19th August’ 2019: The Indian E-commerce market has been witnessing an impressive growth and increasing acceptance from millennial shoppers across the country. However, these platforms have lately attracted a lot of public criticism from both online shoppers and offline vendors. Shoppers are significantly victimized by large-scale counterfeiting while vendors are facing a massive fall in their sales due to heavy discounts offered on e-commerce platforms.
As highlighted in a recent LocalCircles survey report, one out of every five products sold on the e-commerce platforms appear to be phony. Segments like cosmetics and fragrances stand out to be the biggest victims of counterfeiting. The increasing presence of fake products on even the prominent e-commerce platforms not only engenders discomfort to shoppers but also comes as a threat to a brand’s image.
To address the existing e-commerce challenges, Digital Mall of Asia, managed by Yokeasia Malls, has coined a zero-commission business model, a one-of-a-kind innovative concept, scheduled to go live on January 1, 2020. While shopping in this new marketplace, customers will be able to check the product first before making the payment. In case of any issue, DMA will directly replace the product. This will eradicate large-scale counterfeiting and help brands restore trust and reliability in the shopper’s mind.
As the name suggests, brands leveraging this platform will only be liable to pay a fixed monthly rental to DMA without any commission. Moreover, offline brands integrating their inventories with DMA’s portal will further have the power to capitalize the strong local presence of physical retail stores. This will ensure faster order deliveries (2-24 hours) to end-customers. Most importantly, any online seller operating on DMA’s platform won’t be allowed to sell products without the consent of the brand.
Meanwhile, from the vendor’s perspective, DMA will significantly help them reduce overall costs as they will only require one physical store to cover a city instead of 5-7 stores, a practice that vendors follow at present. Additionally, the platform will offer immediate payment settlements to brands while ensuring transparency throughout their operations.
The new model will also give brands the exclusive rights to sell a particular product category or brand in their respective city. This will radically eliminate artificial hyper-competitiveness, something which is commonly experienced on major e-commerce platforms.
Rishabh Mehra, Managing Director, and CEO, Digital Mall of Asia said, “The increasing counterfeiting cases in the Indian e-commerce market is in the limelight at present. It not only troubles the shoppers but also demotes the brand. We must realize that there is no way to completely quash this problem. We can, however, address it through strong corrective measures. With DMA, we are aiming to achieve the same goal and prevent both shoppers and vendors from the on-going inconvenience while offering them seamless and innovative selling and shopping experiences.”
Aimed at replicating the feel of physical retail malls in the virtual space, this innovative the business model will create an immersive digital presence in a simulated environment while offering multiple visual and sensory elements to deliver seamless customer experiences. DMA’s ultimate objective is to offer brands a safe investment platform where they can sell products and get attractive returns while giving shoppers the power to own their data and define their online shopping experience.
