WatchPlanet.in

Swatch liquidation sale!

Mehul Jain — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:07:47 +0000

We know it sounds too good to be true, well, but this time it is true!

This Swatch watch is available at 40% discount. (MRP Rs. 4850/- ; Our Price : Rs. 3000/-)

http://watchplanet.in/men/swatch-ygs115ge/

Wait! it gets better. Use coupon code swatch to get further 10% off! crazy, isn’t it? Offer valid for 1 Week only.

Oh yes! Free Shipping anywhere in India and the watch comes with 2 Years standard manufacturer’s warranty.

http://watchplanet.in/men/swatch-ygs115ge/

Special Valentine’s day coupons for your special one

Mehul Jain — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:13:46 +0000

Hi! Looking to send a gift to your loved one ? Maybe these coupons will inspire you to….

use coupon code vdayG to get further 7% off (total 18%)

use coupon code vdayB to get 10% discount

What’s more? Order this watch by 2:00 pm today (13/02/10), and get it delivered on the 15th! (Well it’s one day after THE day, but you know what… may be it’s about time we started celebrating the WATCH DAY!)

btw, just realized the two watches are so different, but may be that’s why they say… Men are from Mars, and Women are from Venus! (or wait, is it the other way around?)

Why E-commerce in India is still struggling?

Mehul Jain — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:46:05 +0000

Following is a line taken from a random Indian e-commerce website

“If the selected color of dial is not available, an alternate in the same model and value will be deliver” – Author Unknown

Now, its one thing to safeguard your organization against possible complications, but to so openly inform the customer, that “dude, you are screwed” is to take the game to an entirely new level of foolishness!

The line above is wrong in so many ways that I don’t even know where to begin (I am not even talking about the grammar, which by the way is wrong too!). Instead of making sure that the product being offered for sale is available in stock, or at least offering money back guarantee in case it’s not, the customer is simply told that if the the product he / she ordered is not available, there’s not much that can be done!

Why should I accept a brown dial watch, when I ordered a black dial watch, seriously… is it that hard to understand? (For the record, I hate brown… not that it’s relevant here)

But then, customers are no fools, why will they buy from a site which isn’t even sure about the products that it offers for sale? No wonder so many e-commerce sites are struggling. Such websites need to realize that the rules of customer service apply to e-commerce as well! I guess by the time the realization sinks in (if it does at all), it’s too late.

I am not a PR / Marketing / Sales guy, but I have heard of the two golden rules of customer service:

1) The customer is King (and is always right)

2) When in doubt, refer to rule # 1

The Free Cash incentive Saga

Mehul Jain — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:29:21 +0000

If the only way you increase sales, attract customers, and ‘beat the sales targets’ is by doling out free cash, then what happens to the customers once the cash runs out? I would like to believe that the customers run away as well!

Defining Good Customer service

Mehul Jain — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:14:33 +0000

Why is Good Customer Service a term which so many companies fail to understand? A concept so simple and so commonsensical, & yet it most often gets lost in complex matrices and spreadsheets, pie charts and numbers!

Before I march on, it must be noted that I DONT have a PhD in customer service, & it’s not on my future roadmap either.. Well, ironically, may be that’s what makes this post all the more important. I am the CONSUMER who has spent hours behind a phone hoping to get good customer service, while “my records are being retrieved” by a customer rep, who in surprisingly many cases knows less about the company he / she works for then I do ( that’s pretty unfortunate actually…) Well, this post is not supposed to be a rant on how customer service at most places is pathetic, so let’s move on..

Just like [geek start] good programming code is measured in terms of how it handles the unexpected inputs, and mathematic formulas are measured in terms of ‘boundary conditions’ [/geek end], the true test of customer service is how the customers are managed and informed when the unexpected happens.

Keeping it to a purely e-commerce point of view, what matters is how well you keep the customers up to date when the product they ordered is suddenly Out Of Stock! Or, how do you treat a worried customer when the courier can’t be tracked. (i.e. do you ask them to call up the courier service, or do you do it for them?)

Note # 1

The only thing I am not sure about is the scalability of this idea, but for now, it doesn’t really matter.. We are a startup, and “small” would be a big word to define our size! Since the launch of TheWisdomCart.com, we have been enjoying interacting with customers on one to one basis, and keeping them informed is our top priority!

Credits:

Cartoon taken from putsimply.wordpress.com

Why wp-ecommerce rocks!

Mehul Jain — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:59:35 +0000

Before we get rolling, just want to say a big thank you to Wordpress and the team at Instinct. When programmers charge for codes on a “per line” basis, the team at Instinct has released this amazingly simple to use e-commerce solution free of cost. Thank you, seriously!

In the last few months / weeks, I have played around with many open source solutions like osCommerce, Magneto, PrestaCart, etc etc, but what made me stick to wp-ecommerce cart is the unbelievably simple checkout procedure! Most of the other solutions have a 4-5 page checkout procedure, which require the user to register first, then select quantity, then shipping, then confirm the order, then head out to the payment gateway … wow, it’s actually tiring to write about the complicated procedure.. let alone experience it first hand.

To get a better idea, let’s compare this with the “non virtual” world, a customer walks in to your physical store, and decides to buy some merchandise. Upon handing over the items to the clerk at the checkout counter (compare it -> hitting the checkout button), the customer is told that she needs to go to another counter and create her file (record) for store’s records. (compare it -> registration process). “Well, whatever…” the customer thinks and gets her record created. But sadly, that’s not all, infact it’s just the beginning, at each counter she’s told to go to another counter, and confirm a few things, and it’s only after visiting 5 different counters that she actually gets to pay for the product!

I don’t know about you, but hell, I’ll never ever want to be in that store! so coming back to the main point, e-commerce solutions should just follow K.I.S.S principle (Keep it simple, stupid), and that’s exactly what wp-ecommerce does!

This was supposed to be a short thank you note, instead this turned into a case study, key note or whatever!