Bigshoebazaar.com, an online portal started in 2007 for business-to-customer footwear retailing, has recently announced a new service. It will start its new SMS catalogue shopping format wherein customers will be able to order products featured in a newspaper or magazine merely by texting the portal the specifications of the product they want to buy.
The basic mechanism is that the company will advertise products in newspapers, magazines and product catalogues. They will also provide a measurement chart for customers to check their shoe size. Once the customer places the order via sms with the portal, the delivery will be done through couriers within 3-4 working days with options for easy replacement. The company’s systems are integrated with online shopping sites like Rediff, e-bay and Indiatimes under a revenue sharing model.
This is a very prudent move on part of the company which has recognized the high demand for branded shoes among the Indian public and therefore has decided to do the extra mile to reach out to customers on their mobiles, even those who do not have internet services enabled on their phones. The company hopes to boost its sales through this move.
To get an idea of the current scenario of the portal, here are a few significant numbers. The portal was started in 2007 and to date has signed up over 60 clients, including Woodland, Lee Cooper, Reebok and Puma, with a portfolio of 10,000 designs. It operates online exclusive branded outlets (EBOs) for four brands — Florsheim, Lotto, Adidas and Red Tape. It sells around 300 pairs daily, and has stated that it is witnessing a 30 per cent growth year-on-year. According to bigshoebazaar.com Director Manmohan Agarwal , “we have shipped footwear to 1,500 locations in the country and also receive 10-15 orders every week from international destinations. Moreover, we have had 34% people purchasing from us again within the same month.” The company has seen over 2 lakh registrations in the latter part of 2009.
One of the most interesting features of the customer base that the portal services, is that a large percentage is not based in cities but in the hinterlands. “The Andaman Islands, Sikkim and North-East have emerged as major markets. These are places where customers have a big brand expectation, but are remote for major footwear companies to set up shops,” he said.
So what are the future targets of the company?
The company intends to increase the number of pairs sold daily to 2500. They also intend to set up 10 more online EBOs during 2010-11 allowing customers to access all major Indian and global brands. Major brands like Florsheim are not even available in major cities and the portal wishes to service this hunger.
At any rate this increased availability of buying power simply via SMS will surely go a long way in enabling the portal to reach out to consumers. What is your opinion?
There is no free shipping dude.. and COD is very much limited.. Franchise to an online retailer with no brand value and no exclusive products.. that too at the cost of 25L to 1Cr.. kid me not…
before sms thing, what I recommend is make customer service available 24/7 rain or shine.. its a phone thing and one employee is enough in the night. this is going make a lot of change.. just an idea..