As part of our #Outlook15 series, we asked heads of e-commerce companies – Amazon India, Flipkart, HomeShop18, eBay India, Indiatimes Shopping, Infibeam and ShopClues about their focus areas for 2015, and the challenges that the online e-commerce ecosystem needs to address. Answers have been shortened for brevity. Which according to you were the top developments and roadblocks in the e-commerce segment in 2014? Why? Sundeep Malhotra, Homeshop18 - Exclusive launches by digital companies which garnered attention as well as sales. At HomeShop18, some of the exclusive launches that did exceedingly well were the Spice WhatsApp phone, Zen Firefox Phone and Spice Watch phone called the Smart Pulse. - Food and ration was a new category that was launched this year and we saw a nearly 100% growth in this category. - A substantial change was noticed in the evolving customer base with emerging cities developing as high demand markets. - Customers experimented with new and other safe payment options by adopting mobile wallets. - T-commerce (TV) got enough attention as a sustainable model to scale operations, with others looking at foraying in the sector. - Some hiccups faced this year were logistical growth not matching up to the demand of the e-commerce industry. - There was a constant need of technology support and infrastructure to ensure smooth customer experience. Also, continuous training of customer service executives was necessary and important investment of this year. Vidmay Naini, eBay India - Many brands and retailers made their online debut either through owned websites…
