In the past few days, one of the most hotly debated topics has been the future of E-Commerce platforms in India. The recent amendments in the policy regarding E-Commerce in India have created two parallel spheres of public opinion. One sphere advocates in favour of the regulations, saying that it’ll help safeguard the small local shopkeepers who can’t compete with the big players but a contrarian point of view by the other sphere says that such a move is going to severely damage and discourage the E-Commerce space which is still on the rise and contributes heavily to Trade. But what exactly happened? How does this impact the density of marketing efforts that these firms put in to compete against each other? Let’s find out…
According to the new regulations E-Commerce firms will no longer be able to shower its customers with offers such as hefty discounts, introductory cashbacks, one-day delivery or any additional value-added service on their platforms.
In other words, you’ll stop getting cashback notifications from platforms which used to induce customers to shop on their portal in lieu of lucrative cashback offers.
This is just one small example of what these regulations imply for the E-Commerce space.
Another major resolution passed by the government is one which prevents any E-Commerce vendor from selling more than one-fourth of its inventory on a particular platform.
In other words, you won’t see any more Exclusive Launches of smartphones or introductory offers on apparel brands.
How this will impact the marketing efforts that these firms put in can be gauged from the simple fact the introduction of these reforms is sure to impact a major chunk of their revenue.
Since a cap has been introduced on how much a vendor can sell, the platform loses the advantage of driving in all the revenue from the exclusive sales on its platform.
Secondly, since the products available on these platforms will get more expensive, it will drive customers away who are used to low prices and cash back on their purchases.
So this move by the government is proving to be a double-edged sword for these E-Commerce platforms and it seems they’ll have to bleed plenty in the coming days. As for you, the customers, be ready to see higher prices and lower offers in the coming days…