Wednesday, June 23, 2010

snapdeal.com

Snapdeal.com is yet another popular Indian flash sales site. Instead of looking at a predetermined number of bookings for getting a deal, it adopts a token amount payment from the user. Everyday snapdeals offers a deal to its user on the web site that remains valid for a period of 24 hours. In order to book the deal, the user pays up a small advance which if i am not mistaken is snapdeal's commission. The remaining amount needs to be paid by the user to the vendor when he buys the product or service. Once the user pays the advance, he receives a discount voucher in email and unique code over sms. The user needs to print out the voucher and use it within the validity period mentioned in it which is typically valid for 2-3 months.
You can subscribe to daily alerts in order to get the latest deals from snapdeal.com. One thing that i have noticed here is that the sales are offered only for services and does not include any consumer good or clothing. This probably stems from the fact that Indian consumers are still not ready to buy products online till they touch and feel the product.

Overall, I liked the site for its clarity and simple user interface. It is currently offering local discounts for restaurants, spas, saloons, adventure holidays, hobby classes in Pune, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, New Delhi/NCR . Check it out here.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Koovs.com

Koovs.com is an interesting flash sales indian web site which offers online group discounts to its registered users. The company offers discounts from various associate vendors for a limited time period. The deal becomes active if it receives minimum number of orders within the limited time period. The company issues a discount coupon called "Koovs" which the user can print out and show it at to the partner vendor to avail discounts. The company is primarily targeting the local restaurants to woo the customers. This looks like an interesting concept though not new in the e-commerce world but definitely is unique in Indian e-space.
For the vendors it is a pretty interesting opportunity to get higher visibility and good promotion at a low cost. I haven't been able to dig deeper into the commission structure but i believe it will be lucrative enough for both the vendor as well as for Koovs to make this work in a profitable manner. For an Indian consumer its a win-win solution given his apatite for sales and freebies !! You can register at koovs.com to get the latest deals