Apparel April 2019 Apparel May 2019 issue | Page 38

FEATURE
CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR
THEN PROBABLY LED TO THE
INTRODUCTION OF OTHER
SERVICES LIKE MUSIC STREAMING
OR VIDEO WATCHING ON THE SAME
APP AS SHOPPING.
pilot basis as Flipkart has opened it up to 10,000
users only, but in two to three weeks it will be
rolled out to a larger customer base.
Recently, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and
Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited,
also announced the launch of the world’s largest
online-to-offline e-commerce platform. The
company has made several acquisitions across
the media, manufacturing, tech and retail sectors.
The latest acquisitions include a company that
provides customer support chat services using
artificial intelligence, and a logistics business
that enables hyper-local delivery of food and
groceries. Earlier this year, he explained how
mobile telco Jio and Reliance Retail would
together launch a ‘new commerce’ platform,
designed to benefit consumers, small retailers,
and producers. The Reliance ecosystem will have
multiple, very powerful components that include
retail, entertainment, education, and financial
services. There are several reports that suggest
that the company is also creating a super app—
India’s answer to WeChat—which will enable
e-commerce, bookings and payments, all in one
application. With Reliance joining the bandwagon
with Flipkart and Amazon India, it will make it
harder for the smaller players to survive.
WHAT CAUSED THE EVOLUTION?
One of the biggest drivers for this change was
demonetisation. Demonetisation made the end
consumer more comfortable with online and
card payments. Mobile wallets too gained a lot
of popularity; they came second in the preferred
mode of payment for end customers. This
encouraged them to seek more convenient ways
of paying for their shopping on online portals.
Consumer behaviour then probably led to the
introduction of other services like music streaming
or video watching on the same app as shopping,
leading to a highly integrated e-commerce and
entertainment website.
As consumer behaviour is evolving, there
seems to be a rising expectation of the evolution
of omni-commerce, which is the ability to pay with
the same method, whether buying in-store, online
or using a mobile device. This shift precipitated a
need for retailers to adapt toward fast, simple and
secure mobile payments.
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I APPAREL I
May 2019