I bought my last car sitting at home. The test drive vehicle(s) drove up to my house (in 2 different variations!), I completed all the paperwork while baby-sitting my daughter and the check was picked up at my convenience. I could have my new dream ride delivered right at my doorstep, but preferred to pick it up from the showroom. What’s the big deal! One can argue that it was a high value item and with the intense competition, it’s no unique trend. However, the other day, I had a ‘Maharaja Mac’ delivered to me, a bottle of shaving cream early in the morning when I realized I was out of it. It’s regular practice to expect things to be delivered to one’s doorstep no matter how small its value.
With easy access to labor and intense competition, ‘Home Delivery’, which was a key differentiator until some time back, has become a necessary trend especially with smaller setups and Kirana (mom-pop stores) stores. This trend has grown so much that larger players are forced to match up. Big players now have huge teams of sales/delivery people, who travel all day long going from customer to customer delivering bills, picking up deposit-checks, flowers, food-items and everything under the sun that one can think of.
‘Home Delivery’ (or at least the extent of Home Delivery) is a very unique trend and consumer behavior that is here to stay in India. This is one classic example of a regional trend that can be and is being targeted by various technology/solutions companies. The telecom industry in particular is all gung-ho about VAS (value added services ? which accounts for almost 7% of all their revenues). According to industry reports, VAS is expected to be a $270 million spinner by end of 2010. ‘SMS’ and ‘Digital Music’ dominate telecom VAS today.
With 250 million mobile subscribers, 40 million fixed line subscribers, and 10 million Internet subscribers, it’s a no brainer that the mobile channel has the potential to be the ideal and most far reaching solution base in terms of services.
Telecom VAS in India can innovate in this area to become the preferred ecosystem for Home Delivery. The challenge is to customize it at the local (muhalla) level. Imagine an app that gives you the semantic of the various shops that you normally use and a quick easy way to browse inventory, order, and get the items delivered. For intangible items, the mobile phone could be the delivery mechanism itself. The challenge is to make it an experience where it is easier than direct calling.
Imagine a telecom brand that gets associated with Home Delivery. What a money-spinner!!!
I bought my last car sitting at home. The test drive vehicle(s) drove up to my house (in 2 different variations!), I completed all the paperwork while baby-sitting my daughter and the check was picked up at my convenience. I could have my new dream ride delivered right at my doorstep, but preferred to pick it up from the showroom. What’s the big deal! One can argue that it was a high value item and with the intense competition, it’s no unique trend. However, the other day, I had a ‘Maharaja Mac’ delivered to me, a bottle of shaving cream early in the morning when I realized I was out of it. It’s regular practice to expect things to be delivered to one’s doorstep no matter how small its value.
With easy access to labor and intense competition, ‘Home Delivery’, which was a key differentiator until some time back, has become a necessary trend especially with smaller setups and Kirana (mom-pop stores) stores. This trend has grown so much that larger players are forced to match up. Big players now have huge teams of sales/delivery people, who travel all day long going from customer to customer delivering bills, picking up deposit-checks, flowers, food-items and everything under the sun that one can think of.
‘Home Delivery’ (or at least the extent of Home Delivery) is a very unique trend and consumer behavior that is here to stay in India. This is one classic example of a regional trend that can be and is being targeted by various technology/solutions companies. The telecom industry in particular is all gung-ho about VAS (value added services ? which accounts for almost 7% of all their revenues). According to industry reports, VAS is expected to be a $270 million spinner by end of 2010. ‘SMS’ and ‘Digital Music’ dominate telecom VAS today.
With 250 million mobile subscribers, 40 million fixed line subscribers, and 10 million Internet subscribers, it’s a no brainer that the mobile channel has the potential to be the ideal and most far reaching solution base in terms of services.
Telecom VAS in India can innovate in this area to become the preferred ecosystem for Home Delivery. The challenge is to customize it at the local (muhalla) level. Imagine an app that gives you the semantic of the various shops that you normally use and a quick easy way to browse inventory, order, and get the items delivered. For intangible items, the mobile phone could be the delivery mechanism itself. The challenge is to make it an experience where it is easier than direct calling.
Imagine a telecom brand that gets associated with Home Delivery. What a money-spinner!!!