“We may have arrived late but will make the most of this opportunity”

Finally, online provider of news, entertainment, communication and shopping services Rediff.com has forayed into the group buying or crowd bargain space with the launch of its group deals service called Rediff Deal Ho Jaye!, offering consumers an opportunity to discover new local services at discounted prices in 40 cities.

However, the going will certainly not be that easy as this space is already crowded with players including Snapdeal,

Mydala, Koovs and others providing deals with huge discounts. Nevertheless, speaking to Rohit Nautiyal of FE on the sidelines of Adtech(a digital marketing conference held in Gurgaon recently), Vivek Sharma, senior vice-president, SME sales and business operations, Rediff India, insists that the company will create a stir in the category. Edited excerpts.

What?s the main objective behind Rediff making its foray in group buying space now?

This category is fairly nascent in India and most of the existing group buying websites have been launched post the Groupon boom in the US.

We may have arrived late at the party but will make the most of this opportunity.

In terms of research, we considered two parameters: first, our user base which works as a readily available database and, second, targeting the growing number of consumers from tier 2 cities and towns. The purchasing power of people from these parts of the country continue to improve. We have started by providing deals for 40 cities across the country and plan to take this to 50 cities and towns shortly.

Considering the hesitation of users in providing their financial information online in India, we are also providing the option of cash on delivery. Rediff will merge internet and mobile by sending the deals as SMSes once a user is registered with us. We aim to provide lot of value to all our customers with this initiative.

Every marketer talks about the potential of tier 2 cities but hasn?t group buying found takers in metros only?

The internet usage is not evenly spread across the metros. It?s true that Delhi and Mumbai account for a major share of internet usage in the country. Though the trend may not alter for Deal Ho Jaye, we hope to get more users from category B and C cities.

There is a need to take the merchants? as well as the consumers? perspective into account. Consumers will get value when the merchant gives a good discount and the merchant will do so only when he gets a good bulk booking.

According to the latest Comscore data, we have a unique user base of around 15 million. So the merchant has access to these many users by virtue of being present here.

We are one of the pioneers of online shopping and with Deal Ho Jaye, we are entering into services as well.

Are you looking at providing deals on any new categories of services for differentiation?

As we speak, we have about 20 deals in different categories which are not present on the website of any other player in this space. Our sales team is in constant touch with the merchants to maintain fair pricing and add a surprise element in some of our deals.

Is advertising on group buying portals the best deal for small advertisers? What targets have you set for the growth of this business?

The advertising trends in India are similar to that in the US. All the merchants who were earlier advertising through classifieds have moved to group buying websites. These advertisers who do not have huge budgets to pump in traditional mediums like print and television can utilise our group buying service which is organised city-wise.

I would not like to speculate on the targets but we aim to be the market leaders in this space. More than that, for us, it will be interesting to observe how the group buying space evolves in India.