Official Blog of GTM360 Marketing Solutions
In Why Do Hyperlocal Apps Have So Much Location Friction?, I described many friction hotspots while entering and editing locations in hyperlocal apps like Ola, Rapido, Uber (Rideshare) Pizza Hut, Swiggy (Food delivery) Dunzo, Swiggy Genie (Runner) Many of these apps have excellent UX. I found it hard to believe that they’d have bungled just … Read more
The term “location” seemingly means different things in different hyperlocal apps: Locality / neighborhood e.g. Kalyaninagar Address e.g. B1-504 Silver Oak, Kalyaninagar, … Pickup / delivery point e.g. Flat # 504 on the fifth floor of B1 building in Silver Oak society in Kalyaninagar… (cf. footnote 1). I’ve been using Location Based Service apps for … Read more
Innovation is not Invention. Invention is a new thing. Innovation is a new way of doing an existing thing that amplifies impact through broader reach. Let me cite a few examples to drive home this difference. 1. AirBnB During Oktoberfest, the city of Munich with a population of 1.2 million residents receives roughly seven million … Read more
To: editet@timesgroup.com Subject: Big Tech, Don’t Be A Big Brother Dear Editor of Economic Times: This has reference to the op-ed entitled Big Tech, Don’t Be A Big Brother by Dhanendra Kumar, Former Chairman, Competition Commission of India (CCI), in The Economic Times. This article is full of factual and logical inaccuracies. Let me list … Read more
In Five Pricing Paradoxes, we covered many pricing paradoxes and speculated on why they happen. In this post, we will examine if and how they need to be fixed. Is There A Problem? While there’s a logic to pricing paradoxes, we cannot expect the Average Customer to accept them. As a result, they will complain about … Read more
According to common wisdom, middleman adds a margin, so his price will be higher than the original manufacturer’s price. Why do D2C brands price their products higher on their own website and make them cheaper on marketplaces like Amazon? I always assumed buying from their website is cheaper, given they save on commissions. What's the … Read more
Since times immemorial, merchants have complained that banks charge exorbitant fees for processing credit card payments. Called Merchant Discount Rate (MDR), this fee is around 2% of the transaction value, as described in my blog post titled Credit Card Primer – Interchange, MDR & Surcharge. In this post, I will shatter the myth that MDR … Read more
This post provides a quick primer on MDR, Interchange, and Surcharge, and covers a few recent updates to rules around these key concepts in the credit card industry. 1. Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) When you buy something worth $100 and pay with a credit card, the merchant gets $97.62. The difference of $2.38 is the … Read more
Here are six sharp practices followed by new age startups: #1. REDBUS This bus ticket aggregator buys five seats in a bus with 45 seats. When four out of these five seats are booked on its app / website, RedBus flashes a warning saying “only one seat left”. I heard this directly from the horse’s … Read more
Among others, the credit card value chain comprises the following entities: Consumer (aka Customer, Cardholder), who uses the credit card to pay for the purchase Merchant (aka Store, Retailer), who sells what the consumer purchases Issuer Bank, which issues the credit card to the consumer Acquirer Bank, which issues the POS terminal and Merchant Agreement, … Read more