[TechSavvy]

Hey Readers,

I need an opinion from y'all, I'm just putting it here for the business savvy people to help me brainstorm on this approach/idea I have.

Here it goes, we have a footwear manufacturing business but for years now it's limited to the mass market low-cost footwear and slowly we're increasing our prices and capturing more segments, but in the end our business model still is B2B and having a B2C setup is costly and requires patience but that is not our ballgame we're into volume.
Although the only way we can do B2C without having a retail store is through online but now again we'd have to find people/firms to build us a presence which is really time-consuming again.

Now the only way I think this works is I need help getting data on what is most searched/most sold on the online platforms(like amazon) in footwear, with this data I can just manufacture that kind of product and let the product speak for itself. I realize this is how Amazon's amazon basic model works. Although, I'm not sure if Amazon will just straight away give me this data.

Where is my thinking going wrong? What are my options? I'm open to any new outlooks before I start my research on this further. Not only do I want data on what sells but how much it sells in said duration.

Appreciate the time and help )

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by TechSavvy

Hey Readers,

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Amazon shows some analytics for sellers on its platform.
https://sellercentral.amazon.in/gp/h...NXWNY8HUD3VDCW
However, you may have to be a registered seller or some such on it. Maybe you know someone who is?

[condor]

I am neither into business, nor tech savvy. Just my bit as a end user / on-line shopper.

Footwear, and clothes etc are stuff that I prefer to buy in a shop personally. Even stuff like gardening tools. I am sure I can extend the list if I put in sufficient time & thoughts. The touch & feel is important. The reasons of not buying these online are

1. the consistency in sizes, texture, actual colors etc. (I do basic editing of my pics, and hence can say what you see in the pic may not be the actual one in physical form).

2. The price of such items may not be much, but I dont want to go thru the hassle of returns and replacements, and refunds.



One of the few exceptions I do is - buying some footwear from Bata online, and this is because of using Bata for a long time, and more so because of the style and size I use regularly, for a particular purpose. Not that his has been fail proof - I had to once return the pair, and it disappeared somewhere in the return and I never got my refund.

Having said that, I am not casting any asperation on your work. You are in the line, and you would take care of your QC. I just wanted to share my thoughts, at least to be considered as a small risk factor.

All the Best !

[TechSavvy]

Originally Posted by condor

2. The price of such items may not be much, but I dont want to go thru the hassle of returns and replacements, and refunds.

HI condor, thanks for your reply.

You said it "the hassle of returns and replacements".
For me when I online shop that's the factor that gives me the confidence to just buy anything outright and, as a seller, we have to keep that in mind.


We will have to make a complete management system just for returns and the losses we make on these returns and that is why I'd like data of the same as I've mentioned above so that I can calculate the feasibility of it all.

[Rajeevraj]

I am also commenting as an end user. My family does not mind buying footwear online, but we typically look at the known brands. So you would need to pop up in the search results and get people to click on your products. Some basic suggestions.

Search for products that you already make currently on the online platforms. You will get a sense if you can start the online presense with your existing product portfolio. As mentioned in an earlier post, amazon also will have additional analytics to support this.

See how you can do some paid search advertising- basically if someone searches for Bata home chappals, the sponsored paid ad of your product pops up on the first page of results.

Once you get a shopper on your page, you can showcase your offline history to show your credibility.

Online sites have a lot of measurement options for customers to ensure the fit and size is perfect. If you do use all of this, and also put high quality authentic pictures, you can probably ensure that returns are minimal.

Amazon has programs to launch and support local business initiatives. You can reach out to them and check it out.

You can probably start with a small pilot program and see how it goes and adjust as needed. Wish you all the best.

[condor]

Originally Posted by TechSavvy

For me when I online shop that's the factor that gives me the confidence to just buy anything outright.

When it works, it is really useful. And I have used it many a time, but since I shop less and purchase more, these online purchases are mostly for stuff that are not urgent.

example: I recently twice returned items on flipkart. However Amazon has this new policy of replacement first, then may be refund. But they are being slippery for the return. Still waiting for the pickup of the defective item.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by TechSavvy

Here it goes, we have a footwear manufacturing business but for years now it's limited to the mass market low-cost footwear and slowly we're increasing our prices and capturing more segments, but in the end our business model still is B2B and having a B2C setup is costly and requires patience but that is not our ballgame we're into volume.
Although the only way we can do B2C without having a retail store is through online but now again we'd have to find people/firms to build us a presence which is really time-consuming again.

Have you tried subscribing to IndiaMart? If not it could be worth a try to reach out en masse to not the end retail consumer but to the retailers, shop by shop, all over India. Or to a bigger audience of wholesalers too. The likes of Flipkart and Amazon will skin your margins to the bone.

[warrioraks]

Originally Posted by TechSavvy

Hey Readers,

I need an opinion from y'all, I'm just putting it here for the business savvy people to help me brainstorm on this approach/idea I have.

Amazon shares the list of best sellers openly. You can access it here by categories of your choice. https://www.amazon.in/gp/bestsellers

Also like other Bhpians, I also do not buy shoes/clothing online. Most of the things I buy online are books, electronics exclusively from Amazon, that too only a couple of sellers (Cloudtail, ApparioRetail).

Until recently, I thought that is what majority of the country does as well. But then I met my cousin who is receiving more than 1000 orders a month from flipkart for items like trimmers, shoes, wallets, bed sheets etc. That was an eye-opener and made me realise it is very dangerous to generalise based on a small dataset. I think you are doing the right thing - accessing and analysing the data before taking the plunge. My best wishes to you.

[SmartCat]

Originally Posted by TechSavvy

Now the only way I think this works is I need help getting data on what is most searched/most sold on the online platforms(like amazon) in footwear, with this data I can just manufacture that kind of product and let the product speak for itself. I realize this is how Amazon's amazon basic model works. Although, I'm not sure if Amazon will just straight away give me this data.

Get yourself a Google Adwords account. You will then get access to KEYWORD PLANNER, where you get data on searches made on Google search engine. For eg, when I type CHAPPAL, this is the data I get:



Google keyword planner also gives you 'related keywords' to what you search. Spend sometime with it and you will get an idea about what Indians type in Google when looking for footwear.

[GTO]

You could also use Google Trends for product planning. I searched for Kia Carens, then compared it to the Hyundai Alcazar - link.

[fazayal]

Originally Posted by TechSavvy

Now the only way I think this works is I need help getting data on what is most searched/most sold on the online platforms(like amazon) in footwear, with this data I can just manufacture that kind of product and let the product speak for itself. I realize this is how Amazon's amazon basic model works. Although, I'm not sure if Amazon will just straight away give me this data.

Where is my thinking going wrong? What are my options? I'm open to any new outlooks before I start my research on this further. Not only do I want data on what sells but how much it sells in said duration.

Appreciate the time and help )

You can easily check which are the best selling products on Amazon in each category and sub category. It's pretty simple. For eg.

[GrandTourer]

Originally Posted by TechSavvy

Now the only way I think this works is I need help getting data on what is most searched/most sold on the online platforms(like amazon) in footwear, with this data I can just manufacture that kind of product and let the product speak for itself. I realize this is how Amazon's amazon basic model works. Although, I'm not sure if Amazon will just straight away give me this data.

Where is my thinking going wrong? What are my options? I'm open to any new outlooks before I start my research on this further. Not only do I want data on what sells but how much it sells in said duration.

Appreciate the time and help )

Although this might be overkill, bit you can consider Nielsen data which will give you how fast a particular product moves in a market area. Similarly, you can try Kantar data. These are typically used by large organisations, and I've personally worked on this to provide analytics to some of the Fortune 100 companies (that's why I say this might be overkill). They have a free trial period, which you can test and see if it helps your use case.

[rovingeye]

Originally Posted by TechSavvy

Hey Readers,

but in the end our business model still is B2B

If you've not tried exports, where your margins will likely be better, you could try subscribing to sites like go4WorldBusiness.com. The subscription charges you pay will more than likely pay for itself in the short to medium term. If you setup a decent profile on such B2B portals, you can expect to have a steady stream of export inquiries in your mailbox over time.

I see Liberty, Paragon etc listed there among other smaller players as well.

[JReacher13]

Happenstance and Nemans (not sure if this is correct spelling). These two are footwear companies that started their business model dominantly on e-commerce and gained visibility through digital marketing. A look on their journey may help.

With regards to information regarding product sales and trends, companies are treating this data very proprietary now. Not sure if you can get exact data.

Many market reasearch and consulting companies sells related information but it's of very little use.

[De-Veer]

Although the only way we can do B2C without having a retail store is through online but now again we'd have to find people/firms to build us a presence which is really time-consuming again.

As someone who has worked on building a few brands, what you are looking for is Brand Creation. Going from B2B to D2C has its benefits not just in increased profit margins, but also better sales numbers. Ofcourse it comes with additional headaches, and you WILL need more people to manage the work load as it's not quite as straight forward as B2B.

Although, I'm not sure if Amazon will just straight away give me this data.

Ecommerce platforms generally provide all the relevant data as someone already mentioned, but you need to be registered there. Data is not a problem, everyone and their uncle is collecting data in some form from the users!

Where is my thinking going wrong? What are my options? I'm open to any new outlooks before I start my research on this further. Not only do I want data on what sells but how much it sells in said duration.

It is always recommended to start from a Niche, and dominate there. Thereon expanding your reach to other more profitable products. You might be able to produce 50 types of shoes, but so are others in the industry. You don't have any inherent advantage over your competition here. You need to see which 1-2 products you excel in and create yourself as the specialist in that. You can find the data on these smaller datasets easily without getting overwhelmed.
Going after the data first and then choosing what to do is a goose chase.