Fantastic offer for book lovers, Popabook has announced 20% flat off on MRP in all the books available in their store for vcBytes readers. Use “vcb20” in the promotion coupon text field in the checkout page.
This book ‘Devil in pinstripes’ carries 10% off, after applying the coupon code i get further 10% off (flat 20% off on MRP). Make most of this offer, Popabook delivers at your doostep all over India.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
Connecta, a Swedish IT major joins forces with Adylan Technologies a Bangalore based startup, to create their own offshore hub. The public listed Scandinavian enterprise has made this investment through its subsidiary Tarento AB which focuses on offshoring and runs a similar operation for near shoring in Riga. “We get to a flying start with a platform set to take care of larger deliveries. We will be working with really skilled people who know both the Swedish and the Indian markets, which is a real asset. Overall, this is an establishment that fits well with our existing activities in Riga, which means great opportunities for our customers” said Peter J. Nelson, CEO of Tarento AB.
“We see a big potential in increasing the business through the clients of Connecta” says Rahul Karnawat, Co-Founder of Adylan who is based out of Stockholm and will play a key part in the integration process. The company started last year focusing primarily on Scandinavian market and has scaled up pretty quickly to deliver high end solutions on web and mobile. “Our focus on mobile application development is increasing at a rapid pace to meet the customer demands and in a short time has become one of our major offerings” says Kumar Deepak, CTO of the new unit Tarento Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
With the new set up, Tarento Technologies plans to delve deeper in the enterprise space and increase the bouquet of offering. “We have been able to scale up and grow in specialized areas quite successfully in the past year and feel confident to continue with greater force in the near future” adds Vijay Sunkeswari, the co-founder of Adylan and the CEO of Tarento Technologies Private Limited.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
US-based PE firms Sandstone Capital and Sequoia Capital have acquired a minority stake in Micromax Informatics Limited, an India-based provider of mobile phone solutions and wireless technologies for mobile users, for about INR2,000 million ($43.52 million), in a pre-IPO placement.
Sandstone and Sequoia have acquired less than 10% stake in Micromax. This is the second PE placement in Micromax after TA Associates acquired a minority stake of less than 20% in the company for Rs.225 crore in January this year.
For 2009-10, it posted revenues of Rs.1,600 Cr with a net profit of Rs.150 Cr.
Micromax leads a pack of domestic companies, which includes Karbonn Mobiles, Spice Mobiles, Videocon Industries and Lava International, that have made inroads into the Rs.30,000-crore mobile phone market traditionally dominated by multinationals such as Nokia, Samsung, LG and Motorola. The company is the largest domestic mobile handset company. It has expanded sales network in countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
So, my morning started today by updating my Facebook & Twitter pages about the new Volkswagen Vento audio ad and my day is actually ending up by writing a post on the same. The first experience was shocker or eerie enough as a consumer for me, resulting in immediate reaction on social media and the whole day analysis of the buzz on the ad is reflective enough to do a complete post 
Needless to say the ad has managed to create enough hum-drum all across. Undoubtedly it was a media innovation and disruptive advertising at least for the Indian market. I don’t think I had ever come across anything like this earlier. In fact my reaction was exactly from a “WHAT” to “WOW” to “WTH”. When I suddenly heard my newspaper talking, for a second I was totally confused, rather shocked. I had to rummage through newspapers to realize what actually it was. And when I realized that it’s actually an ad presented in the form of an audio chip attached with TOI today, I was totally awed. Wow, what an idea! But then after some point when the voice went on repeating the same content in loop it became irritating. To add to that there was no option to switch it off; the only option left was to either fold the newspaper back or just throw that damn thing out. For those who missed (wait, did anyone actually miss to notice it) to see this ad, can check the video (by TejasNair) embedded at the bottom of the post.
Well, no doubt the ad was damn interesting and managed to grab the attention of almost everybody. Twenty two lakh chips were specially sourced for the one time exercise and the ad was targeted at the readers in 5 cities – Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai & Pune. Total media spend estimated towards this 5 city campaign is close to INR 5 crores! Definitely a daring stand to spend this kind of money in just one day and that too only in 5 cities. But so what if it was only 5 cities, after all the consumers in these 5 cities have ensured to share their reaction with other consumers not only nationally but also globally.
Idea was great, so was the operational implementation but when it comes to execution of the idea, I do think that it was not properly thought through. Here is my feedback as far as the execution is concerned:
BTW was there any call for action in that clipping? Or Volkswagen Vento just wanted to create the stir amongst consumers by spending this amount of money? Whether this kind of spend is justified for such buzz is debatable. The ad definitely managed to be the talk of town everywhere, though it could have been executed better to serve other purposes of any campaign too. Overall good to observe this innovation coming from Indian market.
Aside: Wondering if this ad will give ideas to other money spenders to do something similar? OMG what will happen if say our politicians get inspired by all this and decide to take similar route? Will we have to hear their election speeches every morning along with our newspapers during political campaigns? Anyways they love to talk, don’t they??? Or say some Mr. Mahajan & Ms. Sawant decide to furthermore promote their swayamvars in their most happening voices through these talking newspapers? Eeeekkks!
- Kanupriya Sindhu (This post has been reproduced from Marketing Chit-Chat with author’s permission)
What is the key attribute behind the success of any e-commerce portal? It is trust and credibility your e-commerce portal needs to instill in the shopper and make them purchase products. Its easier said than done, it takes time to build the trust but good new is its achievable. You may follow the underlying guidelines
Show case you are in real business – Shoppers are not alarmed or scared while shopping at big name sites like Amazon, Infibeam, flipkart because they are familiar with these brand names. Shoppers believe in them and are assured product will arrive in time and in the quality they expect. If you are a new player in ecommerce space add – About Us section, contact number and email address, Contact address can also be added to boost customer confidence.
Hand hold your first time visitors – Remember 1st impression is last impression, not easy to wipe out. So make sure you don’t lose out on 1st time visitors, chances are hard to get them back in your website. Create enough tools, videos, tutorials so that transaction is seamless.
Provide Success Stories – Success stories always work, ask your initial happy customer to write the testimonial on your product quality and services actually deliver what you promise. Ensure that you use real customer testimonials with their photos.
Provide Safe Environment - Make sure shoppers transactions are safe, To achieve this Use SSL encryption, Use Thwate or HackerSafe services and prominently display their logo. Shoppers are always concerned of their safety and this concern amplifies while transacting in a new e-commerce portal.
State return policy clearly - Be fair and upfront while stating your return policy. One of the most common barriers to buying on the Web is the difficulty in returning items. Your return policies should include how the customer can return the item and what they need to know if they are returning the item. BigshoeBazaar return policy is simply amazing and its contributing immensely to their business.
Be Prompt - Be quick while responding to customers email, Customers who have mailed and shown keen interest in your product are most likely to buy the product if they are handled properly. Respond to these emailed queries fast. Customers appreciate lightning fast turnaround time and personalized responses.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
ItzCash Card Ltd an entity of Essel Group has received RBI nod for issuing mobile wallet under ”The payment and settlement systems act 2007″. By procuring the licence ItzCash Card can offer mobile wallet feature to cell phone users.
ItzCash claims to be India’s largest non-bank semi-closed prepaid payment instrument issuer and also the first to introduce and facilitate m-commerce and e-commerce in India. ItzCash has gained good traction in past few years and have become a poupular choice of payment among users who are uncomfortable in swiping Credit/Debit card.
ItzCash also boasts to currently facilitate about 60,000 SMS transactions per day for various merchant services. This new initiative by RBI is expected to increase these transactions by at least 100 per cent. This service will bring under served / unbanked populace closer to digital convergence and help enabling a cashless society. We are happy to include more and more people in financial inclusion through this service.
Under RBI guidelines, the semi-closed wallet service by ItzCash will allow any mobile user to pay for various services and products for a transaction value up to Rs 5000 only. This clearance by RBI will give a major boost to the government’s aggressive initiative towards bringing banking and financial services to remote areas as part of its inclusive growth program.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
Ever wondered why your excellent idea/product failed to attract the attention of VC, even though your product is witnessing good traction but VCs are unmoved or they wait n watch for few quarters before showing interest I had a long discussion with a VC today in this topic.
VC likes to invest in startups which are driven by supermans or guy who is capable of exectuing things smartly. Serial entrepreneurs are one category of people who are well sought by VCs and there are instances serial entrepreneur have raised Venture capital without presenting any business plan, case studies, excel sheet.
These breed of entrepreneurs are capable of creating something out nothing, they somehow manage to stitch together product, customer and partnership out of thin air. They are always ready with their alternate plans, if plan A fails or doesn’t meet the expectation Plan B would be up and running in no time. They also have uncanny ability to foresee things or envision the future.
in short VCs look for a key man insurance in a startup which can assure them that their investments are in safe hands and 5X return is guaranteed.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
Karur Vysya Bank has introduced Travel Cards in the market which are powered by enStage Technology prepaid platform. These travel cards are designed for international travelers and are available in three currencies – US Dollars, Euro and Singapore Dollar. These travel cards are valid in all countries expect India, Nepal and Bhutan.
This VISA affiliated travel card can be used at any merchant that accepts Visa cards, ATM and also purchases over internet. The travel card can be obtained at any of the designated branches of the bank. Both Bank’s customers and non customers can avail this travel card . Karur Vysya Bank now has gift cards and travel cards in its prepaid portfolio.
Karur Vysya Bank chose enStage’s ACCOSA platform for its prepaid card portfolio as it provides the flexibility and configurability that the bank was looking for in order to offer innovative solutions to their customers.
enStage is a leading provider of innovative payment solutions to meet the demands of today’s payment needs while innovating for the future. enStage products offer a range of payment channels to cater to payment needs on the Internet, POS, and mobile devices while facilitating global payments.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
Bookshelf is a newly launched portal which deals focuses on selling educational books online, Bookshelf intends to sell books from nursery to post graduation books published by various publishers. Bookshelf delivers book all over India and books below INR 150 will incur a shipping charge of INR 30/-
The objective of launching this service is to facilitate students, parents and working executives to buy academic books and other reference books online. The whole process of purchasing and delivery of educational books in this context could be simplified. Currently the books available are in the major categories of School, Diploma Engineering, Degree Engineering, Graduation, Management, Aayurved, Pharmacy and Law etc.
Bookshelf is launched by Splashgain Technologies which earlier in this year launched ePravesh, a pre admission portal. It has made life simpler for parents by simplifying the admission process. Splashgain intends to integrate both their platform and drive the registered users of ePravesh to bookshelf for buying books online, thus trying to make a complete marketplace.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
MeraCareerGuide in partnership with Mospay has developed an mobile app called mInterview. mInterview is an interview centric application which you can download in an airtel phones . The interview application is designed in such a way that it would help the user to prepare for the interview. User can get tips in soft skills, technology related topics.
Airtel has selected mInterview as one of their best apps out of 70k apps in Airtel Appstore.
It’s a one-time download process and will cost you only Rs.25. Once it has been downloaded, you can use it any number of times to refer to the tips and steps to a successfulinterview. SMS app to 54321to receive the URL.
-Hitesh, vcBytes.com
