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In his fourth investment in an e-commerce firm, Tata Group chairman emeritus <keyword id="6360722" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="ratan-tata">Ratan Tata</keyword> has invested in <keyword id="1945738" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Cardekho">CarDekho</keyword>.com, an auto classifieds portal. In 2014, the 77-year-old business leader had invested in online shopping portal Snapdeal, furniture e-tailer Urban Ladder and online jewellery seller <keyword id="255703" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bluestone">BlueStone</keyword>. 
 
"Tata, a deeply revered man in the Indian auto sector, has for the first time ever joined hands with an auto portal by investing in personal capacity. While the investment amount remains undisclosed, Tata has agreed to advise the company as and when required,” as per a statement issued by CarDekho. 
 
"Such an investment by the man who has significantly shaped the Indian auto sector is a testimony to CarDekho's plans in its quest to rapidly grow in the auto classifieds sector," it added. 
 <keyword id="191830" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="GirnarSoft">GirnarSoft</keyword>, the company that owns CarDekho, also operates other websites like BikeDekho.com and PriceDekho.com. And it is now valued at $300 million. 
 
"Post our recent funding and investment by Tata, we are another step closer to the group's vision of becoming a global company through our innovative products and services,” said Amit Jain, co-founder and CEO, GirnarSoft. 
 
"With the faith and confidence shown by Tata in the company, it increases our responsibility towards contributing for the overall development of the online automobile sector," he concluded.

CarDekho bags investment from Ratan Tata

Niche online retailers or e-tailers are taking on giants like <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword>, <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> through their ‘try and buy’ schemes. As per industry experts, e-tailers—like <keyword id="1518229" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Lenskart">Lenskart</keyword>, BlueStone, <keyword id="686987" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="CaratLane">Caratlane</keyword>, etc—who give customers a lucrative option of trying at home before buying, are hurting country’s largest online market places as the scheme has been able to push through higher value purchases, earn customer loyalty and satisfaction. 
 On an average, 10-12% of products sold online are returned by customers for varied reasons and as per industry estimates every return costs an additional Rs 70 for <keyword id="436047" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ecommerce">eCommerce</keyword> firms, excluding shipping costs. However, though home trials also cost the same ranging to Rs 70-100 per visit, but they have their eyes trained on potential long-term benefits. 
 
As per Economic Times, this gives them an advantage over eCommerce giants such as Flipkart and Amazon in the specific category they operate, because offering home trials would complicate the inventory-light business models of these electronic marketplaces. 
 
Lenskart, an eye-wear online retailer, has been offering home trials in 42 cities for the past five months. Under the scheme, customers have to choose five frames which the delivery people bring it to their homes. 
 
As per data provided by the financial daily, this practice has translated to over 8% of the company's 150,000 monthly shipments. 
 
"Home trials work for specialised categories where people want to be sure they make a right decision," co-founder and chief executive of Lenskart Peyush Bansal told ET, adding "We have seen that about 60-70% of the user send up placing an order. The conversion rates are higher and results in half of regular return rates of 7% for items ordered online." 
 
The scheme is doing wonders for Ratan Tata founded BlueStone as the company claims the returns have plummeted to zero. The company offers online buyers to try replicas of jewellery pieces at their homes before buying them. 
 
"Since it's a high-value category with the average price of an item sold on our site around Rs 20,000 per piece, a 'home try on' more than covers the cost of bringing the samples to a customer's doorstep," CEO Gaurav Singh Kushwaha told ET. He added that this has boost their transactions. 
 Meanwhile, Bengaluru-based online furniture retailer <keyword id="6368309" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Urban-Ladder">Urban Ladder</keyword> recently allowed customers to choose colours and fabrics for sofas, charging Rs 299 for the service. Tiger Global-backed Caratlane sends jewellery consultants for home trials on request. 
 However, lingerie e-tailer Zivame stopped the ‘<keyword id="2837317" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="try-at-home">try at home</keyword>’ scheme after a three-month period and replaced it with ‘fit assessment’ and call centre, without charging the consumer. 
 
Assistant professor of marketing at the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru, Seema Gupta informed that try and buy policies would work for companies that deal in high-value and high-margin products to lock in the customer. “The cost of exchange can be recovered from the high margins in these products. Inventory players have better quality control and hence try and buy is likely to be more successful in them than a marketplace,” she added. 
 
Globally, in a bid to bridge the experiential shopping gap, ‘try and buy’ schemes have long been deployed since eCommerce began. New York-based online eyeglasses retailer Warby Parker, estimated to be valued at $1 billion, lets people choose five eye-frames to be shipped over for a five-day home trial, all free of cost. While in India, industry experts forecast a speedy phase-out of retail stores in several categories like electronics and books, where the touch and feel is not that important. 
 
"Over time, outlets will only be needed to test the look and feel. For products where touch and feel is less important today such as smartphones, tablets and other electronics, the opportunity to phase out large offline locations quickly will be even greater,” said Aamir Jariwala, member at industry body Ecommerce Coalition of India and founder of Karma Recycling, an online seller of refurbished electronic products. 
 
(Image: Reuters)

Know how the ‘try and buy’ tactic by smaller e-tailers is hurting Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal

It’s that time of the year again. The bells are ringing and the <keyword id="6358814" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Wedding">wedding</keyword> industry is prepped up to rake in the moolah. But before you pour out your life’s saving in celebrating the best day of your life, here are a few basic money tips that may help you plan your big day within your budget. . 
	 
	Hire a wedding planner 
	 
	No, we aren’t talking of Marion St. Claire of the 2009 flick <keyword id="38822" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bride-wars">Bride Wars</keyword>. But we are definitely talking about Shaadi Mubarak from the 2010 hit Band Baja Baraat. Remember, how they manage to pull off a lovely wedding on their own with a very limited budget. There are several upcoming wedding planners, who are ready to give you the best within your budget. These people know the best caterers, the best decorators and most importantly, the best deals that would give you exactly what you want within your budget. So, open up to the idea of a wedding planner and you will excuse yourself from running around in the city looking for the best bargains. 
	 
	Explore city outskirts 
	 
	Venue is an extremely important part of the wedding. We all want to have a lavish wedding with some great interiors but we need to remember that they cost a few good grand if they are within the city. Banquets halls and hotels within the main city offer limited space coupled with a major parking problem. Explore farm houses that are on the outskirts of the city. They are spacious, can house several outstation guests and in fact, can be quite a change from the city’s hustle bustle. Besides, farm houses that are on the city’s borders are generally available at a much cheaper price than their counterpart in the city. 
	 
	Go for local bijouterie 
	 
	It is best to plan in advance and do most of the jewellery shopping. But if you have been doubtful about your wedding plans before, then it is best to check out small jewellery stores first. Every city has plethora of small jewelers, who offer great designs at a much lower price vis-à-vis the big brands. They not only offer you great designs but also have lower making charges which can save a good few thousands. Also, one can try some of the established online jewellery retailers such as Caratlane.com, Bluestone.com among others. The designs available are good and the prices are ridiculously lower than that of brick and mortar retailers. 
	 
	Offer healthy gourmet 
	 
	Let’s admit that Indians love food! Thus, this makes catering an extremely important part of the wedding ceremony. And it would be a task if you aren’t planning to get a wedding planner on board. So, while deciding on the menu, ensure you have a lot of seasonal vegetables which are easily available. Dishes that have vegetables in their off season are a great risk as they are not just exorbitantly priced but are also not fresh and healthy. Besides, storing such vegetables is also an expensive affair. 
	 
	Do your couture shopping smartly 
	 
	We all love to dress up in designer dresses. But rather than spending a fortune on designer dresses, explore the city and look for places that offer similar designs at a much lower price. For instance, Chandni Chowk in Delhi has stores that offer the latest fashion in bridal couture at a very affordable price. So, explore the city and check out these stores and who knows, you may just end up buying something even better than what just walked the ramp! 
	 
	Check out for coupons 
	 
	We all want to look our best on our wedding day and so probably shell out a lot in the salons. But before you grab your purse and run to the nearest parlour for the bridal routine, wait and check out all the websites that offer coupons on wedding make-up. Websites such as couponduniya.com and Groupon.com, have a plethora of coupons that offer packages for bridal make-up as well as a couple of other beauty regimes in some popular salons at very reasonable prices. 
	 
	Brief your photographer properly 
	 
	Pictures remain with us forever even after the event is long over. So before you hire a photographer to go click click on your wedding day, understand how you would want your wedding pictures to come out. There are various photographers who exclusively shoot weddings. You can hire one of the wedding photographers but if they are a little over your budget, hire local photographers to do the job. These wedding photographers have their own websites that display their work so you can idea on how to shoot the wedding and can ask your photographer to shoot accordingly.

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