The under-rated power of online reviews

India's online market place is growing at a great pace. Everything from a shoe to a house - gets bought and sold online. Consumers jump from one marketplace to another depending upon the prices offered, the delivery time, the variety of options available and the reliability of the seller. When it comes to reliability and product quality, most of the customers fall back on the reviews posted by others who have bought the same product. Considering these, all the online retail biggies or the wannabe biggies - ought to pay a little more attention to collecting reviews from its customers. 

Around the world, there are dedicated review sites which provide reviews for everything - from consumer products to software to websites to businesses. And they pay their reviewers good money for doing so. India can boast of only a few review sites - mouthshut.com, tripadvisor.com, zomato.com. For reviews, most of the online shopping community depends upon feedback posted on Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal etc. by certified buyers.

Strangely, some of the biggies do not give an option to review. Ebay only allows buyers to rate the transaction and provide them feedback, while PayTm , allows only seller ratings. Even bigbasket has no place for product reviews. On the other hand, there is the cosmetics/personal care website purplle.com, which rewards users with loyalty points for giving reviews. 

I believe that not only e-commerce sites should encourage and actively seek customer feedback, but going forward, reward them for doing so with loyalty points. It does not have to be a big gesture or reward - just a simple acknowledgement for the customer who does take time out to review. It will also ensure that instead of only negative reviews (which people tend to be more eager to post), positive reviews will also be encouraged.

Compact Smartphone Wifi printer Yupix!

All the techno savvy crowd would know by now, that Indian brand Yu has launched a compact printer that you can use for printing photos directly from your smartphone - using wifi. And at an introductory price of Rs.6999/-. The photo size is small - 2.1 X 3.4 inches, but nevertheless, a good idea.

Before you get too excited, you should know that one cartridge does only 10 prints and it costs around Rs. 300/- now. However, the print quality is said to be decent - check the review links below.

Technology wise, I believe this is a good idea. Although, we are increasingly using soft copies these days, this is an idea that can be developed further. For financial inclusion, instant Aadhaar cards or ID proofs maybe?

Related Links:
Amazon.in Customer review
YU launches YUPIX to print your memoriesdirectly from your smartphone

Unified Payments, Payment Banks, Small Banks - will banking soon be within everyone's reach?

Some 10-15 years back, if someone had told me that by 2015, mobiles in India would have a subscriber base of around 96 crores (Source: TRAI Press Release, Feb'15) - I would have probably suggested that they were madly optimistic (raving mad would have been the exact reply). But it is a reality today, and a good percentage (10% - as per an Ericsson report in 2013) of that population owns a smartphone.

So can a similar revolution take place in the Banking space? We have Aadhaar, RuPay and a Unified Payments Interface (something that will allow seamless banking transactions through a mobile, similar to mobile wallets like Airtel Money or Paytm) when it comes to the technology support. 11 Payment Banks have recently been given a license by RBI, with Small Bank licenses scheduled for next month. If there can be a Banking revolution, this seems to be the right time for it.

The PM's Jan Dhan Yojana (17.45 crore bank accounts), Social Security schemes (for Life Insurance, Accident Insurance and Pension) as well as the Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme (1.8 lacs accounts as of 31.03.15) for the girl child have resulted in many people opening their first bank accounts. But how far these initiatives go will depend upon how far technology can reach.

PSU banks are not very happy with the Payment Banks move, and rightly so. They have supported the Government in all its banking initiatives so far, even if it meant bearing the burden of bad debts. And they have not been adequately compensated for it. While PSU banks have largely depended upon their widespread capital intensive network of branches and ATMs, Payment Banks will depend upon technology to reach the remotest corners of India. 

And technology is an area that PSU banks have not been able to focus upon. That is where lies a huge competitive gap. The arrival of Payment Banks and Small Banks is likely to erode their retail customer base. Especially in the urban areas, which is the more profitable segment. 

But if PSUs can collaborate with the Payment banks, by investing in them (like Reliance-SBI) or by using them as Business Correspondents , and grow together, it will usher in a new era of banking for India. Hopefully, the forgotten people at the bottom of the social ladder will finally be included in this financial model.

Related Links:
A very good article on financial inclusion at mrunal.org
Payments banks can annually free up Rs 14 lakh crore bonanza for infrastructure sector
U-turn on payments banks: SBI chief sees 'opportunity' for all
SBI is threatened by new-age payment banks, flies to Bengaluru to catch up with tech-savvy rivals
Employee union opposes entry of payment banks
Small finance bank licences next month: Rajan
Payment Banks to Change Banking Habits of Indians: Jaitley
Tough Challenges await Chandrashekhar Ghosh's Bandhan in its commercial bank avtaar
NPCI launches Unified Payments InterfaceMobile Wallets - a pocketable business?

Smart Mirrors and Image based searches - the world is going visual

It all started in 2007 with MS Windows choosing the visually appealing graphical ribbon interface in its Office Products in place of the drop-down style text based interface. Using icons in place of text - a major change. The logic was that icons and visuals are not restricted by language barriers.

Slowly the trend has been gaining popularity. Check any online shopping site or app - the images are the key to inducing buyers to shop online. So they worked on an app for shopping malls - for people to virtually try clothes before buying them (http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2013/03/03/what-you-see-is-what-you-wear-augmented-online-shopping-mall/)). 

Then Fitle came up with the idea of creating a 3D avatar for yourself - to check if the colour and sizes suit you and how (http://techcrunch.com/2014/08/04/fitle-will-let-you-try-clothes-on-a-3d-avatar-of-yourself/). The idea is to team up with shopping malls and stores and use their database to provide customers an easy to use app for shopping, where they can try the clothes on their avatars first. 

Another pathbreaking idea is that of Smart Mirrors in a mall that lets you change the colour of your clothes, try different clothes, take snaps and send it to friends for opinion - all of it virtually, before buying the actual product (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2906563/The-end-fitting-room-queues-Smart-mirrors-lets-virtually-try-clothes-order-drinks.html).

Not much of this is available for free in the public domain. But Flipkart is now trying to launch its Image Search feature on the app. Currently in beta stage, the feature will allow users to click pictures of products they like and find similar products on the store. Sounds cool; but we will have to wait for the actual launch to see the real time results (http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/flipkart-set-to-introduce-image-search-feature-to-mobile-app/)

Google is also working on a feature where a person can click images of food (in restaurants) and it will map the location and suggest linking the image with the establishment. Food review sites like Zomato will love something like this. This will be first rolled out to people who are a part of Google's local guides program, conditions attached (http://tech.firstpost.com/news-analysis/google-is-testing-a-new-feature-to-allow-adding-food-images-to-maps-278860.html).

So from words to images - we are moving rapidly towards the visual space. Even when it comes to blogs, articles, education, more and more people are depending upon visual inputs to emphasize and explain. And it is more effective too. This is a good theme for businesses to build themselves upon.

Google to remove many pre-loaded apps, give users the choice

Google is planning to remove bloatware with its next - the Marshmallow update. This is the set of pre-loaded or bunched apps you get whenever you buy an android / google based smartphone or tab. And since they take up memory space and cannot be deleted, this is like part of a compulsory syllabus.

Consumer is the King!

And now finally, the syllabus is about to change - in consumers' interest. Google may remove many of these apps (phones will not come pre-loaded with it, but users are free to download them later) freeing quite a bit of memory space in the process. And also providing its users a choice.

This makes for good thinking. Whether the apps are useful or not, dumping something on users without any way out, was truly unfair. And Google should know. Instead of us being showered with thousands of meaningless results, it brought a search engine that gave us what we wanted. 

Although considering that we are in an era where devices come with 16GB/ 64GB memory (God knows what people do with it!), the extra memory space is not really much for smartphone buyers these days. But the matter is of the principle. What is right, should come through, sooner or later. Hope others are listening too.

Link: http://thenextdigit.com/25660/google-remove-bloatware-marshmallow/

Lenovo Unveils new phone - with TRANSPARENT display?

Technology in the smartphone / tablet field is breaking new ground everyday. It is an extremely competitive zone, where every new flagship phone has to have something new and different. What do they call it? Disruptive innovation.

In the wake of the news that new flagship phones from Xiaomi, Google and other biggies will have fingerprint recognition, slimmer frames, and look nearly bezel-less, Lenovo has unveiled a new phone that suggests a transparent display. 

Well, how the technology for that would come about, is still a question. But the display prototype kindled the interests of the many who are always looking for something new in their next phone.

But the question I have is why? Why do you need a transparent phone? When I asked my friends, one of them suggested that since people are so glued to their phones while crossing the road these days, maybe it is intended as a safety measure. Ha!

But seriously, what other utility does it have? Is it to create a make-heads-turn look? But it would look like we are holding a piece of glass in our hand - does that sound interesting? I remember a Sony phone with a transparent band that changed colours - and it looked fun. Maybe they want to create a similar style in design.

There was a time when the focus in the electronic world was on creating clearer displays, better sound quality, faster performance in space saving sizes which would consume lesser energy. Today, sometimes I feel there is innovation just for innovation's sake.

I would like a phone that is super fast, has an unbreakable display, loooong battery life with super-quick charging and reasonably good looks. Whether it is slimmer than other phones, or is bezel-less, extra-secure or transparent - is something I do not care about. What is it that you would like in your next phone?

Link: http://gadgets.ndtv.com/mobiles/news/lenovos-zuk-unveils-transparent-display-smartphone-prototype-728043

Garment Design Errors

Like any normal female, I love shopping for new clothes, but I have major complaints against most garment labels. And the cause is just one - design flaws!

When you spend a chunk of your hard-earned money on Branded clothes, what do you expect? A fabric that is easy on your skin, a design that suits your style (whatever that is - simple or trendy) and an overall product that is simple to maintain. Just dump it in your washing machine and it comes out clean and looking exactly the way it looked before it went into it.

But alas! The last point is where they fail the most. First they come out with clothes that need dry-wash only. Seriously? You think we are going to dry-wash clothes every time? Okay, we will take that trouble for party-occasion wear. And yes, even then it is a trouble. But for daily / office wear? Are you joking?

And then the garment design - I bought a full white top with black lace on it (from a popular brand - Fusion Beats) and when it was washed, the colour from the lace bled all over the top. Once it was the blue fabric buttons which bled all over a white kurti (Shoppers Stop). What were they thinking when they created such stuff? Don't they know how careful one has to be when working with whites? We have been wearing whites since the beginning of time and they sell you products where colours bleed all the time!!

And then the fabric itself. It is either synthetic and not so skin-friendly or it is natural and nearly transparent. I don't get the logic behind creating sheer and almost fully transparent fabrics - if someone wants something like that, they can always get net or lace fabrics. Why make formal wear fabrics sheer?? 

And if the fabric is not sheer, it will be coarse and dull-looking or the colours will fade away in a few washes. Synthetics are more reliable in this aspect, at least they don't bleed and fade away.

Even with online shopping options, a great list of brands to choose from - I still find it difficult to get sensible clothes at a reasonable price. All the budding fashion entrepreneurs out there - please listen to our voices!

New Glass Paint that may keep roofs cool

I keep coming across articles where scientists develop new stuff, and in most cases the utility of the research or the development is not very clear.

For a change, this time they have developed something that sounds pretty useful. A glass based paint that can keep the painted surface cool, and is expected to be more durable than normal paints. It is still under development and the product may take nearly 2-3 years to actually reach the market, but it still sounds as if it is worth the wait.

The development was focused on creating a more durable paint for cars and houses, but the uses could be many. They suggest that it might be used on roofs to keep homes cool - a very helpful result if it becomes possible.

As per the article, sunlight bounces off the metal surfaces with the paint and that's how it is supposed to remain cool and last long as well. Based on silica, it is also expected to be affordable - another wow factor.

I wonder if everything in a room was painted with this paint that bounced off sunlight and there was nothing else to absorb the sunlight and heat, whether it would increase the temperature in the room? Well, the experts can think over the environmental impacts. 

Meanwhile I think we should plant more trees by the time such products hit the market; just in case.

Link: http://focusnews.com/tech-gadgets/scientists-come-up-with-new-glass-paint-to-keep-metal-roofs-cool-and-durable/111112/

The Arthakranti Proposal

Okay, so I am pretty much behind times to be discussing this one. Right before the elections last year, the Arthakranti proposal had become a major topic of discussion that had us considering the idea of a single tax system for the country. Quite a lot to think about!

For the uninitiated, the Arthakranti proposal (by a Pune based organization) basically suggests the abolition of all existing taxes (except customs duty) and replacing them all with one Single Tax – the Banking Transaction Tax. Transactions above a certain minimum limit (say Rs.2000/-) will only be through banks and each of them will attract taxation. The idea of only one tax – is alluring, inviting. The idea of all money being routed through banking – a check on hawala, money laundering – is very, very interesting.

But as it is with most good and radical ideas, the actual implementation and impact is something different. And difficult to gauge. And that is where the critics have rightly pointed out its many flaws.

Here we are, struggling with GST, even when everybody seems to like the idea. And to consider BTT at such a time – it would be like expecting a  financial revolution. Our economy, policy makers, banking system and even the general population (who are used to financial jugaad for avoiding tax payment) – is unprepared for such an idea.

And yet, the fundamental concept seems nice – a single system of taxation for one and all. For a society where everyone is equal (even economically), it would make sense. But for today, it seems utopian.

Like the idea of voluntary payment of taxes – you decide how much tax you would like to pay. Well, that would be unrealistic. But at least they can let us choose the deductions we want to take – give us some options that we can choose from.

In another scenario, if they could give us an option to decide where at least part of our taxes would go – like the road in our neighbourhood that we want repaired. That would give us some sense of ownership.

Even simply showing us where our taxes went – complete transparency in itself would give us some comfort. I believe that Indian taxation has a long road ahead, it has to and will evolve as times change. For now, lets keep hoping that ideas like these keep breaking out to keep our country’s financial think tank on its toes.

PS: Do suggest ideas that appeal to you as well.

Link: http://www.arthakranti.org/proposal

Overdues recovery tactics by Banks

Recently I came across a news article - "Corporation Bank staff stage dharnas outside defaulters' premises" - and I was reminded of the yester-years when harassment by loan recovery agents' had become a major concern.

That was when most Banks (including PSUs) had hired external recovery agent services to tackle the problem of rising NPAs or bad loans. These recovery agents resorted to tactics like calling up friends or relatives of the defaulter, or sending eunuchs to their homes or simply threatening the defaulter day in and day out.

Finally, the RBI stepped in and issued guidelines to banks, essentially restricting such unethical activities by these recovery agents. Today, most banks have their own loan recovery departments and the recovery process is much more subdued.

The article that triggered the memory was about Corporation Bank staff at Mangaluru, Karnataka resorting to dharnas outside the premises of wilful defaulters - people who have the ability to repay, but are not willing to do so. On the face of it, this seems like a good idea. A peaceful solution to tackle difficult and wilful defaulters - well, other than the fact that your customer will not return to you after the transaction is over.

But the effectiveness of such a drastic step depends more upon how judiciously Banks use them against their customers. There is no one-size-fits-all. The bank has stated that this is not something they will ever consider for farmers. Well, that they would not. But will this trigger another set of unorthodox tactics in loan recovery by banks in India?

Link to the article: 

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/banking/to-recover-dues-corporation-bank-staff-stage-dharnas-outside-defaulters-premises/article7452759.ece

My first blog - thanks for visiting!

Hi there!

This is my first attempt at writing a blog and the theme is ideas / news that make good or bad business sense.

Because that's what clicks for me. 

New products, new services, new ideas are launched everyday and they generate a whole lot of news. This is my take on the exceptional few of those that are either creatively brilliant or logically nonsense.

Common sense, they say, is not very common. And that seems pretty much true. Innovations around us don't really seem to have real life utility. The exceptional attempts are generally a take from foreign markets. 

Here we will take a look at those few that made us think. I might be behind times in some cases, but nevertheless - any idea worth discussing, ought to be discussed. So let's get started.

For all my readers, thanks for visiting and reading. Your comments, contributions are always welcome. Your inputs will guide me towards better and more relevant content.