Research firm Redseer has come up with their quarterly insights for the digital economy, and there is a mixture of both good and bad news.
Here are the highlights for Q2 (financial year 2017-18)
The Bad News
In the bad news section, we have three major highlights.
1. Delivery Time Increases: With increased online orders, the quality of delivery has taken a hit. As per Redseer, the situation is such bad that we have now reached the Q2, Q3 2016 levels in delivery time.
As per Redseer’s findings, the average delivery time of online order during Q2 of 2017 has increased by 10-12%, compared to last quarter.
We have already reported the mind-numbing numbers of this Dussera festive season sales, and how Flipkart managed to sell 13 lakh units in the first 20 hours of the sale period.
It seems like the existing logistics networks of Indian ecommerce industry are not equipped to take this load.
2. Online Cab Bookings Reduce: As per the findings of the study, average cab bookings per customer has decreased in Q2 of 2017. And the main reason attributed is that, passengers are not able to book cabs during peak time, when the requirement of cab is maximum. Besides, due to less incentives, the number of cabs and drivers have also decreased.
Interestingly, Ola has just managed to secure India’s second highest venture funding, and this may change things a bit.
3. Food Orders Decrease: The research states that average order per customer in online food niche has decreased in Q2 2017, although the number of customers in this sector has increased. This means that more number of customers are ordering food, but the quantity of orders has decreased.
In bad news, there is another highlight: Contribution margins in the online fashion retail has decreased considerably, mainly due to higher discounting by the players. Interestingly, the number of orders has increased, but the ROI per order has decreased at the same time.
The Good News
In the good news section, there are few important highlights.
1. Customer Satisfaction In Hotel Niche Improves: As per the report, customers are now more happy after online booking of hotel rooms, as customer satisfaction has improved by 14000 bps in the last quarter. This is a direct result of improved operations and better services for online customers. A win-win for the industry!
2. Mobile Wallet Users Increase: Compared to last for the same period, the total number of mobile wallet users has increased by 23%, whereas compared to Q1 of 2017, the number of new users has increased by 9%.
This means that despite cash re-entering the system, mobile wallets haven’t lost their sheen. We have already reported how increased digital transactions have broken all records in September. And the trend, hopefully, will continue.
These insights for the digital economy is for the period: July, August, September 2017.
Q3 of 2017, which is October, November and December is the period to look out for, as major festive season sales including Diwali, Christmas and New Year would be closely observed.
We will keep you updated.