IT enabler delivering Solutions through Software and Services. Products include Organization 360 – Integrated Enterprise Solution, Xpress Retail – Unique Retail Solution, Beacon – ERP for Microfinance. Services include Bespoke development, CIO Services, Enterprise Mobility, Infrastructure Services and CMS – Web design and development

IT enabler delivering Solutions through Software and Services. Products include Organization 360 – Integrated Enterprise Solution, Xpress Retail – Unique Retail Solution, Beacon – ERP for Microfinance. Services include Bespoke development, CIO Services, Enterprise Mobility, Infrastructure Services and CMS – Web design and development

As interest in food tech balloons, one area in particular appears to already be at the tipping point: Online and mobile food delivery. Over the last few days, we’ve hearing about a merger between two of the largest companies in the space. Rumor has it that “arch rivals” GrubHub and Seamless are in talks which could see them join forces as part of a merger. While our sources tell us that the talks are serious, the terms of the merger are not yet clear and, of course, any potential deal could fall through.

[The GrubHub-Seamless merger was officially announced by the companies this morning, confirming most of what we'd been hearing in advance. For more details, read our follow up post here.]

Furthermore, it’s not yet clear what kind of synergies would take place, how management of the new entity would be structured or even what the new business will be called. The two companies would not confirm on the record on any of the above. But as far as the name goes, we’re hoping for Grubless. Or Hubless GrubSeam. But they have a nice ring to them, don’t they?

If these rumors are true, the merger comes at a good time for the arch rivals, who have been seeing mounting competition of late from a laundry list of new startups entering the space, including increasingly popular alternatives like Delivery.com, ChowNow, Munchery (meals from local chefs), Campus Special, eat24 or the bigs of Europe, like Delivery Hero and Just-Eat.

If the online food-ordering and delivery market is roughly where daily deals were three-plus years ago, then the deal essentially creates the Groupon of food delivery. Like the daily deals market, food ordering has traditionally had a fairly low barrier to entry, which helps explain why we seem to see a new startup pop up every week.

Plus, the business model isn’t particularly complicated, making it replicable. That being said, innovation and tech adoption have been slow to come to the food industry, and, at scale, this model (taking a slice of transactions) has the potential to be able to generate a lot of cash.

This is just one part of why the “food tech” business has been so hot lately. Just ask venture capitalists who collectively poured $350 million into food startups over the last year. (Compare that to 2008, when it was less than $50 million.) Plus, when you get right down to it: People need to eat. And, as it turns out, people are pretty busy. Uh, and lazy.

Of course, for those who remember the spectacular failure of online food companies like Webvan, Kozmo and HomeRuns, this whole “tech in your kitchen” and online ordering jibber-jabber probably sounds familiar — and not in a good way. But this time it’s different. Research from Cornell University recently found, for example, that over 40 percent of adults in the U.S. have ordered food online, and 10 percent of restaurant orders now originate online — and these numbers continue to head north. GrubHub and Seamless have built successful businesses on this very idea.

Both GrubHub and Seamless have been around for some time: The New York City-based Seamless was founded in 1999, while the Chicago-based GrubHub got its start in 2004. And for the most part, the two companies have catered to two different markets geographically. While both now have fairly expansive coverage, GrubHub has naturally developed a firm foothold in the Midwest, while Seamless focused its early attention on NYC, before moving into cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco. From that perspective, a merger would make sense, allowing the new, consolidated entity to gain penetration into markets where they lacked a major presence.

Writ large, the companies, while having some fundamental differences, do seem to have a lot of synergies on paper — at least “nominally,” depending on who you ask — likely why they’ve increasingly become rivals over the years. Both are of fairly comparable size, as GrubHub has more than 18,000 restaurant partners across more than 500 cities, while Seamless has over 12,000 restaurants and serves nearly 5,000 businesses and more than 2 million users. As of February, Reuters reported that Seamless was on track to generate more than $100 million in revenue this year as it expands into new cities and focuses more aggressively on mobile.

The company reportedly generated $85 million in revenue last year, growing its consumer business by 60 percent year-over-year and “will soon be processing $1 billion worth of food orders a year,” Seamless CEO Jonathan Zabusky told Reuters at the time. For the majority of its history, the company focused primarily on New York, but launched a major expansion effort last year, bringing its service to 10 new cities. According to the report, Seamless saw its transaction volume quadruple in Los Angeles during 2012, with transactions tripling in San Francisco.

Another interesting point to note: GrubHub was reported to be considering an IPO last fall. The company denied the rumors at the time, and if this merger is true, then they’ve been given the proper perspective. Certainly, it would seem that this wouldn’t take a potential IPO off the table, instead, likely making an opening price that much higher.

The IPO rumors for GrubHub came at a time when the company was reportedly doing about $60 million in revenue (this was in 2012) — a little less than half that of Seamless. Furthermore, Crain’s reported in December that GrubHub’s revenue has been doubling every year and, as the company reported $30 million in revenue in 2011, that revenue estimate would make sense and put the company on the path to crossing $100 million well before the end of this year.

That is all to say that, although the terms of the potential deal are unclear, these are two sizable businesses that are growing relatively fast, so any potential valuation has got to be fairly high. After all: The two companies were fairly comparably capitalized and staffed, with GrubHub growing to over 250 employees and Seamless over 300, while GrubHub raised about $84 million from a mix of venture and growth equity firms (including Benchmark) and Seamless raised $51 million, $50 million of which came from private equity firm Spectrum Equity.

While both companies have made a couple of acquisitions, this would be the second big M&A deal for Seamless, as the company was acquired by food services giant, ARAMARK, in 2006. Five years later, Spectrum bought a minority stake in Seamless from ARAMARK, and about a year later, the food services company spun-off its remaining interest in Seamless to its shareholders. Free from its corporate ownership, Seamless proceeded to go out and buy MenuPages for $15 million, showing up GrubHub, which MenuPages had initially targeted as its acquirer. When GrubHub and MenuPages couldn’t agree to a deal, and it seems that GrubHub was instead in the process of buying Dotmenu/Allmenus, Seamless swooped in — according to BetaBeat.

So, as you can see, the companies have a long history of jostling. While GrubHub had been out acquiring restaurant partners fast and furiously, Seamless stagnated a bit under ARAMARK, but since becoming an independent company (again) and with a new board/investors, the company seems to have been compounding its growth. Together, that growth could be exponentially higher.

Finally, if this deal is in fact a go, it’s worth looking at this quote from GrubHub co-founder and CEO Matt Maloney from back in 2011. In it, he shares his opinion on GrubHub’s top competitor, a little company called Seamless. He told BetaBeat:

I typically don’t talk this much about Seamless because we don’t view them as incredibly strong competition for what we’re doing … Seamless fundamentally is a corporate catering business. They were founded years and years and years ago to do just that. And they’re still best in the business for corporate. They recently got into the consumer and residential pick-up and delivery. And they do it well in New York, but they really have zero business anywhere else. We don’t even consider them competition anywhere other than Manhattan specifically.

So, there you go. A match potentially made in heaven, and one that’s sure to shake up online and mobile food ordering if it happens.

Find Seamless at home here and GrubHub here.

A deal doesn’t seem imminent according to our sources, and may take the form of a strategic investment instead. But this much is true: now that Brian Lee has stopped the bleeding, everyone is trying to figure out what kind of future the once-scorching fast fashion shoe etailer has. Both the LA ecosystem and the subscription commerce industry that got its early proof points from ShoeDazzle are watching closely.

Several strategic acquirers including Aldo Shoes and Home Shopping Network (HSN) have indicated their interest in acquiring ShoeDazzle, our sources say. The biggest advantage from this type of deal would be the additional infrastructure and scale provided by a large strategic. An established legacy retailer could directly address several of the biggest obstacles to a younger company like ShoeDazzle, including costs related to customer acquisition, fulfillment, and merchandise returns. On the downside, there are culture and integration concerns to consider.

We also heard of a wild-card private equity rollup proposal involving ShoeDazzle, at least two other domestic and international companies in the space, and $150 million or so to make it all happen. With ShoeDazzle being the most established company in this rumored deal and itself being on shaky ground, the notion of integrating additional teams, brands, markets, and so on was apparently too much to make this one doable and this option has apparently been shelved.

The remaining option is an acquisition by another ecommerce player, most likely JustFab. We’ve heard that similar talks between the two companies have occurred on multiple occasions in the past, and now the timing could finally be right. Even though the two subscription shoe companies are crosstown rivals with a healthy distaste for one another, a deal makes the most sense out of all possible transactions. Not only is JustFab healthy enough and well enough capitalized to complete the deal – it crossed a $100 million revenue run rate late last year and raised a whopping $76 million in July – but it would presumably be the only deal that would give Lee the freedom to exit and focus full time on his other startup, The Honest Company. Lee, however, denies that running both companies is unsustainable.

The combined JustFab+ShoeDazzle would likely see a significant reduction in its customer acquisition costs. There would also be savings in terms of reducing duplicate overhead and through increased order volumes. Whether JustFab would keep the ShoeDazzle brand alive and target different demographics, or absorb the brand and members is less clear. Our sources say that if a deal between JustFab and ShoeDazzle is going to happen, expect it to close in the next 60 to 90 days.

Negotiations – and we use that term loosely – have been taking place at valuations between $50 million to $100 million, according to some sources, while others put the numbers higher. The range could vary significantly depending on the nature of the acquirer and the structure of the eventual transaction. Either way, it’s likely to fall short of the $240 million valuation ShoeDazzle garnered in its last round of financing, a $40 million Series C in May 2011. It wouldn’t be the outcome that ShoeDazzle’s founders and investors – not to mention the LA ecosystem – anticipated just 18 months ago when everyone thought they had a massive winner on their hands. But a deal in the near term may actually represent the best possible outcome, given the options that remain. But regardless of expectations, nine figure exits don’t grow on trees and it’s tough to write one off as an outright failure.

None of this should be overly surprising, given the challenges the company has faced, and for the most part, survived in the last 12 months, as well as the challenges that still lay ahead in a brutally competitive market. For a while, the Brian Lee-founded company was the highest-profile startup in Los Angeles, raising $66 million dollars from leading VCs and generating revenue and user growth curves that resembled a Mt. Everest peak. Then Lee Left, and his successor, Bill Strauss, launched an ill-advised business model change which all but killed the hot company. Revenue and membership fell sharply, and talent began to run for the exits.

According to both Lee and industry observers, ShoeDazzle has stabilized considerably he and founding president MJ Eng returned to the company in November. The company is not growing at anywhere near the rate it once was, if at all, but it’s no longer hemorrhaging users, revenue, or cash like it was at the end of the Strauss era either. The company’s currently the solid number two in the market according to our sources, with less revenue than JustFab and but significantly more than its nearest challenger BeachMint.

During our recent fireside chat with Brian Lee, he denied looking for an exit – both personally and for the company – and made a case for why he still sees a billion dollar opportunity ahead of ShoeDazzle. But this is what CEOs do. Lee acknowledged that the company would need to raise additional funding to grow and complete the turnaround, a daunting task in today’s ecommerce-phobic market, particularly for a struggling company that raised its last round at a $240 million valuation.

It’s never easy to know when to pull the ripcord and look for an exit. This is even more so when you’re a prominent and very public founder who’s staked their reputation to the success of a company. Brian Lee is nothing if not competitive and prideful in all the ways you want a founder to be. He’s absolutely not looking for an easy way out, but at the same time, if he thinks now is the right time for an exit, don’t expect him to hang on out of sentimentality. With the search and subsequent negotiations already dragging on for more than six months, if a transaction is coming it shouldn’t be long now.

[Brian Lee and ShoeDazzle lead investor Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment for this story. Andreessen Horowitz partners Marc Andreessen, Jeff Jordan, and Chris Dixon are individual investors in PandoDaily.]

One of the companies that I had heard quite a bit about is called RedBus.in, a service that has standardized and centralized India’s bus system. Having been to India before, I kind of laughed at the notion of that being possible, even after having read Sarah Lacy’s fantastic piece about them from two years ago. This was supposed to be one of the “ones,” the company that is supposed to make the investment world make the pilgrimage to Bangalore, India, which is about 18 hours worth of flights away from Silicon Valley.

I visited the RedBus offices, which don’t seem to have changed much since Lacy described them, but I did notice something new. I spent time in India two years ago, so trust me on this. It was a sign that happily announced that RedBus was hiring. It doesn’t sound like much – maybe a sign that the company is growing – but it was my first signal that something very special was happening in these offices.

Our entire “tour” packed into RedBus’ conference room, and once we were introduced to the team it didn’t feel like we were in India. We were in a successful startup’s office, and they were about to matter-of-factly explain to us why and how they’ve disrupted a system in a country that had no business being disrupted.

All aboard

Buses in India are a lifeline, along with manual and motorized rickshaws. There’s not much joyriding happening in this country; it’s very much a “point A to point B” proposition: A group of friends isn’t going out to a club; someone is going to the market to bring food back for the family. When it comes to travelling outside the city in which residents live, the bus is the only option.

There are thousands of buses. They’re cheap compared to trains and flights, and people will take a 23-hour bus ride from one side of the country to the other without batting an eyelash. Yes, 23 hours, and I just complained about 18 hours worth of flights from one side of the world to the other.

If someone were to tell me I had to sit on a bus, even with a few rest stops, for 23 hours, I’d probably have something that looked and felt like a panic attack. Throw in the fact that I wouldn’t know where to get the bus, whether the bus would be on time or show up at all or how much I’d have to pay for it.

Yes, it’s a stressful situation, yet India’s billion residents do it daily. In India, you can’t pull up an app and have a nice comfy car come pick you up and take you somewhere for a rate that won’t make you poor for a month or more.

India’s bus system is…India

Everything you’ve ever heard about India from trustworthy people is probably true. It’s a country of hustlers, trying to pay rent, put food on the table and make a good life for themselves and the people that they care about. When purchasing one of these bus tickets in the past, the experience is similar to walking into Burger King, ordering a hamburger and then being charged whatever the cashier feels like charging you. If you look hungry and desperate, that burger might cost you 10 bucks. That couldn’t happen in the United States, yet it happens in India every single day.

That’s the situation that RedBus saw as an opportunity. Without any standardization of pricing or centralization of routes, fares and information about the bus fleets, India’s bus system ran like the rest of the country tends to – in complete chaos.

Sure, there was a massive opportunity to make money and control the show here, but I found that RedBus has other motives that make it a truly special company, whether it’s based in Mountain View or Mumbai.

A Googler’s touch

We were given a basic demo of RedBus and shown some pretty interesting statistics on how far they’ve come since launching six years ago. But the meeting wasn’t led by its CEO. It was led by its Chief Product Officer, Alok Goel. Goel spent roughly three years at Google in India, focusing on geo and local, as well as becoming the head of mobile search and products after spending fewer than two years there. The most interesting part is that Goel joined RedBus in October of just last year.

As soon as he started speaking, I turned to my travel pal Sean Percival of Wittlebee and said “He clearly has a Google mind.” A Google mind is something I’ve noticed from current and former Googlers where they attack a problem as if they have all of the world’s resources at their fingertips, whether they have $1 or $1 billion. That type of moonshot thinking is what propels a startup into a world-class business.

RedBus.in growth chart over last 6 years — basically, hard-core pr0n 4 VCs instagr.am/p/V_LvdcGpTP/

—
Dave McClure (@davemcclure) February 21, 2013

Not only does RedBus want to be the only trustworthy source for purchasing bus tickets in India, it wants to be seen as a company that does “no evil” and truly cares about the people who use their service. Yes, Goel has that empathetic DNA that I’ve written about before. He knows that if he makes the purchasing experience a good one on the first try, then that person will be a customer for life. A customer for life is exactly why RedBus is dominating India’s tech scene, as well as making itself valuable globally from a learning perspective.

It’s not all gravy, though, as India’s government and policy is way stricter than what we see in the States. At any moment, it feels like someone could step in and disrupt the disruptor, but it hasn’t happened yet.

Just two questions

Anyone could see that RedBus is successful, but that’s not why it’s intriguing. I asked Goel if bus fleets always accept an SMS ticket receipt as payment? “No,” he said. “Up until last year, most bus drivers required a printout of a ticket, which is difficult for most people to do.” With only 120 million desktop Internet users in the entire country, that’s a big ask. Even I don’t like to print things out.

I pressed with the obvious follow-up: “So, you basically forced bus drivers to accept SMS because it was the best experience for your users,” to which he answered “Yes.”

That fire, confidence and drive to do what’s right for both your company and your users is a hallmark of every successful company. Goel and his team know that unless people feel good while using the service, they won’t be a return customer, and if they’re not a return customer, then the old and broken bus system will win. That’s disruption.

After a few more questions from the group, Goel showed us some of RedBus’ new features, which include photos and panoramic shots from all of the major bus stops that its users rely on. The idea, Goel says, was to make sure that you knew exactly where you were supposed to be, along with when you should be there. That type of empathy goes a long way, and the approach sounds very Googly to me, especially with its Street View-esque pictures and Google Maps integration. Tie that in with community review and ratings functionality for over 7,000 available buses, and you’ve got the beginnings of a complete solution.

I also had the opportunity to take a look at something that hasn’t been launched yet, something that I’m looking forward to testing, and it’s probably something that could grow the company’s revenue 5x easily. Why hasn’t it been released yet? It simply wasn’t time, Goel said.

My second question was “How many times has Google tried to acquire you?” to which Goel answered “They’re not in this market yet,” and smiled. He didn’t answer my question, and it’s clear that RedBus is building the type of company that utilized a brilliant approach to infrastructure to completely change the way that an entire country operates and gets from place to place.

Again, this isn’t a perfect company or market. No company or market is, and it seems like there’s quite a bit of work to do in the mobile space. But in a country that is slow to adopt and adapt, RedBus has taken the lead.

It’s not often you find a company that can do that no matter its location. Maybe it’s time to call a win a win, no matter where a team is based or the market that they choose to attack. Goel says that with what RedBus has built, the Indian bus industry wouldn’t be able to survive without them now, even if it tried.

If a country like India can stop worrying about being like Silicon Valley and find its true self, there could be a new RedBus every other week. It’s moonshot thinking, of course, but that’s what it takes. The real story isn’t that RedBus is dominating a market in India. It’s how.

UPDATE: The term hustler used in this article was not meant in a derogatory way. This is a term used by those that I’ve interacted with while on this trip and my previous one. Also, charging more than what something costs is indeed prevalent in some markets and services in India. RedBus’ success and business model proves that out.

The short answer to “What should I buy?” is “The best.” In fact that answer is extraordinarily subjective because “the perfect” to 1 particular person is certainly different to another. Our definition of “one of the best” is the fastest and the most important, however even that leaves the pc newbie confused. Here’s a quick rundown of what the pc novice should do and why.

1. Buy a computer that features basic peripherals. Every computer will be broken down into 4 main components: CPU unit, monitor, keyboard, and mouse. For the novice, it is best to buy a computer that has all of these elements included so that when it’s taken home, assembling the pc is an easy matter of plugging issues in where they belong. Save the person purchases of those elements for individuals who have more experience.

2. Determine what you may use the pc for. If you wish to use your computer for cruising the web, sending e mail, or performing easy word-processing or spreadsheet duties, a pc with the basic parts that we just described ought to suffice. If you wish to use a pc to assist with a career in multimedia however, you’re going to want to accessorize your system with a scanner, printer, digital camera, pill, or digicam for example. If you’d like a pc to help with a profession in music, you’ll need a quality microphone and set of speakers.

3. Create a funds and persist with it. How much are you able to afford to spend on a new pc? Though the costs of computers are reducing, they can still create a hefty expense particularly for those who need further peripherals described above. As well as, you will need to figure in prices for maintenance, servicing, and insuring.

4. Begin comparison procuring and search for the “quickest and biggest.” By “quickest and largest,” we imply the pc with the fastest processor, the fastest modem, the largest reminiscence, and the largest hard drive capacity. Even in the event you assume that you’ll never want the quantity of speed or space available in the marketplace at the moment, it is necessary to have within the event that you simply actually do need that a lot within the future. Having such a big reserve will minimize down on prices when the time involves improve for greater than what you may settle for in a pc that gives less.

5. Follow the higher-recognized brands. Venturing off the overwhelmed path with lessor-known manufacturers is once more, an adventure for many who have extra experience with computers. Although these better-identified brands could also be a tad bit dearer, the pc novice will recognize the consolation in buying a pc from a business that has a protracted record of building quality products, and that has the funds accessible for fulfilling returns, trades, servicing, and warranties.

6. Choose a store. Having an idea of what you want in a computer and how much pc that you want, your only job left is to select the place during which you need to buy it. There are a number of locations accessible together with computer retailer retailers, on-line stores, public sale websites, used laptop shops, or your pleasant neighborhood yard sale. For the pc novice, we recommend shopping for a computer from a physical store. In a physical retailer, you could have the opportunity to see the pc of interest in individual and ask questions. New computer buyers even have entry to store warranties, returns, trades, and services.

These recommendations ought to give the pc beginner an important begin in deciding on a quality computer for the primary time and so they apply to either Windows computer systems or Apple Macintosh computers. After making these decisions and eventually choosing one that matches your wants, you may then venture into the fascinating world of software program – a world that’s simply as grand because the world of hardware!

Should you require more information, point your browser to Notebook Prezzi

What really matters is not the raw numbers or vanity metrics but the direction and degree of progress. – Eric Ries, ‘The Lean Startup’.

Most online services can be cast as having a sticky engine of growth. At it’s heart is the question – “Is the experience rewarding enough for new users to return?”. A model built around this question can help you determine the direction and degree of progress for eCommerce services, creative communities, Saa’Services and many more business models.

Three measures come together in this model – Retention Rate, New Customer Rate and Growth Rate. Each measure has it’s own story to tell. If you’ve read ‘The Lean Startup’, you’ll also learn that the model can reveal if your venture has figured out how to leap forward consistently.

With this honest a metric at hand, you won’t lose your way. I’ve found the model handy in most of the projects that I’ve worked on. Below is an interpretation of the model and how the three measures are derived.

With the model above,

1. Retention rate: ”Customers Retained in Current Period” by “Total Customers”.

2. New Customer Rate: ”New Customers” by “Total Customers”.

3. Churn Rate: “Customers you failed to retain” by “Total Customers”.

4. Growth: is the difference “New Customer Rate” – “Churn Rate”.

5. Total Customers: coming into a period are the Customers Retained in the previous period and New Customers you will engage in the current period.

Key scenarios shown in the test sheet (Google Docs Worksheet) that will help you grasp how the model works,

* When Retention Rate is 100%, Churn Rate is zero.

* When New Customers Added = Customers Retained in the same period, Growth is 100%.

* When Retention Rate is zero, Growth is negative for that period.

* When New Customers Added is zero, Growth is less than or equal to zero depending on the Churn Rate.

Thanks to Mitesh Bohra, CEO at Savetime.com for lending his time to whet iterations of the model. Do leave your feedback in the comments, especially if you have a different interpretation to share.

Shops selling Samsung Phone in Mumbai

It is an interesting route for world’s biggest marketplace Amazon and a different model as well. Amazon USA, UK etc have 2 models:

1. An inventory-based model, where they sell, what they have in their warehouses.
2. Additionally, it has a marketplace model, where they allow sellers to list their products in the marketplace and the website visitors can buy on the platform.

The latter is very successful in emerging markets esp BRICS (Brzil, Russia, India, China) as well as Korea, Indonesia etc.

The 3rd model, wherein a location-based price comparison sites show prices from offline stores near you is interesting one in country like India. As a first cut, Junglee Nerby aims to drive web users to make a call to the stores and drive footfalls. I can not find any monetization built into the product as yet.

Comparison of services

Competitive Landscape

500 Startups recently funded Pricebaba.Another player is Pune-based Wicfy, which takes crowd-sourcing model to find cheapest price for a product and had raised money from Eco System Ventures. Naaptol have an Android app listing prices of product from stores, which never expanded beyond Mumbai. MySmartPrice also lists products from e-retailers. A yet-to-be launched portal, IndiaOrders will launch with 60 stores of Mumbai showing their wares for online buying. It takes slightly different route of enabling a buyer to get the products delivered to their homes. Interesting twist here is that a buyer can go to the store for queries, refunds, exchanges as well. It is an interesting segment with increasing middle class of India, but getting constantly updated price from retailers is a challenge. IPO-bound Justdial had a portal called Quick Quotes in works, which they had announced in Feb, 2012. That got coverage from Medianama in Sep and other portals as well. But, that page has been taken off Justdial website since.

Now you can have your own online store with just a few clicks. You may ask yourself how your users can pay for products securely. That’s not a big deal today! Several companies in India including popular banks are now offering payment gateways for eCommerce store. I’ve gathered useful details that you might found helpful while selecting a payment gateway for your online store.

Here are list of popular banks in India offering payment gateways for online stores.

1. ICICI Pay seal
2. City Bank
3. HDFC
4. HSBC
5. AXIS
6. Bank of Baroda

Non banking sectors in India offering payment gateways for eCommerce solutions:

1.  - CC Avenue
2.  - PayU
3.  - Transecute
4.  - India Pay
5.  - DirecPay

Non Banking Payment gateways and their setup fees in India

Payment gateways and transaction rate

Yearly maintenance cost of payment gateways (Non Bank)

I have mentioned some 3rd party payment gateways that you may would like to integrate with your eCommerce store.

Hope you guys will find above post useful. I’ll be back with new details just for you guys.

Note: The above pricing and rates may not be accurate.

Um excelente exemplo da convergência tecnológica aplicada ao “retailing”. Isso não é o futuro…é o presente.
Toda a jornada de compra passará por uma grande transformação e o comportamento de compra será transformado com esta tecnologia e com outras já anunciadas. Você e a sua empresa estão preparados para isso?

As we have just mentioned, Quick Traffic Formula is something that cannot be ignored – or at least should never be ignored. It can be difficult to cover all possible examples simply because there is so much involved. We will begin the rest of our conversation right away, but sometimes you have to stop and let things sink in a little bit. In light of all that is available, and there is a lot, then this is a great time to be reading this. The last remaining areas for conversation may be even more important.

One of the most evergreen methods to get free traffic is guest web log writing, and you can approach this method in 2 ways and each is simply as good as the other. Actually, this is really a really simple process to get started in because simply searching for the words that are asking for guest writers will yield results. It’s usually along the lines of what they’re looking for, guidelines to follow and compliance instructions. But on the other hand, don’t be skittish about being proactive and asking a blogger if you can contribute something. You never know what they will say, and you may be surprised with some acceptances.

Most IM marketers don’t do enough joint ventures if they do them at all. This method is highly versatile, and the more you do them the more you will see that.

You will have to learn how to do right planning and be really organized with them. The one thing you must have that is non-negotiable is value to contribute to the affair. You have to sell yourself as well as your provide, so you must be comfortable with that.

LinkedIn marketing is a totally different thing and has to be learned simply like the others. If you’re all right with networking and that kind of thing, then you will do well here. The learning curve here is not as much as at Facebook, so that’s a good thing. Avoid being aggressive in your marketing, and post updates to your profile so your contacts will also get them.

Now that you have read this article, by all means do not halt with this as there are a lot more you can discover. Make a list of all the things you like and then simply get started one at a time. Eventually just think about the possibilities with paid-for and complimentary traffic methods.

Did you realize how much there is to learn about Fast Traffic Formula? Most people are when they get down to reading about it. However we are happy to have been able to give you some outstanding information that will be of good use for you. There actually is a tremndous amount of highly valuable content available. There are certain areas that you need to find out more about if you want real achievement with this. Anybody can simply learn the choicest things that are known to produce success.

Are you truly happy with your The Fast Traffic Formula? Seriously, how long do you expect this to continue? The simple truth is you don’t have to put up with Fast Traffic Formulas at all!

Whether you are running your own business or selling random useless stuff, you will be interested to review different online buying and selling platforms. We’re investigating the costs of selling on the four main portals you’re most likely to utilize.

Amazon fees: If you sell more than 40 products a month on Amazon, you need to buy a subscription which is a $39.99 monthly payment.  When an item sells, Amazon takes a 15% “referral fee” and $1.35 “closing fee”. Some products have even higher “referral” and “closing” fees. If you sell a $100 item, you receive $83.75.

eBay fees: eBay fees depend on your subscription. The listing fee for fixed-price items is $0.20 per item. The Final Value Fee depends on what you sell; it varies (Fixed Priced items) from 8% to 15%. If you sell a $100 item, you receive $90.

Glabex fees: There is no general fees to sell on Glabex. This site allows you to list your products for free or set up a professional store for just $0.99 a month. You get paid via Paypal, which takes 2.9% + $0.30 of the total collected fee. The most important part – if you don’t sell anything, you won’t pay a penny! If you sell a $100 item, you receive $96.80.

All fees displayed above reflect the portals fee structure as of August 23, 2012

Facebook Ad Tips

Businesses that use Facebook ads successfully ask users to sign up, not to buy. You must use a low-friction conversion to be successful.

A visitor to your website wasn’t looking for your product. He clicked your ad on a whim. If you’re relying on him to immediately buy something to make your ad ROI positive, you will fail.

Facebook users are fickle and likely to click back to Facebook if you ask for a big commitment (purchase) upfront. Instead, stick to simple conversions like signing up for your service, filling out a short lead form, or submitting an email address.

Even if you sell products, not services, you should consider focusing on an intermediate conversion like a newsletter signup. Then you can upsell later through email marketing.

Daily deals are good examples of things that users will notice on Facebook ads. After you click one of their ads, you can just ask customer for email addresses. You can use it for newsletters too.

Even if you only ask for an email address initially, you’ll need to eventually make money from these users if your ads are to be profitable.

The best business model for Facebook ads earns revenue from their users over time, not all at once. A user may have given you her email, but you’ll need to build more trust before she buys anything.

You shouldn’t depend on one big purchase from her. Several smaller purchases are ideal.

Daily deals and subscriptions are great examples of business models that can thrive on Facebook.

At Glabex.com, you can create a daily deal or set up coupon campaign. Once created, your campaign can be shared on Facebook or anywhere else. Publishing and ad is as simple as sending it to your current or potential customers. This service is free of charge. You can try our deal builder on glabex.com.  

One of the global concepts of modern advertising is audience involvement. It comes from growing social media expansion. The idea is very simple – if people ignore most advertising messages, don’t just shout louder; inspire them with the right forms of communication which result in a message people can relate to.

1. Involvement affects the coverage of the campaign

Involvement is not a solution for all the problems inherent in communicating advertising messages. People understand what you want to say, but the main problem is that these people will be less loyal to your products because nobody wants to listen to your message or get involved in a marketing campaign.

You need to run a company by building brand recognition, and therefore it is necessary to build a wide audience by sending out a relevant message.

2. Involved contacts

The first point suggests good marketing makes for more involved contacts. Usually, we want only the highest quality contacts. Getting these qualified contacts usually involves investing in expensive banners and CPM advertising. But there are other ways too.

3. The effect of being involved

The problem of the miscommunication between customers and sellers or via B2B marketing is the low quality of involved contacts. For example when we are trying to introduce a service or product to irrelevant contacts, they refused it immediately. Some marketers would be happy to pay extra for quality contacts, but why? But paying more isn’t the answer. It is more important to make the right investments than to make bigger investments. Ad banners on the internet or TV banners aren’t going to be more effective if they are more expensive!

4. As a result, the virus message or webpage banner might be only the second step to engagement

The fact is that media advertising is tricky. We have to admit that it can get people talking, but not as much as you might want them to. And this discussion can go in the opposite direction to what you want it to go and have the opposite result of what you intended.

5. Another type of involvement through discounts and competitions

Involvement through discounts and competitions is a good promotion campaign, but it is NOT engaging. Sometimes marketers forget that fact. Involvement can only be voluntary, and people do not get involved in promotions with prizes or discounts.

For example, very often people get involved in marketing campaign through social networking contests, which are supported by prizes and free coupons. But it necessary to remember that people come for the prize, and they do not care about your brand. The number of prizes is limited and so your promotion brings temporary results, which only last for the duration of your campaign or competition.

The purpose of advertising is to raise awareness, but it is not engaging. It’s the same thing as having 10 000 followers in Linkedin. You have 100 000 members, but so what? If they are all stay silent, nobody will care about your brand. Involvement is a tool for the advertiser, engaging is the goal of advertising.

With Glabex you can create daily involvement campaigns, including deals, coupons, customers surveys, prizes. 

But all that’s just fluff when you consider the stand-out feature in the update: eBay now lets you scan your driver’s license from the app for a quick and easy sign-up process. That way, if you’re new to the platform, you don’t have to go through the never-ending clicks of typing out your information into multiple fields.

The feature works by scanning the barcode on your DL to import all the information on it. The feature is only available in some U.S. states for now, but should roll out to other areas in the coming weeks and months.

Along with the iPhone app update, eBay also updated its separate iPad app. Along with multiple item check-out, and some other features from the iPhone update, version 2.3.0 of eBay’s iPad app also bodes well for sellers. You can now attach multiple photos from your library, crop and adjust them, and the process for selecting shipping options is now much easier.

Buyers aren’t left out either. “Search By Best Offer” has now been listed as a new filter in search, along with a way to filter seller feedback by positive, neutral and negative.

Overall, it’s a hefty update with plenty of improvements that should make the entire eBay experience a bit more enjoyable on mobile. If you want to try out the update, make sure to get on iOS 5 and head on over to the App Store.

You may have already discovered that selling on eBay can be fun and profitable. But after you’ve cleared out your garage and attic, and auctioned off everything your husband owns, where can you go to get new product ideas?

Tapping into EBay’s Resources
Most people don’t realize that eBay itself is actually a terrific place to find product sourcing ideas. Besides being an easy selling venue with built-in traffic, it also contains a goldmine of useful data about what that traffic wants to buy. One of eBay’s best-kept secrets is their Seller Central page (http://www.EBay.com/SellerCentral). Very few people, even PowerSellers, are aware of this valuable resource. Consequently, very few people are taking advantage of the tools available there:

• The merchandising calendar — this is a great spot to get sourcing leads because it shows you specifically what products eBay will be promoting over the next few months. It gives you dates and tells you which item categories you need to list your product in for it to be displayed on eBay’s homepage. When a user clicks on that item, your auction will pop right up.

• The hot items section — this is basically a monthly trend-watching report. It tells you what items are moving, producing more bids, and getting higher final prices. It lets you get a feel for where the demand is.

Whether you’re searching for products at a tradeshow or a rummage sale, Janelle Elms (http://JanelleElms.com), of eBay University, recommends, “Print this report and keep it with you at all times.” She explains, “If you don’t know what to look for, this will help direct and keep your mind focused to what’s moving on eBay.”

• The hot categories section — this resource takes the top categories and gives you tips on how to sell in those categories, insider secrets about your buyers, and trending info. For each category, there’s a section called ‘In Demand’ that tells you not only the top-selling items in that category, but also the top keywords that buyers are using to find these items. Use those keywords in your listing titles. If you have any left over, put them in your description. Essentially, eBay tells you what to sell and then tells you how best to list it.

Catering to Your Customers
Advises Elms, “Don’t ever try to sell to the buyer what you think they need to own.” Users are already telling you what they want to buy — you just have to listen. These tools show you what consumers are saying they want and how they’re saying they want to find it. EBay users are ready to spend money with you — all you need to do is give them what they’re looking for.