eCommerce

Innovation Is Not Invention

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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

Google Play Store – Small Brother Shouldn’t Act Like Big Brother!

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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

How To Resolve Pricing Paradoxes

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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

Five Pricing Paradoxes

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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

Shattering The Myth Of Exorbitant Credit Card MDR

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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

Credit Card Primer – Interchange, MDR & Surcharge

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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

Six Sharp Practices Followed By New Age Startups

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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

Unveiling What Merchants & Banks Learn About You When You Tap Your Credit Card

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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

Zepto Becomes The First Quick Commerce Unicorn

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Zepto just became the first unicorn in the Quick Commerce space. Zepto, an India-based grocery delivery company, secured a $200 million Series E at a $1.4 billion valuation in a deal led by Stepstone Group. – Axios Pro. Compared to UDAAN and a couple of other startups that became unicorns in six months or so, … Read more

Copy-Paste Of Western Business Model Works

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The founder of India’s largest discount brokerage Zerodha recently sparked off a debate on social networks by declaring that copy-pasting business models from USA and other countries does not work in India because there are many differences between the two markets. @Nithin0dha: India is unique. Copy-pasting models from the US, etc, has hardly worked. Paytm’s … Read more