Online Free Recharge : E-commerce Curiosity

“E-Commerce Curiosity,

Market becoming Digitally,

Content Driving Fluently…

Companies are offering to Consumers ‘Value for Money’ and

Consumers are becoming Happy! ”

5 year ago (In 2008-09 appx.), it was a time where consumers were visiting retail outlet for their mobile recharge & bill payment, Data card (For Internet) & DTH recharge. Slowly (between 2010-11 & 2011-12) scenario has changed and the same stuff has been churned into online & divided into two sides: first side consumers have been initiated recharge from telecom service provider’s website through online & another side recharge from various sorts of ‘online recharge websites/portals’ for their convenience. Again, stumbled on drastic change (In 2013-14) that online recharge is became extremely easy & convenient today due to increased Smartphone users & internet users, apps presence, payment security & besides consumers are being getting different promotional offers on recharge.

As today, consumers are doing their various sorts shopping through online, so now, the entire competition scenario has switched over into online shopping portals for some specific categories (Including Apparel, Electronics- IT items & Accessories, Stationers, household etc.) because consumers are getting economy price, additional benefits & same branded items which are available at showrooms/outlets. For e.g. competition between Flipkart.com & Amazon.com increasing apart from competition between Lenovo & Dell which is available on Flipkart & Amazon.   

Recharge Trend of Mobile (Pre-paid & Post-paid), Data card & DTH (Direct to Home-TV channel):

(1) The ratio is becoming higher of pre-paid mobile phone & Data pack (Internet) through ‘Free online recharge portals’ rather than telecom service provider’s website and local retail outlets.  

(2) The ratio is becoming higher of Post-paid mobile bill payment through online (including corporate clients) rather than visit direct outlet. Consumers are not yet much preferring bill payment through ‘Free recharge portals’ except the age group of 18-25. Though, it will be escalating soon as online recharge portals are being offering an additional benefits.

 (3) Overall ratio is mixed of DTH (TV channel recharge) between online payment & direct payment at outlet. However, it will be online soon gradually.

There are 20+ online free recharge portals presence across Indian market out of them 2-3 brands (Freecharge, Paytm, Mobikwik) are extremely vigorous & created hype of ‘instant recharge’ & get additional offer.

Media Presence & Brand Analysis:-

(1) Freecharge: - Campaigning on TV commercial & Digital. Recently, introduced TVC which is trying to change perception of parents who are believing that their son/daughter are wasting money unnecessarily and conveying message ‘recharge on freecharge, get free coupon of equal amount of recharge’. Freecharge has integrated with over 60+ brands coupon where consumers can get wide range of offers choice during recharge which is influential & magnetize to target audience. 

(2) Paytm:- Campaigning on TV commercial & Digital. Paytm has also released two TV commercial which is simply conveying ‘instant recharge’. Recharge is done instantly but majority coupons are chargeable & also get cash back some fixed amount as per mentioned in offer by Paytm.

(3) Mobikwik:- Campaigning on Digital. Recharge is might done instantly but need to create influential offer as well as significant thing is need to update mentioned offer & offer period etc. Overall brand is not precisely developed yet.

Being a consumer, I have done personally in-depth analysis of following online free recharge portals:

When I was going through consumer review, referring various websites & read review as well as also taken personal view from different person and I found one of the most important & common stuff is that lots of consumers have been commented negative feedback like amount not refund, recharge not done, payment credited but balance not received, not getting support & feedback from customer care etc.

 In general online shopping/buying transactions are increasing however consumers are not feeling safe or trust or comfortable/convenient. Mostly, consumers are reviewing different websites before buying online. To develop trust & safety is most important for online market. Because entire online market growth is totally rely on ‘word of mouth communication’, consumers are taking opinion from their group relatives, colleagues or friends before buying anything through online. So develop strong trust, your brand reach high & build automatically wide consumers network. Advertisement /campaign can generate only awareness for online market but only trust & word of mouth communication can build strong brand image & identity along with wide consumers’ network.

Build Trust + Build Strong Word of mouth communication = Online Strong Brand Presence !