•Venkatesh Krishnamurthy

•Author: A Comprehensive Guide to E-Commerce (ISBN

9789352685998), Create Profitable Products (ISBN
9789352127832) and Marketing of Information Technology
(ISBN 9780070248724)
•www.linkedin.com/in/kvenkatesh
•kvenkatesh.mail@gmail.com

Transition to E-Business
Questions
Should a business go online?

Should a business cease offline

presence?

Should it be drastic or phased?

How to transition to E-Business?

HOW DO EXISTING IS IT EASIER TO START ON WHICH ROUTE TO TAKE?

BUSINESSES TRANSITION? A CLEAN E-SLATE?
Early roots of E-Commerce
News wires
Can be traced to "wired" businesses EDI
Finance wires

The business (process and data) traveled on wire

Improved over time

Shared service - one vendor serving multiple buyers

Requirements of E-Business

Infrastructure to Regulatory Operational

transact online compliance efficiency

Marketing Online savvy

(online, offline?) user base
Which characteristics determine suitability for E-
Commerce?
 Suitability for E-Business

Target customers are Goods and services are Prepaid Subscriptions!

connected easy to procure Pre-agreed for renewals is icing on
familiar with nuances easy to deliver the cake!
have the ability to pay enough for easy to return
the E-Business to generate profit
have enough purchasing power
(ARPU)
Which businesses are candidates for E-Commerce?
Candidate sectors for E-Commerce
Pure transactional services (finance, back-office for law, business development, marketing etc.)

Standardized interaction services (online tuitions, e-Learning, etc.)

Not multi-tiered relationship on supply and demand sides (excepting payments)

Most / critical part(s) of the transaction happen(s) online

No fear of repudiation
Examples to compare

Less effort More effort

• Recharging of mobile phones, • Shopping sites (sale of

DTH etc physical goods)
• Bill payments • User verification (phone SIM
• Online content sale in India, customer acquisition
• Aggregation of other online in financial sector)
services • Experiential products (capital
investments like houses)
Which are entry and operational barriers?
Bureaucracy

Milk the cash cow as far as possible

Don’t want to innovate

Don’t have a vision, mission

I’m invincible!
Do barriers preclude other businesses from E-
way?
Evolving and new business
models
• Build / streamline offline interaction Offline aggregation brought
Aggregators and Marketplaces
e.g., MedPlus online e.g., www.mydentalplan.
do not pay merchants promptly
in

Established offline businesses

use deep pockets, existing
complementary assets (Porter)
Emphasis on increasing
More initial effort but lower risk • Value chain
transaction efficiency
• Knowledge
• Data
What challenges do existing business face in the E-way?

More, Reliance
retail chains

Bajaj Auto, TVS

Auto, others
Challenges transitioning to online

Move away
Marketing
from
to
showrooms
popularize
to
E-way
warehouses

How to
Staff -
transition
redeploy /
resellers /
retrench?
dealers?
Different routes to E-Business

Begin with Co-branding, Banks to Wallet Wallet to

Others to bank
online collaboration provider Marketplace
• Amazon: • e.g., SBI-Yono • ICICI Bank to • Government’s • Paytm
Direct - Whole Pocket plans to
Foods, Go • HDFC Bank to convert NBFCs
Stores, Indirect Payzapp to banks
– Equity in • Airtel
More, Payments
Pantaloons, Bank
• flipkart
More routes to E-Business

Marketplace + Retail to wholesale,

Brick and Mortar to Infomediary to
vendor to low value goods to
Online and vice-versa Intermediary
Marketplace  high value goods
• Amazon • Shopclues.com • Croma.com • TripAdvisor
• BharatMatrimony,
Naukri, etc.
Even more routes to E-Business

Device and • Google, Apple app and

platform
provider web stores

Currency /
wallet • Apple Pay, Android Pay
provider
Compare and discuss

Amazon, flipkart, Snapdeal, etc. to Walmart, Fry's, Best Buy, ASDA,

Tesco, Big Bazaar, Croma, Reliance outlets, etc.

MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, etc to IRCTC

Debit Card issuers to Cash Wallet providers