use- The analysis of the question on the use of IRCTC ticketing services in future, data reveals
that an average score of 4.5 out of 5 which is quite likely that the tickets will be purchased on line.
Price factor-The response to the question on how important is price to you when choosing this type of
service, on a scale of 5 is 4.2 which was quite important. Low price is one of the factors responsible for
such an overwhelming response for IRCTC online ticketing services.
Easy to book- On the response to the question on how easy it was to book the online tickets from this
site, was a mixed one with an average score of 3.7 moderate response. Reason being some of the
consumers have experienced failed transactions resulting in complaints in the easy booking of tickets
through the online payment gateway, in addition slow net connections also hampers quick payment
options, some of the complaints were on the unavailability of tatkal tickets.
Recommend to others-The question on how likely are you to recommend IRCTC online e-ticketing
services to others, almost 85% of the respondents agreed to recommend the usage of services to others
reflecting the preference and positive attitude towards IRCTC services.
Most important factor-The two factors that emerged asmost important amongst the respondents while
choosing IRCTC e ticketing services was convenience and time saving. Interestingly, amongst the age
group of 21-29 and 30-39 the most important factor was time saving and amongst the 18-20 and 40-49
age group it was convenience
factor.
Overall, the average rating for e-ticketing services of IRCTC amongst the respondents was 4.56 on a
scale of 5 which reflects an overall positive response.
5.4 Major Concerns

Although, IRCTC has successfully permeated through various segments, there are some vital issue that
are cause for concern which has been collected through primary study as well as secondary study:

LITERATURE REVIEW
One of the faster-growing business sectors is Internet-based commerce, commonly called
e-commerce (electronic commerce) or I-commerce (Internet commerce). E-commerce
includes both B2C (Business-to-Consumer) and B2B (Business-to-Business). The
demand for e-commerce systems will translate into career opportunities and new
challengers for systems developers. Advances in technology have greatly expanded the
role of e-commerce in business. Some business analysts believe that the Internet is
changing consumer buying habits and reshaping the economy. E-commerce is changing
traditional business models and creating new ones [Shelly, G.B., Cashman 2001].
In India, e-ticketing is the fastest growing e-commerce category. The railways have sold
over Rs. 700 crore worth of e-tickets in 2006-07. This constitutes about 30% of the Rs
2,300-crore estimated online transactions by Internet and Mobile Association of India.
The projected figure for 2007-08 is a whooping Rs.1,500 crore, double that of the
previous financial year. It is the perfect example of self-service e-economy and the
Internet is the domain of all information, bookings, and allocation of capacity [Komenar,
M. 1999].
BroadVision Inc, a provider of enterprise business portal applications based in California,
USA, runs the IRCTC site on its BroadVision e-commerce platform. A big challenge for
BroadVision was integrating the legacy system with the existing reservation system, and
verifying credit card information in real-time as bookings had to be confirmed on the
Passenger Reservation System (PRS) of the railways immediately. At the start, the PRS
had to handle about six lakh reservations per day. Internet connectivity at that time was
poor, and pages took a lot of time to load. Moreover, sometimes customers used to book
a ticket multiple times since they kept clicking repeatedly. Initially, IRCTC was ready for
1,00,000 to 2,00,000 hits per day. But, the actual number went up to 1.3 million enquiries
daily in addition to over 2,000 actual bookings. This resulted in terrible traffic jams, due
to which their payment gateways also went down. ICICI Bank and Citibank (the payment
gateways) were therefore asked to upgrade their services. Also, there were issues related
to failed transactions, which cost the organisation about 20 percent of the overall

transactions. Besides, they had to deploy extra people whose primary job was to refund
money for failed transactions. IRCTCs system runs on Intel-based servers and
according to the organisation, it provides them with cost efficiency, robustness, smooth
integration with legacy applications, and reliability for Web-enabling the system. The
organisation also uses a combination of Intel, Red Hat and Oracle products. The IRCTC
site is secure, and stealing credit card details is not possible since they use 128-bit
5
encryption. Further, credit card details are not stored in the system [Gustafsson, A at al
1999].
Its been 3 years since Indian Railways introduced e-ticketing with the intention of doing
away with the need for carrying a physical ticket. All one has to do is log on to
www.irctc.co.in and book the ticket(s) just like any normal booking, after giving details
of photo identity card details of any one of the passengers. After getting confirmation of
the booking, one takes a printout of the Electronic Reservation Slip (ERS) and can
perform the journey with the ERS and the photo identity card. There is also a provision
for the cancellation and refund of the booking online, without any extra effort on the part
of the individual. These efforts of bringing the Passenger Reservation System (PRS) to
the people are for a very nominal charge .
There was a major change after a year, when there was a need to introduce cash payment
for booking online. This was because online bookings on the Indian Railway Catering
and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) site involves credit card payments or a net banking
facility, limiting its utility for a vast majority of Indians who prefer to pay cash. This
problem was solved by Sify, which tied up with IRCTC to enable online railway ticketing
services with cash payments at iWay cyber cafes across the country. This path-breaking
initiative made railway e-ticketing easier and convenient for passengers all over the
country. They no longer had to worry about using credit cards or having a net banking
facility, which is restricted to those with access to computers at home or in the office. At
present, IRCTC is said to offer the maximum number of payment options among all ecommerce
sites. The payment can be made through the payment gateway for credit cards,
direct debit (Internet banking) of major banks and a cash-card option (ITZ cash). The
direct debit option was introduced due to the fact that many Indians do not like to buy
things on credit. The other option that online retailers usually follow is the Cash-OnDelivery (COD) model, where the end-user pays cash after the product is delivered. But,
since the IRCTC system is connected to the Indian Railways reservation system and there
are many other factors that come into play while booking a ticket online, the COD model
is not feasible for IRCTC even though it makes a lot of commercial sense .
Presently, the scenario is so encouraging with a growth rate of almost 300 percent per
month that (IRCTC) has decided to further reduce the service charges. Moreover, to meet
the demand of approximately 40,000 tickets on a daily basis, IRCTC has appointed more
than 8,000 booking agents including the Rail Travellers Service Agents (RTSA), the
RTAs, members of the Indian Association of Tour Agents (IATA) and the (Travel Agents
Association of India) TAAI, petrol pumps of Bharat Petroleum Corporation, district
magistrates and Deputy Commissioners of the State Governments, e-seva centres of the
Andhra Pradesh Government and e-pos through ICICI. The Railway Ministry is planning
to tie up with Indian Oil Corporation and other oil public sector utilities for providing eticketing
facilities at filling stations. This will help in generating more revenue [Sujay

Mehdudia 2007].
The Railway Minister, Lalu Prasads budget for 2007-08 was termed as positive and one
that can serve as an example for the other public sector units. The budgets basis was to
bet on a buoyant economy and not to tinker with freight charges. The main thrust is on
modernisation, technical innovation and better resource utilization.
The Customer-Centric Electronic Business (CCEB) system model for the Railways is still
in its infancy and therefore, there are limited resources available. Customer-Centric
Management is related to what is called Customer Relationship Management (CRM).
"CRM is defined as aligning business strategy, corporate culture and organization,
customer information, and supporting information technology; so that all customer
interactions promote a mutually beneficial relationship between each customer and
enterprise ."
In Indian Railways, over 85% of commerce is still conducted through traditional business
models and it is investing heavily to deploy customer centric management in traditional
channels. Perhaps most significant, the Internet provide a completely new way for an
enterprise to interact with its customer-the electronic channel, or the e-channel.

Benefits to the Community and Industry

There are many benefits to be gained for Indian Railways and its passengers. Firstly,
passengers can book and check in through internet 24 hours, 7 days a week, at any time,
anywhere. Secondly, airlines could reduce sales cost.
Significance derived from CCEB implementation will allow for new business model,
based on the wide availability of information and its direct distribution to end-customers.
Directly connect railways and passengers.
Support fully digital information exchange between airlines and customers,
reduced cost of a customer contact.
Suppress time and place limits.
Support interactivity and therefore can dynamically adapt to customer behaviour.
To be able to satisfy customers' need, build customer confidence and retention.
Can be updated in real-time, therefore always up-to-date.
Enhance airlines competitive advantages over its rivals
Profitable and sustainable revenue growth.
It is hoped that this search will provide information to assist the Railways Authorities of
India, to make an informed decision when they consider the application and development
of e-business to the Railways industry.
Contribution to the Field of Study
The Railways industry is the one of the largest growth areas of world railways industry.
Recent research of application e-business in the Indian Railways has pointed to a lack of
subject matter; it is just at the stage of sale air tickets through websites. Furthermore,
there is an absence of existing literature that explores the application of CCEB to the
Indian Railways and other railways all over the world. Therefore, the current proposed
research will open up a new area for further investigation and study of the railways
CCEB system. The research can also be used as tool for community education, to
generate meaningful discussion on particular findings, and assist with planning and
policy developments for adopting particular strategies in application and development of
e-business to both Indian Railways and world wide railways industry

CONCEPTUAL DISCUSSION

Explain the marketing concept and its importance to an organisation making particular reference to developing
relationships with customers. Marketing consists of individual and organisational activities that facilitate and expedite
satisfying exchange relationships in a dynamic environment through the creation, distribution, promotion and pricing of
goods, services and ideas.1 The main principles of marketing are to satisfy customers, target the 'right' customers,
facilitate exchange relationships, stay ahead of competitors and enhance profitability. The ultimate goal is to satisfy
targeted customers, seeking their loyalty and consumption. Creating good relationships with customers is an important
factor. The buyer must be satisfied with the goods or service received from the exchange, and the seller must likewise be
satisfied with the financial reward received in the exchange. "The marketing concept can be defined as "the philosophy that
an organisation should try to provide products that satisfy customers' needs through a co-ordinated set of activities that
also allows the organisation to achieve its goals"2 The marketing concept is the idea that to be successful the organisation
should focus on meeting customer needs - "The customer is king". A company that adopts the marketing concept is likely to
adopt the following principles such as; identify customer needs, provide products at an acceptable price and stress the
benefits through promotion.

They are: The Production era, pre - 1920s. Businesses concerned themselves primarily with production. This viewpoint was
encapsulated in 'Says Law', which states 'Supply creates its own demand. If a product is made, somebody will want to buy
it'.7 The Sales era ran from the 1920s to the 1950s. Businesses realised that products would have to be "sold" to
customers. Businesses viewed sales as the major means of increasing profits. The Marketing era developed in the early
1950s. Businesses found that they had to first determine what customers wanted and then produce it. We are currently in
the Relationship marketing era. Here the focus is on developing bonds with customers. The focus lies on maintaining a
customer's loyalty and making a multi-purchase agreement. Businesses believe brand loyalty is the future and that
customers naturally favour a certain brand. To try and gain the custom of consumers, marketing managers have to
implement the marketing mix. The marketing mix consists of five factors; price, place, product, promotion and gradually,
people. Each one of these components is crucial as a slight alteration of one of these factors may cause the balance of the
product to be altered.8 According to Kotler et al. .

'Achieving customer loyalty can be very gratifying for many organisations and businesses. It is well known that it is
generally more profitable to preserve an established client than continually be searching for new ones'.11 'The loyalty of
existing customers also represents an entry barrier to competitors because the cost of enticing customers to change
loyalties is often prohibitively expensive'.12 "With a recognition that existing customers are the source of most companies'
profits, there has been an explosion of interest in understanding customers from a long-term, relationship view. Frequently
though this "relationship" view just means trying to sell more things to more customers. If companies are really going to
embrace the concept of relationships they have to understand more about what their customers need to build a "shared
future" with them. A shared future is a challenging concept since it means that both parties have to understand how the
other will help them get to where they want to go and what has happened in the past."13 The survival, growth and
profitability of an organisation in a competitive environment are dependent on good customer relations. Businesses
understand the need to form bonds with their customers, as this relationship will ultimately decide their potential in the
future.

The rapid growth of the travel industry requires sophisticated information

technologies (ITs) for managing the increasing volume and quality of tourism traffic.
Prior studies have indicated that modern travelers demand more high quality travel
services, products, information, and value for their money (Christian 2001; lubetkin
1999; Samenfink 1999). The emergence of new tourism services and products,
coupled with a rapid increase in tourism demand, has driven the wide-scale adoption
of ITs in general, and in particular, the Internet as an electronic intermediary. In other
words, the Internet serves as a new communication and distribution channel for etravelers
and suppliers of travel services and products. This new channel also enables
tourism businesses to improve their competitiveness and performance.
Researchers have emphasized the importance of the Online marketing on
travel and tourism. For tourism suppliers, it provides a way for them to sell their
products globally to potential travelers at any time. These suppliers can remotely
control their servers to display information on services/products at an electronic speed
(Law 2000). The successful factors for a travel Web site, from a suppliers
perspective, are lower distribution costs, higher revenues, and a larger market share.
6
For travelers, online marketing allows them to communicate directly with tourism
suppliers to request information, and to purchase products/services at any time and
any place (Olmeda and Sheldon 2001)
1.5 Online marketing in Indian Railways
The emergence of the internet in the mid-1990s as well as the development of
Intranets and Extranets forced Indian Railways to refocus their strategy on
technological innovations in order to enhance their competitiveness. IR identified the
online marketing as a major opportunity to tackle distribution costs and to reengineer
the structure of the industry.
INDIAN RAILWAYS (IR) is a premier transport organisation of the country.
It has the largest rail network in Asia and the worlds second largest organization
under one management. It is owned by the central government of India. IR has
traverse through the length and breadth of the country covering 63,140 route kms. It

owns a fleet of 2, 16,717 wagon (units), 39,236 coaches and 7,739 numbers of
locomotives. IR manages to run 14,444 trains daily, including about 8,702 passenger
trains. It carries more than a million tonne of freight traffic and 18 million passengers
covering 6,856 numbers of stations daily. The Railways are the largest employer in
India with 1.4 million workers.
IR was going high tech, so In February 2000, Indian Railways' web site was
deployed. This web site is so popular all over the world that it is visited at least a
million times a day either to find out the Train fare, ticket reservation or the
availability status of a wait listed ticket. People who have access to a computer and
the Internet can now reserve their tickets online. In fact, Indian Railway online
reservation has made things easier for many people who want to travel through trains.
Online marketing is information sharing, which allows railways to provide a wide
range of information they expect consumers to need in decision-making over final
purchases. It is convenient to both railways and consumers because of a marketing
channel that defies time or distance constraints. It provides overall efficiency to
Indian Railways especially in monitoring their operations and performance because of
easy organization, sharing and analysis of information from its e-marketing
operations.
The IR and Online Marketing have evolved rapidly, going through several distinct
stages since its beginnings in 1980s. Before we delve into an analysis of the Online
7
Marketing as offered by IR that are shaping today, a quick look on online services of
IR is given below.
1.5.1 Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS):
In 1986, Ministry of Railways established the Centre for Railway Information
Systems (CRIS) to be an umbrella organisation for all computer activities on Indian
Railways (IR). It works with Indian Railways to build new products or services and to
implement prudent business and technology strategies in today's dynamic digital
environment. CRIS facilitates implementation of computerization projects on the
Railways.
1.5.2 Online Ticketing System:
IR begins online ticket reservation of I-ticket on Aug. 3, 2002. IRCTC has
launched E-ticket facility in August 2005 for IR, which can be booked on
www.irctc.co.in. . It was launched all over the country at the same time. And it is
picking up fast; some 300 per cent per month growth has been noted for it.
1.5.3 Passenger Reservation System (PRS):
CONCERT - country-wide network for computerized enhanced reservation
and ticketing - developed by CRIS, is a total networking solution to Indian Railways
Passenger Reservation System. In June, 1987 an early system for computerized
reservations begins operating at Mumbai VT for a few trains (pre- CONCERT). The
complete network become operational on 18th April 1999, and has been working
satisfactorily since then. PRS network of the Indian Railways has enabled reservations
in any train, date, or class, between any pair of stations to the travelling public on
about 2000 terminals across the country. CONCERT has been installed at more than
1,721 locations with 6,731 terminals handling more than 3,000 trains and more than
3.3 crore passengers are being booked with average passenger earnings of Rs. 1300

crore per month .On 14th Feb. 2008 all time high 1.9 million transactions were done
in PRS.
1.5.4 PRS enquiry through Internet:
Passenger Reservation System is a major computer application with the help of which
anywhere to anywhere reserve ticketing is possible. This involves a distributed data
base spread over five host computers located in five metropolitan cities in India and
terminals located in various cities. The tickets provide information on the train
timings like departure time at origin, arrival time at destination, route of the train
8
denoted by major junctions en route and distance. The basic source of this information
is the passenger train time table. IRs website www.indianrail.gov .in provides
booking through Internet for which Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation
(IRCTC) has been given connectivity to PRS system for issue of e-tickets. The
website also answers queries regarding accommodation availability, current status of
wait listed tickets, trains available between important stations, train schedules, fares,
etc. On 28th February 2000, all the common enquiries like Trains between a given pair
of stations, reservation availability, PNR status, Fare, Train schedule and station
codes were made available to the common public through the Internet. It has in a very
short span of time become one of the most popular web sites in India, with peak daily
hits of the order of 1.7 million hits per day.
The information on the web sites has also been available through SMS service on
mobile phones, all over India.
1.5.5 National Train Enquiry System (NTES)
National Train Enquiry System is a nationwide integrated online information
system for monitoring the running of passenger trains and providing reliable updated
information regarding arrival and departure of trains to passengers and platform
berthing to external devices i.e. IVRS, Touch screens etc. It also provides updated
information on Railway rules and facilities available through enquiry counters. The
NTES stores the train schedule and provides information on the actual running of
trains in comparison the planned schedule.
1.5.6 Unreserved Ticketing Systems (UTS):
To take care of the unreserved segment of the passengers, UTS has been
computerized by CRIS and expanded to cover 828 stations to enable passengers to
purchase tickets from other than the train originating station, up to 3 days in advance
of the date of journey, except for suburban passengers. 25 lakh tickets are being
issued daily for 70 lakh passengers with daily earnings of Rs.16 crores.
1.5.7 Freight Operations Information System (FOIS):
FOIS is an on-line system for management and control of freight movement
which enables freight customers to have instant access to information regarding the
current status of their consignments in transit. More than 2,000 reporting devices have
been installed at more than 700 locations, which are interlinked through Railway9
owned digital microwave communication facilities complemented by hired channels
from BSNL.
1.5.8 Railtel
The Corporation was formed in Sept 2000 with the objectives to create nation
wide Broadband Telecom and Multimedia Network in all parts of the country, to

modernize Train Control Operation and Safety System of Indian Railways and to
significantly contribute to realization of goals and objective of national telecom policy
1999
1.5.9 Railnet
Railways have established their own intra-net Railnet in September 2000. It
provides networking between Railway Board, Zonal Headquarters, Divisional
headquarters, Production Units, Training Centre etc.
1.5.10 Tourism services
IRCTC.s tourism portal www.railtourismindia.com is fast growing into a one
stop travel shop which meets all the travel & tourism needs of a customer. It is
providing online booking of various services like Luxury Tourist Trains, car rentals,
hotel, Rail Tour Packages, holiday packages etc.
1.5.11 E Working System (Electronic file Movement and Tracking)
It is a web based application that provides for automation of the functions of
all the departments / offices. It provides an effective electronic office management
system that encompasses diverse business requirements like File Management,
Document Management and Knowledge Management. It provides a user-friendly
intuitive interface for the users to accomplish the various tasks.
1.5.12 Other Projects:
CRIS has undertaken some important projects, viz., Parcel Management
System for computerization of parcel services; crew Management System to provide
information regarding train crew on a real time base, Comprehensive Payroll
Processing System, Workshop Information System, E-Procurement System to
improve purchase efficiency and transparency, web based electronic office
management system.
Implementing an e-Business project necessarily involves the deployment of a network or webinterface connecting company-specific services to the client. The implementation of just
computer tools is not enough; an e-Business project has to be implements in a new organization
based on new technologies. The concept of e-Business is very flexible and therefore covers all
possible uses of information and communication technologies (ICT)
Making the relationships between the company and its clients
Newer business opportunities are developed
Flow of information is made easier
Controlling different processes within the company
The objective is to create communication between the company and its internal processes to
better control internal and external measures. The e-business awareness in India has increased
with fast adaption of internet and internet based service in todays post economic liberalization
scenario. The World internet statistics reveal that India is one of the emerging nations for internet
user and stands fourth-largest country after China, US and Japan. Although, India stands fourth
in population-wise internet usage still it has lower population penetration percentage 6.9 whereas
US has population percentage

RESEARCH METHADOLOGY
Research is an art of scientific investigation. Research comprises defining and redefining
problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solutions, collecting, organizing and evaluating
data, making deduction and reaching conclusions and at last carefully testing the conclusion to
determine whether they formulating hypothesis.

Methodology: The Study is about the Services Marketing Strategies in an Organization. It deals
with the title of the study, need of the study, objectives & Scope of study.

Title of the Study: The study is titled as Report on Digital Marketing at IRCTC,

Data is collected from primary and secondary sources.

Collection of the data is of primary importance in the research process. Data which is collected

for the purpose of research helps in proper analysis which is helpful to conduct research
effectively. The data source, which is very important in the collection of data, is primary data and
secondary data. Both primary and secondary data are taken into consideration for the study by
the strategies followed by IRCTC.

Primary Data: This consists of original information gathered for specific purpose. The normal
procedure is by interacting with the people individually and/ or in a group, to get the required
data.
Secondary Data: This consists of the information that already exists somewhere, either in some
Annual Records or Magazines etc, having been collected for other purpose. Here the researcher
has both primary as well as secondary data.
Survey Approach:

The questionnaire was administered through direct contact with respondents.

1. Sampling Technique:
The study covers a sample of employees of IRCTC Ltd. The Respondents were selected on a
Sample Random basis from the following categories of the employees,
a) Senior managers
b) Deputy Managers
c) Junior Officers
d) Assistants

Sampling Procedure: The sampling method used is Random Sampling. This sampling Method is
used because the respondents were selected randomly. The sampling unit selected mostly from
Executives and non executives.

E-COMMERCE INDUSTRY IN INDIA

The cutting edge for business today is e-commerce. Most people think e-commerce
means online shopping. But web shopping is only a small part of the picture. The term
also refers to online stock, bond transactions, buying and downloading software without
ever going to a store. In addition, e-commerce includes business to business connections
that make purchasing easier for big corporations.
E-commerce is generally described as a method of buying and selling products and
services electronically. The main vehicle of e-commerce remains the Internet and the
World Wide Web, but use of e-mail, fax and telephone orders is also prevalent. Electronic
commerce is the application communication and information sharing technology among
trading partners to the pursuit of business objectives. E-commerce can be defined as
modern business methodology that addresses the needs of the organization, merchants
and consumers to cut costs while improving the quality of goods and services and speed
of service delivery. E-commerce is associated with the buying and selling of information,
products, and services via computer networks. A key element of e-commerce is
information processing.
The effects of e-commerce are already appearing in all areas of business, from customer
service to new product design. It facilitates new types of information based business
processes for reaching and interacting with customers-online advertising and marketing,
online, order taking and online customer service etc. It can also reduce costs in managing
orders and interacting with a wide range of suppliers and trading and trading partners,
areas that typically add significant overheads to the cost of products and services.
E-commerce industry has touched 9210 crore, online classifieds: 820 crores, online
travel: 7000 crores (30% jump from Rs 7,080 crore in 07) as per the survey conducted
by the IAMAI and IMRB Online Travel Industry: growth rate of 30% to Rs 7,000 crore
by end FY09 (from 5500 crores in 08)
Online Classifieds: reached Rs 820 crore by end FY08
Online retailing/auction (eTailing): Rs 1,105 crore industries by end FY09 (from Rs
850 crore in FY08.
Digital downloads (i.e. downloading from Internet to mobiles using wap phones or web) and
paid content (research/exclusive videos/articles etc) for the rest of 285 crores.
The major triggers of e-commerce in India were:

Saves time and efforts

Convenience of shopping at home
Wide variety / range of products are available
Good discounts / lower prices
Get detailed information of the product

 You can compare various models / brands

Some of the major barriers at present were:
Not sure of product quality
Cannot bargain/Negotiate
Not sure of security of transactions / Credit card misuse
Need to touch and feel the product
Significant discounts are not there
Have to wait for delivery
ECOMMERCE GROWTH:
During the year 2008-2009, two major Industry Associations produced separate reports
on e-commerce in India. Both the reports came out around the same time, namely JuneJuly 2009. One was prepared by the National Committee on E-Commerce set up the
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), while the other was commissioned by the
NASSCOM and prepared by the Boston Consulting Group. Both the reports are
optimistic about the growth of e-commerce in India. The Confederation of Indian
Industry (CII) report estimates the volume of e-commerce to grow to Rs 1500 billion
(US$ 10.6 billion) in the year 2009, out of which B2B will be Rs 820 billion (US$ 18
billion) and B2C will be Rs 680 billion. The NASSCOM-BCG Report, on the other hand,
estimates for the same year that the total volume of e-commerce will be Rs 1,950 billion,
out of which Rs 1,920 billion (US$ 41 billion) will be on account of B2B and Rs 30
billion (US$ 64 million) will be on account of B2C (NASSCON and BCG, 2009).
IRCTC
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) is a subsidiary of the Indian
Railways that handles the catering, tourism and online ticketing operations of the
railways.
Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. has been set up by the Ministry of
Railways with the basic purpose of hiving off entire catering and tourism activity of the
railways to the new Corporation so as to professionalize and upgrade these services with
public-private participation. Rail based Tourism in India will be the specific vehicle for
achieving high growth in coordination with state agencies, tour operators, travel agents
and the hospitality industry. A dynamic marketing strategy in association with public and
private agencies, tour operators, transporters, hoteliers and local tour promoters is on the
anvil. Indian Railways span global volumes in hospitality and catering sectors with
services provided to 13 million passengers everyday.
Mission "Enhance customer services and facilitation in railway catering, hospitality,
travel and tourism with best industry practices"
.
Objectives:
(1) To be a customer friendly company through constant innovation, technology driven

and human resource development.

(2) Optimize resources, increase manpower productivity through quality product vending
and innovative marketing strategies.
(3) Upgrade and consolidate catering services in the organized sector.
(4) Expand areas of core competencies; enhance business opportunities through efficient
public - private partnerships to maximize generation of resources.
(5) Imbibe strong and ethical work culture through teamwork, build and reposition Indian
Railways in the emerging services sector.
(6) Evolve high standards of business ethics, quality management and effective cost
control measures.
(7) Concern for the environment and heritage
Tourism Railway Tourism has seen excellent growth in India. Right from IRCTC's
inception , we have undertaken dynamic marketing strategy with major tour operators
and State Tourism as our partners for providing exclusive tour packages across the
country. IRCTC arranges for full train charters, coaches as well as reserved berth
programmes through regular trains for tourism purposes. During this short period we
have been able to provide such facilities to over 50,000 persons. Internet Rail Reservation
There has been a latent demand in the country for ticket availability at the door-step.
IRCTC has already developed this facility at Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and
Mumbai. Very soon the facility will spread to Hyderabad, Pune and Ahmadabad. After
consolidation at these centers, further development in the major towns will take place.
IRCTC web enabled reservation site is IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System
(http://www.irctc.co.in)
Food Plazas IRCTC has firmed up plans to set up over 50 multi-cuisine food plazas at
major railway stations throughout the country during the current year. The Food plazas
will have contemporary decor, air conditioned ambience and round the clock operation to
suit passenger convenience with market driven competitive pricing.
Call Center IRCTC has recently inaugurated a Call Center. A customer can dial 139 from
anywhere in the country and get all information from Indian Railways.
Services provided by them are:
Catering / Hospitality
Online Ticketing
Tourism
Foundation:
IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System (http://www.irctc.co.in) is the most
successful e-commerce website in India. More than 7050 reservations every day, and
about 8500 trains included in the booking process.
IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd., set by the Ministry of
Railways in 1999) has played a huge role in transforming customer experience for buying

a railway ticket. The lengthy queues for booking tickets or black marketing of tickets is
no more the default way of buying tickets.
IRCTC has also introduced many innovations including e-ticket and mobile booking.
The website is a bad experience for the user. Many operations are slow, error prone and
difficult to understand. If one step goes wrong, you have to do the whole process again.
It has taken us any time between 15 minutes to 6 hours to book a ticket successfully.
Many others share similar experience.
The new Quick Book feature addresses many of the concerns.
Yet, the process can be significantly improved resulting not only in much higher
customer satisfaction, but also much lower transaction times, and consequently, less load
and bandwidth consumption for the server.

ANALYSIS
QUESTIONAIRE
Q.1 ARE YOU AWARE OF E TICKETING PROCESS
a)YES
b)NO

17
13

a)YES
b)NO

Interpretation:As we can see in growing economy all are aware of using internet and it is going to be
much growth in e commerce in near future.

Q.2 HOW IS THE WEBSITE DESIGN

a) GOOD
b) AVERAGE
c) BAD

8
16
6

c) BAD

b) AVERAGE

a) GOOD

10

12

14

16

Interpretation:IRCTC must take steps to change their website design into beta version because people
need accurate service
Q.3 HOW IS THE WEBSITE ACESSNESS
a) FAST
b) SLOW
c)MODERATE

5
7
18

a) FAST
b) SLOW
c)MODERATE

Interpretation:IRCTC must take steps to change their website design into beta version by using lastest
HTML processes, because people need accurate and fast service.
Q.4HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE TO BOOK A TICKET ONLINE
a)LESS THAN 10 MINUTES
b)MORE THAN 10 MINUTES

12
18

18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Q.5 DO YOU FEEL ONLINE TICKET PRICE MUCH MORE THAN MANUAL
RESERVATION TICKET
a)YES
b)NO

2
28

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
a)YES

b)NO

Interpretation:Instead of being slight higher price than manual booking cystomers are not worried at all
so IRCTC should maintain the same price as now to attract customers.

Q.6WHAT MODE OF PAYMENT DOES YOU USE TO BOOK A TICKET

a) CREDIT CARD
b)NET BANKING SERVICES

b)NET BANKING SERVICES

a) CREDIT CARD

10

15

20

25

InterpretationIRCTC must tie up with other private banks to give netbanking services to
IRCTC customers which will help customers to use more net banking process.

9
21

FINDINGS
Primary purposes of website - Reservation and Train Inquiry are not visible
Lots of advertisements on the home page
Lot of blinking / animated portions distract the user
Form does not fit into a single window, ideally it should
Checking availability is a crucial part of the booking process, but the user has to click a
button and see a popup window for this.
Many a times, this even comes up with an Unable to retrieve due to communication
failure problem!
There are too many payment options, and difficult to understand which one is better.
This also comes up in a pop-up window. Ideally, this can be a preference that can be set
in the user profile.
It is difficult to understand the three different types of tickets, there is help icon, but it
opens in a popup window.
Value Added Services are on the same page here, which can be avoided.
The login portion itself has too many options.
Customers are complaining with the number of outlets available for booking the tickets.
Customers have few options of selecting from the tour packages.
Employees are not trained to explain the packages available to the illiterates.

SUGGESTIONS
Single screen, rich internet application.
Login not required for checking availability, only for booking, and can be done after
booking
Train availability select multiple trains, and click once to get availability in all
Single spot for advertisement can rotate
Payment options one chosen by default, others available on request
No page reloads easy for the user, more efficient for the server
Ability to change one item and automatic update on others this will make it easier for
users to book their tickets significantly reducing the transaction time
The back-end and front-end are separated, front-end is intelligent can cache data,
process it etc.
Advertisements can still be delivered; you can even deliver contextual ads as the user
plans their travel. Other pages of the site can also be integrated.
To start few more IRCTC reservations outlets for the convenience of the customers.
More tour packages for the convenience of the customers.

Conclusion
With Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and travel portals pushing sale
of online rail tickets, the share of IRCTC in the reserved ticketing revenues of Indian Railways
has gone up to 40 per cent in the first two quarters of this year, from around 25 per cent last year.
In fact, with the increasing penetration and use of the internet, IRCTCs ticketing revenue has
seen an increase of 462 per cent over the past three years. From Rs 704.9 crore in 2006-07 and
Rs 1,744.7 crore in 2007-08, the corporation got Rs 3,966.98 crore from sale of online tickets
last year. And, experts feel with the Unique Identification project of the government, the market
for
online
ticketing
will
only
increase
tremendously.
The corporation has, to this end, collaborated with 81 organizations and 11 state governments to
operate multi-utility kiosks, which provide online ticketing services. IRCTC has further tied-up
with Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum
Corporation to provide e-ticket reservation facilities to people through their chain of petrol
pumps and retail gas agencies. Ticketing sales data from the corporation recorded between April
and September 2009 reveal that online ticket reservation services have had a good response from
people
of
lower
income
groups.
IRCTC, making efforts to make e-ticketing facilities available and accessible to all sections of
society.
This research revealed that the Internet contributes more to the core of business process
and transformation than other comparable technologies such as the telephone. Whilst the
source of competitive advantage is changing - with information becoming a key resource
and electronic commerce a key facilitator.
The success of the Indian Railways applications and the communications, data, and
control afforded by the Internet are encouraging. The researchers have found that the
development of the information economy is as much about strategy as it is about
technology. The Internet is not just another medium or a distribution channel to reach
customers. It is an important medium to find new customers and continue relationships
with current customers. It is almost impossible for business and consumers to ignore this
new technology. The users of Internet are not just so-called "techi's". They are people
from all age group in many parts of the world. This work demonstrated that integrating
key operations such as technologies, marketing, and system solutions can assist the
Railways industry to achieve passenger amenities.
The railways have never had it so good. Online ticket sales are keeping the railways cash
register ringing. Figures available with FE show the railways sold over Rs 700 crore
worth of e-tickets in 2006-07. This constitutes about 30% of the Rs 2,300-crore estimated
online transactions by Internet and Mobile Association of India. Projections for this
financial year are a whopping Rs 1,500 crore. In June 2007, for instance, the e-ticketing
services of Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation sold tickets worth over Rs
129 crore. On an average, it sells about 40,000 tickets daily through the Internet. On July
3, its online sales touched an all-time high of 44,000 purchases. We have sold tickets
worth Rs 319 crore already, and estimate that by the close of the financial year, our
ticketing business would have crossed Rs 1,500 crore, a railway official said. The

19
massive jump in sales is putting pressure on the weak internet connectivity of most
domestic banks. On an average, only about 71% of all transactions are successful mainly
due to the poor online infrastructure of banks, the official said.
The corporation is also concerned that online sales may soon plateau off as Internet
penetration is poor in non-metro areas. Sales will increase if it can also provide
unconfirmed tickets on its website. The railways e-ticketing has gone global, with travel
agents in Sharjah, Nepal and Singapore providing the facility. On the anvil is a tie-up
with the posts and telegraphs department. Post offices can then book tickets online

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