MUMBAI: Growing at 30 per cent since FY09 and aiming at becoming an $18 billion industry by FY15, the e-commerce players have been making non-stop headlines for quite some time now.
With the steep rise in online usage, Amazon is now focusing more on its first entry into India, Junglee.com. Launched in 2012 by the global e-commerce giant, Junglee.com provided price comparisons for consumers. However, things have changed now.
The site has now turned into a marketplace offering services like ‘Buy on Junglee’ and ‘Sell on Junglee’. The site has also launched an app to provide easier access to customers.
Explaining the origin of the site, Amazon India VP and country manager Amit Agarwal says, “In the fast growing online shopping market, the profusion of options led to a need for a shopping guide that can help online shoppers navigate through the maze of options. To bridge this gap, we launched Junglee.com in 2012.”
“Junglee enables customers to find and discover products from online and offline retailers in India. Junglee organises massive selection and multiple buying options from hundreds of sellers, and leverages Amazon’s proven technologies and millions of customer reviews to help customers make smart purchase decisions,” he adds.
The portal offers customers access to more than three crore products with over six crore customer reviews and thousands of seller reviews. It has more than 2,300 online shopping sites and 1 lakh offline stores listed.
Talking about the new features, Junglee.com GM Mahendra Nerurkar says, “With ‘Buy on Junglee’, we are helping sellers and customers improve their engagement with each other further and help convert leads at the time of intent.”
He also added that Junglee had rebranded its Product Ads service to ‘Sell on Junglee’, earlier this year. It was particularly targeted at smaller retailers, who would get a chance to list their products on the site.
Agarwal reckons, “Statistics say that 25 per cent of all online shoppers first visit comparison sites. 45 per cent tend to buy from offline stores after comparing online. This is what has driven offline stores to aspire to be on Junglee.com.”
Besides, the site also allows consumers to sell their old and used products through its tie-up with Quikr.com.
“Through our tie-up with Quikr.com, we also introduced product listings from offline store as well as across pre-owned products,” Nerurkar reckoned.
Currently even though listing products on Junglee is free, they charge a fee per transaction for products that are bought using ‘Buy on Junglee’ facility. It is estimated that Junglee will be charging a flat rate of 5 per cent as part of a promotional offer that lasts till 31 May 2015. Rates will vary from five to 15 per cent after that.
These features make Junglee a marketplace, along with a comparison site, and it is this strategy that will help Amazon India have an edge over its rivals. However, players such as Flipkart and Snapdeal have not yet listed themselves on Junglee.
In addition, they also recently announced the launch of Junglee mobile app for android smartphones. This launch makes it convenient for customers to check prices of over 3.1 crore products anywhere through the easy to use app.
“The app enables shoppers to search across online and local sellers together as well as compare prices across new and used products, all in one place. It also includes an auto-suggest feature, filters to help refine results by brand, price, item condition, discount, average customer review and more attributes,” says Agarwal.
Adding to that Nerurkar reveals, “The app has started trending on Google Play among apps from all categories. Within a month of launch, the app has been downloaded by over two lakh customers. We will continue to add new features to the app and help more customers check prices from anywhere using the app."
On an average, the site witnesses about 15 million sessions per month.
Talking about future plans, Agarwal comments, “Our vision for Junglee is to enable customers to determine where to buy anything, anywhere (online or offline, within or outside India). It’s a neutral and unbiased platform. At one place, customers can find the best offers on leading online e-commerce web sites such as Amazon.in, Jabong, HomeShop18, Indiatimes Shopping, Infibeam and hundreds of others.”
Junglee.com has emerged as the number one search and comparison shopping site in India as per comScore and has occupied the top position on comScore charts for eight quarters in a row starting September 2012.
