Grocers having small mo and pop type of shops at the street corner was always looked down upon in India. Buying and selling old papers and stuff was only for the uneducated and people without any optons.
Doing these online is cool and dreams are made of now a days. And why not? These start ups get obscene valuation, investments and make the founders filthy rich. This is new India. This is the time where a start up doesn't need to have a business model, doesnt have to make profits and just need to scale while burning money like there is no tomorrow.
It is not that things are not changing. Most of us arent afraid of making a online transaction now unlike few years back. Many of dont mind buying even electronics online now. Obviously the habit change was catalysed by the discounts and attractive incentives provided for online purchase.
The biggest challenge for snapdeal and flipkert is how they will ever make money? The day there is no differential in price and costs, consumers will go back to by from chains like Croma. If the online price is even slightly higher than those available in stores, consumer will stop romanticizing the convenience of buying online at a click.
I feel only the ones who will be able to make profit and self sustain the business will survive.
I dont think it is possible to make significant profit selling groceries and other life style products. The online stores save significantly on real estate but it that good enough to offset the cot of packaging, speed and logistics? It doesnt appear to be so.
So, we are witnessing a huge bubble in start ups in India and I predict the bubble will brust in next 3-5 years.
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