No luck selling on net in India

If it's not for convenience and speed, online selling would've remained a distant possibility. In Indian perspective however, the idea is still to catch on. Looking at it more closely, the picture that emerges is not one without uncertainty. People who otherwise feel perfectly at ease using plastic cards at brick-and-mortar stores, are hesitant buying online. Though the usual custom is to blame the government for all that lacks, it'll perhaps not be unwise to suggest that the government indeed needs to do a lot in order that online selling/shopping takes off in earnest. Let's examine what clicks online in India. Online tickets As pointed out in an earlier column, online ticketing occupies the top slot among all online selling. No-frill airlines, like Air Deccan sells tickets mainly on the net thus cutting out fringe expenses had it been done through agents. Indian Railways, a fully-owned government entity, too does sizable business selling tickets on the net. What else.. In absence of sufficient data, it's difficult to speculate on the volume of business that other online selling generates. A recent ET report (The Economic Times, Kolkata, Dec 28) quotes an IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) survey that states nearly half a million (4.40 lakhs) b2c deals go presently through the net per month, of which 'besides buying goods' (how much? which items?), all other are basically services. These include net banking, stock trading, hotel booking, bill payment, matrimonial search and job search. Any trend? Sadly, none. Prevalence of services can be easily explained. People in the know recognize these are inherently 'net-centric', benefits can be had real-time, and so do not mind parting with money online. If at all there's a trend, it is just that nearly all online shopping is done through reputed concerns, like eBay India, Sifymall, Rediff, Indiatimes and others. There's little evidence, if any, of small 'mom-and-pop' stores thriving only on online business, doing it alone. What goes elsewhere Herein lies a sharp contrast with online buying elsewhere, specially in US, Canada, Japan, Australia, Korea and EU nations. The market there is more mature, more regulated, and therefore more responsive to competitive push and pulls. Range of products available is astonishing. While biggies like Amazon (diversified, mainly books), eBay (mainly auctions), Google (selling text ads), Home Depot (home items) and others occupy good amount of online retail arena, there's sufficiently large space there to accommodate scores of medium, small and even startup business. ClickBank, that allows promoting and selling digital products, has nearly 10000 vendors and over 100,000 affiliates as participants. Anything that creates value sells. If you write well, you're a seller. Know typical cooking recipe, sell it. As in case of ClickBank, a vendor earns selling his digital produce (say an e-book on Enjoying Holidays in India - Where and How), an affiliate too earns commission by letting others know (advertising on his website, or sending emails to his readers). There's virtually no end to ways and means to earn online. India - what then? India is eons behind. No point saying internet penetration is poor, and suchlike. Fact is e-commerce in India is in infancy, if not stillborn. There's no 'bridge of trust' that can effectively link buyer and seller. Banks are barely interested to promote e-commerce. Whatever they offer is simply beyond the means of most small business. Above all, there isn't as yet any piece of legislation that can attempt to bring various parties together. What does small business (like mine) do? Simple, we target the mature markets. For example, Indian art paintings that my company sells online are valued in US dollars. Clearly then the lucre of anything online lies to the west of Indian shores.