THE
TELESHOPPING BUSINESS IN INDIA
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THE INDIAN SCENARIO
During the early 1990s, Indian laws prohibited customers to import products,
without acquiring prior permission from the regulating authorities.
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These laws also restricted the repatriation of
money (out of India), without the prior permission of the country's
central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). This was a major reason for
the evolution of teleshopping in India, unlike the US, where teleshopping
evolved due to the changing societal norms. During the mid-1990s,
Telebrands India, a 100% subsidiary of Telebrands Corp., pioneered the
concept of teleshopping in India and soon grew into a leading teleshopping
network in the country. In mid-1995, TSN (another major US-based
teleshopping network) and Asian Sky Shop (ASK), owned by the media giant -
Zee[1] , also entered the market. The other major players in the Indian
teleshopping market were TVC, TSNM and Star Warnaco.
All these networks adopted the following modus operandi:
Buying time slots on popular channels that had high penetration and enjoyed
good viewership among the target customers. These time slots ranged from two
minutes to 1 hour and comprised infomercials/product presentations, explaining
the product's utility.Providing a special product code for every product and displaying it along with
its price.Setting up call centers in various cities, on the basis of the scale of
operations and the extent of penetration expected. |
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Providing viewers with telephone numbers of these call centers and asking them
to call their nearest call centre for further enquiries or to order the
product.
However, the Indian teleshopping network grew at a very slow pace, on account
of factors such as the lack of education and awareness among people, low
standard of living, low rate of women employment, and low penetration of
TVs/telephones. Moreover, unlike the Western countries, shopping for an average
Indian had traditionally been an occasion for 'social outing' and enjoyment.
The 'feel-and-touch' factor for buying almost anything had always been given
great importance. Thus, teleshopping networks initially had a tough time, to
make the concept acceptable. The companies developed several strategies with
regard to product offerings, promotional practices, pricing and distribution,
to overcome the above hurdles and make a success of their teleshopping
initiatives.
HOW THE INDIAN TELESHOPING MARKET WAS WON
TELESHOPPING TRAUMAS
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
[1]
The Zee group has interests in TV programing, movies, music, IT education and various other businesses. Zee Telefilms Ltd. looked after the group's TV business through channels including Zee TV, Zee Music, Zee English, Zee MGM, Zee News, ZED TV, Zee Cinema, Siticable and the Alpha range of regional language channels.
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