E-Commerce is India is at a very nascent stage, there is hype, but a lot needs to be sorted out before it can thrive. At least this was the prevailing sentiment amongst CEOs and other execs of major e-commerce companies attending the VC Circle E-Commerce Forum at New Delhi. Most felt that logistics and payments are the areas that need to be addressed. "What they said" notes from the conference: - B. Muralikrishnan, Sr. Director, Marketing & Product at E-Bay India said compared the Chinese e-commerce giant Taobao, which has a 79% market share with more than 400 million product listings and stressed on replicating its manufacturer friendly model; in contrast E-Bay India has 1 million listings. The share of top 10 cities in E-Bay India's business was around 60%, while business from tier 1 and 2 cities was also growing, as tech products are not easily available in the regions. Muralikrishnan was skeptical about the use of Cash On Delivery as a payment mechanism, but at the same time, was critical of the problems that plague payment gateways in the country, which lead to a bad e-commerce experience. - Vishal Mehta, Founder & CEO, Infibeam emphasized on the need for local language content on e-commerce sites, giving the example of China and said that English is spoken only by a handful of people; he predicted that in the coming years, 50% to 60% payments online would still be through cash on delivery. - Dhruv Shringi, Co-Founder & CEO, Yatra.com said that domestic…
