Byapaar.com – The Indian Business Blog

Happy Diwali Greetings – 2009 to all my readers and visitors and to All of India.

It has been a long time that I published a post on this blog – I am sorry for that. But today, on this auspicious occassion – I feel responsible to my readers again and I’ll be discussing some news as well as business opportunities.

During this time last year, the Indian economy – along with the world economy has been in doldrums and people started to compare it with the great depression of the 30′s. But there have been some good news coming around the world about the economies recovering – slowly and surely and Diwali being the festival of light, the forecast that Indian economy has every possibility to top 6% growth has been a boon for all Indians. The stock market has also recovered very well with the benchmark indice the Sensex topping 17,000 over the last couple of weeks.

There are also good news on the international front – the US un-employment rate has come-down by  good numbers, Chinese economic growth might touch 8% for the current fiscal and other major economies too showing sings of positive economic out-llok.

Under these circumstances, I must say that Indian retailing industry has a long way to go to match the international standard of delivering the products they sell. I am specially referring to small-sized businesses who operate single-handedly and not about big organized retailers like BigBazaar or Future Bazzar or Shoppers Stop  for that matter. But I am talking about those retailers who are the real players in India.

The other day – I was looking to buy online for a SLR digital camera at discount price and FutureBazaar came in the search. When I choose my price range and model – I found that the product was not on their stock. This way I tried for some-time and then got tired.

Being online for 3 years now have gained me lots of experience about online and how small businesses are profitting by using the internet world.

Here is an example of a small retailer dealing in embroidery supplies . It sells lots of tools at discounted price such as embroidery needles , embroidery bobbins and so on which are very much essential for making embroidery products, a renowned Indian industry. One just has to order it online and the goods are delivered at your doorstep. No-one has to go to the market and find them painfully.

So, my confusion or to say the truth – dilemma is why are not Indian businesses not taking the online advantage of increasing their sales and reaching out to more clients through e-commerce? It is a custom to send gifts to relatives, friends during the many festivals held all around the year who live far- away. Suppose, I have some relatives in Mumbai and I want to send some good chocolates to them. I can’t do it from where I live due to the time it would take. But if i find a chocolate shop taking bookings online and offering home-delivery services, I can easily fulfill my wishes.

True, the Internet penetration is still low in India, but the latest data ( 81,000,000 Internet users Nov/08 ) is still very very high and a gold-mine of sorts. Hopefully, the concerned business personalities will read this post and make people aware of the endless opportunities that e-commerce will open to increase their reach and thus sales.