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<keyword id="18635" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon" source="Orion">Amazon</keyword> is planning to hire more than 8,000 direct workforce across 35 cities in the country this year across corporate, technology, customer service and operations roles, according to a top company official. "We have more than 8,000 direct <keyword id="346323" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="job-openings" source="Orion">job openings</keyword> across 35 cities in the country, including cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Kolkata, Noida, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Coimbatore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Ludhiana, Pune, Surat. "These job opportunities are spread across corporate, technology, customer service, and operations roles," Amazon HR Leader - Corporate, <keyword id="156416" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="apac" source="Orion">APAC</keyword>, and MENA <keyword id="7773989" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="deepti-varma" source="Orion">Deepti Varma</keyword> told PTI. She further noted that "we're also hiring for machine learning applied sciences. We are hiring in support functions like HR, finance, legal... quite a lot of them, which are there," she added. She said the company aims for 20 lakh job openings, both direct and indirect, by 2025, and has already created 10 lakh direct and indirect jobs in India. Even during the pandemic, Amazon gave jobs to 3 lakh people, both direct and indirect, and made the entire hiring process virtual, she stated. Meanwhile, as Amazon is growing in India and has plans to hire in big numbers, the company plans to showcase itself as an exciting place to work through its first-ever Career Day in India on September 16. This virtual and interactive event will bring together Amazon leadership and employees to share what makes Amazon an exciting workplace, what it is like to work here and how the company is steadfast in its commitment to help India unleash its true potential in the 21st century, Varma said. Besides, she said, the multiple global and India-focused sessions in the event, 140 Amazon recruiters will conduct 2,000 free, one-on-one career coaching sessions with job seekers across the country. The recruiters will offer advice on how to approach the job search process effectively, resume-building skills, and interview tips that will help candidates in their search for right jobs, she said. Currently, Amazon employs over 1 lakh professionals across diverse areas like engineering, applied sciences, business management, supply chain, operations, finance, HR to analytics, content creation and acquisition, marketing, real estate, corporate security, video, music and many more, Varma said. India is the second-largest technology hub for Amazon with Indian talent innovating for not just India, but also globally, noted Varma. "We are just getting started, and we are seeking passionate builders out there to join us in this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to digitally transform India. "This Career Day, we look forward to sharing our long-term commitment to tapping into India's potential in the 21st century, and career opportunities to empower and enable this legacy," Amazon India Global Senior Vice President and Country Head Amit Agarwal added in a statement. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/six-month-old-investment-advisory-startup-dezerv-raises-7-million/articleshow/85865111.cms">Six-month-old investment advisory startup Dezerv raises $7 million</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/finance/news/phonepe-is-citing-data-to-argue-that-merchants-should-pay-for-upi-transactions/articleshow/85863071.cms">PhonePe is citing data to argue that merchants should pay for UPI transactions</a>

Amazon to hire 8,000 direct workforce across 35 cities in India this year

​ If you are too excited to wait for the new tank top you ordered online, <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> has a solution for you. Also, sometimes, the delivery guy acts pricey and denies delivering your order at your convenient time, you won’t have to coax and cajole him. 
 Having initiated the venture with 20 pickup centres in <keyword id="6354321" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bengaluru">Bengaluru</keyword> and thereby graduating to more than 800 points across 45 cities including Thoothukudi, Thanjavur, Vijayawada, Belgaum, Kolhapur, Rajkot and Ludhiana, Amazon India is pioneering a strategy that may soon become the trend across the ecommerce ambit. 
 
As per a news report by The Economic Times, the 'Amazon Pickup' programme puts to use any available physical rentable space " a store, office, garage, house or even a van " as a point of exchange for Amazon packages for customers to pick up and return products at their convenience. 
 
"We carefully look for like-minded business owners who are extremely passionate towards customers and have a burning desire to perform and grow. These businesses work with us as our last-mile delivery partners and help Amazon packages reach the customer's door step," a company spokesperson told the ET. 
 
“We have seen owners of kirana stores, bakeries, flower shops, travel agencies, etc. coming forward to act as delivery and shipment pickup points as they are witnessing higher footfalls and incremental business through their association with this programme," said the spokesperson. 
 
Amazon also piloted Amazon Pickup at Bharat Petroleum's In &amp; Out stores in Delhi and Mumbai last year. 
 
The company now plans to extend the deal to make all the In &amp; Out outlets across the country its pickup points. Currently 35 In &amp; Out stores have already been on-boarded to act as pickup points. 
 Ratul Ghosh, former <keyword id="373910" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="head-of-strategy">head of strategy</keyword> at <keyword id="161767" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="eBay-India">eBay India</keyword> and now an independent consultant, told the ET,"It reduces delivery and pickup costs, the headache of finding addresses and scheduling and so on. These locations could double up as last-mile quality-check, stock-point, even a trust-point for walk-in consumer care.” 
 
However he is doubtful about the fact that Consumers who shop online for the convenience of not having to drive and park and offline retail partners might not be too interested for it. 
 
 (Image: Reuters)

​No more waiting for online delivery. Collect your Amazon order from the neighbourhood store

Chandigarh, Dec 5 () Amazon India on Thursday said it has signed a pact with Punjab Small Industries &amp; Export Corporation (PSIEC) to conduct workshops to enable MSME exporters to reach out to millions of customers of the e-commerce giant under the Amazon Global Selling programme.
 The memorandum of understanding (MoU) with state-owned PSIEC will help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) of the state get benefits through e-commerce, Amazon India said in a statement.
 The agreement was signed in Mohali on the inaugural day of the two-day Progressive Punjab Investors Summit, which commenced on Thursday.
 The event is witnessing participation from MSMEs, apart from leading industrialists, new-age entrepreneurs, foreign missions and other dignitaries.
 As part of the MoU, Amazon will conduct trainings and on-boarding workshops at key MSME clusters in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Patiala and Bathinda in order to help MSME exporters get onboard Amazon's 12 international marketplaces.
 By bolstering e-commerce support for the MSME exporters of Punjab, Amazon India will play a vital role in helping them be part of and benefit from India's booming digital economy.
 The partnership with various departments of the Punjab government intends to empower and generate livelihood opportunities and help exports find a wider buyer base and fetch the right price for the products, it said.
 Additional Chief Secretary (Industries) Vini Mahajan said, "Amazon's partnership with the Punjab government signifies the growing interest of large global enterprises in Punjab.
 "The MoU signed today (Thursday) will provide thousands of MSMEs from Punjab seamless access to customers in 180-plus countries across the world through Amazon's platform. The state government remains committed to make Punjab an attractive business and investment destination."
 Abhijit Kamra, director (global trade) at Amazon India, said, "Through the Amazon Global Selling programme, we have had the opportunity to assist 50,000 MSMEs across India to showcase over 150 million 'Made-in-India' products to customers in more than 180 countries.
 "With the signing of this MoU with the Punjab government, we will continue to play an active role in helping entrepreneurs from Punjab to launch their own businesses and reach out to millions of Amazon customers worldwide," he said.
 Amazon unveiled its Global Selling programme in India in May 2015 to provide transformative opportunities for Indian sellers to grow and scale through e-commerce exports, the statement said.
 As part of the Amazon Global Selling programme, Amazon provides the most comprehensive suite of services to sellers of all sizes and scale to enable them to sell across the globe in Amazon's international marketplaces.
 Clocking USD 1 billion in cumulative exports till now, Amazon Global Selling programme is expected to generate USD 5 billion in cumulative export sales by 2023 for Indian exporters enrolled in this programme.
 "Currently, over 50,000 Indian manufacturers, traders and brands use this platform to sell over 150 million products across 12 Amazon international marketplaces worldwide such as Amazon.com.
 "With the Amazon Global Selling programme, Amazon is contributing to the government's vision on exports, and encouraging 'Made-in-India' products go global by providing critical market access to customers in over 180 countries," it said. SUN HRS

Progressive Punjab Investors Summit: Amazon India signs pact with PSIEC to help drive exports

<ul><li><keyword id="15975000" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="recode-studios" source="Orion">Recode Studios</keyword> is a makeup brand and online marketplace based in Ludhiana. </li><li>It clocked net sales of ₹15 crore with a net profit of ₹48 lakh for FY22. </li><li><keyword id="2174783" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="recode" source="Orion">Recode</keyword> Studios, founded by <keyword id="15975001" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Dheeraj-Bansal" source="Orion">Dheeraj Bansal</keyword> and <keyword id="3160595" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rahul-Sachdeva" source="Orion">Rahul Sachdeva</keyword>, pitched on <keyword id="11924074" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="shark-tank-india" source="Orion">Shark Tank India</keyword> S2 but none of the sharks invested.</li></ul>The few episodes of Shark Tank India season 2 aired, are already trending on social media. And, the company that dominated discussions online is one that received no funding — Recode Studios, an online marketplace and makeup brand. Punjab-based acquaintances Dheeraj Bansal and Rahul Sachdeva started Recode Studios as a makeup brand in 2018. Later, in 2021, it grew into an online marketplace selling cosmetics across 60 brands. Sachdeva was already in this line, working with a cosmetic brand, Make Over, and had gained the necessary expertise in the industry. Bansal however worked as a manufacturer of bicycle spare parts before starting Recode. "When Rahul approached me with the proposal, I recognised the chance to advance in this field and went from the bicycle to the cosmetic industry. Rahul's marketing expertise in the cosmetics industry and mine in management and operations helped us kick-start our venture,” Bansal told <a href="https://yourstory.com/2022/11/cosmetics-startup-recode-studios-afforability-beauty-products-ludhiana">YourStory</a>. Started in 2018, Recode Studios launched its brand with products like nail paint, lipsticks, eyeliner and kajal — which are make-up kit must-haves. The founders saw that affordability was always an issue for buyers, and that struck a chord with them. The decision to shift from a pure cosmetic brand to an online marketplace came when the company suffered severe losses during the pandemic. Consequently, the founders shared on Shark Tank India that they decided to sell-off their products, which were going to expire in 8-10 months, in a ₹1 flash sale. “This allowed us to get consumer feedback on the quality of our products while also being economically lucrative. Since everyone we sold to spread the word to their friends and family, we also increased our customer base,” Bansal further added. They built a strong customer base among middle-class households who find international brands too expensive. Other than its own make-up products, the platform also offers products of brands like WOW Skin Science, Colorbar, Mirabela and others. The company imports products from countries like Germany, Thailand and Taiwan. It has a tie-up with over 300 offline stores and has three franchise stores in Delhi, Faridabad and Raipur. It also has a presence on Amazon, and sells pan-India through its own website as well. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Unique customer acquisition strategy" comment="subhead" text="Unique customer acquisition strategy">Unique customer acquisition strategy</cmsannotation> The cosmetic brand pitched on the premiere episode of Shark Tank India season 2 to raise ₹1 crore in exchange for 1% equity. While pitching, both Bansal and Sachdeva explained their customer acquisition strategy. The startup organises offline makeup classes for girls in five-star properties that last 3-4 hours, at ₹1,500 per class. Famous makeup artists teach them different make-up techniques, and they receive products worth ₹1,500 along with a free lunch at the venue. “This is a no profit no loss move and actually a cost to the company,” said Rahul in the show. “The students then come to buy those products again and that’s how we build our customer base,” he added. This unique customer acquisition strategy impressed the sharks in the show, especially Lenskart founder Peyush Bansal, who quipped that even he would try to offer free lunch at eye-testing camps. Recode didn’t get any funding on the show, allegedly because it was a direct competitor of Sugar Cosmetics - the venture founded by shark Vineeta Singh. Nevertheless, since the episode aired, Recode and its acquisition model has gained a lot of traction on social media. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/skippi-ice-pops-what-this-hyderabad-popsicle-brand-is-doing-after-raising-rs-1-crore-from-shark-tank-india-season-1/articleshow/96759786.cms">Skippi Ice Pops – how the Hyderabad-based popsicle brand fared after bagging a ₹1 crore deal on Shark Tank India S1</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/startups/news/how-wittyfeed-founders-lost-a-company-overnight-and-launched-a-300-crore-startup-in-a-year/slidelist/96758805.cms">How WittyFeed founders lost a company overnight and launched a ₹300 crore startup in a year</a>

Recode Studio's free lunch with make-up classes wins over Shark Tank judges, but gets no money

What could be the better bargain period than this when India's three biggest online market places – <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Flipkart%2C+Snapdeal+">Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal</a> - touted discounts of as much as 80% during this festive season? 
 Alas! The enthusiasm of early birds was dampened somewhat as there were few eye-popping deals on the first day on <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> or Amazon India on the latest gadgets and fashion brands. 
 
But brands were relieved that their efforts to rein in price cuts had worked, confirming the trend of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=e-Commerce+firms+">e-Commerce firms</a> moving away from extravagant discounts. 
 
Instead they are focussing on better financials. 
 According to industry executives, deep discounts were available on online only and e-Commerce-focused products such as those made by <keyword id="71696" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Micromax">Micromax</keyword>, Onida, BPL and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Motorola">Motorola</a>, and on older models of gadgets and smartphones. 
 
And a similar trend was witnessed in <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=apparel+and+accessories">apparel and accessories</a>. This marked a sharp departure from last year, when the latest models of <keyword id="6354606" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="iPhone">iPhone</keyword>, <keyword id="173725" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Samsung-Galaxy">Samsung Galaxy</keyword> phones and Sony televisions were on sale. The e-Commerce firms offered maximum discounts on their in-house apparel brands where margins are twice that of other clothing. "None of our fresh merchandise is on discount except old or last-season stock," said J Suresh, chief executive of Arvind Lifestyle Brands, which sells brands such as Gap, US Polo, Wrangler and Calvin Klein. 
 Lets’ know how the big three – <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>, Flipkart and Amazon India – planned to rob customers this year! 
 
1. Conservative Approach: These companies are more conservative this year, ordering about 1.2 times the normal stock for the discount period unlike last year when they were targeting to grow sales by five times. "The focus is surely on margins and profitability," Suresh said. 
 
The chief of a leading shoe brand said deep discounting of 60-80%, which is usually offered during end-of-season sales by the ecommerce firms, was missing on the first day. "The madness was not there and even I was expecting good deals on international brands for my personal purchase where discounts were hardly 4-10%," he said, requesting anonymity. The absence of deep discounts on the hottest items is good news for brick and mortar retailers, who have been suffering on account of lower prices online. 
 
2. The Big E-tailing Rivalry: After Flipkart announced the October13-17 campaign, Amazon and Snapdeal announced similar exercises—a point that a company executive brought up. "Random thought: Checked out TOI. Looks like we set the dates for when others do their festival sales :)! Go BBD!," Flipkart chief product officer Punit Soni tweeted. Rohit Bansal, cofounder of Snapdeal, tweeted: "Looks like India has chosen @snapdeal as the app of their choice this festive season!" 
 
Flipkart said it "saw 25 items sold per second." The company said 10 lakh products were sold in the first 10 hours with 6 million visits from across the country. "This is pushing the limits, the volumes are much higher than last year," said Naman Sarawagi, cofounder and CEO of FindYogi, a chat-based shopping assistance app. 
 
On Monday, Snapdeal said that it sold five mobile phones every second as it racked up total sales of $100 million. Amazon India claimed that the first day of the festive sales was the biggest day in its history, four times bigger than the peak of last Diwali. Traffic from mobile was over 70% and lakhs of new customers came from cities like Aurangabad, Malappuram, Dhanbad, Kannur, Tiruchirappalli, Jamshedpur and others. 
 3. Ambulance On Standby: Most visitors were from cities like <keyword id="6354321" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Bengaluru">Bengaluru</keyword>, Delhi and Chennai. Ludhiana, Lucknow and Bhopal were among the top cities from non-metros, said Flipkart, where employees have been working round the clock to keep systems stable. Flipkart set up shuttle services for employees to be picked up and dropped and even put an ambulance and masseurs on standby. 
 
"With over 20 million visits from across the country on the first day, the fashion sale has been a big hit amongst our customers. For electronics - it will be even bigger on 15th October as we have lined up a range of smartphone launches for our customers from brands like <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=Google">Google</a>, <keyword id="11148" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Motorola">Motorola</keyword>, <keyword id="6357456" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Huawei">Huawei</keyword>, Intex and Micromax. All these new launches will have aggressive launch and exchange offers along with exciting bank discounts," a Flipkart spokesperson said. 
 
About 1.5 million shoppers bought goods worth over $100 million from Flipkart during the sale in 2014 but the site stuttered as a large number of people sought to access the site. This year's Billion Days sale is expected to be five times in size, according to one Flipkart employee who requested anonymity. 
 Amazon and Flipkart started their festive season sales on Tuesday while Snapdeal kicked things off on Monday. Discounts were attractive on online-exclusive smartphone brands such as Motorola, <keyword id="874458" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Xiaomi">Xiaomi</keyword>, Yu Yuphoria and <keyword id="2210217" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="oneplus">OnePlus</keyword> 2. Price cuts were also offered on baby products, general merchandise, home decor and personal care products. The sale will carry on until the end of the week. 
 
Flipkart said there had been a surge in app downloads in anticipation of the sale. 
 
"It's great to see 1.6 million app installs in the last two days, which is a great indicator that India has been preparing well for The Big Billion Days," said Mukesh Bansal, head of commerce platform at Flipkart. The sale was off to a relatively glitch-free start. Flipkart, which was hit by glitches last year owing to heavy traffic, has staggered its app-only discounted sales over five days, across various categories such as fashion, home appliances, electronics and books. 
 
(Image: Indiatimes)

No extravagant discounts from Flipkart or Amazon this year!  They are focusing on stronger financials instead

New Delhi, Mar 26 () Delivery of essential items via e-commerce continued to face challenges on the second day of the 21-day lockdown, with the industry urging government for uniform classification of essential items across various states. While the government has allowed delivery of all essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment through e-commerce, online platforms like Amazon India, Grofers, bigbasket and Milkbasket have been facing disruptions in delivery to their customers. According to a senior industry executive, who did not wish to be named, e-commerce companies are finding it difficult to procure passes for their logistics and delivery staff separately for each state. The person said the process is time-consuming and instead the government can look at alternate mechanisms like digital identity checks. Another industry expert pointed out that there is an urgent need for uniform classification of essential items across various states, and that instructions need to flow down clearly to the last mile, where the delivery agents are facing issues. E-commerce platforms have seen a spike in orders on their platforms in India over the past few weeks as people logged online to stock up on food and household products as well as office items like routers and cables (to work from home) on concerns around spread of COVID-19 infection and restrictions in public movement that have now been enforced. "We have seen high demand on the platform, and working towards making deliveries at the earliest in collaboration with our sellers. We're also expecting that following government intervention, inter-state transport movement will also stabilise in the next couple of days," Flipkart said in an e-mailed statement. On Wednesday, after temporarily suspending operations earlier in the day, Walmart-owned Flipkart resumed its grocery and essential services delivery after assurance of safe passage of its supply chain and delivery executives by local law enforcement authorities. Amazon had said it was working with government authorities to enable it to deliver essential items. Grofers, which initially saw some of its delivery staff getting arrested and over 60,000 deliveries affected, said it has resumed operations in Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Kanpur with the help of local authorities. "For the remaining cities, we are working closely with the respective authorities and shall resume operations as soon as we get the necessary permissions. Our team members are working around the clock to ensure support towards our customers, who are counting on us for essential supplies at their homes," he added. Snapdeal said it has been keeping an eye on the developments, and has extended the timelines available to its sellers for shipping the orders received by them. "Snapdeal has extended the timelines available to its sellers for shipping the orders received by them. It has also communicated to its sellers that no cancellation charges or penalties will be levied if they are not able to ship in time or ship at all," Snapdeal said. Grocery delivery platform bigbasket said it is operational in cities like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Mumbai, Noida and Vadodara even though its services were affected by "severe restrictions imposed on the movement of our staff and vehicles". "...due to high demand, we are booked for the next 4-5 days, and this situation could continue if the demand continues to remain high," it said. It said for locations like Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kolkata, bigbasket is hopeful of being operational in a day or two, while for cities like Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Ludhiana, Pune and Vizag, it is not sure when it will resume operations. "In each of these cities, our operations are completely shut down due to severe restrictions imposed on our staff and the movement of vehicles. We have been trying to work with the local government authorities to get necessary permissions/permits to start our operations, but unfortunately, we have not been able to get the necessary help so far," it added. Another player, Milkbasket said it has been able to resume partial operations across Gurgaon, Noida and Bangalore. "Our Hyderabad operations are still shut," it said but added that it is hopeful of resuming services to all customers by Saturday or Sunday. SR MBI MKJ

E-tailers still facing delivery challenges amid coronavirus lockdown

<ul><li><keyword id="1245953" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ott" source="Orion">OTT</keyword> had a watershed year in 2020 and the growth continued in 2021. Most reports are predicting that OTTs growth is here to stay.</li><li>Homegrown <keyword id="959269" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="ott-platform" source="Orion">OTT platform</keyword> <keyword id="4241922" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="altbalaji" source="Orion">ALTBalaji</keyword> has been witnessing healthy growth on the back of its differentiated, localized content with a mass appeal.</li><li>We speak to <keyword id="3381161" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Divya-Dixit" source="Orion">Divya Dixit</keyword>, SVP - Marketing &amp; Revenue, ALTBalaji to take a look at ALTBalaji’s journey so far and the factors that have helped it woo audiences in a space that is increasingly becoming cluttered.</li></ul>It won’t be an exaggeration to say 2020 was a watershed year for the Over-the-Top (OTT) industry. With people being stuck at home, yearning for fresh content with nowhere to go, OTT platforms came to the rescue. Most platforms witnessed an uptick in its uptake, with people spending more and more time on the platforms. According to a recent report by FICCI and the Producers Guild of India, around 148 million Indians subscribed to online curated content platforms. Another report by RBSA Advisors also predicted that India's video OTT market may hit $12.5 billion by 2030 from around $1.5 billion in 2021 owing to access to better networks, smartphones, and digital connectivity. The pandemic no doubt has given the industry a boost and most platforms are doing all they can to woo consumers. While competing with each other for producing and licensing better, more differentiated content, last year also made most of these platforms realize that consumers are wanting to watch local content and most platforms have been investing on producing local and regional content. Within the OTT space in India, homegrown platform ALTBalaji has been witnessing a healthy growth in the past few years. The 4-year-old platform said recently that it is currently catering to an MAU base of over 10 million, having sold 2.9 million subscriptions in H1 alone. The platform is also seeing an audience engagement metrics of 83 minutes per day. While witnessing good growth from non-metro cities in India, ALTBalaji also recently announced its partnership with Telenet to further its reach into Nepal. We recently caught up with Divya Dixit, SVP - Marketing &amp; Revenue, ALTBalaji to take a look at ALTBalaji’s journey so far and what has helped it woo audiences in a space that is increasingly becoming cluttered. Excerpts: Q) It's been over 4 years since the launch of ALTBalaji. Can you walk me through a few of the highlights? ALTernative content being the core ethos of the group, ALTBalaji completed four glorious years of entertaining the audience with their non-stereotypical and out of the box storytelling. Currently catering to an MAU base of over 10 million, we have sold 2.9 million subscriptions in H1 alone, in this highly competitive Over-The-Top business. The platform also sees an audience engagement metrics of 83 minutes per day, with different genres catering to varied audiences. At ALTBalaji, we constantly sought innovation in content, technology as well as marketing. With a library of around 90 original shows on the app and yet many more to be released, our content library has received accolades for its disruptive work and also seen the engagement time grow to over 83 minutes since the last quarter. As a result, there has been a steady upward growth for the past two years. Furthermore, being one of the most economically viable OTT platforms in the country, catering to almost all sections of society with a varied genre of shows, the various web series on the digital platform have received recognition from IMDB in terms of the ratings and numbers. Our recent action-thriller web series Cartel with an IMDB rating of 8.2; Broken But Beautiful 3 with 8.7; Mai Hero Boll Raha Hu with 8.7; Apharan with 8.3, The Test Case with 8.4 and Bose with 8.8 are some of the shows which have received rave reviews and numbers. With the growth of technology, penetrative pricing and tailor-made content for audiences, ALTBalaji has seeped into the country's hinterlands. We worked quickly and identified the needs of the hour, leading to shows that made impact and kept people entertained right in their homes. Q) Considering how people have been stuck at home since last year, they are still looking for entertainment and looking for it on OTT. How did you strengthen your content offering in the last 1.5 years to create an edge for yourself in the market? While the pandemic added to the platform's growth, ALTBalaji's journey over the past four years has been ever-growing. Engagement time has exponentially increased and subscriptions continue to grow at a steady pace. Many variables decide viewership, ranging from the technology available to the preferred content to the time people had in hand. So fortunately, from the platform's perspective, there has been no dip in the number of viewers. Cities like Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Kolkata with a 2.19%, 1.32%, and 0.99% growth YOY are among the few major cities that have added to a significant expansion in ALTBalaji's subscribers in the past year. We have been quick to understand that content is the deciding factor to draw in more viewers. So, it was essential to personalize content as per the viewer's preferences, which we constantly work on. The most crucial part our strategy is our out-of-the-box narratives. The content itself is tailor-made to attract larger audiences. We believe in creating shows that appeal across segments and narratives out of the box or unexplored. Recent shows like The Married Woman, Broken But Beautiful 3, and Cartel have been making headlines, and we are ecstatic with the response. Broken But Beautiful 3 set benchmarks with 180 million viewers and 220 million impressions with an innovative marketing strategy. Other notable shows like Crashh, Mai Hero Boll Raha Hu, His Storyy and Cartel have given ALTBalaji an edge over most platforms. Q) What sort of investments are you putting in on acquiring new content, producing them yourself? OTT content consumption has witnessed a steady growth throughout and will continue to do so on its own. However, the lockdown period has scaled up the OTT content consumption game, and I believe now is the time for OTT platform players to sit back and rethink their strategy. ALTBalaji has always sworn by original content. The platform churns out unique content and gives a launchpad to many aspiring talents across the board. Since our launch in 2017, we have ensured that our costs are restricted to Rs 150-Rs 160 crores per annum, out of which content cost has been around Rs 110 crore. Also, we aren't in the business of acquiring content. It is because we've mastered the art of making content at one-third the price that our peers are spending. In the year 2021 alone, the platform launched 20 original shows, and many more are in production Q) What kind of growth did you witness last year after the lockdown? Have you been able to retain the growth? The pandemic has scaled up the OTT content consumption game and ALTBalaji has seen a significant rise in engagement levels. ALTBalaji has seen a 15-20% growth in its viewership numbers; however, the lockdown increased subscribers from the Hindi heartlands. With the increase in appetite to consume our diverse library of originals and our shows catering to the mass audience, we have 59% of our viewership coming from the non-metros. While cities like Lucknow, Ludhiana, and Guwahati saw a huge increase of 189.84%, 106.50%, and 108.41%, respectively, Srinagar, Shimla, and Ranchi weren’t behind either, with an uprise of 103.81%, 103.05%, and 192.01%, as compared to ALTBalaji's viewership from these cities in 2020. 18% of our overall traction comes from the global audience, without any aggressive marketing. ALTBalaji established a precise positioning of 'OTT of the masses' with Hindi Colloquial Content for the Bharat audience and Hindi Speaking Diaspora. Q) With multiplexes opening up, do you think the growth for your platform will stagnate? What is your customer retention strategy? OTT has created new opportunities for content distribution across geographies. Viewers have adapted to the flexibility of time, convenience and choice of watching content. 2020 certainly acted as a catalyst in transforming the audiences' content consumption habits, converting fence-sitters and one-time visitors to subscribers, thereby increasing the overall subscription base and engaging more with the existing ones. Furthermore, the low cost of mobile network and affordable smartphones have revolutionized the OTT video streaming industry. In conclusion, surviving the market demands despite the opening of theatres is possible with affordable pricing, diverse content bouquet, buffer-free experience, and immersive innovations. Going out to mingle and unwind by watching movies is still a part of our culture and hence multiplexes will always remain important. Q) From a marketing perspective, what are you doing differently to be top of mind in the consumer's mind? Going ahead, what will your key areas of focus be? Our digital strategy covers all the bases when it comes to youth-friendly platforms. We have realized that influencer engagement is the way to go in this time &amp; age. Our romantic series Broken But Beautiful 3 have been picked up as a case study since the show achieved 180 million viewers with 220 million impressions through our marketing campaign. We also partnered with short format apps for youth oriented UGC, multiple digital payment gateways for our various youth-centric brands to ensure the audience has the smoothest experience possible. In 2020 alone, ALTBalaji has partnered with almost 25-30 brands for each of our show release that enabled incredible growth for both parties. We have a robust analytics platform with a live dashboard that provides us information on views and engagement along with the socio-economic and demographics of our viewers to generate behavioural consumption patterns to sharpen our retention strategy. What works optimally for us is to focus on consumer segmentation, mapping audience behaviour, focused customer retention, optimizing customer life cycle, and progressive strategies for onboarding new consumer segments; who are new to the internet or women in smaller markets, etc. Besides Instagram and Twitter, we also actively use WhatsApp to engage with our users. To further penetrate the Hindi heartlands, we will simplify our UI/UX by bringing in voice search, one button click registration, and easy payment modules in retail and digital. We foresee that we can target growth in the youth segment, over and above male and female target audience aged between 20-40 years. Vocal for local is sure to make it big in 2021. Gamification and Virtual reality, along with social commerce, will be the next big consumer engagement drivers on OTT. Q) Since digitization has sped up since the lockdown, how are bringing in new users? How are you reaching out to audiences deeper in the country who are also hungry for good content? Massification of content has been our goal right from the very beginning, and that shall see us lay further impetus towards expanding our content library. The various genres that we dabble into have massive scope for OTT players to explore the segment and expand their footprint by tapping into Tier II and Tier III markets. In parallel, we are continuously improving our UI/UX to ensure easier subscription, voice search, vertical video formats and a more effortless viewing experience for our audiences. The data analytics combined with targeted marketing also allows us to acquire customers lower than the industry standards. We also intend to extensively leverage data for predication analysis on the shows as the library expands, which feeds back into the content teams, enabling them to take sharper decisions on content creation Q) How are you making the platform more user-friendly, technologically more stable to be on the same level as a few of the global OTT players? The entry of new players in the OTT landscape or the rising influence of an existing player does not bother us. We welcome competition. It expands the consumer base and brings in new business opportunities and strategies. ALTBalaji also tied up with Amazon Pay and MobiKwik, two of the most trusted and convenient payment options for online transactions making the app more user-friendly, especially at payment and checkout. The tie-up with Amazon Pay enabled the subscribers to win up to Rs 50/- cashback while MobiKwik gave subscribers up to 10% cashback, credited to the users' wallets in under 24 hours. With these offers, subscribers will have no difficulty switching over to these safer and quicker, one-click transaction options for all future purchases. A buffer-free experience and immersive innovations are constantly worked upon. To further penetrate the Hindi heartlands, simplifying our UI/UX further, by bringing in voice search, one button click registration, as well as simpler payment modules in retail and digital is what we will be looking to innovate constantly

Over the years, we've mastered the art of making content at one-third the price that our peers are spending: Divya Dixit, ALTBalaji

While the jury is still out on the good, bad and the ugly sides of demonetisation, we can all agree that digital economy has had its biggest push ever in the country after this disruptive policy was launched a year back. Let’s see how this has impacted some key sectors. <keyword id="44870" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="luxury-retail">LUXURY RETAIL</keyword>: The Rise of HENRY High Earning Not Rich Yet aka HENRY is a new economic category that has emerged in post-demonetised India. They comprise people who are typically very aspirational, well-read and who also want to find something that will suit their personality, not necessarily for a boast value. They fall in the age bracket of 25-35 and earn in the range of 15 lac+ per annum, and they have opened an entirely new channel for luxury retailers after digitisation and online retail sales saw an upswing in the aftermath of demonetisation. While the traditionally rich, despite being steady spenders, stick mostly to tried and tested brands, these new bunch tend to take risks and try things out which offers a whole new range of possibilities for luxury retailers. Swagat Sarangi, co-founder of premium invite-only app Smytten, says, “The luxury market in India caters to two kinds of customers – the traditionally rich and the nouveau rich, or old money and new money. And HENRY belongs to the latter category. “The old economy has affinity towards certain brands while the new gen is all about ‘let me first figure out what works for me’. They will want to find what fragrance really works on their body composition rather than simply opting for a Nina Ricci or Chanel No. 5, which have a huge following. There is a massive change in the way shoppers are 'buying' luxury products. For us, 90% of the core audience is HENRY, in the age group 25-35, mostly female in the income bracket of Rs 15 lac annually or more. They have a fair share of disposable income at hand.” Online shopping has been gaining traction in India, even before demonetization, with desi players like Flipkart and Snapdeal fighting it out with the global giant Amazon. But what demonetization did for online outlets was to open the floodgates of offers from digital payment channels who partnered with service providers to ensure that shoppers keep shopping. And brand positioning and marketing focus became increasingly tilted to HENRY because of their tech savvy nature and affinity to the online experience, which has democratized the luxury market. "Luxury brands have realised that they can reinforce their brand positioning, especially after demonetisation, by welcoming this new stream of young players, who come with a fair share of disposable income, good social media presence and the power to help push their business through referrals," says the top executive of a major company that sells international luxury products in India (on the condition of anonymity). Swagat says, “Young crowd with a decent amount of disposable income has access to information, they know what they want and are now figuring out new avenues to fulfill their aspirations.” Luxury retailers are also seeing a paradigm shift in sales demographics with Tier II and III cities catching up with Tier I cities in terms of high end luxury sales. With the lack of luxury shopping spaces in small cities, online shopping makes more sense to the HENRY category in these places, despite apprehensions about fraud on the Internet. “The trust issue is still there because of the marketplace model most of the e-commerce industry operates on. As the luxury retail is limited to the metros, Tier II and III cities rely on the convenience of online shopping for premium and luxury products, which then, by default, plays a huge role in the growth of the luxury markets in smaller towns and cities,” says Swagat. “In early 2016, almost 90% of our purchases came from Tier I, which is typically top metros. Now, almost 35% of our sales comes from Tier II towns like Nagpur, Aurangabad, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and the north-east, which is coming up as a very big market, especially in premium beauty &amp; makeup sector. In the south, Coimbatore, Mangalore and Mysore have caught up quite significantly,” he adds. Online retailers have also seen a trend of Tier II sometimes exceeding Tier I in average basket value. Swagat says, “Our hypothesis is that tier II doesn’t have a showroom to drop by and buy a BVLGARI rose gold fragrance for example. So, they think of buying it online even if it is on a very high price range because for them it might make sense as they might be buying one luxury perfume in a year." Things weren’t that rosy for the retailers when demonetization hit the country. It took more than a month for business to stabilise. “Demonetisation was introduced on November 8, 2016, and that was a terrible month for us. Even though much of our shipment was not in cash on delivery mode, we still got hit by the whole sentiment of money not being available in the system. It was really bad until mid December and then we started seeing holiday shopping with Christmas, New Year etc, and with end of the season sale, the business started kicking in again.” But websites had to continue with incentives to keep shoppers interested until things began to pick up. “In the luxury segment, not many brands want to offer deep discounts to keep the brand positioning intact and we do not introduce discounts without the permission of the brands. Still we did have to offer around 10% added incentive to the consumers than regular times. But things got back on track and in February, there was a spike with Valentine’s Day, and since then business has been good. And with wedding season going on now (November onwards), we are seeing a spike in business which was completely muted in the same period last year due to demonetisation. If you look at the Indian luxury market, reports show it has been growing by 25% YOY and it is already an $18bn industry. But again, in India, luxury space is very narrowly defined. It is primarily about luxury cars, spirits, wine and jewelry but if you go down, there is a huge market that is opening in the premium space. Swagat adds, “Premium segment has seen a massive growth as compared to luxury space, driven by the aspirational HENRY class. Our estimate is, there are about 10mn households earning more than Rs10 lac income annually and who would have a decent amount of disposable income to splurge on these things and these numbers will go up to 20mn households by 2020. A combination of physical luxury stores, social media presence and collaborations in the digital space (without compromising on the exclusivity component) will drive the luxury sector to the cusp of market dominance. Property and <keyword id="6354553" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="real-estate">Real Estate</keyword>: Reality of Realty The sector that saw a deep impact post demonetization was real estate. A sector that mostly operated on hard cash, was jolted to its core with the currency crunch and push for digitization. But companies who played by the book found the impact to be a mild seismic activity than an earth-shattering quake. Nibhrant Shah, CEO &amp; Founder of Isprava, a luxury realtor, says, “We don’t think digitization has had much of an impact on the luxury real estate segment post demonetization. It indeed was a sentimental hit for the first couple of months but, that was all it was. We believe, demonetization would have only hit the fly by night operators who were not ethical in their approach. Trusted players kept following the same process and the HNIs (high net worth individuals) and UHNIs (ultra high net worth individuals) of the world were still able to afford the luxury they wanted.” Real estate was among the worst hit sectors after demonetization. Raj Khosla, Founder and Managing Director of financial services marketplace mymoneymantra says despite the short-term ‘bearish’ hit, the effect of demonetization on real estate will be positive in the long run. “Real estate got back on track after a few months but only partially, as in actual users were acquiring but the investor is still missing. Price buoyancy is determined primarily by investors. So, the effect will be positive in the long run.” Reports on market analysis pointed out that 7% of real estate customers shifted from buying to renting. This trend seems to have emerged as there were talks about an overhaul in property laws. As a positive effect the sector has seen a certain level of consolidation and a rise in purchases by upmarket clients who made the best of the situation at hand. “For a brief two months period right after demonetization, we did experience a sentiment hit in the market, but having said that this was only short lived for Isprava, mostly because of our transparent purchase process and seamless experience. So, when the world thought that the luxury industry, especially the real estate sector would perish, we on the contrary, saw an upward trend, increasing sales in the holiday home market. “We believe this has happened because the industry has become more consumer centric and only the large players have survived. The process and the new set of laws that now define the real estate industry, have separated the wheat from the chaff. The result is what I like to call Real Estate 2.0” The real estate sector is now developing every day. Builders have gone beyond the old-school brick and motor perception and companies are now looking to disrupt the way real estate functions. By bringing technological developments in client relationships, client servicing, operational and building processes, the typical fly by night operators will leave the arena and only trusted players will survive. Shah adds, “Over the years we have also seen a psychological shift in the mind set of people when it comes to the luxury segment in India. Families are now more open to buying and investing in various luxury products and services. The future of the real sector looks bright due to this developmental shift in India.” Investment and <keyword id="25450" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="savings">Savings</keyword>: More Money to be Made While it is difficult to estimate how demonetisation has affected the savings habit of people, it can be said that after demonetisation, people have started to invest a lot more. The simple reason for this is that they had more surplus money in their bank accounts and easy access to investment options like fixed deposits and mutual funds. Money that earlier used to be held in cash found its way into bank accounts. The financial industry also created awareness about investment options and how that extra money lying idle in the bank could be used to earn higher returns. “Enquiries about SIPs (Systematic Investment Plan) vastly enhanced post demonetization. Also, there was a splendid acceleration in insurance policies, especially those products which combine investment and risk cover”, says Khosla. “The mutual fund industry has reported record breaking inflows over the last year and a part of this is because of demonetisation. The stock market bull run has also aided and drawn people towards investing in mutual funds. It is safe to assume that people getting into this habit of investing would also have led to them saving a lot more than they did before. How much an individual or family saves would depend on their income and expenses, but increased <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="investments">investments</keyword> post demonetisation point towards a higher rate of saving as well,” adds Archit Gupta, Founder and CEO, ClearTax. The general outcome from a cursory view into these segments show that economic activity keeps taking new shape amid changing circumstances. The true impact of demonetization will be revealed in the years to come. But with strong fundamentals on our side, the Indian economy is still a juggernaut.

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