The state of ecommerce shopping in India is pathetic. Today I tried shopping @ Tradus E-Shop after getting a special discount voucher from them. It took me 15 minutes to get pass their cranky registration process. I hated the design, validation process and IA of the website. I cussed and cursed throughout the ordeal.

When i was done registering I couldn’t find anything interesting to buy. They had no sewing machine, no magazine worth subscribing to, nothing which was below the market prize and wasn’t available easily outside my house.

The Catch of the day was the Reebok Bag and I added it to basket to try it on. But they don’t have a shopping cart to review items. Anyhow, as I tried to purchase the item I reached a page which said the voucher cannot be used to buy this product. Now I made sure the voucher in hand said – Valid for 7 Days on a minimum purchase of Rs 595 – and I was meeting all the criteria to purchase the Reebok Laptop bag worth INR 999. But then I realized its Ibobo and any further effort is futile and gave it up.

Common Guys – get inspired from USB Geek, Buy.com etc. I understand its difficult to serve entire country like India with no proper pin codes, and delivery mechanism in remote areas and transportation services with crampy roads and cheat excise officers. But that’s not a reason to give up.

Launch some niche stores, like a discounted AC E-Store or just serve limited markets like Delhi, focus on products and concepts rather than start something half defunct and useless for entire country offering nothing new. Get original, hear what people need and provide them that.

My Review for Ibobo Tradus is 0 for Concept, 0 for Execution, 0 for Experence.

How Fashion Industry is using Social Media to impact branding, awareness and sales

The use of electronic tools for the purpose of sharing and discussing information and experiences with others…

Why Social Media

• 93% say a company should have presence in social media
• 85% say a company should use it to interact with them
• Almost 60% of Americans interact with a brand on a social media site
• 56% feel a stronger connection to brands when use social media
• It’s About Relationships, Not Pitches
• Monitor your brand and reputation online
• Social Media Exposure: Better Than Traditional Ads and Cheaper
• Monitor others brands/reputations
• Interact with your consumers
• Track ROI better
• Men/Women 18-34 yrs
• &nsbp;&nsbp;&nsbp; – 33% want companies to market to them via social media

Fashion Industry & Social Media

• The hottest trend in fashion right now is Social Media. Social media has become the hottest trend since skinny jeans and stiletto heels
• Journalists, fashion incubators, retail gurus and people who were just plain interested in the industry are weighing in on a topic via social media that has notoriously shut its doors to anyone deemed an outsider.
• In the past six months, the amount of fashion insiders embracing social media has skyrocketed. The Fashion Industry has adopted social media as a marketing platform to reach their customers online & reignite brand passion and customer loyalty.
• By letting the public behind the fashion influencer curtain, stalwarts and luminaries have created and connected to an entirely new audience, and capitalized on the 400 million Facebook users and more than 22 million Twitter users.
• Von Furstenberg is one of the most beloved and popular designers on Twitter having over 22,000 followers. The viral marketing capabilities of re-tweeting by this targeted group is something an advertising budget cannot buy. Within the last year of having a major online and social media presence, von Furstenberg’s online traffic has increased by 13% and sales “have been great” according to a source in the corporate offices of DvF.
• Victoria’s Secret, has 2.63 million fans on Facebook and 1.7 million for Pink – thorough which the brand is able to connect with their customers and monetize on it through awareness, loyalty and engagement.

Fashion Industry Uses Location-Based Marketing

Marc Jacobs partnership with Foursquare

• Fashion giant Marc Jacobs used location-based services Foursquare to deliver its brand messages to its customers.
• For Fashion Week 2010, the brand decided to go beyond just digitally streaming their runway shows. It took the online interactions offline through Foursquare.
• Marc Jacobs and Foursquare created the “Fashion Victim” badge, which allowed Fashion Week attendees (and others) to “check-in” at any Marc by Marc Jacobs stores in New York and around the country to unlock the badge. Four people who unlocked the badge in New York were randomly chosen to receive tickets to the Marc Jacobs show. The partnership provided both Marc Jacobs and Foursquare with word of mouth marketing.
• Foursquare and other location-based services like Loopt and Gowalla offer retailers the opportunity to increase in-store visits and foot traffic. If executed well, these location-enhanced shopping experiences can translate into improved customer loyalty, referrals, and sales, both online and offline.
• Tasti D-Lite the frozen dessert chain popular in New York ,rolledout TastiRewards a rewards program that incentivizes customers to associate their Twitter and Foursquare accounts with their Tasti D-Lite membership cards. By syncing their loyalty programs with Foursquare, they’re enabling frequent shoppers to share their recent purchases with their communities. When a user posts shopping tips or deals at a particular location, that post is essentially an advertising impression on Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook.

Getting Cozy in Communities – Social Media Strategies

The majority of the industry thought this would tarnish brand image if they engaged in social media. Now almost every brand or retailer, from American Apparel, Sears and JCPenney, to Oscar De La Renta and Louis Vuitton, have created a presence in several social communities.

Creating Niche Communities – Social Media Strategies

• Fashion Brands are experimenting with development of their own social networks or even invitation-only communities. Luxury brands Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel and Burberry have launched their own social networks or added social components to their existing web sites
• niche communities such as Weardrobe (recently purchased by Like.com), Modepass, and Lookbook.Nu,have yielded impressive ROI, as their audiences are more likely to become loyal customers

Embracing Mobile Applications – Social Media Strategies

• Fashion Brands have taken to developing apps via iPhone in a big way.
• Chanel shows its runway collections via iPhone app, and the Gilt Groupe app allows users to shop sample sales and receive alerts as to when sales are starting.
• StyleCaster’s app lets users access style tips, individually customize news feeds and fashion trends, and houses a large online retail catalog of brand-name clothing.
• JustLuxe is a digital global concierge company whose extremely interactive app comes with over 1,000 member benefits. Utilizing GPS, the app will recommend participating restaurants and hotels in the user’s area. It’s the first style-oriented app that leverages location-based mobile marketing

The Rise of Style Bloggers – Social Media Strategies

In 2009, bloggers had an enormous impact on fashion, affecting everything from print publishing to how brands market themselves online. There are thousands of style-related blogs on the web these days, and those dedicated to their craft have earned industry recognition.

The Impact of User-Generated Content – Social Media Strategies

• User-generated content is key to social media and fashion. From blogs to Facebook photo contributions to product reviews – user-generated content is where it’s at.
• More brands are realizing the collective power of their customers’ networks by encouraging fan contributions.
• One of the most notable and consistent campaigns built around user-generated content and social engagement has been from the brand Charlotte Russe. The brand’s weekly trivia contest on Twitter drives followers to the web site or YouTube channel with the hope of snagging some excellent prizes (the brand recently gave away a jacket worn on Gossip Girl).
• Charlotte Russe is running “Be The Next Charlotte Russe Design Star” a t-shirt design contest where the winner will have his or her shirt produced and sold online. A fashion-filled trip to NYC is also included
• Another great example of user-generated content used in conjunction with a niche network is Burberry’s Art of the Trench site.

The Impact of Bloggers on New York Fashion Week

New York Fashion Week Feb10 Social Conversations

• In past 30 days leading to the NY fashion week , there have been 15,996 online articles, blog posts, tweets and discussions on New York Fashion Week 2010.
• Fashion Week Trends In Real-Time: 45% of NYFW participants used Twitter to discuss events. From models to designers, PR gurus to celebrities, people tweeted and twitpic’d their experiences.
• Fashion Week Is Written In-Real Time : 53% of the coverage came from online articles and blog posts occurring between 2/13/2010 to 2/20/2010. As magazines posted photos and commentary of shows, bloggers were hot on the heels, reblogging, writing and linking to photos and trend information as they were released.
• Established news outlets led real-time coverage: Bloggers used the CUT blog, New York magazine and Coutorture as their main fashion week news sources. NY Mag and Coutorture are established, mainstream fashion resources.

Google Nexus, Motorola Droid & i1, iPhone… the list grows, while I am in love with my highly customized Palm Pre Tero Pro Windows Mobile Phone.

HTC EVO 4G: Sprint’s First WiMAX Phone just joinged the list. The phone has 1GHz processor and 512 MB RAM.

The way the processing power is increasing in Cell-Phones, we could soon see laptops passing into oblivion.

Sometime back I stumbled upon like “Trololo” viral video meme singing a lyric less song with the Soviet singer Eduard Khil.

The same Russian Singer’s “Trololo” Meme got an iPhone App dedicated to him.

Link of App – http://bit.ly/d8rQo4

Link of Song – http://bit.ly/cRQWcB

Making my first post from Windows Live Writer.
Why should I post log on twitter, when I make mirco blog-posts on my own Blog; blogging would be hopefully less cumbersome when using Windows Live Writer.

Big Bazaar refuses to keep baggage of their customers – has a dedicated counter to help you if you have shopped from competitors

Do you know Big Bazaar at Ambiance Mall, Gurgaon won’t accept your baggage shopped from their store at their baggage deposit box, but would gladly entertain you when accept good purchased at Reliance Hyper, Vishal Megamart … almost anything as long it doesn’t contain any explosive material [...I am not sure if they even check the bags before accepting it]. Read on.

I had a enlightening moment while shopping at FutureBazaar – Big Bazaar at Ambiance Mall, Gurgaon. I had shopped 3 bag-full of grocery at the store known for its discounted goods. After I came out I realized I had missed a couple of important of items. I went to their baggage deposit counter to keep the bags filled with stuff I had purchased from the store. To my horror the Big Bazaar staff told me that he can’t deposit the bag as it is from Big Bazaar. I reasoned with them that I have to purchase some extra items from the store (in my world a new customer means possibility of a new pay-hike) but this failed to register into his logical calculative mind and he asked me to talk to customer care cell.

The bespectacled young guy was even more pain in *** (in you know what)!

Customer Care Rep: Why would you need to go back into the store since you have already bought a lot of stuff?
Ankit (Trying to retain my temper): I have to buy a couple of items which I forgot to buy earlier. For doing that I have to keep the bags at baggage drop box.

Customer Care Rep: What do you want to buy! You can keep the stuff in your vehicle Or keep at some other store and return.
Ankit (Now irritated): Food Items, … On second thought, I don’t want to discuss this further, my guess is you don’t want me to shop from Big Bazaar.

That made me think – why do I go through the pain of visiting these dim witted people at first place. Saving money and getting a bargain is not on top of my daily agenda. Maybe next time I would pay visit to my friendly neighborhood general sunny general store who bores me with his irritating jokes but still is pleasantly antiquate in keeping the stuff I require and helping me out by constantly going out of way. Hail! IQ.

Food for thought – Is this why Human Relationships work where Machines and Big Corporations fail!

Analysis of ULIP’s which Gurantee Highest NAV in 7 Years – the Real Dark Hidden Facts and Frauds Behind Such Offerings

The catch and the real story behing ULIP or Life Insurance Investment schemes which gurantee HIGHEST NAV in 5,6,7 Years is explained below. Though these schemes look attractive with tag-lines like ‘Highest NAV Guaranteed’ there is a nice story behind it. Read it ON to get the complete picture.

What the investor thinks?

It gives the impression that one will participate in the equity market growth. That of course is not the case. What a company guarantees is the highest value of it’s own NAV. For guaranteeing the NAV they will have to invest in debt products whose maturity value is equal to the guaranteed value.

How these kind of products work ?

These products use Constant Proportion Portfolio Insurance concept. Here, the portfolio is managed and allocated dynamically between debt and equity in a way that the highest NAV attained is locked by moving a portion of equity assets to debt, whose maturity value will be equal to highest NAV attained till then. Over a period of time, equity assets are bound to move to debt. The reverse however may not be possible as when equity markets fall, it may not be possible to move debt funds to equity as they may be locked in to assure highest NAV.

So, what is good about the product?

• Firstly, it offers capital guarantee from day 1. You are assured that you will get your principal back.
• Secondly, you are assured of whatever growth happens in it’s portfolio, in terms of NAV. For risk averse investors, it is a major source of comfort as they know that the principal is safe and any growth in NAV is locked in (something like the concept of reversionary bonus in traditional policies).
• Thirdly, one is taking advantage of equity exposure in the beginning and overtime it is shifting to debt – which is inline with lifestage requirements, to an extent. But here the change will be much faster to debt.
• Fourthly, it can be treated as a debt oriented product which will give some returns with an equity kicker in the earlier years. It is like a hybrid product like MIP, with the difference that the equity portion comes down over time.

What are the downsides?

• In one word – Charges! Let us take the case of LIC Wealth Plus. For a regular premium payment between Rs 20,000 to Rs.2 Lakhs, the Premium Allocation charges is 12.5%, in the first year and 2.5%pa thereafter. Policy Administration Charges is Rs.60/-pm in the first year, Rs 25 pm from the second year onwards, escalating at 3% pa. Fund Management Charge is 1%pa and 0.35% pa is the Guarantee charge. The charges in most products will be on similar lines. This does not look that cheap for a fund that will eventually be a debt fund in the later years.
• There is nothing stopping the fund manager from having a substantial debt component even in the earlier years, as the mandate in such products is that they can hold 0- 100% in Debt or equities.
• Those thinking that they will participate in the upsides of the Equity market will be disappointed as this category of product assures highest NAV of the fund itself.
• This then turns out to be a product that has a fairly long maturity – at least 3 years or more. For a return that is expected to be somewhat higher than a debt product, locking in for long periods makes no sense.
• Guarantee of highest NAV is applicable only at maturity, not otherwise. This clause immediately makes the product less attractive as it is a long duration product. Any withdrawals in between for any exigencies, beats the whole purpose of investing in such a product.

You have heard it all. You need to decide if it makes sense to invest in such a product.

While Bing might be claiming to get better click throughs on Search Ads, Google has again claimed the top spot in American Consumer Satisfaction Index.

In the quarterly rankings, conducted since 2000, all the major search engines/portals have improved their scores over time, with only Ask.com and AOL now below their highest historic rankings.

Overall, Google leads the pack, with an 86 percent satisfaction rating, the same as last year. Ranked number 2 is “all others” with 78 percent, up 2.6 percent from a year ago. AOL improved by 1.4 percent to a 70 percent satisfaction rating. (See chart for details).

The survey was conducted before the announcement of Microsoft’s Bing search engine as well as the deal that replaces Yahoo search with Bing.

Among the industries surveyed, Internet Portals & Search Engines did quite well, with an overall 83 percent satisfaction rate, up 3.8 percent from last year, based on the strong showing by “all others” and the 1.4 percent improvement by AOL.

Examples of Corporate Social Media Strategies

I recently spoke at a regional event organized to decipher social media marketing. The address dealth with variety of topics and touched various aspects of going social, ranging from how to get started, tracking tools, history, pros and cons and how to measure the impact.

I discussed some tactics to get your company better engaged with social media. To start with I have assembled this list of more than 35 companies who are experimenting with social media in a host of different ways.

If you have other examples of corporate social media engagement, please share them in the comments.

Blendtec is famous for its bevy of inexpensive “Will It Blend” videos posted on YouTube and shared by millions.

Adobe maintains a list of interesting company related websites and conversations on the social bookmarking site Delicious.

Best Western sponsors a blog,”On the Go with Amy,” where the author travels the country writing about her experiences.

Cadence recently relaunched its website that now prominently promotes the company’s community.

Cisco hosts 12 blogs addressing a variety of audiences for their global business.

Coca-Cola Conversations is a blog written by company historian Phil Mooney that focuses on Coke collectibles.

Dell leverages a variety of social media platforms for customer engagement, including an island in the virtual world of Second Life.

Ford publishes news releases with lots of multimedia content and employs a social media news release format to display them in their newsroom.

Fujifilm recently launched a social network to build a community of photo enthusiasts around its newest camera.

GM uses blogs to communicate directly with its customers around topics ranging from design to green tech.

H&R Block created a Facebook fan site to aggregate its social media activities, engage customers and offer tax advice/resources.

HP used Twitter to power a scavenger hunt at a recent conference.

HSBC built the HSBC Business Network to connect entrepreneurs using blogs, videos and forums.

IBM was the first large enterprise to embrace employee blogging and now boasts thousands of blogs related to every facet of its business.

Intel has also developed many social media touch points with its software communities, which includes blogs, Twitter and virtual worlds.

Intuit sponsors the Tax Almanac wiki, where anyone can find and contribute to this resource for tax information.

Jeep connects with customers via a community page with links to photos on Flickr, the company’s MySpace and Facebook pages and a list enthusiast groups.

JetBlue employs social media as part of its training for JetBlue University, as this video explains.

Johnson & Johnson uses this blog to show another side of the company, with frequent video posts and interviews.

Lenovo launched “Voices of the Olympics Games” to aggregate posts from the athletes competing in Beijing.

Marriott CEO Bill Marriott posts regular updates and stories from his travels to Marriott properties around the world to fuel the content for this entertaining blog.

McDonalds maintains a blog to highlight the company’s corporate social responsibility efforts.

National Geographic uses Google’s new virtual world, Lively, to bring people together around its new show, LA Hard Hats.

New York Times is beta testing a Firefox add-on that allows users to share and comment on stories through a decentralized social network.

Nike started a social community on Loopd to connect athletes interested in surfing, BMX bike racing and similar activities with the brand.

SAP sponsored a global survey of social media professionals to learn more about social media worldwide.

Sears partnered with MTV to create a social network around Back to School shopping.

Southwest Airlines employees share their stories and communicate directly with customers through the “Nuts About Southwest” blog.

Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz’s blog is the example most often cited for what the CEO blog can be.

Starbucks started MyStarbucksIdea so that customers can submit ideas for the company which are then voted on by other users, the best of which will be implemented by the company.

Toyota started its own virtual world to promote its products in Japan (site is in Japanese).

Visa launched The Visa Business Network application on Facebook to connect small business users and to help them promote their businesses to a larger community.

Wells-Fargo blogs target two audiences; one examines the company’s history and the other is for students interested in getting their finances in order.

WWE has a Facebook application, among other social networking tools and widgets, to bring fans closer to the action.

Xerox blogs address several of the company’s core B2B constituencies.

Zappos uses Twitter for employees to communicate with Zappos customers about their shared love of footwear.

Google has unveiled, of what is being perceived as a next major overhaul of their search engine indexing algorithm and named it Caffeine. Google has also providing a developer preview of the working variant of this new engine. Post and comments from Matt Cutts suggest that Google’s Caffeine update primarily deals with the way Google indexes, crawls and ranks the pages of websites.

“It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions,” says a joint post from engineers Matt Cutts and Sitaram Iyer. “Web developers and power searchers might notice a few differences, so we’re opening up a web developer preview to collect feedback.”

While the biggest visible changes in Microsoft’s re-launched search engine, Bing, are user-interface; Google is working towards retaining the user-interface and overhauling the mechanism of indexing pages.

In blog-sphere, opinions differ on how the new algorithm effects the Google’s Caffeine update affects the algorithm. For the sample searches I did there are some notable differences in the way results appear.

For instance a search for “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” on the current engine and the developer preview [http://www2.sandbox.google.com/] of Caffeine provided by Google and came back with mixed views.

Current Engine shows News Results on the Top, Videos towards the mid and Images towards the mid.

Caffeine Engine shows us News Results on the Top, Videos towards the Bottom and Images ignored.

We don’t find many User Interface or cosmetic changes.

What apparently changes is:

• Number of results
• Time taken to pull them out
• The position/ranks of results is apparently different, more so on second and consequent pages

We shall find more disambiguates as people dig deeper. One thing is for sure, this news is going to create quiet an anxiety in the webmaster communities.