Any Where-Any Time with MakeMyTrip Mobile”

A Case Study on MakeMyTrip Mobile Travel Solution & breaking the Mcommerce Inertia
 

Evolution of Commerce

Commerce has evolved over the centuries. Prior to the evolution of money it was a simple “barter process” where things could be exchanged, say milk for grains. The evolution of money brought with it, the concept of a “marketplace”. In a marketplace, Commerce is function of 4 P’s – Product, Price, Place and Promotions. All these four components play a vital role in a transaction to take place. Different combinations of 4Ps determine different forms of Commerce. Once the marketplace came into existence, a few pioneers realized that people would be ready to pay extra if they could deliver products at customer’s doorsteps. A slight modification on Price and Place led to the convenience of getting products at their homes. This concept delighted the customers and thus, the concept of “Street Vendors” was born. When the Postal System came into being the sellers decided to cash in on the new opportunity and started using mailers giving description of their products. It led to the concept of “Mail Order Cataloguing”. From here, the evolution of the “Tele shopping” networks was inevitable with the development of media vehicles. The latest generation of commerce is one that can be done over the internet. Internet provides a virtual platform where sellers and buyers can come in contact for sale and purchase of goods and services. They can be thousands of miles apart, may belong to different parts of the world, might speak different languages, “E-Commerce” emerged as the boundary-less trade medium in the era of globalization.
 

Barter

Process

Monetary

Transactions

Street

Vendors

Mail Order

Cataloging

Tele-

Shopping

Electronic Commerce

Mcommerce !

Since, Internet has the ability to reach the customer’s home; the Distribution Channel has started to assume new meaning to the B2C and C2C eMarketer. The Physical delivery got converted to electronic delivery; physical products were now electronic products, displayed on a website. With options of paying online through debit and credit cards, even the transaction was purely electronic. Another important P for the e marketer, the Promotion, assumed importance, especially because there is no face to face interaction between the buyer and seller. The focus of online promotions is the ‘great deals’, ‘discounts’, ‘convenience’ offered by the eMarketers.

The size of B2C E-Commerce Industry for the year 2006-07 was computed to be around Rs. 7080 crores. The market is expected to reach the mark of Rs. 9210 crores by the end of 2007-08, a growth of about 30% over the current year. Online Travel Industry is the largest contributor to the B2C E-Commerce Industry, sized at Rs. 5500 crores for the year 2006-07 and is expected to rise to Rs. 7000 crores by the end of 2007- 08. The overwhelming response of the consumers towards this segment is triggered by the entry of low cost carriers. The industry saw an upsurge in the travel aggregators and tour operators, thereby bringing affordable travel at doorsteps of Indian travelers. The industry has witnessed an increase in the number of travelers as well as number of travels per traveler. However, the biggest issue facing this industry is limited penetration of credit cards, coupled with consumer’s apprehensions towards using their credit cards online.
 

Usage of E-Commerce

According to the survey conducted among the Industry players, the E-Commerce Industry in India was worth Rs 7080 crores at the end of 2006-07. Is it big enough? How much is it expected to grow?

The PC literate population is on a fast growth curve having grown 100% in 2006 over 2004. Though in India overall penetration is still low the important factor is that a critical mass of users is shaping up which will fuel rapid growth over the next 3-4 years. A Claimed or Ever Internet User is defined as one who has ever accessed Internet. A subset of Claimed Internet users, Active Internet Users are defined as those who have accessed Internet at least once in the last one month. They are the regular users of Internet and are aware of the recent trends and applications emerging on the Internet. The population of Active Internet Users was 21 million in March 2006.

As these Internet Users mature with respect to exposure and awareness of internet, they tend to spend more time online; access internet more frequently and surf non-communication based applications and advanced online applications like gaming, E-Commerce, etc. However, as it is evident from the charts below, E-Commerce is still not the key driver of the internet. Internet u