The New Expressway

Rome wasn’t built in a day, of course, considering the nonexistence of mass production of bricks then, it was probably built slowly brick by brick. However the brick & mortar structures are still evolving around us and are yet to reach their climax for transition to a new format. Look around, isn’t it true about the retail world of India, the evolving formats of “How” and “why” of shopping? Slow but evolving! Just as these brick & mortar structures rise up, there is a parallel format which is drilling its way up through the mortar. It’s a ‘virtual challenge’ but also a supplement in many ways.  It’s the format that the business pundits termed as ‘e-commerce’ through the 90’s and also in the early 2000’s till the .com crash came our way and the skeptics gained supremacy to call it the ‘e- con merce’! After losing the unnecessary flab and it’s now back and it’s back with a bang and its known as etailing alias ‘Social commerce’.


The Social Commerce: 

The fragrance of the Jasmine revolution from the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa have shown us the power of Internet, to be more specific the online social media flexed its muscles and the governments toppled like a pack of cards. The world now socializes, gossips, flirts, shops on the social media and in fact its life is virtually, virtual! The Facebook, which has been the face of this new trend, has more than 800 million active users today (the only competition for the Indian Population!).

            In a world which is reeling under the spell of economic downturn, the virtual world is being looked up as the next big thing and this time, its gone mobile! With a 100 million internet users India should logically be in the forefront of the revolution but as with every trend, Indians are still testing the water and the big plunge is still awaited.

 When it comes to socialization, how can Indians be left behind? It’s a virtual party for Indian on the Facebook, 33 million Indians had visited Facebook in the midst of 2010 ( as per July 2010, comScore) and now there are more than 28 Million active users from India in 2011 which is almost 1/3^rd of all the active Internet users in India. Adding more flavor to these stats is one estimate which suggests that India is likely to be the 2nd most populous base for Facebook in 2012!

“What does all this mean for a marketer?”

It means that the marketing budgets only wouldn’t be the critical Unique selling proposition anymore! Internet and social media in particular is largely democratic and the active user on these media is a participative consumer who will thrash you if you not deliver value but will put you on the top if you appease him/ her. 

Social Media isn’t limited to Facebook and in fact that’s the unique feature of this new trend, there is no structural limitation for movement on the net (until the government decides to clamp on it!). Online service providers like Google have come out with a complete proposition to help business (especially SME’s) to create a virtual platform for marketing online. Google’s Hubspot is a case in point for this, with features like shared videos about the business, presence on the Google map, website building tools, blog creation and enhancement features etc.; it’s showing where the virtual world is going. In fact it is going all the way to equip the marketers, especially those who are based out of SMEs.

Most of the big boys especially the tech players have made their presence formidable on the social media but given the economics, SMEs should take up this opportunity to catch the wind with their sails up.

In the modern times, not all roads lead to Rome but every computer with an internet connection has an express way to your virtual showroom!