we expect to get about 25-30% of orders via mobile by the year end

What all does the IT team manage at ShopClues?

The ShopClues technology team manages the e-commerce platform, application development, and the IT infrastructure.

Investing in mobile commerce is a priority among e-commerce players. How is ShopClues strategizing to cater to the on-the-go consumer? Has the company deployed any mobile apps?

We believe that the world is moving to mobile in a big way. At ShopClues, the mobile piece has been a part of our strategy from day-one.
Currently, ShopClues has three mobile apps - for its customers, merchants and internal operations respectively. About 40% of our business in conducted on the mobile platform and we expect that to grow in the coming months. With the recent launch of our customer-facing Android app, we expect to get about 25-30% of orders via mobile by the year end. We want to increase the reach of our mobile initiative beyond apps - we will soon be launching a feature phone/smartphone-friendly shopping experience. This will enable our customers to interact with ShopClues site seamlessly, across diverse platforms.

How do you use analytics and what future possibilities do you see in using analytics in this space?

ShopClues is extremely data-driven and we collect a wealth of data related to consumer behavior, transaction details, traffic data, social media data, competitive data, etc. This data helps us build real time decision and recommendation engines like:

Personalization and Product recommendation based on users browsing behavior, past transactions and other customers transaction where there is similarity of browsing and transaction behavior.

Product price recommendation engine-which suggest pricing of the products based on consumer conversion and competitive data.

Assignment of logistics partner based on source and destination of an order-this takes into account logistics partners performance on that route, type of product, ground versus air shipment and of cost of shipment.

What is driving e-commerce companies to have their own payment gateways? What challenges are they facing with the present gateway solutions?

India's low credit card penetration is a dampener for online shopping (although most e-shopping sites witness higher spends through card transactions as compared to CoD). RBI's regulations regarding two-factor authentication and the legacy tech systems used by most banks in India, only add to the problem of online payments. The multiple steps involved in authentication for an e-transaction can be time-consuming and cumbersome for a customer, especially when poor internet connectivity too can play spoilt-sport. All these factors contribute towards e-commerce companies exploring the option of offering their own digital wallet schemes or payment gateways.

What are the priorities while choosing a payment gateway? Do you also have plans to have your own payment gateway?

The priorities are below:

• Ease of use for customers 
• Fees: Payment gateways can charge monthly fee, transaction fees, set u p fees. Choose which model works best for your business
• Technology Backbone: Ease of integration with e-commerce platform, compatible with mobile

We consider the option of building and integrating new technology whenever there is a compelling business need.