Capillary Technologies Appoints Ex-Jabong Marketing Head Soumajit Bhowmik as the Director of eCommerce

Capillary is an Omni-channel Engagement and Commerce Platform solutions company, enabling brands with digital transformation and ROI-led customer engagement solutions today announced the appointment of Soumajit Bhowmik as the company’s new Director of E-commerce.

In his new role, Bhowmik will assume the responsibility of working towards creating integrated ecommerce solutions for clients ranging from CRM to Ecommerce platform to extensive Digital Marketing with measurable KPIs, to support every stage of customer lifecycle - acquisition, activation, reactivation and win back. He will also be driving Capillary's attempts to move the ecommerce business from a platform play to an ROI play model.

Prior to joining Capillary Technologies, he served as the Head of Marketing at Jabong.com, managing the e-commerce portal’s complete performance marketing suite. During his stint, Jabong became Gross Profitable in May 2016, and saw massive improvements in performance metrics.

An entrepreneur at heart, passionate about creative designing and digital marketing, Bhowmik started a few startups soon after graduating from college, including the Indian and Kuwait branches of sCubes Inc, AdWize, an experiential digital marketing and branding solutions company and few web startups like RowdyAuto.in, FundorasBox, etc.

Speaking on the appointment, Soumajit Bhowmik, Director of E-commerce, Capillary Technologies, commented, “I am extremely excited to join Capillary Technologies. The company today is a market leader in Omni-channel customer engagement and commerce space and being an agile and innovation driven company with the startup DNA still at its very core, Capillary is all set to ride the growth matrix in the coming times.”

Speaking on the appointment, Aneesh Reddy, CEO and Co-founder, Capillary Technologies, commented, “It will be an understatement to say that Asia is at the cusp of digital revolution where customer is the focus. Brands are expecting to garner 10-15% of their revenues through digital. We acquired MartJack, which is now Asia’s leading Omni-channel platform. We recently bought Sellerworx, which helps brands to manage marketplace operations and omni-channel order management. The missing piece was the “demand” side – digital marketing – where we help our customers get quality traffic and in-turn revenues. We are convinced that ROI-led digital marketing practice will fundamentally transform our customers’ business. This will strengthen our promise of 3600 customer transformation for marquee brands. We are excited to welcome Bhowmik to Capillary and we believe his deep expertise in digital space coupled with his analytical and creative strengths will help us leapfrog in digital marketing space.”

Soumajit Bhowmik is a graduate from IIT Kharagpur and holds a Senior Diploma in Fine Arts. He is an avid speaker and spoke at coveted platforms such as the Oracle CloudWorld Summit this year, and at the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) meet in Delhi.

Capillary Technologies’ is focused towards empowering and enabling retailers and consumer brands to increase their customer reach, engagement levels, sales volume and loyalty through a state-of-the-art Omni-channel Engagement and Commerce suite.

Image : Capillary's Founders

Myntra Acquires Jabong to Create India’s Biggest Fashion Shopping Destination

Myntra, a Flipkart Group company, today announced the acquisition of Jabong from Global Fashion Group to create India’s biggest fashion shopping destination. The acquisition of Jabong further strengthens Flipkart Group’s position as the undisputed leader in Fashion and Lifestyle segment in India. The financial details are still undisclosed.

Jabong is among India’s major fashion multi-brand e-store with more than 1500 on-trend international high-street brands, sports labels, Indian ethnic and designer labels and over 150,000 styles from over a thousand sellers. Myntra and Jabong are all set to define the next generation of online shopping with a combined base of 15 million monthly active users and offering the best of brands to Indian consumers. Some of the most iconic global brands  that will be exclusive to both the platforms include Dorothy Perkins, Topshop, Tom Tailor, G Star Raw, Bugatti Shoes, The North Face, Forever 21, Swarovski, Timberland and Lacoste.

Myntra is India's leading platform for fashion brands and pioneer in m-commerce play. The company has partnered with over 2000 leading fashion and lifestyle brands in the country such as Nike, Adidas, Puma, Levis, Wrangler, Arrow, Jealous 21, Diesel, CAT, Harley Davidson, Ferrari, Timberland, US Polo, FabIndia, Biba and many more to offer a wide range in latest branded fashion and lifestyle wear. It services over 19,000 pin codes across the country.

Binny Bansal, CEO and Co-Founder, Flipkart said, “Fashion and lifestyle is one of the biggest drivers of ecommerce growth in India.  We have always believed in the fashion and lifestyle segment and Myntra’s strong performance has reinforced this faith. This acquisition is a continuation of the group’s journey to transform commerce in India. I am happy that we will now be able to offer to millions of customers a wide variety of styles, products and a broad assortment of global as well as Indian brands”

According to Ananth Narayanan, CEO, Myntra, “Jabong has built a strong brand that is synonymous with fashion , a loyal customer base and a unique selection with exclusive global brands. The acquisition of Jabong is a natural step in our journey to be India’s largest fashion platform. We see significant synergies between the two companies especially on brand relationships and consumer experience.  We look forward to working with the talented Jabong team to shape the future of fashion and lifestyle ecommerce in India.”

A couple of days back, Global Fashion Group (GFG), the parent of loss-making Indian fashion portal Jabong, has added €30 million ($33 million or Rs 222 crore) to its latest fundraise to take the total amount secured from its existing investors to €330 million ($364 million).

Germany’s Rocket Internet SE invested €68 million and Swedish investment firm Kinnevik put in €161 million in this round.

Jabong Chief Product Officer Saurabh Goel Quits and Flipkart Brings Back Old Hands in Turnaround Efforts

Jabong chief product officer Saurabh Goel has quit the company to launch his own venture while Flipkart chief executive Binny Bansal is trying to bring old Flipkart hands back to Indian eCommerce company.

Jabong CPO Saurabh Goel Quits, To Launch His Own Venture

Jabong chief product officer Saurabh Goel has quit the company to launch his own venture in the financial technology space after serving almost eight months in the company. The company is looking out for a CPO and recently appointed chief operating officer Muralikrishnan B is directly overseeing this role for the moment.

Goel confirmed the development adding that his startup, Prosperx.com, will be launched in July. It will be a marketplace for financial products like mutual funds, insurance etc.

“I saw this opportunity and it was the right time, fin-tech is ready for disruption,” said Goel.

In February, Saurabh Srivastava, the chief marketing officer who was also hired last year around the same time, quit the company. Srivastava was brought in from mobile wallet firm Mobikwik.

Flipkart Brings Back Old Hands in Turnaround Efforts

Flipkart chief executive Binny Bansal is trying to bring old Flipkart hands back to Indian eCommerce company. At least three former senior Flipkart executives are back at the company under Binny Bansal, who replaced Sachin Bansal—now executive chairman—as chief executive officer in January.

Kalyan Krishnamurthy has joined Flipkart in his earlier role as head of categories. Krishnamurthy, an executive at Flipkart’s largest investor Tiger Global Management, was at first interim chief financial officer and then categories head, before leaving the company in November 2014.

Flipkart also bought PhonePe, a mobile payments startup, earlier this year to get its founders and former Flipkart executives, Sameer Nigam and Rahul Chari, back to the company,

Bansal also tried to bring back Vaibhav Gupta, a former senior finance executive, but Gupta isn’t joining Flipkart and started his own venture with two other former Flipkart executives.

Image Source: ShutterStock

Jabong Appoints Rahul Taneja As the Company’s Chief Business Officer

Jabong has announced the appointment of Rahul Taneja as the company’s Chief Business Officer. He will report directly to the CEO, Sanjeev Mohanty and will be responsible for overseeing Category management, pricing, creative campaigns and offline / brand marketing. This is the fifth top management appointment in Jabong under the leadership of Sanjeev.

An alumnus of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB), Rahul comes with over 14 years of experience inaccelerating teams & businesses at Fortune 500 organizations such as Procter & Gamble, PepsiCo and Philips. He has led sales and profit growth across large brands such as Lay's India, and has ramped up small businesses such as Home Lighting India and Rang7.com. Prior to joining Jabong, he was the VP, Head - Category Management at Snapdeal.

Sanjeev Mohanty, CEO and Managing Director, Jabong, said, “Rahul has a tremendous ability to manage categories and build brands. With his addition to the leadership team, we can now focus on growing the business using core category strengths instead of discounts as a lever and bring in consumer focus on growth categories which could result in profitable growth. I am very sure that Jabong now has one of the best e commerce teams in the country with a very balanced, online and offline experience and a very diverse background in scaling businesses profitability. This now completes the leadership hiring which directly reports to me. We are now ready to go full throttle on the task at hand."

Jabong had recently announced the appointment of Muralikrishnan B as its Chief Operating Officer and Deepa Chadha as its Chief Human Resource Officer. The company had previously strengthened its leadership by appointing Ranjan Kant as Chief Marketplace Officer and Kalyan Kumar as Chief Merchandising Officer.

Jabong is one of the six fashion eCommerce brands within Global Fashion Group (GFG), the world’s leading fashion eCommerce group for emerging markets that operates across 28 countries. As India’s leading online fashion destination, Jabong is a one-stop shop that offers a wide selection of over 350k products across its footwear, apparel, jewellery and accessories categories. From home grown to exclusive international brands to designer labels, Jabong brings to its customers the latest trends across the globe. Jabong, founded in 2011, is based out of Gurgaon and employs around 800 people.

Image Source: ShutterStock

Flipkart & Others Fined Rs 54-crore Penalty By Kerala

Ecommerce companies seem to have caught the eye of the governments down south and that too, not in a good way. The Kerala state government recently fined a slew of ecommerce retailers to the tune of Rs. 54 Crore for evasion of sales tax in the financial years 2012-13 and 2013-14. This step taken by the Kerala government comes close on the heels of the news of the Karnataka government banning Amazon India from selling electronics and a few other products from its warehouse in the state.

The companies that were fined by the Kerala government include Jabong; Robemall Apparels, company behind garment retailer Zovi.com; Flipkart; and Vector E-commerce, which has a stake in Mynta.com. Flipkart faced the maximum brunt with a fine of Rs. 47.15 crore. Meanwhile, Jabong.com was fined Rs. 3.89 crore, Vector E-commerce Rs. 2.23 crore and Robemall Apparels Rs. 36 lakh.

Ecommerce retailers like Snapdeal, Jabong, Flipkart and Myntra had stopped their delivers to some cities of Kerala last year as their cash on delivery (COD) mode was banned by the state’s commercial taxes department. The companies resumed their services and COD mode after sometime but according to the officials at the commercial tax department, the ban hasn’t been lifted and is very much in place.

The Kerala commercial tax department has plans of making the swoopdown on other ecommerce retailers in the future. According to a senior official of the department, “Since the online retail firms do not have brick-and-mortar showrooms, their websites will be treated as showrooms that display products and prices. If the products are sold to local customers, regional taxes will be applicable. All transactions are taxable.”

According to the state’s commercial tax department, the online retail falls under the purview of the definition of business, trade, goods, and sales as per the Kerala Value Added Tax Act 2003, General Clauses Act 1897, Transfer of Property Act 1882 and Sales of Good Act 1930. The Kerala government is quite confident of its win even if the companies fined decide to knock the doors of the court. Offline traders in the state have also complained about the sales tax evasion by the online players.

"Every day, at least Rs.10 crore worth of products are sold by online retailers. Since they can evade the state’s tax net, they can pass on discounts to the tune of 16% to the customer in the state. They do business at the opportunity cost of offline traders, who also have to cough up on overhead costs like showroom and staff wages," said, E Binny, president of the Kerala Samsthana Vyapari Vyvasayai Samithi in a statement to The Financial Express.

On the other hand, a statement from a Flipkart spokesperson said: "It is our endeavor to be transparent in all our dealings with authorities. We are compliant with the laws of the land in which we operate and will work together with the authorities to ensure that there are no information gaps between us."

Flipkart & Others Fined Rs 54-crore Penalty By Kerala

Ecommerce companies seem to have caught the eye of the governments down south and that too, not in a good way. The Kerala state government recently fined a slew of ecommerce retailers to the tune of Rs. 54 Crore for evasion of sales tax in the financial years 2012-13 and 2013-14. This step taken by the Kerala government comes close on the heels of the news of the Karnataka government banning Amazon India from selling electronics and a few other products from its warehouse in the state.

The companies that were fined by the Kerala government include Jabong; Robemall Apparels, company behind garment retailer Zovi.com; Flipkart; and Vector E-commerce, which has a stake in Mynta.com. Flipkart faced the maximum brunt with a fine of Rs. 47.15 crore. Meanwhile, Jabong.com was fined Rs. 3.89 crore, Vector E-commerce Rs. 2.23 crore and Robemall Apparels Rs. 36 lakh.

Ecommerce retailers like Snapdeal, Jabong, Flipkart and Myntra had stopped their delivers to some cities of Kerala last year as their cash on delivery (COD) mode was banned by the state’s commercial taxes department. The companies resumed their services and COD mode after sometime but according to the officials at the commercial tax department, the ban hasn’t been lifted and is very much in place.

The Kerala commercial tax department has plans of making the swoopdown on other ecommerce retailers in the future. According to a senior official of the department, “Since the online retail firms do not have brick-and-mortar showrooms, their websites will be treated as showrooms that display products and prices. If the products are sold to local customers, regional taxes will be applicable. All transactions are taxable.”

According to the state’s commercial tax department, the online retail falls under the purview of the definition of business, trade, goods, and sales as per the Kerala Value Added Tax Act 2003, General Clauses Act 1897, Transfer of Property Act 1882 and Sales of Good Act 1930. The Kerala government is quite confident of its win even if the companies fined decide to knock the doors of the court. Offline traders in the state have also complained about the sales tax evasion by the online players.

"Every day, at least Rs.10 crore worth of products are sold by online retailers. Since they can evade the state’s tax net, they can pass on discounts to the tune of 16% to the customer in the state. They do business at the opportunity cost of offline traders, who also have to cough up on overhead costs like showroom and staff wages," said, E Binny, president of the Kerala Samsthana Vyapari Vyvasayai Samithi in a statement to The Financial Express.

On the other hand, a statement from a Flipkart spokesperson said: "It is our endeavor to be transparent in all our dealings with authorities. We are compliant with the laws of the land in which we operate and will work together with the authorities to ensure that there are no information gaps between us."

Jabong to launch instant refunds for cash-on-delivery returns

Cash on delivery (COD), sometimes called collect on delivery, is the sale of goods by mail order where payment is made on delivery rather than in advance. COD has become popular in India with emerging online retailers as many Indians prefer to pay in cash traditionally since there is no risk of not receiving the product from the online retailer when the payment is done beforehand.

Top Indian e-commerce companies such as Flipkart, Myntra, Amazon, Snapdeal are pioneering this COD concept to attract more customers. Jabong however going one steap ahead of it by launching instant refunds for cash-on-delivery returns. Jobaong delivery person will come with bundle of currency notes to instantly pay back customers whenever they want to return a packet.

Starting this week, Jabong will begin giving Cash-On-Delivery customers in Delhi instant cash at their doorstep even as the delivery guys pick up return packets. In the coming months, Jabong plans to take this initiative across the country. It was the COD system that helped ecommerce companies gain major traction in a country dominated by traditional retailing values.

E-commerce portal's customers in India are usually find COD as convenient way purchase online, but they also complain that whenever they wanted to return a product, it often took them long to get their money back. Jabong is solving this problem and its definitely give Jabong edge over its competitors.

The company which will be managing the cash payments for Jabong is - Gojavas. Gojavas has been testing its instant cash payment system — called GoRupiah — in Delhi for four months and now says it is ready to actually roll it out starting in the Capital. The company has already formed a reverse-logistics team of around 250. Gojavas says Jabong, after clearing a refund, will transfer money into a separate account of Gojavas and the delivery company will pay the consumer.

Refund Policies of different e-commerce sites in India

Amazon India takes 3-5 days for refunds via online trasnfer or COD and 10-15 days for refunds through cheques.

Flipkart takes around 7-10 days for refunds of payments on cancelled products purchased through its. Snapdeal also takes 7-10 days for refunds to bank accounts for COD csutomers.

Myntra however takes 15 days to refund to cusutomers.

State of E-Commerce in India - Flipkart-Myntra most visited sites with Total of 53.4million online shoppers

Comcast and ASSOCHAM's latest study conducted on the 'State of Ecommerce' in the country has thrown open some interesting facts about India’s internet usage and penetration of retail shopping using the digital medium in the country.

With more and more people becoming comfortable shopping online, the penetration of retail shopping using the digital medium has seen a massive increase of 65 percent in the country. According to Comcast and ASSOCHAM's report, the number of visitors on the shopping websites has increased to 53.4 million a month, which has resulted in an overall annual growth of 15 percent.

The report titled 'State of Ecommerce in India' also revealed that cosmetics, apparel, fragrances, health and home furnishings were the few categories which have had some growth in the past twelve years and out of these, apparel has seen the highest growth at 66 percent which is followed by cosmetics and fragrances at  12 percent.

According to the report, growth has come across in all retail categories and most of them show promising conversion rates and transactions along with increase in visitors.

The report also revealed one more interesting point, according to the report, the group of websites owned by Flipkart has taken the top position in the most visited retail sites of July 2014 with more than 26 million visitors in the month of July. Jabong acquired the second position with 23.5 million visitors and Amazon came in third at 16.9 million visitors.

The report also talked about the travel category and revealed that the category has seen an overall growth in all its sub categories which include online travel agents, car rental, airlines, and travel as well as hotel information websites.

According to the ‘State of Ecommerce in India’ report, the Indian Railways website with over 15 million unique visitors a month is among the most visited websites in the country. Cleartrip, Yatra and MakeMyTrip have an individual reach of 3.5, 7.6 and 8.9 % of the total online users respectively.

According to the report, India adds over seven million internet users among the BRIC nations and has the 3^rd fastest share in retail marketing.

 

State of E-Commerce in India - Flipkart-Myntra most visited sites with Total of 53.4million online shoppers

Comcast and ASSOCHAM's latest study conducted on the 'State of Ecommerce' in the country has thrown open some interesting facts about India’s internet usage and penetration of retail shopping using the digital medium in the country.

With more and more people becoming comfortable shopping online, the penetration of retail shopping using the digital medium has seen a massive increase of 65 percent in the country. According to Comcast and ASSOCHAM's report, the number of visitors on the shopping websites has increased to 53.4 million a month, which has resulted in an overall annual growth of 15 percent.

The report titled 'State of Ecommerce in India' also revealed that cosmetics, apparel, fragrances, health and home furnishings were the few categories which have had some growth in the past twelve years and out of these, apparel has seen the highest growth at 66 percent which is followed by cosmetics and fragrances at  12 percent.

According to the report, growth has come across in all retail categories and most of them show promising conversion rates and transactions along with increase in visitors.

The report also revealed one more interesting point, according to the report, the group of websites owned by Flipkart has taken the top position in the most visited retail sites of July 2014 with more than 26 million visitors in the month of July. Jabong acquired the second position with 23.5 million visitors and Amazon came in third at 16.9 million visitors.

The report also talked about the travel category and revealed that the category has seen an overall growth in all its sub categories which include online travel agents, car rental, airlines, and travel as well as hotel information websites.

According to the ‘State of Ecommerce in India’ report, the Indian Railways website with over 15 million unique visitors a month is among the most visited websites in the country. Cleartrip, Yatra and MakeMyTrip have an individual reach of 3.5, 7.6 and 8.9 % of the total online users respectively.

According to the report, India adds over seven million internet users among the BRIC nations and has the 3^rd fastest share in retail marketing.