At RetailBiz, we believe that technology plays a critical role in an online retail business. To get an insight into how technology is being used and understand the preferred solutions by current players, we have been talking to many business leaders. Since technology is a moving target, we will continue to bring you the latest and greatest in this field by talking to more leaders going forward. At the end of each interview series, we will present summary and key takeaways for you to apply to your business.
We start this series with founders of 4 companies that represent new and established players, as well as mainstream and niche segments. Today we introduce the companies and their founders, as well as present the areas we explored with these founders. In our next few posts (we post everyday), we will present the questions and their answers.
About the companies
ZAPstore.com – The Online Gadget Store
Zapstore.com retails electronic products like Mobile Phones, Tablets, Cameras, Music Players and Accessories. They have introduced a unique shopping experience called ZAPPING, that brings brings game mechanics into shopping and gives the pricing control to the user. We talk to Gokuraj, co-founder and COO at Zapstore.com.
Fetise.com – Fashion ecommerce retailer
Fetise.com is an online flash sales fashion ecommerce retailer which primarily helps brands liquidate their inventory quickly and discreetly. Thus they are able to offer their members big brands at deep discounts for limited duration sale events. We talk to Abhishek Shah who is a serial online retail entrepreneur (Wanamo.com – now DealsandYou.com and Festi.com) and is co-founder at Fetise.com.
Engrave.in – Unique Lifestyle Products With Fine Craftsmanship
Engrave is an India-based design collective engaged in the pursuit of creating unique lifestyle products with fine craftsmanship. They offer their customers an ever expanding range of simple to create canvas prints and laser engraved products. We talk to Nimish Adani, who is an expert of both technology and business field with ventures like Workosaur.com and Salt social Media Private Limited, and is co-founder at Engrave.
AaramShop
Aaramshop is a hybrid retail platform that enables sales and marketing of FMCG / CPG brands to a “short on time, high on stress” urban consumers. They do this by integrating the opportunities offered by the web with the strengths of neighborhood stores. We talk to Vijay Singh who is the founder Director of White Space Technologies, Subject Specialists and AaramTV, and is CEO and MD at Aaramshop.
About the questions
Given our technology focus, we focused on following areas:
- Choice of Storefront technology
- Payment Gateway
- Choice of Shipping vendors
- Cash on Delivery as a payment method
- Integration of back-end (ERP/CRM/Accounting) systems
- Internet Marketing strategies
- Need to have an in-house technology team
- Hosting provider selection
- Mobile access to the store
Stay tuned to our tomorrow’s post, where our interviewees talk about choices of storefront technology and payment gateways.
