The Kapston Blog

OffersForShoppers.com launches the first Indian web 2.0 shopping website that helps shoppers find local deals.

2008-06-05T20:49:00.001+05:30

OffersForShoppers (http://www.offersforshoppers.com/), which specializes in local deals and discount coupons, for the Indian online/offline bargain hunter, has today launched a newly re-designed web 2.0 compliant website. The new site has undergone a major and intense overhaul and offers a host of aesthetic, navigational and functional improvements designed to enhance the user experience.

Owned and operated by Nuclei Marketing Pvt. Ltd, OffersForShoppers.com has been helping online shoppers save money since Dec’2006. Featured in all major Indian News papers as well as news websites, OffersForShoppers.com boasts online coupons from over 200 local retailers to bring close to 100,000+ products to its users in apparel, consumer electronics, restaurants, jewellery, health and beauty product categories.A list of new product categories and new intuitive and intelligent navigation methods will allow customers to perform more effective product and vendor research. The website looks completely new in terms of color, menus, functionalities, product listing, vendor listing and alert systems. Apart from these visitors will notice the radiant OffersForShoppers Green and Lavender hues as well as an intuitive website layout and design. The new look is expected to appeal to both novices and pros alike, says Shweta Singh of OffersForShoppers.

OffersForShoppers is the first Web 2.0 Multi Channel Shopping Website in India exclusively for offline retailing. OffersForShoppers.com not only saves consumers money but also allows offline retailers a cost effective way to acquire sales and reach new customers.
There are 37 % buyers who say “I only buy at local stores I find online”. Seeing a shop online will instill confidence in buyers and enable them what to expect with less surprises, says Sibani Mohanty, Director of OffersForShoppers.

“I am very pleased with the new website’s usability and design and hope that all visitors like it. There is no website in India with some of the features we offer. ”, added Kumar Setu, co-founder OffersForShoppers.com. “The features will include not only online coupons, but ‘Deals of the Day’, a User Guide, Coupon by Popularity, Expiring coupon, shopping articles, and store reviews from our users.” Setu goes on to say, “It is all about adding value to the users and creating an experience that brings them back. The shopping experience we now offer is unmatched in India.” The newly redesigned website is on target for a successful festival and holiday shopping season in India.

List of new features include:
Filter and Compare offers based on brand, location, price etc.
Select products and offers in a selected price range
See vendors address on Map to easily locate the shop
Rate offers
Set instant-alerts for offers on required brand, model, product etc.
Live-chat support for demanding Offers
On-the-move helpline number to get coupons whenever and from wherever required
On Demand Discount Coupon on mobile
Blog
Deal of the Day
User Guide
Coupons by Popularity
Expiring coupons Tab
Shopping articles
Store reviews from our users
Top 5 Searches
Bigger and more product images

OffersForShoppers is a multi channel shopping company offering deals and discount coupons on Electronics, Apparels, Travel, Vehicles, Food and Beverages, Computers, Home Décor, Jewellery, Consumer Electronics etc.

Study shows Second Homes / Vacation Homes market gaining traction in India

2007-11-28T12:59:00.000+05:30

A study conducted by Kapston.com an E-business consulting firm in India with second home companies HolidayHangouts.com, S & S properties, Wayanad Weekend Homes and Principal Gain along with real estate agents and buyers, shows second home and holiday homes market gaining significant traction in India.

The last few years have been exceptionally well for the Indian real estate market. Lower interest rates and increased buying power made people invest heavily on land and flats.
Those who invested in the real estate boom have been more than lucky. Those who missed the bus and are looking to take advantage, have a new avenue for investment. That is the Indian Second Home / Holiday Home/ Weekend Home properties.

The research also states that this trend will continue to rise, particularly in the already popular locations for holiday like Goa, Kerala, Wayanad, Darjeeling, Munnar, Ooty, Lonavla, KodaiKanal, Shimla, Khandala, Manali etc. says Ranjith Pavithran of Kapston.com.

In almost every popular location across the country, there is traction in buyers, sales and property price. As the demand increases, there are thousands of locations coming up as ideal second home location of your dreams. Leaving apart the most famous location, there are places which offer you the opportunity to purchase a property at a throw away price today. This means a strong ROI on your investment tomorrow. If you cannot buy a home at the city, then buying a second home may well turn out to be the second most important investment in your life.

Key Takeaways:

Second home sales increased by 50% during 2002 – 2007.
54 percent of second homes are bought for recreational use like Vacations and Holidays.
32% second homes are bought as investment.
Holiday homes on vacation, home stays for the rest of the year.
Kerala is the most preferred destination in India for second home.
Wayanad tops the list in Kerala.
NRIs, the most potential customers for vacation properties.
Second Homes account for 3-4 % of total home sales per year.
HolidayHangouts.com is the leading holiday homes provider in South India and Disha Direct in the North.
Sales of 2nd homes rose steadily during the past 15 years.
Median age of second home buyers is 43.

Tourism is one of the critical industries to India’s economy, contributing a major chunk to its GDP. Longer-stay tourists prefer to stay in villas and condominiums over hotels. This is the major factor where Kerala score high over Goa as the biggest Second home market in India. Tourists come to Kerala to get themselves treated in Ayurveda. Usually an Ayurveda treatment takes weeks to months to finish. The climate and almost zero-pollution in Kerala helps too. The other factor works in favor of Kerala is its share of NRI population. For NRI’s these second homes doubles up as vacation homes as well as an investment opportunity with considerable growth potential.

The research predicts that this trend will more likely continue unless of course there is an economic downturn and demand abruptly tapers off. Another interesting point of India’s second home market is buying a second house in a different city near to office. If husband and wife are working in different cities, apart from the tax savings, to support their career and health, buying another home in another city makes more sense.

“There is a continuously growing segment of new buyers. In most cases development has kept up the pace with demand and in other cases it has surpassed it” added Prem Kumar of HolidayHangouts.com

Although this research is small in terms of scale and the no. of real estate agents, developers, buyers and owners quizzed, making it less authoritative, It does emphatically suggest with data that the popular second home / holiday home markets can offer better return on investment currently than most of your first homes or the first residential property adds Kapston.com.

The next real estate boom in India is holiday homes say Kapston's research. Kerala is the most ideal location for second home in India followed by Goa. Holiday property price soaring in resort areas across the country and buyers are increasing.

Shopping in India undergoing a sea change

2007-11-28T12:44:00.000+05:30

Research by Kapston.com, an Internet business consulting firm in association with GadgetsGuru.com and HolidayHangouts.com on products listed online and websites in India indicates that people spend 10 - 20% more on products they don’t research online.

Indian consumers are embracing Internet increasingly to research products, before making a visit to a local store; the response from various web-to-store operators in India during the past year shows web-to-store shopping behavior increasingly outpacing online buying.

Web-research before shopping was by far the most popular in comparison with word of mouth, newspaper ads, TV ads and various other means. This across the channel shopping demographic is comprised of younger, wealthier and more experienced online consumers. This group earns much more than other shoppers.

International research says that offline buying (any service / product) after an online search is $180 billion and online research leads to online buying around $160 Billion globally in 2006.

Majority of the Indian Internet users reported that there are a multitude of products they prefer to buy in person rather than using an online transaction. Most of these products, they research Internet before making the purchase. This mainly helps them save time and allow them to make informed choices before they actually hit the street.

The pioneer in this segment in India is OffersForShoppers, which started operating in early 2006, reported a sudden surge of activities from the smaller cities in India and noticed the trend is gaining momentum in Bangalore and Delhi. The CEO, Kumar Setu says
Home decor and Appliances in couple of years will surpass Consumer Electronics and become the #1 category. www.offersforshoppers.com is planning to start operations in 5 more cities in India by the end of 2007.

Prem Kumar, the Director of HolidayHangouts.com says that he is getting a lot of queries from the Internet for his 2nd home and vacation home business in India. Internet is by far the most effective medium in his advertisement campaign. HolidayHangouts has sold its vacation villas in Kerala to customers from Germany, South Africa, United States, UK etc.
He also said he could garner international and national level customers by investing a fraction of traditional media.
The growth of the OffersForShoppers.com network is testimonial to customer demand for a local shopping tool. We are the first company to come up with the click and brick model in India" says Kumar Setu.

Key Takeaways

Buying a service or product after online search is $180 Billion.
Online research leads to online buying around $160 Billion globally.
People in India spend 10 – 25% more on products they don’t research online.
Use of the Internet for in store shopping grows 23% in 2007

Most of the web-to-store companies use coupons to track the conversion and effectiveness of online advertisement. With a one time set up charge and cost per sales or cost per leads model insulate them from potential technological pitfalls. Web-to-shop also allows them to reach certain cross sections of wealthy customers without big investment.

This is a welcoming trend for small and medium sized retailers who do not have online presence and necessary know-how to market their shop online. As for the not so Internet savvy reluctant Indian merchants, these web-to-store websites are a risk free investment. They are beginning to feel the potential of Internet as a sale promotion tool.

The biggest challenge associated with web to store in India is to reach the remote merchants who do not know how Internet works and how they can utilize it. The other challenge is in putting local offers online and to track them and update them regularly. The other difficulty is to change the mindset of merchants to re-allocate the advertisement budget to this new form.Success of a business largely depends on the marketing strategy. This holds well if your business is run completely online or it is an extension of an offline business. Internet presence and website marketing opens more avenues for merchants to sell their products and scale their business than most other media, added Ranjith Pavithran of Kapston.com.

OffersForShoppers Selects Kapston for Internet Consulting and Branding.

2007-09-27T13:52:00.000+05:30

India's Leading Local Deals and Shopping Coupons Website to Drive Higher ROI with Kapston Consulting.
Kapston.com, a provider of internet business consulting in India, today announced that OffersForShoppers, India’s leading multi channel shopping company, has selected Kapston to enhance the user experience for their customers and increase the effectiveness of the company’s online marketing and promotion strategies.
Using Kapston’s experience in Market Analysis, Competitor Analysis, internet SWOT, A/B testing etc., the company will have more insight into the performance of internet marketing campaigns, visitor activity, traffic patterns and behavioral trends associated with their site structure and the coupon printing process. In addition, OffersForShoppers will leverage Kapston BOOM and 360 degree internet marketing methodologies to reach out to the potential customers.
With this insight into Web site user segmentation, customer behavior and preferences OffersForShoppers can develop highly targeted marketing initiatives and enhance the Return on Investment (ROI) from internet advertisement campaigns.
“Reporting double digit QOQ growth for the last 3 quarters, www.OffersForShoppers.com has become the leading player in this category in India; and going forward we want to keep up the momentum and increase our top-line ” said Kumar Setu, CEO of OffersForShoppers. “To help us achieve that goal, we’ve selected Kapston to understand the latest internet trends, marketing techniques, customers buying patterns, allowing us to incrementally and continuously improve customer experience and fine tune our service offering.”
“Research based internet business optimization is fundamental to the growth and success of an internet company,” adds Ranjith Pavithran of Kapston India. “For example, a business must think about all aspects of their website, market, competitor, customer, latest marketing trends, search engine algorithms etc. before designing their website, internet campaigns and offline campaigns.

- End -
About OffersForShoppers
OffersForShoppers is the pioneer in in-store coupons and web-to-store deals business concept in India. By filling up the existing gap between offline coupons and online consumers, OffersForShoppers not only helps consumers in getting discount coupons on-demand but also helps retailers and service providers, in reaching net and mobile-savvy population. Its unique performance-linked pricing model has worked as a boon to small and medium retailers who don't have fat pockets or huge budgets for advertising but provide best deals and services for consumers. With the help of this service, consumers can search and explore all the options available in city before actually going to a shop and making a purchase.
www.OffersForShoppers.com

Click and brick model gaining prominence in India

2007-09-03T23:40:00.000+05:30

Indian consumers are embracing Internet to research products before making a visit to a local store in a big way; the response from various web-to-store operators in India during the past year shows web-to-store shopping behavior increasingly outpacing online buying.

New research says that offline buying (any service / product) after an online search is $180 billion and online research leads to online buying around $160 Billion globally.

Majority of the Indian internet users reported that there are a multitude of products they prefer to buy in person rather than using an online transaction. But for most of these products, they research internet before making the purchases. This mainly helps them save time and allow them to make informed choices before they actually hit the street.

Web-research before shopping was by far the most popular in comparison with word of mouth, newspaper ads, TV ads and various other means. This across the channel shopping demographic is comprised of younger, wealthier and more experienced online consumers. This group earns much more than other shoppers.

Research by Kapston, an internet consulting firm on products listed online and websites in India indicates that people spend 10 - 20% more on products they don’t research online.

The pioneer in this segment in India is www.offersforshoppers.com, which started operating in 2006, reported a sudden surge of activities from the smaller cities in India and noticed the trend is gaining momentum in Bangalore and Delhi. The CEO, Kumar Setu says
Home decor and Appliances in couple of years will surpass Consumer Electronics and become the #1 category. OffersForShoppers is planning to start operations in 5 more cities in India by the end of 2007.
The growth of the OffersForShoppers Network is testimonial to customer demand for a local shopping tool. We are the first company to come up with the click and brick model in India" says Kumar Setu.
Most of the web-to-store companies use coupons to track the conversion and effectiveness of online advertisement. With a one time set up charge and cost per sales or cost per leads model insulate them from potential technological pitfalls. Web-to-shop also allows them to reach certain cross sections of wealthy customers without big investment.

This is a welcoming trend for small and medium sized retailers who do not have online presence and necessary know-how to market their shop online. As for the not so internet savvy reluctant Indian merchants, these web-to-store websites are a risk free investment. They are beginning to feel the potential of internet as a sale promotion tool.

The biggest challenge associated with web to store in India is in putting local offers online and then track them and update them regularly. The other challenge is the re-allocation of advertisement budget to this new form.

Kapston Search Engine Marketing Study shows Nearly Half of Indian Shoppers Who Researched Products Online Bought Those Products Offline

2007-09-03T00:06:00.000+05:30

This study shows the need of increasing internet marketing budget in the advertisement plan

According to the new study by Kapston in association with http://www.gadgetsguru.in/, India’s first online technology mall and http://www.offersforshoppers.com/ India’s first web-to-store, 40% of Internet users who reported researching products online during the 2006 calendar year bought those products offline at a neighborhood store or via some other offline channel.
This study reveals some interesting facts about Indian consumer mindset. This also underlines the importance of having a user friendly website and strong web presence.

“This search engine marketing research also sends a significant message to merchants on the importance of LongTail,” says Ranjith Pavithran of Kapston. “If nearly half of Internet users who research products online end-up buying those products offline, merchants need to understand how important it is to understand customer’s vocabulary, usage of language and the search trends.”

“This study contains some important notes for Indian online entrepreneurs,” said Arun Kapur, CEO, GadgetsGuru. “If a majority of Indian Internet users are performing their shopping research using general search engines like Google and Yahoo, it is very critical that Indian merchants should have their websites and products easily found on amateur and expert searches in the major search engines. Realizing this, we recently opened our showroom SquareFeets at Thane Eternity Mall to compliment and leverage GadgetsGuru.com and SquareFeets.com websites, added Arun. ” High-Level observations of the research Include:
40% of Indian Internet shoppers research products online and then buy them offline.
85% of Indian Internet shoppers utilize general search engines when researching products.
66% of Indian internet advertisers only consider Google PPC for search marketing.
12% of Indian Internet consumers utilize shopping specific search engines when researching products.

“The analysis also indicates,” added Kumar Setu, CEO of OffersForShoppers, “that internationally many merchants have got excellent results by advertising their products in the shopping-specific search engines, but in India these engines are still playing a very minimal role compared to general search engines. Most of the average Indian users do not know about these vertical search engines, though we noticed some slight increment in the usage of these search engines.”

Ranjith explained, “Holistic 360 degree internet advertisement is the only way to target a wide array of keywords and hence to well profiled as well as to a not so savvy customers. Unfortunately, far too few online merchants know to utilize this new advertisement medium to its full potential. There are either mom-n-pop search marketing companies or there are big companies who rely highly upon PPC (Pay per Click); with PPC, the traffic stops the moment you stop the campaign. To target a wider set of customer queries using PPC, you will have to spend a fortune. Only few Indian corporate have the budget for such a long lasting advertisement campaign. Very few Indian companies consider about the researcher when they actually outsource their Internet marketing and promotion. Most of the merchants don’t even look at their user’s keyword activities and browsing pattern. Too often, this results in a misallocation of future marketing budget to those channels through which the sale is conceived, initiated and transacted, in fact the budget should be allocated to the channel that actually produces the sale.”

“This study also states the fact that online presence boosts the conversion for companies with strong internet presence and it also emphasizes the need to have a system to track the visitor-to-sale (online and offline) ratio, before and after starting an internet campaign. Such a system would allow them to track their ROI on internet advertisement. And also will tell them whether to go for it or not” says Namitha Ranjith, Director Kapston Consulting.

Kapston works with many of its clients to understand customer behavior and define strategies to sell to the most amateur and remote customers whereby improving ROI of Internet advertisement.