AdityaTalks

India Today group ventured into eCommerce by launching their new portal called BagItToday. I thought of taking a look at the portal. The site seems to be great in all ways except that you need to register and become a member before you can even look at the items listed and the pricings. It looks like a site targetted on the upper middle class and high class audience because most of the products listed are from big brands. They have opened membership for a limited number of people.

They have boutiques of Mont Blanc, United Colors of Benetton, Longiness and Reebok. Every boutique has a list of products from that industry. The company claims to be offering upto 50% discount on the MRP (showroom prices).  They have limited the number of products to be sold to one single person. Calvin Klein watch with an MRP of Rs. 7300 is currently available for Rs. 3499, a discount of around 52%. BagItToday is offering a free Reebok Watch for Rs. 2599.

In my opinion, the site is great and everything is great except the fact that the whole idea lacks mass appeal. It might not be as profitable for the investors. This is because a very small part of the population acutally shops for luxury brands. And those who do, always like to do it at the malls. A very small percentage of them will go online to buy such a product. Discounted pricings might be an attraction, but then you can only offer discounts on few items for a limited number of sales. You finally need to make money out of it.