GOSF lessons: Why e-retail is a real threat to brick and mortar stores

Until a few years ago buying things online was unthinkable for Indians. Now, the importance of touch and feel is waning. Companies like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon brought about this change. And digital shopping is revolutionising the retail sector.

It is not only garments, footwear and electronic items that are being sold online now, customers are lapping up even houses and cars.

The _Economic Times_ reports that five houses worth Rs 25 crore, 250 Tata Motors models and 35 Nissan vehicles were sold in the Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF)–the recently concludedfour-day shopping extravaganza supported by Google.

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“This is an indication of the e-commerce ecosystem maturing,“Nitin Bawankule, industry director(e-commerce) for Google India told_ToI._

Companies like Nissan and Tata Value Homes have been working to create secure payment portals to allay fears of customers considering big-ticket purchases like cars and homes.

Tata Value Homes, the only real estate player to participate in the GOSF this year, allowed customers to book flats with a payment of Rs 20,000. The company saw almost 50 homes being booked in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune.

Tata allowed customers to take a virtual tour of the property and offered a 30:70 payment scheme wherein the buyer has to pay 30 percent of the price within 45 days of booking and the remaning 70 percent on possession. This is just the latest in varied customer incentives that companies are coming up with, in addition to cash on delivery and free returns and exchanges.

Reports suggest that India’s online retail market is expected to grow from $2 billion in 2012 to $16 billion in 2016. It is safe to say that given the strides being made in creating innovative and safe online shopping experiences and the availability and interest in buying big-money items like real estate and vehicles online, e-retailing is the way to go.

Clearly, brick-and-mortar shops will have to up their game if they want to stay relevant.