It's not about Chetan Bhagat's 'Half Girlfriend', it's Flipkart Vs Amazon

Much has been said and written about the front page wrap advertisement last morning in The Times of India on Chetan Bhagat’s new book. The bulk of the conversation was on the title of the book. As normally happens with anything that Bhagat does, social media was busy ripping Bhagat to bits.

For those who haven’t seen the ad, here it is:

Some celebrated the fact that the front page of The Times of India was being used to sell, of all things, a book. It was terrific for publishers, writers and readers, many suggested.

It isn’t any of these things.

What the front page ad represents is the heightened pitch of the battle between two e-commerce behemoths, Flipkart and Amazon.

If the advent of e-commerce and the deep discounts ensures that the consumer is king, it also ensures that there is no loyalty to any e-commerce player. Comparison shopping rules, be it in airline fares, hotel accommodation or any of the thousands of products available on Flipkart and Amazon. The consumer gives the business to the site that offers the best deal at the moment of consideration.

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So how do the Flipkarts and Amazons gain an edge for themselves in this hypercompetitive environment? The only way is for them to gain access to a product exclusively - that is the only situation in which comparison marketing is impossible.

The importance of yesterday’s ad, then, is not about Chetan Bhagat’s book. It’s about the exclusivity of the offer - and about the fact that the book can be pre-ordered ONLY on Flipkart.

In the months to come, we’ll see an increasing number of exclusive deals available on both Flipkart and Amazon - and the winner will be the manufacturer of the product that becomes available exclusively. Yesterday’s winner is certainly Rupa, the publisher of Bhagat’s book. If the ostensible big winner as a result of the battle between e-commerce players was the consumer, in the months to come we’ll see more big winners - manufacturers.