Shruti Speak's

The first ball in the Indian e-commerce game has been bowled. But was it a no ball? While believers celebrate each new round of investment poured into e-commerce startups, cynics are crying hoarse that the boom will pretty soon go bust. In a free-wheeling chat with ET, Rajan Anandan, head of Internet giant Google's India operations -- quite obviously a believer -- makes a spirited argument endorsing the view that e-commerce is booming in India. Once again. To build his argument, Anandan takes a trip down memory lane and points out that the world's largest online retailer Amazon.com went public in 1997 when there were merely 50 million internet users worldwide. India crossed 100 million users last year despite poor internet penetration and sluggish internet speed. It is a big number, says Anandan because it makes India the third largest internet market in the world by number of users. "Our estimates are that on an average, these 100 million spend about 16 hours a we

E-commerce - the term sounds nearly old-fashioned by now. Aren't we all doing our shopping online? Well, no. E-commerce is still puny. By some estimates it makes up a mere 5% of all retail. But it is growing rapidly. Some of the data points are startling: The Chinese online market place Taobao, for example, sells 800 items a second . German car maker Volkswagen deals with its suppliers online, in a business-to-business market that turns over 2bn euros a year. E-commerce 1.0 was all about discovering the web and setting up the first online shops. They were imitations of the offline world, with virtual shelves providing breadth and depth of product. Version 2.0 saw these websites transformed into clever multimedia portals that tried to engage users. They were not just about "pull" , where shoppers searched for a specific product and bought it, they were also "push" - convincing customers to snap up that special deal, to follow an impulse, says Ms de R

With E-Commerce providing a perfect launchpad, companies are taking no chances in trying their hand in this arena as well. The use of online marketing has led to the elimination of many intermediaries, who would have otherwise led to the rise in the price of the goods provided by the companies. Due to this elimination, companies now could directly interact with its customers and exchange ideas for innovation. A significant amount of cost is saved for the company and at the same time, by interacting with the consumers, companies get to know the kind of products required by them and are able to satisfy their needs in a much better way. Here, I would like to mention about Michael Dell, the founder of Dell Computers. At the age of 19, when he started selling computers from his college room, little did anyone realize that this business idea would prove to be a boon to many companies. Proving all skeptics wrong, Dell went on to become one of the largest PC makers in the w

Advertising and marketing have become an essential part of the business world. If you have a good product or an efficient service to offer, you need to master the art of selling it. While some advertising agencies might stick to conventional advertising methods, most of the leading players are resorting to fresh and modern advertising methods. There is a new cult of modern advertisers who are experimenting with ideas that are truly modern and innovative! Newspaper advertisements and colored fliers are so passé! Say hello to the era of instant, quick, smart and out-of-the box ideas! If you still associate advertising with the newspaper ads, televisions ads or radio ads for that matter, then you definitely need a refresher course. So let's get started. The following are some of the modern ways of advertising: Door-hangers on doorknobs. If your target is geographically defined, such as a day care or grocery store, print a specific offer on door-hangers and place them on doorkno

SHAREWARE Shareware is software, which is made available with the right to redistribute copies, but it is stipulated that if one intends to use the software, often after a certain period of time, then a licence fee should be paid. Shareware is not the same thing as free and open source software (FOSS) for the two main reasons: 1.        The source are not   available 2.        Modification to the software is not allowed. The objective of shareware is to make the software available to try as many users as possible. This is done in order to increase prospective user’s will to pay for the software.  The software is distributed in binary form and often includes a built-in timed mechanism, which usually limits functionally after a trial period of usually one to three months.

FREEWARE The term freeware has no clear definition, but is generally used for software, which is available free of cost and which allows copying and further distribution, but not modification and whose source code is not available. Freeware should not be mistaken for open source or for free software. Freeware is distributing in binary form without any licensing fee.In some instances the right to use the software is limited to certain types of users, for instances, for private and non –commercial purposes.   Freeware is often used in marketing situations in order to sell additional products and to gain market advantages. One example is Microsoft Internet Explorer, which is made available as freeware. PROPREITORY SOFTWARE Proprietary software is the software that is neither open nor freely available. Its use is regulated and further distribution and modification is either forbidden or requires special permission by the supplier or vendor. Source code of propri

W3C W3C is a acronym for World Wide Web Consortium. W3C is responsible for producing the software standards for World Wide Web. The w3c was created in OCT 1994, to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by creating by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability.