Indian E commerce market is growing leaps and bounds with a few players already scaling up to yearly sales of over USD 1 Billion. This strong growth in online sales channel has incentivized a large number of offline players (both big and small) in getting their hands dirty. It is relatively easier for the big companies to start their website, manage and market them; however, smaller players normally face huge challenges in getting the site up and then in marketing the portal.
To solve this problem, there are a number of DIY (Do-it-Yourself) ecommerce solutions which provide off the shelf customizable solutions. These companies are SAAS (Software as a Service) based and charge a fixed fee on a monthly basis with the basic plans starting with as low as Rs. 1000 a month. Baggout’s editorial team has researched a number of such players operating in the market and has come up with a list of top 10 DIY SAAS ecommerce platforms. We have done a thorough analysis of these companies on two aspects – Pricing and Features.
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Majority of these companies are funded by investors and are looking to acquire clients so these are providing Free Trial to the potential customers. Kartrocket, in fact, provides Free trial plan for unlimited period (although with limited functionality). Majority of the other players provide 14-15 day trial.
The basic plans are available at around Rs. 1000 per month and go to as high as Rs. 5000- Rs. 10,000 per month for the most advanced plans. The difference in these plans is the number of products/transactions that can be handled under the plan as well as more functionality available under advanced plans.
In addition, some of these companies provide more customization as per the client requirements under their customized plan offerings.
In addition to pricing and customization, features offered by the SAAS platform are also important because that determines the eventual success of the ecommerce portal. Most important features being Shipping support, Payment options including COD, SEO, Selling through Marketplaces, Mobile readiness and ability to leverage third party apps for customer engagement and conversion.
The biggest difficulty faced by the small online retailers is traffic and business generation. These players can provide incentives to their existing offline customers; however, that can only take them thus far. Here, online marketplaces, affiliate networks and product aggregation platforms/coupon sites play a huge role. The retailer can get their products listed on marketplaces such as Flipkart and Snapdeal; however, it is a cumbersome process (if executed manually on thousands of products). Therefore, integration with marketplaces and product aggregators/coupon sites such as Baggout is a must for these SAAS platforms.
Marketplace Integration for generating online sales from other channels is provided by very few players in India including Zepo, StoreHippo and Kartrocket.
Payment Gateway and Shipping integration are a must and have been executed by all the players (to varying degree, though).
Kartrocket and Zepo have taken the shipping support to next level and provide one click shipping solutions to their retailers
In terms of payments, COD is the most important facility required as a significant percentage of transactions are COD in India. A number of players including Zepo, Kartrocket, BuildABazaar and StoreHippo provide this feature to their retailers
India being a Mobile First Internet country, over 50% of the online retailers’ traffic is coming from mobile phones so Mobile responsiveness is critical. Majority of the top 10 players are offering Mobile Responsive themes which is a good indicator.
In addition to the above mentioned barebones features, the stores require support in a number of other areas such as customer engagement and conversion which is best achieved through third party app integrations. External app integration is also supported by a number of players as listed above.
1. Zepo – The portal was launched by Nitin in January 2012 after facing a lot of problems in taking his last venture online. The company claims to get any new store online in 5 minutes and takes care of website development, design, payments and shipping for the clients. Zepo has integrated with a number of marketplaces through a partnership with Browntape. Zepo stores can sell seamlessly on leading marketplaces including Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon.
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2. Kartrocket – Kartrocket is one of the largest DIY ecommerce solutions in India. The company has designed the platform especially for India solving the pain points most pertinent to the market. Kartrocket provides specially designed services around payments, cash on delivery, automated shipping management, and multi channel sales. Kartrocket stores get access to a wide variety of payment gateways, logistics partners, integration with Marketplaces including Flipkart and Amazon and Facebook Integration.
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3. BuildaBazaar – BuildaBazaar boasts of the largest clientele amongst all India based DIY SAAS e-commerce solutions with over 30,000 retailers including Airtel, HiDesign and VIP. The company is run by Infibeam which is one of the largest e-commerce portals in India. BuildABazaar provides customized look and feel to the stores, payment gateway integration and Social Media Integration. In addition, it also provides integration with a number of external apps
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4. Powerstores – Powerstores provides solutions to brick and mortar stores to take them online on all devices. The company takes care of website design, development, hosting, payment gateways integration and shipping for its client retailers. Powerstores hosts the clients’ websites on Amazon cloud, provides loyalty program, SEO, Analytics, Discounts and external App Integration.
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5. Martjack – The company’s services are used by over 2000 retailers with some of the prominent ones being FutureBazaar, BodyShop, Metro, Home Town and HDFC Bank. Martjack does not provide off the rack solutions and works closely with its clients which is evident from no pricing information available on the website. The company takes care of website development, catalog creation & management, Online Marketing and Payment gateway integration for its clients.
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6. Shopify – Shopify is the largest DIY SAAS ecommerce solution provider globally powering over 120,000 stores worldwide and has decent presence in India. The company provides flexible design options to the clients, takes care of the development, helps get detailed data on customers, payment gateway integration, Marketing and Mobile commerce.
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7. 39Shops – 39Shops is an Ahmedabad based company providing DIY SAAS ecommerce solutions to brick and mortar retailers. The company takes care of website development, hosting and provides flexible designs which can be customized for the brand. It also provides Product Search & recommendation services in addition to Payment Gateway Integration.
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8. Shopnix – The company provides its SAAS services to over 100 retailers. It takes care of website development, design, On Site Search Engine Optimization, Payment Gateway integration, Marketing tools and Shipping support.
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9. StoreHippo – StoreHippo is a DIY eCommerce platform that provides all services from website development, designing to marketing and shipping to brick and mortar retailers. In addition, the company also provides a number of add on features such as Inventory Management, Marketing, Analytics and Customer Engagement.
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10. Frekart – FreKart is an eCommerce design & development company with over 17 year experience. The company helps offline retailers in setting up and running ECommerce portals, mobile portal, local online store & helps them sell their products online. Frekart takes care of Design, Payments, Shipping, SEO, and Mobile readiness in addition to other features.
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Hope this list helps you in selecting the best platform for your online store. Go with any one of these; however, don’t delay your decision to go online otherwise it might be too late.
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