UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

PROJECT REPORT ON

"AJIO.com”

MASTERS IN COMMERCE
Semester IV
Submitted
In Partial Fulfillment of the requirements
For the Award of Degree of
Masters In Commerce
By
Afsiya Shaikh
Roll No:-18
AKBAR PEERBHOY COLLEGE
Mohammad Ali Road, Grant Road East
Mumbai-400008
 DECLARATION

I, AFSIYA SHAIKH student of AKBAR PEERBHOY COLLEGE hereby declare that I

have compiled this project on topic “AJIO.COM” in the academic year 2018-19

The empirical findings in this project report are not copied from any report and are true
and best of my knowledge.

DATE: NAME: AFSIYA SHAIKH.

PLACE: MUMBAI Signature of student

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is my great privilege to thank AKBAR PEERBHOY COLLEGE

Particularly to the principal Mr.Mohammad Tahir and the co-ordinator Mr. Sameer Naik
of M.COM Part 2 for giving this opportunity to complete this project and support us.

I also sincerely thank Prof Sameer Naik for guiding, motivating , encouraging and giving
me moral support throughout project work. I also thank my college library for providing
me with necessary books.

I also thanks to my parents, relatives, friends and colleagues for their encouragement and
support.

Last but not least; I would like to thank all these people, who helped me in completion of
the project directly or indirectly.
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 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. / Ms.Afsiya Shaikh, Roll No: - 18 of M.COM Part 2, Semester
IV (2018-2019) has successfully completed the project on Ajio.com under the guidance of
Mr. Sameer Naik .

Course Coordinator Principal

Project Guide/ Internal Examiner

External Examiner
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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter No Content Page no.
1 Research Methodology
Introduction 7
Business model 7
Brand Philosophy 8
Sample Size 8
Technique Used 8
Methods of data collection 9
 Primary Data
 Secondary Data
Importance of the study 9-10
Limitation of the Study 10
2 Introduction to Ajio
Introduction 11-12
Management info 13
History 14
Store Brands 15
Ajio Marketing Mix 16-19
20-21
Ajio is all about boldness, courage and confidence

Company Hisotry 22-23

Board of Directors 24
Swot Analysis 25-26
Recent Affairs 27
IPO Synopsis 28-30
Features of Online Shopping 31-33

Journey of Reliance 34-35

Importance of online shopping in India 36
E-commerce in India 37-39
Asset Products
3 Online Innovation
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 Top 10 Indian Cities With Online Shoppers 40-42

Consumer behaviour towards online shopping 43-54

CSR By Reliance 55
Code of Conduct 56
Financial Report 57-59
Major Competitors 60
Marketing Strategies
4 Data analysis and interpretation
Conclusion 72
Recommendations 73
Bibliography 74
Annexure 75-76
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 CHAPTER 1

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

INTRODUCTION: -

AJIO was launched on 1 April 2016, with its headquarters in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. AJIO is
among Reliance Industry’s early forays into e-commerce. AJIO was internally launched among Reliance
employees in December 2015. The global launch happened at Lakme Fashion Week in April 2016.

Business model
AJIO carries a wide portfolio of owned, branded and handpicked collections from India and around the
world. AJIO Own is AJIO’s trendy in-house label, which boasts of a huge collection of clothing,
footwear, and accessories, including a special line of maternity wear, a tweens collection, and an active
wear range.

The company also has an exclusive Indie collection, presenting authentic creations by artisans and
boutiques from all corners of the country, and across the world.
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 Brand philosophy

AJIO’s brand philosophy, as was unveiled at Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Summer/Resort 2016, is
“Doubt is out”. The brand believes that conquering doubt is the most powerful way to live life to its
fullest, in everything we do. This philosophy of fearless fashion has trickled down into AJIO’s Social
Media campaigns in a big way, with #DoubtIsOut becoming a popular hashtag.

Translating this campaign into a fashion show at LFW, models walked the ramp dressed in merchandise
from the website. The show was divided into five segments, including “age no bar”, “identity no bar”,
“gender no bar”, “size no bar”, and “mindspace no bar”. AJIO reiterated the brand philosophy of ‘Doubt
is Out’ through its unique showstoppers, like transgender activist, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Suman
Sharma, the first woman to fly a fighter plane, Bharti Singh, the uninhibited TV actor and comedian, and
Sunny Leone who has defied social stigma.

HYPOTHESIS:
Due to competition ajio has taken different intiatives and improvement in customer service

 Innovative Product

 Customized Advance Product

 Better Customer Services

 Fastest Customer’s Problem Solving Techniques

 Customer Retention

SAMPLE SIZE:
100 Respondents

TECHNIQUES USED:
Sample size: This refers to number of respondents to be selected to constitute a sample. Since, the
population is large the survey was carried among 60 respondents.

Sampling unit: The target population must be defined that has to be sampled. The sampling unit of this
research included salary earners, businessmen and professionals and students.
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 METHODS OF DATA COLLECTION
1.Primary Data:
Primary data is that data which has been collected especially for the purpose of this newly taken research.
This preliminary data for this research project has been collected by the means of a questionnaire
designed to determine those factor which are designated by the various respondent which were important
to them in the decision making process. Various Professionals / Investors / Businessmen /Students were
the focus of this questionnaire filling procedure.

2.Secondary Data:
I have made extensive use of resources available in the Internet & other print media to gather the
information, do the analysis, and arrive at the conclusion. Information from various sources has been used
to understand more about Bandhan bank which is a newly corporated bank.

IMPORTANCE OF ONLINE SHOPPING:

Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumer to buy any types of goods or
services by a seller over the internet. It is quick, easy and fastest growing segment of Indian economy.
Buyers, today, have got more options to shop things hassle-free in the era of booming online shopping.

Few years back internet shopping was not popular in India. But, today the scenario has changed and this
kind of shopping has started registering its presence in the market. Owing to mushrooming of myriad of
internet shop portals, the competition has also increased manifold. Though online shopping activity is
visible everywhere, especially in metro cities, it is still in the state of infancy in India.

There are benefits for tech savvy people as it saves time and energy that goes into physical form of
shopping. There are also chances of saving money if you shop online and you properly understand the
deal. While shopping on the internet you have to take care of various deals offered by various websites on
a day to day basis.

There are lots of shopping websites in India. This makes life very easy and gives more
alternatives for shopping. We can outline the benefits as following:

Consumer can easily compare the price of the same product on different shopping websites. Consumer
can easily save time by online shopping. Because time has become the most important commodity of
working and non-working segment of our Indian society. Consumer can save its money by online
shopping.
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 Consumers don't have to visit the stores physically and get disappointed by the limited goods offered. In
the physical form of shopping, the defected or returnable goods are not easy to be replaced unlike the net
shopping services where they duly receive the returnable commodity form your door.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY:

Ease of use is the prime reason that drives the success of e-commerce. Though internet provides a quick
and easy way to purchase a product, some people prefer to use this technology only in a limited way.
They regard internet as a means for gathering more information about a product before buying it in a
shop. Some people also fear that they might get addicted to online shopping.

The major disadvantages of online shopping are as follows:

1. Waiting for the delivery

No matter how fast the delivery system is but, you will eventually have to wait for your order. Things get
worse when it takes as long as a week for delivery of the product. However, websites like Flipkart and
Amazon are trying to solve this issue as they have brought the concept of one-day delivery where you can
get the product on the day of ordering.

2. Increasing a number of Frauds and Fake products.

One of the biggest drawbacks of online shopping is that you can’t actually see or touch the product. You
can only guess about the originality of the product. The problem becomes worse when you receive a fake
product, and you need to return or exchange it. The complete process of returning back products brought
via online shopping is still a long process and requires a lot of patience.

3. Risk of identity theft

Most of the e-commerce websites are very well technically sound but, when it comes to the web, nothing
is safe. There are chances that you brought a thing using Ask me Bazaar coupons, and when the page
redirected to the payment gateway, a hacker copied your data and used it for his own interests. The cases
of identity theft in not so common but, still exists.

“With great powers come great responsibilities.” Exactly, what we are trying to say. Online shopping has
got its own pros and cons, and it depends on you as which side you look at.
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 CHAPTER 2
INTRODUCTION OF AJIO

AJIO

‘Reliance Retail' Ltd

It is a subsidiary company of Reliance Industries Limited. Founded in 2006, it is the largest retailer
in India in terms of revenue. Founder of Reliance Retail is Mukesh Ambani and V Subramaniam is CEO.
Its retail outlets offer foods, groceries, apparel and footwear, lifestyle and home improvement products,
electronic goods, and farm implements and inputs. The company’s outlets also provide vegetables, fruits,
and flowers. It focuses on consumer goods, consumer durables, travel services, energy, entertainment and
leisure, and health and well-being products, as well as on educational products and services. It had a total
of 3,837 stores in April 2018 in India with an area of over 17.7 million square feet across 750 cities, with
yearly revenue of over ₹690 billion ($10 bn US).

Financial Position
It had a turnover of Rs. 337 billion in the financial year 2016-17. Reliance Retail has announced revenues
of Rs. 450 billion for the nine months ended December 2017 for financial year 2017-18, showing of over
90% jump from the corresponding previous period. The company also reported a profit of Rs. 7 billion
for the period.
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Subsidiaries & divisions

 There are over 45 Subsidiaries & divisions of Reliance Retail. Following is the list of major divisions:

1. Reliance Fresh: Retail outlets of fruits, vegetables & groceries.

2. Reliance SMART: Reliance Smart offers a one-stop shopping experience by offering fresh
produce, bakery, dairy products, home and personal care products, general merchandise.
3. Reliance Digital: Consumer Electronics retail stores. It had 689 stores in October 2014.
4. Reliance LYF: 4G mobile handset manufacturer based in Mumbai, founded in 2015.
5. Reliance Jewels: Jewelry retail; it had revenues of approx. Rs. 8 billion in financial year 2012-13.
6. Reliance Trends, Reliance Footprint and Reliance Living: Apparel and Clothing. It had revenues
of approx. Rs. 16 billion in financial year 2012-13 with a store count of 287.
7. Reliance Market and Reliance Market Wholesale Cash-n-Carry: It had revenues of approx. Rs.
1.6 billion in financial year 2012-13.
8. AJIO: One of the company’s first forays into e-commerce – a fashion website, officially launched
at the Lakme Fashion Week SS16 with the philosophy ‘Doubt is Out’.
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MANGEMENT DETAILS
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 Type of
Privately held company
business

Founded 2016

Headquarters Bangalore

Area served India

Owner Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani

Industry E-Commerce

1. Men's & Women's fashion

dress.
Products
2. LYF Water F1S 3. Apple
Iphone

Website www.ajio.com
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 AJIO (pronounced aajio) is an Indian e-commerce company in the fashion space, headquartered in
Bangalore, Karnataka, India. AJIO was launched in 2016 by Reliance Retail, a subsidiary of Reliance
Industries Ltd. led by Chairman Mukesh Ambani.

History

AJIO was launched on 1 April 2016, with its headquarters in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. AJIO is among
Reliance Industry’s early forays into e-commerce. AJIO was internally launched among Reliance
employees in December 2015. The global launch happened at Lakme Fashion Week in April 2016.[3]

AJIO carries a wide portfolio of owned, branded and handpicked collections from India and around the
world. AJIO Own is AJIO’s trendy in-house label, which boasts of a huge collection of clothing,
footwear, and accessories, including a special line of maternity wear, a tweens collection, and an active
wear range.

The company also has an exclusive Indie collection, presenting authentic creations by artisans and
boutiques from all corners of the country, and across the world.

AJIO brand philosophy, as was unveiled at Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Summer/Resort 2016, is Doubt
is out. The brand believes that conquering doubt is the most powerful way to live life to its fullest, in
everything we do. This philosophy of fearless fashion has trickled down into AJIO Social Media
campaigns in a big way, with DoubtIsOut becoming a popular hashtag.

Translating this campaign into a fashion show at LFW, models walked the ramp dressed in merchandise
from the website. The show was divided into five segments, including age no bar, identity no bar,
gender no bar, size no bar, and mindspace no bar. AJIO reiterated the brand philosophy of Doubt is
Out through its unique showstoppers, like transgender activist, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Suman Sharma,
the first woman to fly a fighter plane, Bharti Singh, the uninhibited TV actor and comedian, and Sunny
Leone who has defied social stigma.
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 In-Store Brands
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 Ajio Marketing Mix (4Ps) Strategy
Marketing Mix of Ajio analyses the brand/company which covers 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion)

and explains the Ajio marketing strategy. The article elaborates the pricing, advertising & distribution

strategies used by the company.

Let us start the Ajio Marketing Mix:

Product:

Ajio is an e-commerce site dealing in wide range fashion products for men, women and kids. Their

products in its marketing mix include casual wear, ethnic wear, party wear; formal wear and Indie

speciality wear collections specially created by boutiques and designers from India and all over the world.

Apart from the usual categories of western and ethnic wear, the online store also features a section called

fashion week collections, so you can shop for products, which are currently on the runways all over the

world. Well, that is not where it ends. Customers can get a piece of global fashion from Australia, Russia

and other international fashion houses from around the world, in a matter of minutes. Ajio has lined up

brands from the US, Russia, Turkey, Singapore, and Australia besides other countries. The brands on Ajio

include MDS from Singapore, Aeropostale from America, Closet London from London, Point Zero from

Canada and many more. Ajio will mainly focus on high-fashion designer wear from international brands,

affordable international brands, in-house brands and handpicked products from local designers. This way

it can differentiate itself from the competition.

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 Price:

Ajio, headed by Isha Ambani, has tied up with around 200 international and national brands. Most of the

brands are daily wear and affordable brands from markets like Russia, Australia, Singapore, Canada,

America and Europe. Ajio also sells its own private brands. The company has an inventory led e-

commerce model. It has also tied up with various third party logistics partners for last mile delivery. This

makes the overall range of products affordable while also maintaining high quality, providing unique

amalgamation of designer clothes and international brands, which as a result differentiates it from other

online retailers.

Place:

Ajio is an Ecommerce site with its headquarters in Bangalore Karnataka. The company is an inventory led

one and covers over 15000 pin codes all over India where it delivers its products. Ajio company also

leverages from its strong network of Reliance trends retail stores and Jio retail stores for delivery

purposes. Currently reliance group operates more than 2621 outlets across India. It aims to be different

from all other offerings currently in the market by being an Omni channel brand.
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 Promotion:

Ajio was unveiled on 1 April 2016 at one of the greatest fashion events, Lakme fashion week. The brand

promotes itself by using the tagline “doubt is out”. The focus of Ajio’s campaign was ‘inclusivity’,

cutting through societal barriers of age, gender, class and career choices. The brand aims to inspire young

India with their philosophy which says, “no matter from where one is from, what one does, what one

looks like, one has the right to dress the way they want, the way they like it and invent their own rules”.

Ajio does not promote itself by traditional means but aims to promote itself among the Indian crowds by

delivering something totally different. The company wants to create a brand with strong ethics, emotional

connect and high emphasis on design and collection. It aims to make foreign brands and designer

products affordable and provide value for money

Since this is a service marketing brand, here are the other three Ps to make it the 7Ps marketing mix of

Ajio.

People:

Ajio has been growing from strength to strength since its launch. With its increasing business and

operations, the company has been recruiting more and more people into its management and collaborating

with third party logistic partners to smoothly facilitate delivery of products. Ajio still calls itself a start-up

and is quite flexible in its work environment, organizational communication. The company is open to

having a diverse group of passionate and creative people to make an impact in the business world. The

company trains its employees via an apprentice program and a diversity program. Currently CEO Vineeth

Nair helms the company.

Physical Evidence:

Ajio provides a seamless shopping experience through its beautifully crafted website. The items in the

website are divided according to various categories, making it easy to browse through its huge catalogue
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of products. Ajio has taken care to make the UI/UX design of the website crisp and snappy. Delivery of
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the products are fast and covers more than 15,000 locations all over India. Ajio provides customers with a
 30 day return policy of its products. Wat makes the brand more attractive is the eyeball grabbing

discounts on its product range.

Process:

Ajio is a unique brand with Omni channel capabilities. The company has opened Ajio shop in shop at

select Reliance Trends stores. Ajio sells fashion apparel from across the world. It provides apparel, which

are hot at fashion shows across the world, premium and budget international brands. The company has

capitalised on Reliance’s goodwill and expertise to tie up with top brands across the world. It also

collaborates with local artists, boutique houses and provides designer collection. Ajio manufactures its

own grown apparel collection under the brand name Ajio. The company uses the huge network of

Reliance Trends retail outlets to store products, facilitate easy delivery. Hence this completes the Ajio

marketing mix.
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 Ajio is all about boldness, courage and confidence

The fashion brand from Reliance Jio Digital Life has launched a campaign titled ‘Doubt is out’ to go with

the brand’s philosophy. It is conceptualised by Phantom Ideas and directed by fashion photographer,

Tejal Patni.

Launched in April 2016, the fashion brand from Reliance Jio Digital Life, ‘Ajio’, believes confidence is
king (or queen, for that matter). The brand philosophy has been locked down in three words -- doubt is
out. And that’s what its new campaign is titled.

The brand has a clear positioning: Fashion that is bang-on-trend, and hand-picked by a team of stylists,
buyers and designers. Anchored to this very positioning, the new campaign has been conceptualised by
Phantom Ideas and directed by fashion photographer, Tejal Patni.

It has now become a trend for the fashion brands to make you believe in your attitude by being confident
and bold. Be it Jabong’s #YouAreTheFestival ad which boasted of bold fashion and distinctive attitude or
Myntra’s #GTFO for Roadster featuring Ranveer Singh, which showcased a bold mind set.

The film was shot in London and uses a slick visual tapestry of fashion imagery to tell the story.

The TVC opens on a screen where a gentleman is seen settling his bowtie and the voice over goes,
‘Doubt. You don’t want her around.’ The film moves on to a different set where individuals showcase
their respective fashion affinities and their attitudes. The courage and confidence is very clearly depicted
in the 40-second film.

The voiceover narrative has some interesting one-liners: ‘The cautious will survive, but the courageous
will live’, ‘Don’t analyse, theorise, or rationalise’, ‘Go, go with your gut.’ The objective, very clearly, is
to inspire a younger audience to reflect the attitude that defines their generation -- go after everything they
want in life, without any backward glance in a very confident manner. There is no room for doubt in the
mind. Or, for that matter, in the TVC, which aspires to help people eliminate doubt from their minds,
hearts, lives and, of course, their wardrobes.

Robert Anthoney, Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Phantom Ideas, said, “Doubt is something that’s
embedded deep in human DNA. Our attempt in the TVC was to raise it to the surface, where we can
recognise doubt for what it is, and then let it go. Easier said than done, of course, but that was the whole
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point of the film – to inspire people to act with confidence. This is a spot with words, which are as
important as the images.”
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 Keeping in mind the digital natives, Ajio went with a digital first strategy -- breaking the film on
Ajio.com first followed by a 30-second edit on YouTube to create intrigue around the brand. The
YouTube campaign has already clocked more than 600,000 views on the Ajio Life YouTube channel.
Now with the launch of the 20-second edit on TV, Ajio will serve the attention span of the digitally wired
with a campaign consisting of only six seconders on YouTube. Ajio will also leverage the creative by
using it interestingly in its Facebook advertising to increase thumb-stopping.

Ajio officials said, “Our goal is to build a world-class global fashion brand in a digitally connected world.
Everything we do at Ajio is anchored into our positioning: Fashion that is bang-on trend, hand-picked by
our team of stylists, buyers and designers and available at every day good prices. This includes our
private label ‘Ajio Own’, exclusive international brands that you can find only on Ajio.com. ‘Indie’ is
about authentic handcrafted fashion; ‘Smart Labs’ serves specific apparel needs smartly and ‘Capsule
Collections’ are handpicked wardrobe solutions that help our consumers to put together the perfect look
for any mood or occasion. We serve the consumer to help them express their most confident selves no
matter where they are and what they are doing. And we express this attitude as ‘Doubt is out’. We are
very excited with the reception that our consumers have given our manifesto style TV spot on our site and
hope to welcome many new consumers into our fold once we expand our reach with the TV and YouTube
platforms.”
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 Company History About Reliance Retail

Reliance Retail Limited is a subsidiary company of Reliance Industries Limited. Founded in 2006, it is

the largest retailer in India in terms of revenue. Founder of Reliance Retail is Mukesh Ambani and V

Subramaniam is CEO. Its retail outlets offer foods, groceries, apparel and footwear, lifestyle and home

improvement products, electronic goods, and farm implements and inputs. The company’s outlets also

provide vegetables, fruits, and flowers. It focuses on consumer goods, consumer durables, travel services,

energy, entertainment and leisure, and health and well-being products, as well as on educational products

and services. It had a total of 3,837 stores in April 2018 in India with an area of over 17.7 million square

feet across 750 cities, with yearly revenue of over ₹690 billion ($10 bn US).

Reliance Retail Limited operates a chain of supermarkets, wholesale cash and carry, convenience,

specialty, and other retail stores in India. Its retail outlets offer groceries, fresh produce, home and

personal care products, general merchandise, apparel, jewelry, footwear, home appliances, and more. It

also offers mobility and communication products, including a range of mobile phones, tablets, and

accessories. The company also operates online stores that sell groceries and general merchandise, and

fashion apparel. Reliance Retail Limited was formerly known as Reliance Petroleum Retail Private

Limited and changed its name to Reliance Retail Limited in January 2006.

Reliance Retail started its journey in 2006 with the opening of its first Reliance Fresh store. Today
Reliance Retail operates 539 Reliance Fresh and Reliance Smart stores and sells over 200 metric tonnes
of Fruits and over 300 metric tonnes of Vegetables every day.

Reliance Fresh is India’s leading neighbourhood retail chain, synonymous with freshness & savings. With
the three core promises of Fresh Hamesha, Available Hamesha and Savings Hamesha, Reliance Fresh is a
one-stop-shop for fresh shopping, fresh savings and fresh happiness.

From fresh fruits & vegetables to dairy, cereals to spices, processed food & beverages to home &
personal care products, we have the entire gamut of your grocery needs covered.

Across our stores, we retain a strong customer centric approach to meet all your shopping needs - be it
routine or seasonal, well known brands or popular local products.

Continuing Reliance’s hallowed tradition of backward integration, Reliance Retail directly partners with a
large number of farmers and small vendors in a farm-to-fork model. The linkages with the farm has
brought about transformational changes in the quality of life of the farmers as also enhancing the quality
of produce, reducing wastage by shortening the time to move fresh produce and reducing intermediaries
in the value chain thereby benefiting all.
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Synonymous to its name, Reliance Smart is a new age supermarket serving the needs of today’s smart and
value seeking customers. Reliance Smart offers a one-stop shopping experience by offering fresh
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produce, bakery, dairy products, home and personal care products, general merchandise and in many
 cases are co-located with our fashion & electronics store Reliance Trends and Reliance Digital, making it
a complete shopping destination.

Reliance Smart’s incredible value proposition rewards shoppers more & more for bigger purchase, every
single time they shop with 100% assortment being offered below MRP all year round, while delivering a
world-class shopping experience.

RelianceSMART.in has made grocery shopping even simpler and convenient by bringing it to customers
door step. No more hassles of sweating in crowded markets or grocery shops, RelianceSMART.in offers
over 6,000+ products at comfort of your home, office or on the move.

We offer you convenience of shopping everything that you need for your home - be it fresh fruits &
vegetables, cereals, packaged food, bakery & dairy, frozen & pet food, household cleaning items to your
specialised beauty & personal care products from a single virtual store.

Reliance Retail is the retail initiative of the group and an epicentre of our consumer facing businesses. It
has in a short time forged strong and enduring bonds with millions of consumers by providing them
unlimited choice, outstanding value proposition, superior quality and unmatched experience across all its
retail stores.

Since its inception in 2006, Reliance Retail has grown to cater to millions of customers, and thousands of
farmers and vendors. Reliance Retail serves over 5 million customers every week, and has the patronage
of more than 50 million customers. Our nationwide network of retail outlets delivers a world-class
shopping environment and unmatched customer experience powered by our state-of-the-art technology
and seamless supply-chain infrastructure.

Reliance Retail has adopted a multi-prong strategy and operates neighbourhood stores, supermarkets,
hypermarkets, wholesale cash & carry stores, specialty stores and online stores and has democratized
access to all types of products and services across all segments for all Indian consumers.

Reliance Retail has achieved the distinction of being the largest retailer in the country. Reliance Retail’s
commitment to bettering lives has been embodied in its pursuit to make a difference on social socio-
economic issues in India. The initiative has brought large number of farmers and small producers to the
forefront of the retail revolution by partnering with them for growth.

Deep insight into India’s economic, cultural and consumption diversity drives Reliance Retail’s vision in
the retail universe. The operating model is based on customer centricity, while leveraging common
centres of excellence in technology, business processes and supply chain. More importantly, it has built a
strong and unwavering foundation through its extraordinary people.

Reliance Retail has emerged as the partner of choice for international brands and has established
exclusive partnerships with many revered international brands such as Armani Exchange, Burberry,
Canali, Pottery Barn, Diesel, Superdry, Hamleys, Ermenegildo Zegna, Marks and Spencer, Paul & Shark,
Thomas Pink, Brooks Brothers, Steve Madden, Grand Vision and many more.

Reliance Retail operates nearly 10,000 stores pan India with nearly 21 million square feet of retail space
and is growing rapidly.
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 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
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 SWOT ANALYSIS:

SWOT Analysis of Reliance Retail with USP, Competition, STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning)
- Marketing Analysis

Reliance Retail

Parent Company Reliance group

Category Retail

Sector Lifestyle and Retail

Tagline/ Slogan Aapki khushi hamari khushi

USP Trusted quality and strong backing of parent company

Reliance Retail STP

Segment Quality and price cautious group

Target Group Upper middle class and middle class

Positioning Quality and trust

Reliance Retail SWOT Analysis

Below is the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats

(SWOT) Analysis of Reliance Retail. Strengths are:

1.It is Indian retail chain with 900+ stores in 80 cities in India

2.Hyper market with 95000 markets with tailoring, shoe and

watch repair, laundry

3.It owns various private label brands

4.It has strong distribution network- 1600 channels in villages

Strengths 5. Strong backing of the parent company

Here are the weaknesses of Reliance Retail :

1.Product variety is available but more SKUs are not present

due to inefficient back end infrastructure
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Weaknesses 2. Poor inventory control at certain locations is a concern

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 Following are the Opportunities of Reliance Retail :

1.Sourcing directly from farmers; no middlemen could earn

more profit as number of farmers will increase five times in
next 5 years

2.Leveraging on brand name and entering into Reliance

saloon

3.Large potential to reduce operation cost in cities using

Opportunities strong supply chain

The threats of Reliance Retail are as mentioned :

1. Strong competition globally from Carrefour, Metro A.G.,

Tesco

2.Operationg cost are too high

3.Wallmart is biggest competitor when it comes to sourcing/

Threats backward integration

Reliance Retail Competition

Below are the 4 main Reliance Retail competitors :

1.Subhiksha

2.RPG group

3.Future Group

Competitors 4.Star India Bazaar

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 RECENT AFFAIRS
Reliance Industries become first Indian company to cross Rs. 8 trillion market cap

Mukesh Ambani-led oil-to-telecom behemoth Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) became first Indian company
to cross Rs 8 lakh crore ($114 billion) market capitalisation. This record m-cap of RIL also bumped up
Mukesh Ambani’s (India’s richest man) wealth to over $48 billion (according to Bloomberg Billionaires
Index). M-cap is value of company that is traded on stock market, calculated by multiplying total number
of shares by present share price.
Key Facts

RIL achieved Rs 8 lakh crore m-cap feat, after its shares rose by 1.86% to close at a record high of Rs
1,269.70 on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) in intra-day trade, elevating its market cap to Rs 8.05 lakh
crore. So far this year, RIL shares surged over 38 per cent.

RIL added the latest Rs 1 trillion in market cap in just 23 trading sessions. It had first crossed Rs 7-trillion
market cap in July 2018 (for second time after it had achieved $100 billion m-cap and for first time in
2007). It took 181 trading days to move from Rs 6 trillion to Rs 7 trillion m-cap. Currently, RIL’s market
value accounts for 5% of India’s total market cap.

The market valuation of RIL is considerably higher than IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS’) Rs
7,77,870 crore m-cap. TCS was first Indian IT company to reach Rs. 7 lakh crore ($100 billion club)
market capitalisation (m-cap) milestone in May 2018 and second company after to achieve milestone
after RIL.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)

It is an Indian conglomerate company founded in 1977 by Dhirubhai Ambani. It is headquartered in

Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. At present, Mukesh Ambani is its Chairman and MD of RIL and owns
27

about 47% stake in it.

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 RIL is engaged in energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail, and telecommunications. It is
second largest company in India as measured by revenue after government-controlled Indian Oil
Corporation. It is ranked 203rd on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s biggest corporations as of
2017. It is ranked 8th among the Top 250 Global Energy Companies by Platts as of 2016.

Relaince Retail Ltd IPO Synopsis

Registered Office: H Block First Floor, Dhirubhai Ambani KnowledgeCity, Navi Mumbai - 400710,
Maharashtra

Phone: 91-22-3303 1000

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.reliancepower.co.in

Public issue of 26,00,00,000 equity shares of Rs.10/- each of Reliance Power Limited ("Reliance Power"
or the "Company" or the "Issuer") for cash at a price of Rs.450/- per equity share (including a share
premium of Rs.440/- per equity share) aggregating to Rs.11700 Crores (the "Issue"). The issue comprises
a net issue To the public of 22,80,00,000 equity shares aggregating to Rs.10260 Crores ("the net issue")
and a promoters' contribution of 3,20,00,000 equity shares aggregating Rs.1440 Crores. The issue will
constitute 11.5% of the post issue paid-up capital of the company and the net issue will constitute 10.1%
of The post issue paid-up capital of the company. Issue Price is Rs.450/- per equity share of face value
Rs.10/- each The issue price is 45 times the face value
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 Issue Money Payable On

Opens On Closes On Application Allotment

15-Jan-2008 18-Jan-2008 115.00 - 0.00 315.00 - 0.00

Cr. Lead Managers to the Issue

Project Cost 0.00

Project Financed through Current Offer 11,700.00

Post Issue Equity Share Capital 2,260.00

Issue Price 450.00

Projects

Funding Subs.to Part Fin the Constrn&Develmnt cost

General Corporate Purposes

Promoted By

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani

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Reliance Energy Ltd

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 Promoted By

Reliance Innoventures P Ltd

BSE

NSE

Listing At

BSE

NSE

Registrar to the Issue

Karvy Computershare Pvt Ltd

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 FEATURES OF ONLINE SHOPPING

1. A mobile website option

Online shoppers need to be offered convenience and instant ease-of-access to your online store, no
matter what device they’re using. Your online store should be built on a responsive design
template and its features need to be available to all users, at any time, and from anywhere. Older
design templates were not structured to be flexible enough for the various screen sizes that are
available nowadays so responsive design has taken over and is becoming standard with mobile
websites of any merit. This is important – your website and its content need to be supported on all
devices that access the internet. All features and functions should work flawlessly, giving your
browsers a fluid mobile experience that compliments their overall opinion of your brand. Online
shoppers are demanding and instant access to all of your features should be found on their mobile
device, just as easily as on their PC.

2. Free or competitive shipping options

Last year, UPS did a major customer experience study called the Pulse of the Online Shopper.
According to this extensive study, 81% of online shoppers agree that FREE SHIPPING is the
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most important aspect of checking out online. Other shipping options also scored very high,
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including providing an estimated shipping total early in the shopping experience. Many shopping
 carts are abandoned because of an unexpected high total after adding shipping. You may be
surprised at how flexible online shoppers can be, however. The same study reports that 58% are
willing to add more things to their cart to qualify for free shipping.
So what does this information mean to you, as an online business owner? Free or competitive
shipping options, when done well, can drive your success. The right formula will have your
clients increasing their cart total in order to get free shipping! And of course, there are other
shipping options that appeal to online shoppers… you just have to understand your niche market
well enough to make the most of them.
3. Advanced navigation and search functions
Is your online store user-friendly? Are you sure? Ask a few of your friends (honest friends) to
take a spin around your website and give you feedback on it. This simple, effective technique is
often overlooked, but is vitally important. Your online store should be set-up in such a way that
makes it easier to shop than going to a brick’and’mortar shop would be. The eCommerce software
you chose to build your online storefront with should be able to help and guide you a lot with this
‘ease-of-navigation’ process. If your platform isn’t giving you the tools you need, it’s time to
consider an upgrade. Your eCommerce solution should offer a clear cut, intuitive flow for online
shoppers to follow. They need to find the things that they want, browse things they may be
interested in, and check out.
Navigation and search options are important in online retail. Something as simple as the ‘search
bar’ placement should be well thought out and based on the design of your site. The ‘search
function’ also has to cater for your customers that do not know the actual names of the products
they want to get. Search functionality needs to give online shoppers suggestions on the possible
things they are looking for.
4. Superior photos and image options
There’s a reason people are always quoting “a picture is worth a thousand words”… because it is.
In the case of internet retail however, it may be worth more. Your product images will influence
online shoppers in ways that have them running away or drive them to purchase. In an internet
store, product photos and options are crucial because online shoppers cannot physically see, touch
or try the product they’re interested in. The product images should be crystal clear and taken with
cameras that have a high resolution. The photos should also be taken from different points of
view to give you a clearer idea of the product. Image options should include viewing angles,
zoom, multiple images, and more. This, however, does not mean that the pictures should be
overly enhanced or exaggerated. Doing so may mislead online shoppers into buying something
that does not serve them well.
5. A detailed product description
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Online retail is often about selling a story, an idea that fits the needs or current whim of your
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audience. Obviously, online stores do not have a live store attendant (though some may offer live
 chat), so the sale items need to have a product description that takes the place of your best sales
person. They should be described with vivid and appealing content that stimulates your browsers
need to buy. While creative and clever descriptions are often a strong selling point, don’t forget to
include the important details, as well. Facts such as the expiration date, size dimensions, weight,
manufacturers date, and practical uses must be included in a good product description. The
availability of a warranty, where applicable, also has to be referred to in the description. If you’re
selling food products, consider listing the ingredients, as they make purchasing easier for those
with special dietary needs or restrictions.
6. Customer reviews of the product
Last year, BrightLocal conducted its 4th annual study on consumer usage and attitudes on
customer reviews. It concluded that 88% of consumers say they trust online reviews as much as
personal recommendations, a statistic that was up 9% from the previous year . As an SMB in the
competitive world of online retail, it is crucial to provide your online shoppers with customer
reviews of your products. Your audience wants to read about the experiences of other people who
have used the product. Customer reviews now take the place of your friendly, neighborly
recommendation and are an effective selling tactic for online businesses. Such reviews are vital
when it comes to virtual shopping. If possible, include video reviews in the customer reviews,
with detailed personal experiences and how-to-use tutorials. These ideas will add more of a
personal touch to their overall shopping experience.

7. A fast guest check-out option

One of the final but most important considerations in online shopping comes during the actual
check-out process. In an actual brick-and-mortar store, shoppers normally have to wait in line at
the cashiers. During peak hours, the queue is long, and they end up spending a longer amount of
time there. This is one of the main reasons that online shoppers are avoiding real shops and going
online to fulfill their needs. They don’t want to come to your website and have the equivalent of a
long check-out line so, please, DO NOT require registration before purchase. An online store
should offer an efficient, fast check-out time. There are other ways to gather contact information
so avoid any check-out tactics that delay the actual purchase.

Online shoppers are demanding and make almost instantaneous decisions on whether to shop or drop your
online store. Help them sail through your eCommerce experience and find no fault in your check-out or
shopping flow. These seven tips will help you keep shoppers happy and increase your overall success.
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 JOURNEY OF RELIANCE

It has been 37 years since Reliance listed on the stock market. If you had invested Rs 1,000 in RIL shares
when it listed in 1977-78, it would have been worth Rs 7.78 lakh, its chairman and managing director
Mukesh Ambani had proudly said at its annual general meeting in 2012.

It is a mammoth of an empire, earning Rs 4.46 lakh crore ($74.3 billion; $1 = Rs 60) in annual revenues.
Let us put this number into perspective. The size of India’s economy was Rs 60 lakh crore in 2013-14.
Meaning, RIL earns a little less than one-tenth of India’s economy. And it is still growing, at a much
faster rate than the economy.

However, the country’s largest private sector company had humble beginnings. Here’s a look at its
journey so far:

The Polyester Prince

Reliance’s humbling beginning lies in polyester manufacturing. “Ambani had got into polyester
manufacturing in a big way, and got huge numbers of Indians to invest in shares of his company, Reliance
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Industries. In India, the home of fine cotton textiles, it seemed that people couldn’t get enough polyester,”
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author Hamish McDonald wrote in his book ‘The Polyester Prince: The Rise of Dhirubhai Ambani’. The
 company expanded in 1975 into the textile business. It listed in 1977, when its Initial Public Issue was
oversubscribed by seven times. That itself shows how much Dhirubhai Ambani had succeeded since the
company’s initiation in the 1960s. It the largest producer of polyester fibre and yarn in the world today.

Oil, oil everywhere

The senior Ambani’s ambition was not limited to polyester manufacturing. In the early 90s, Reliance
expanded to get into the petro-chemical business. Today, this is RIL’s second largest business in terms of
operations and revenues. It contributes around one-fifth of RIL’s revenues. Then started the oil and gas
business in 1993 after significant foreign funding. It issued shares in overseas exchanges in the name of
Reliance Petroleum, which has now merged with RIL. From exploration, Reliance got into the refining
business – the process of cleaning raw crude oil into marketable forms. Today, this business contributes
75% or one-third of RIL’s revenues and half of its profits. It is also expected to get a significant amount
of RIL’s capex of Rs 1.8 lakh crore.

From Polyester to Fashion Retail

: Remember the brand Vimal? Yep, that belongs to Reliance’s textile arm. Reliance started with textile
manufacturing. Today, it has got into the business of selling textile products through its retail arm. It is
the third biggest business after the oil and gas and petro-chemicals segments. It finally turned profitable in
2013. “This year, Reliance Retail has the distinction of being India’s largest retailer by revenues. The
business now operates 1,691 stores covering an area of 11.7 million square feet across 146 cities,”
Mukesh Ambani said in his speech at the 40th Annual General Meeting this year. The company plans to
expand its retail reach to over 900 cities in the country in the coming years.

Hello? Can you hear Reliance Jio?

The company first entered the telecom space in 1995-96. However, after the division of the group
companies between the two brothers, telecom was demerged from Reliance Industries. It now belongs to
the Reliance Dhirubhai Ambani Group (RDAG) headed by the younger brother Anil Ambani. The
conglomerate got a chance to enter the sector again in 2010 when it acquired a 95% stake in Infotel
Broadband Services Ltd. This company — now named Reliance Jio Infocomm – belongs entirely to the
RIL group. It won rights to sell fourth generation (4G) spectrum across 22 circles in the country. It plans
to invest over Rs 30,000 crore in the telecom business over the next two years. This will help its launch of
the 4G services in 2015. Remember, this is over and above the Rs 40,000 crore already invested in the
segment.

The number game

: What good is analysing a company without indulging in some numbers. With Reliance, the numbers are
always big. For example, the company accounts for 14% of India’s exports. The company additionally
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plans to invest Rs 1.8 lakh crore in its businesses over a period of three years. This is one third of the
amount it invested in the last 37 years – Rs 2.4 lakh crore. The three-year investment plan could alone
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fund two more missions to Mars like the Mangalyaan, which cost a paltry Rs 650 crore. Heck, it exceeds
 the total amount FIIs have invested in the Indian debt market in 2014. That amount could fund half of
India’s trade deficit. Put together, imagine how much the Rs 4.2 lakh crore of invested amount could
purchase in the country! It could almost fund the entire government’s expenditure.

What next?

As of now, Reliance is concentrating on expanding its existing business, rather than getting into new
ones. “In the first 30 years, Reliance built three globally competitive businesses – petrochemicals,
refining and marketing and oil and gas in India,” Mukesh Ambani said in his AGM speech. “We are
currently at the mid-point of the largest investment programme in Reliance’s history. The next two years,
2014-15 and 2015-16, will see us focussed on executing and progressively bringing these projects on-
stream in petrochemicals, refining, retail and telecom. The year 2016-17 will be the first full year in
which the complete benefits of all these investments will be available to our shareholders, consumers and
the society….The next three years are transformational in RIL’s journey. By the time we finish four
decades since our first public offering we will again be a radically different company.”

Importance of Online Shopping in India

Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumer to buy any types of goods
or services by a seller over the internet. It is quick, easy and fastest growing segment of Indian
economy. Buyers, today, have got more options to shop things hassle-free in the era of booming
online shopping.

Few years back internet shopping was not popular in India. But, today the scenario has changed and
this kind of shopping has started registering its presence in the market. Owing to mushrooming of
myriad of internet shop portals, the competition has also increased manifold. Though online shopping
activity is visible everywhere, especially in metro cities, it is still in the state of infancy in India.

There are benefits for tech savvy people as it saves time and energy that goes into physical form of
shopping. There are also chances of saving money if you shop online and you properly understand
the deal. While shopping on the internet you have to take care of various deals offered by various
websites on a day to day basis.

There are lots of shopping websites in India. This makes life very easy and gives more alternatives
for shopping. We can outline the benefits as following:
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Consumer can easily compare the price of the same product on different shopping websites.
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 Consumer can easily save time by online shopping. Because time has become the most important
commodity of working and non-working segment of our Indian society.

Consumer can save its money by online shopping.

Consumers don't have to visit the stores physically and get disappointed by the limited goods offered.

In the physical form of shopping, the defected or returnable goods are not easy to be replaced unlike
the net shopping services where they duly receive the returnable commodity form your door.

E-Commerce in India – Past, Present & Future

There is no denying the fact that e-commerce has re-entered India and is here to stay. Even the small and
medium retailers of the country want to ride the wave and are ready to make a fortune out of the market
place concept. It may be now that online shopping has become popular but the concept of e-Commerce
was introduced long back in the 20th century.

Circa 1991: Introduction of E-Commerce

The year 1991 noted a new chapter in the history of the online world where e-commerce became a hot
choice amongst the commercial use of the internet. At that time nobody would have even thought that the
buying and selling online or say the online trading will become a trend in the world and India will also
share a good proportion of this success.

Circa 2002: IRCTC teaches India to Book ticket online

India first came into interaction with the online E-Commerce via the IRCTC. The government of India
experimented this online strategy to make it convenient for its public to book the train tickets. Hence, the
government came forward with the IRCTC Online Passenger Reservation System, which for the first time
encountered the online ticket booking from anywhere at any time. This was a boon to the common man as
now they don’t have to wait for long in line, no issues for wastage of time during unavailability of the
trains, no burden on the ticket bookers and many more. The advancements in the technology as the years
passed on have been also seen in the IRCTC Online system as now one can book tickets (tatkal, normal,
etc.) on one go, easy payments, can check the status of the ticket and availability of the train as well. This
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is a big achievement in the history of India in the field of online E-Commerce.

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Circa 2003: Introduction of Low Cost Airline with AirDeccan

 After the unpredicted success of the IRCTC, the online ticket booking system was followed by the
airlines (like AirDeccan, Indian Airlines, Spicejet, etc.). Airline agency encouraged, web booking to save
the commission given to agents and thus in a way made a major population of the country to try E-
Commerce for the first time. Today, the booking system is not just limited to the transportation
rather hotel bookings, bus booking etc. are being done using the websites like Makemytrip and Yatra.

Circa 2007: The Deep Discounted model of Flipkart

The acceptance of the ecommerce on a large scale by the Indian people influenced other business players
also to try this technique for their E-businesses and gain high profits. Though online shopping has been
present since the 2000 but it gained popularity only with deep discount model of Flipkart. In a way it re-
launched online shopping in India. Soon other portals like Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong, etc. started hunting
India for their businesses.

Circa 2014: Current Scenario

Online shopping in its early stage was a simple medium for shopping with fewer options. The users can
just place an order and pay cash on delivery. But, in last few years this field has been renovated to a high
extent and hence fascinated many customers. Today, the online shopping has become a trend in India and
the reason behind the adoption of this technique lies in the attractive online websites, user friendly
interface, bulky online stores with new fashion, easy payment methods (i.e. secure pay online via
gateways like paypal or cash-on-delivery), no bound on quantity & quality, one can choose the items
based on size, color, price, etc.

Despite being a developing country, India has shown a commendable increase in the ecommerce industry
in the last couple of years, thereby hitting the market with a boom. Though the Indian online market is far
behind the US and the UK, it has been growing at a fast page.

Further, the addition of discounts, coupons, offers, referral systems, 30days return guarantee, 1-7 days
delivery time, etc. to the online shopping and the E-Market have added new flavors to the industry.

The Key drivers of in Indian ecommerce have been:

 Increasing broadband Internet and 3G penetration.

 Growing Living standards
 Availability of much wider product range
 Busy lifestyles and lack of time for offline shopping
 Increased usage of online categorized sites
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 Evolution of the online marketplace model with websites like eBay, Flipkart, Snapdeal, etc.
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The Way Forward:

 Social Media as a Lead Generation tool

Social media has now become the hub for the merchants which enables them to analyze the customer
choice based on their purchase activities. Social network like LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Facebook and
others have become a medium for easy log-in and purchase. Moreover, the clients can stay updated via
the posts published on this media. Further, the advertising & promotions on these social sites has
increased the chances of success of generating transactions to many folds.

Mobile Commerce:

The latest trend in e-commerce it to focus on mobile based shopping. Snapdeal now getting half of its
traffic from mobile, up from 5% around a year back and flipkart gets 40% traffic from mobile up from
15%. As price of smart phone reduce, these figures will only increase. For this reason, the larger
ecommerce firm has started focusing on mobile commerce. It is speculated that the next wave of digital
commerce consumer will come thru the mobile.

Price comparison engine:

In the race to acquire customer, e-commerce sites offer deep discount and these discount vary from site to
site depending upon its capacity to negotiate with the supplier. To get the best discounts, buyer need to
search a plethora of sites. Here, Price comparison sites come in like mysmartprice.com, Pricedekho.com,
freekamal.com and Junglee, etc. . The website compare prices over the entire web and provide users with
the best available price. E-Commerce sale through these website are increasing and will further increase
as consumers get more and more discount savvy.

Online Grocery Store:

Online grocery stores are gaining popularity in India due to absolute convenience, ease of shopping and a
fast-growing market. Punexpress.com, Milestore.com, Atadaal.com have already entered the market and
are gaining popularity. They provide discounted product and free home delivery. All of these stores are
targeting the Indian housewife, who are yet to move to e-commerce way of shopping.

Innovation in logistics:

The addition of the new concept in the ecommerce industry had been recently observed when Amazon
patented its new delivery model called the Prime Air which is expected to be launched in the upcoming
years. This model will use the highly technically embedded drones or helicopters for the instant delivery
of the items. These will be programmed in such a way that using a GPS system they will identify the
exact address for delivery and drop the item right in front of the doors of the customers. These aerial
vehicles will prioritize the public safety and are designed as per the commercial aviation standards.
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 Top 10 Indian Cities With Online Shoppers
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 Online retail in India has been growing exponentially since the last few years; the testament to the fact is
the ever increasing balance sheets of the major players and the mushrooming up of a new online retail
portal every few weeks. In our quest to find what drives Indian retail, we thought of finding the major
cities which gives Indian online shopping portals a chunk of their revenue. The major hurdle of any
research is finding accurate data which is coherent with the topic, which was also a challenge for us.

Most of the online shopping websites in Indian context are ‘Private Limited’ Companies i.e. they are not
bound by regulations for mandatory disclosures regarding financial and other aspects of their business.
Moreover, we thought that data from one or two online shopping websites won’t be accurate as it would
be biased in favor of the cities whose residents shopped the most on these particular websites. Finally
lightning struck and we thought why not use the data from ‘coupon’ site as it would give us the data we
need without being biased towards a particular city or online shopping portal. The data and statistics used
in our findings have been taken from the traffic statistics of couponzguru.com, rest assured it’s highly
accurate from our standards as the sample size was fairly large.

The results of our findings were somewhat obvious (but few surprises as well) as most people believe that
when it comes to online retail, India’s Silicon Valley Bangalore leads the pack and as the data shows, it
surely does with 15% of the traffic coming from the City. Being inhabited by the most number of techies
and being home to several top players in Indian online retail segment contributes in making Bangalore as
the city with most online shoppers. Right behind Bangalore is Delhi (to be accurate Delhi + Gurgaon)
with a traffic share of 13%. Gurgaon is also home to some of the major online shopping portals and has a
sizeable number of techie’s population, these factors combined with the population helps Delhi in
achieving the no. 2 spot.

Mumbai comes at the third position in the list, having a traffic share of 9.5%. Mumbai is a city which
never has time so it’s natural for Mumbaikaars to shop online and the kind of population the city has
contributes to its traffic share. The 4th spot on the list is taken by another techie city, Hyderabad though
when compared with population Hyderabad will be definitely top the list density-wise in terms of online
shopping traffic. Chennai takes the 5th position in the list having a traffic share of 6.75% even though its
population is considerably larger than that of Hyderabad.

Pune being another Tech Industry’s favorite city doesn’t disappoints with a traffic share of 5.4% and 6th
position in the list, compared with population it’s a remarkable feat for Pune. The 7th position in the list is
taken by Kolkata with a traffic share of 3.95%, being the only city from eastern India to feature on the
list.

There was a tough tussle between Ahemdabad and Noida for the 8th and 9th position but the ‘business’ city
of Ahemdabad took the lead with a marginally better traffic share of 2.30% than that of Noida’s 2.27%.
The 10th and the final position on the list was grabbed by Chandigarh with a traffic share of 1.8%, another
achievement by a city with lesser population than that of its rivals.

While looking at the list, one must not think that the cities with the highest traffic are the ONLY places
which are driving the growth of online retail. Considerable growth in the online retail business is coming
from the hinterland of India but being less populated than the cities those places won’t find a mention in a
list focusing on the amount of traffic provided by the residents of a city.

The Final Conclusion –

City Share
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 Bangalore 15%

Delhi 13%

Mumbai 9.50%

Hyderabad 7.50%

Chennai 6.75%

Pune 5.40%

Kolkata 3.95%

Ahmedabad 2.30%

Noida 2.27%

Chandigarh 1.80%
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 Consumer Behavior Towards Online Shopping and Facebook

Online and offline often are seen as two distinct and separate worlds but the more we study the first and
way we sell online the more we realize how useful it is to translate traditional marketing techniques on
the web: mental processes are identical and the emotions are similar because we are the same people,
online and offline.

A concept that I find very interesting to learn how to sell online is the so called “buyer’s journey”.

This process has been studied and explained by many. Among the many I chose to report an image from
Hubspot, which well explains the main steps of the online buyer behavior and the characteristics that
underlie it.

 The first step is the awareness. The user must first become aware of a need, problem or
opportunity. This happens after reading online content for example, it’s a blog article or an ebook,
which will help him to better identify the problem and an opportunity to be seized.
 Next is the consideration stage. User has clearly defined the problem and after searching he
understood the various approaches that lead to the solution, and finally knows what to do about it
(in order to take this opportunity).
 Third stage is the decision. User has now defined the solution to the problem, the approach that
will be used and methods and strategies to follow.
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 The Online Shopping Behaviour and the role of Facebook

The question is What is the role of Facebook in this process? Where does the advertising plays?
Briefly: in all phases, but not in the same way.

Facebook is clearly useful in the awareness stage, because thanks to its audience can attract users
(strangers) to our website where they can discover the details of our offer of products and services.

Facebook is also useful in the early stages of consideration and decision, but not as much as Google (or a
search engine).

To explain the difference just take a look at this second image that explains the differences between a
social media channel and a search engine. The first, Facebook for example, allows to generate a question,
creating a need or a solution to a problem (awareness stage); the demand generated is then answered
through research: this is where come into play the two other phases of the buying process.

So Facebook usually has only a role of awareness (which is why the best solution is not to direct sale on
it); Yet, in recent years even Facebook can be used as a sales tool, only a small portion of users (see
image).

Who are these users? They are the people who know us already, who have visited our website, or are our
fans who follow us on the page. These people are potential customers, ready to buy directly from
Facebook.

And that’s where is the power of techniques such as retargeting, which allows for maximum results
(because in the “demand fulfillment” stage) at the lowest possible cost (because it only reaches the people
that have already shown some form of interest).
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Learning the theory behind an online purchase paves the way for great opportunities and enables you to
avoid mistakes that are expensive (as direct sales to the wrong target).
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 Moderating effect of product type on online shopping behaviour and purchase
intention: An Indian perspective
As per the ASSOCHAM-Resurgent survey (2016), around 70 million people in India shopped for
something online, and this number is expected to cross 100 million by 2017. This fact clearly reverberates
the fact that Indian e-commerce has come a long way. The objective of this paper is to analyse the factors
that influence online shopping behaviour of existing online shoppers of India, with a focus on driving
continued usage. The study also examines product-specific purchase behaviour of online consumers
through a multi-group moderation analysis conducted for electronics and fashion goods. A comprehensive
research model was proposed, integrating relevant constructs from existing literature. The model was,
then, empirically tested using structural equation modelling on primary data collected through self-
administered survey. Data was collected from 344 online shoppers with prior shopping experience. The
results showed that perceived usefulness and perceived risk were the top two significant predictors of
online purchase intention for Indian consumers. Based on multi-group moderation analysis findings, the
study advocated e-commerce companies to build product-specific strategies as different product
characteristics require different channel capabilities to enhance the online shopping experience.

There has been a tremendous rise in the Indian e-commerce sector, and now the overall market is
beginning to take notice of its vast potential. According to Google, an Indian connects to the Internet for
the first time every three seconds, and the total number of Internet users in India is expected to reach 730
million by 2020 (Nasscom-Akamai Report, 2016). The overall e-commerce market in India was valued at
$17 billion in 2016 and projections for the market size by 2020 differ wildly, ranging from $50 billion to
$120 billion. Currently, travel is by far the most popular online service, accounting for 61% of total e-
commerce transactions, but retail e-commerce is expected to drive the growth in the future. In the last five
years, the competitive landscape has changed. Domestic players like Flipkart and Snapdeal are facing
strong competition from global giants like Amazon and Alibaba (funding Paytm), along with niche
competitors like Pepperfry.com and Firstcry.com in certain categories. This is an indicator of the market
gradually approaching mature competition. First-mover and capital dump advantages are both dying out
and financial losses are mounting for these players. Reportedly, Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal booked
combined losses of Rs 11,754 crore in 2016 (Tyagi & Thomas, 2017). Investors and e-commerce players
now have recognized the urgency to come out of this vicious circle of incurring losses to fuel more
growth.
E-commerce companies trying to establish footholds in India need to acknowledge that the Indian e-
commerce market is different from the US, European or Chinese market. While it is true that the Indian
market is poised for exponential growth in the next decade, riding on increased Internet penetration, rising
middle class and innovative business models, that will only happen when local challenges are overcome.
Amazon’s inventory-led model in the United States was successful as it capitalized on existing logistics
and payment infrastructure of United States (Wang, 2017). By contrast, in India, government policies
protect offline retailers by restricting online retailers from holding inventory, thus preventing Amazon
from replicating its tried and tested model in India. In India, e-commerce retailers are required to operate
as marketplaces offering an intermediary platform for buyers and sellers. In case of China, Alibaba’s
immense growth in the Chinese market was mainly driven by an increase in the income levels of
consumers during the manufacturing boom in the economy (Nair, 2017). In contrast to the United States
and China, a large part of the Indian population is poorer and suffers from an ill-equipped infrastructure
(both physical and technological, e.g., payment). These factors contribute to making India a tougher
market to crack (Sahil, 2016). According to Redseer Consulting, the average annual Indian online
spending in 2017 was somewhere between $120 and $140. In case of China, it crossed the $1800
spending mark (Nair, 2017). This dissimilarity partly reflects the wide gap in per capita income of the two
46

countries (India—$1800 vs. China—$8100), India and China. In addition to this, India’s vast geography,
consisting of 6,000 small cities and 6 lakh villages, accounting for 70% of the population, presents a
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logistic challenge for e-commerce companies to find profitable ways of delivering goods and expanding
beyond the current serviceable 200 main cities of India (Nielson Report, 2017). These discrepancies are
 validated by the fact that the rise in Internet penetration in India has not converted to increased online
shopping numbers. The Internet penetration in India reached 430 million people accessing Internet in
2016, a comparable number compared to 750 million in China (Nair, 2017). Only 14% of the Internet
population, however, shopped online in India, compared to 64% in China in 2017 (Sushma, 2017). The
stark dissimilarities do not end here.
Other factors that explain the differences in the Indian case are digital maturity of online population and
effect of discount retailing. In case of United States, China and Japan, e-commerce began its journey
sometime in the early 2000s and it took 12–13 years for e-commerce to gain acceptance and become
really successful. Whereas in India, e-commerce took off around 2011–12, and most of the online
consumers have joined the e-commerce bandwagon in the last three to four years (Melville, 2015).
According to a Morgan Stanley study (2017), online shopping for an Internet user is related to the digital
maturity of the user, which, per se, is a function of how long the user has been online. As more and more
users cross the 5-year mark in Internet usage, the study states, they would be more likely to transact
online. Consistent with that rationale, a huge surge in online shopping is expected by 2020, with half of
the Internet population engaged in online shopping (Sushma, 2017). This expected growth, however,
could be affected by the price sensitivity of Indian online shoppers. The price-sensitive behaviour of the
shoppers is exacerbated by e-commerce companies, who have made them disloyal and bargain hunters by
luring them consistently with incessant discounts. According to Flipkart, more than half of its sales
volume comprises of items below $8–10, and most Indian buyers use online shopping for buying low-
ticket items (HKTDC Report, 2017). In order to achieve faster market development, it is clear that e-
commerce companies need to find innovative and efficient solutions to these challenges. Going forward,
e-commerce companies need to focus on changing customer’s buying behaviour through value and
differentiation, instead of discounts.
Like the United States and China, electronics and fashion are the top two online retail categories in India
(Yadalam, 2015), although the Indian sales figures are nowhere close to those of the United States and
China because the Indian middle class is still emerging with access to a smaller disposable income. In the
United States and China, online grocery is highly evolved, and in contrast, India is lagging behind in this
area (Yadalam, 2015). At the end of 2017, online retail was only 2% of the total Indian retail industry
(Forrester Research, 2018). In order to improve this share and to get a meaningful cut of the overall pie,
online retailers need to bring in assortments on their platforms to attract more Indian consumer segments
that still have not started shopping online. One way this goal can be achieved is by understanding the
characteristics of different product categories sold online and by devising product-specific strategies for
the targeted consumer segment. An Indian case can serve as an example for other evolving e-commerce
markets with similar digital maturity journey.
In summary, the main objectives of this paper are to analyse the factors that influence online shopping
behaviour of existing online shoppers of India and also examine the product-specific purchase behaviour
of online consumers. With these objectives in mind, we set out to address the following research
questions:
(1) What theoretical perspective can help in the formulation of a research model suitable for
understanding online consumer behaviour for existing online buyers?
(2) What are the relevant factors and their relationships which influence product purchase behaviour on
the online platform?
(3) What insights can be drawn from product-specific behaviour of online buyers for e-commerce vendors
and retailers?
A great deal of research effort has been invested in the last few decades for understanding the factors that
drive consumer purchase behaviour in traditional and online channels. Researchers have heavily
leveraged intention-based frameworks such as theory of reasoned action (TRA) (Fishbein & Ajzen,
1975), theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen, 1991) and technology acceptance model (TAM)
47

(Davis, 1989) as the basis for examining purchase behaviour using purchase intention as a proxy. TPB set
down the foundation for understanding voluntary individual behaviour in terms of an individual’s
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attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. Adapting this wide-ranging framework to
 comprehend technology adoption has seen further cross-functional collaboration, resulting in the
application of theories like social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1986) and innovation diffusion theory
(Rogers, 1962). TAM emerged as a seminal piece that pioneered the idea of perceived usefulness and
perceived ease of use as two vital determinants of technology adoption.
Since the turn of the century, research focus on online shopping behaviour has intensified, especially in
developed markets. TAM has featured as the basis for many of these studies (Chiu, Chang, Cheng, &
Fang, 2009; Dash & Saji, 2008; Hernández, Jiménez, & José Martín, 2011; Limayem, Khalifa, & Frini,
2000). Customer trust, as well as perceived risk, has been recognized as the key piece in explaining long-
term customer relationships (Chen & Barnes, 2007; Friedman, Khan, & Howe, 2000; Kim, Ferrin, &
Raghav Rao, 2008; Lee & Turban, 2001). In the face of consumer concern over phishing, hacking and
fraud, interest in customer trust has only deepened (Alberto & Montoro, 2007). Other studies have further
augmented our understanding of online purchase behaviour by exploring the roles of customer’s self-
efficacy and website’s characteristics (Belanger, Hiller, & Smith, 2002; Dash & Saji, 2008).
Studies on online shopping behaviour in the Indian context have been few and far between. Existing
literature has focussed on deep dives into specific behavioural factors, often demographics (Khare, Khare,
& Singh, 2012), in a world of discount-driven retail. With the Indian e-commerce landscape maturing
fast, we feel the lack of a model that paints a comprehensive picture of the Indian consumer’s purchase
behaviour while accounting for the huge technological and market movements that have taken place in
the last few years. In this study, a comprehensive model has been proposed, consisting of essential
constructs driving the Indian consumer’s purchase intention and behaviour. To provide specificity to the
model, the study focuses on the two biggest categories of online shopping—electronics and fashion—as
within the online retail business, fashion and electronics sales heavily outperform sales in other categories
(ASSOCHAM-PwC study, 2016; Google & Bain Report, 2016). This allows us to examine the variations
in purchase behaviour for electronics and fashion by studying the moderating effects of product type.
This paper begins with a review of the relevant literature. Based on the review, a research model is
proposed and corresponding hypotheses related to the factors that affect actual purchase behaviour are
developed. Then, hypotheses are empirically tested with primary data collected from the survey. Finally,
results are discussed followed by implications for e-commerce vendors.

2. Research model and hypotheses

The current study identifies purchase intention and actual online purchase behaviour as the key outcome
variables of the proposed research model (see Figure 1). We aim to validate the antecedents of purchase
intention as well as to understand the moderating effect of product type on the antecedents’ relationship
with purchase intention. The inclusion of actual purchase behaviour is intended for studying the often-
ignored relationship between intention and actual behaviour.
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 Proposed research model.

It is worth clarifying that the model aims to examine continued usage, instead of adoption. Given the
current state of e-commerce in India, studying factors that drive continued usage offers more relevant
insights to online retailers than studying those that drive adoption. As highlighted by Karahanna, Straub,
and Chervany (1999), the antecedents responsible for adoption may differ from those for continued usage.
Their study found that perceived usefulness and enhancement in a subject’s social image end up being the
only determinants of continued usage over multiple other factors relevant for adoption.

Since the subject under study is a consumer, albeit in a non-traditional online context, the factors
influencing consumer behaviour in a traditional setting bear investigation. Fishbein and Ajzen (1975)
introduced a subject’s attitude towards behaviour and its perception of the subjective norms as two key
determinants of its intention towards behaviour. Ajzen subsequently extended the framework to include
subject’s perceived behavioural control, as part of his TPB (1991). Our study is far from being the first
one to draw upon TPB’s insights; instead, it is safely buttressed by decades of supporting research for
49

traditional as well as e-commerce channels (Amaro & Duarte, 2015; Khare et al., 2012; Limayem et al.,
2000; Pavlou, 2002).
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 Intention to use online shopping is further confounded by the consumer’s behavioural traits specific to use
of e-commerce technology. TAM has been used with much support to unpack the determinants of online
user behaviour. Its two key constructs, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use, have been
empirically validated by numerous studies.

In our model, perceived ease of use is replaced by a similar construct—perceived self-efficacy. Davis,
one of the authors of TAM, highlighted (Davis, 1989) that Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy is similar to
perceived ease of use. He explained that TAM’s perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are basic
determinants of user behaviour in the same way as self-efficacy judgements and outcome judgements, as
proposed by Bandura. He proceeded to confirm that perceived ease of use is similar to self-efficacy, the
only drawback of using the latter being that it has to be adapted to the situation. We have chosen
perceived self-efficacy over perceived ease of use, due to stronger support for the former in empirical
studies, compared to the latter (Hernandez et al., 2011; Khalifa & Shen, 2008; Sentosa & Mat, 2012).
Perceived self-efficacy in our model also replaces perceived behavioural control from TPB. Perceived
behavioural control has self-efficacy and facilitating conditions (Bhattacherjee, 2000) as its antecedents,
even though facilitating conditions is an important factor for adoption of online shopping in India. But
given our focus on continued usage, we assume that facilitating conditions for online shopping for a user
would not change dramatically over continued usage. Therefore, we focus on self-efficacy’s effect on
purchase intention instead. We have further augmented the model with trust and perceived risk. Since
online shopping goes beyond the common use of a website for non-transactional purposes, the
significance of trust in the online platform, the seller and intermediaries becomes paramount, as does the
consumer’s perception of risk that is involved during the transaction. The role of trust and perceived risk
as outsized determinants of consumer behaviour in the online shopping context has been demonstrated by
existing research (Chen & Barnes, 2007; Kim et al., 2008; Lee & Turban, 2001). Counterfeiting, phishing
and payment scams have been major problems in the Indian e-commerce market. That is why consumers
are still afraid of making prepaid orders and cash on delivery is the most preferred method of placing
orders online (Sahil, 2016; Yadalam, 2015).

Similar to the research paradigm followed by Lian and Lin (2008), our study first identifies the relevant
determinant factors from extant literature regarding purchase intention and purchase behaviour. Then, in
the second step, different product types are zeroed in, based on which the variation in online purchase
behaviour of consumers needs to be studied.

2.1. Purchase intention and actual purchase behaviour

Purchase intention for online shopping is defined as the measurement of willingness of a consumer to
make purchase online through an online retailer. As explained in theories like TRA and TPB, this study is
interested in understanding the voluntary usage behaviour of online consumers. Introduced by Ajzen
(1991), intention has been used in many e-commerce and m-commerce studies either as a direct
antecedent to online purchase behaviour or as the outcome variable replacing actual purchase behaviour
(Dash & Saji, 2008; Limayem et al., 2000; Venkatesh, Morris, Davis, & Davis, 2003). Taylor and Todd
(1995) asserted that behavioural intention is a good predictor of usage behaviour for people with previous
experience and familiarity with technology. Sheppard, Hartwick, Warshaw, and Hartwick (1988)
conducted a meta-analysis and found strong empirical support for using intention to predict the
performance of behaviour. Consequently, in our study, we posit that for existing online buyers with prior
experience, their actual usage behaviour will be largely influenced by purchase intention: .

2.2. Attitude and subjective norms

Attitude is one of the two key determinants of voluntary behaviour, initially proposed in the TRA
50

(Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975) and further extended in TPB (Ajzen, 1991). In these theories, attitude was
defined as the outcome of beliefs held by the subject regarding the consequences of an action in terms of
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favourableness or unfavourableness. In any decision-making process, these prior cognitive beliefs stored
in memory are readily available and they influence the decision (Fazio, Ledbetter, & Towles-Schwen,
 2000). The current study defines attitude towards online shopping as a result of an individual’s inherent
beliefs about the merits of using online shopping, which implies that if the individual’s attitude towards
online shopping is positive, they would find and utilize avenues to use the online medium for shopping.
In previous e-commerce studies, attitude towards online shopping has been studied as one of the key
determinants of online consumer behaviour (Hernández et al., 2011; Limayem et al., 2000; Lin, 2007;
Venkatesh et al., 2003; Zendehdel, Paim, & Osman, 2015). Hence, we hypothesize that attitude plays an
important role in users’ intention to use online shopping.

Subjective norms represent the second key determinant of TRA that this study has adopted. Subjective
norms are defined as the social pressure that the subject feels from its social connections towards the use
of online shopping. In prior researches, subjective norms or social influence have been studied in detail in
the context of online consumer behaviour (Khare et al., 2012; Limayem et al., 2000; Lin, 2007;
Zendehdel et al., 2015). Thus, we postulate that the subjective norms are instrumental in driving intention
to use online shopping.

2.3. Perceived usefulness

Perceived usefulness, introduced under TAM, is a widely understood, accepted and empirically validated
factor towards understanding technology adoption and use. Davis (1985) defined perceived usefulness as
the degree to which a particular technology can improve the subject’s job performance, in its own view.
Dash and Saji (2008) further defined it in the context of online shopping as the “degree to which a
consumer believes that using the system from a website would provide access to useful information,
comparison and faster online shopping.” The current study adopts this definition for its
comprehensiveness in capturing different aspects of online shopping systems.

Multiple studies have validated the significance of perceived usefulness in the context of technology
(Chiu et al., 2009; Dash & Saji, 2008; Hernández et al., 2011; Sentosa & Mat, 2012). We hypothesize that
its significance holds for online shopping in the Indian context as well.

2.4. Perceived self-efficacy

Alberta Bandura promoted the role of self-efficacy in human behaviour or “human agency” in cases that
require behavioural change (Bandura, 1977, 1986). Self-efficacy was defined as the subject’s perception
of its ability to control and exert influence over an action or a behavioural change. As indicated in the
definition itself, self-efficacy embodies perceived behavioural control as put forward by TPB. Aside from
the range of applications explored by Bandura himself, from understanding anxiety to influencing at-risk
behaviour among AIDS patients, other researchers have empirically validated the theory in the e-
commerce space (Eastin, 2002; Igbaria & Livari, 1995; Koufaris, 2002).

Igbaria and Iivari (1995) explained that the users with low perception of their self-efficacy in controlling
computers tend to avoid them. Users in their study (in Finland) displaying higher self-efficacy used
computers more and even sought more management support to facilitate their usage. They argued that
perceived usefulness alone will not drive an individual’s usage against a low perception of own
capabilities, thus making a case for organizational support for new technologies. Eastin (2002) found self-
efficacy to be the most important predictor of online shopping, among five other factors, i.e., prior use of
telephone, perceived risk, Internet use, perceived convenience and perceived financial benefits. He
observed that self-efficacy played a much bigger role in online shopping compared to other e-commerce
activities like online banking, online investing and online services.

It stands to reason that perceptions of self-efficacy will affect subject’s attitudes towards technology.
51

Similarly, subjective norms, as well as organizational support, will influence an individual’s perceived
self-efficacy. However, our focus, instead of understanding the antecedents of self-efficacy, is on
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understanding its influence on purchase intention.

 2.5. Trust

The role of trust in buyer–seller relationships has been of paramount interest to researchers, even in
traditional offline business transactions. The importance of trust is all but amplified by the “spatial and
temporal separation” between the buyer and seller in the online world (Chiu et al., 2009). As recapitulated
well by Dash and Saji (2008), trust for buyers involves an expectation of competence as well as
benevolence from the seller. Competence is often perceived by tangible characteristics of the online
system, e.g., firm’s size and reputation (Bramall, Schoefer, & McKechnie, 2004), website’s
characteristics like privacy and security (Bart, Shankar, Sultan, & Urban, 2005). Benevolence represents a
confident belief from the buyer that the seller will forego opportunities to exploit the buyer’s
vulnerabilities.

Lack of trust in online shopping has been found to lead to lower willingness to shop online (Chen &
Barnes, 2007; Lee & Turban, 2001; Pavlou, 2002). A positive trust relationship, conversely, would lead
to a positive effect on intention to shop online.

2.6. Perceived risk

Perceived risk is defined as the potential loss, monetary or non-monetary, perceived by a consumer when
contemplating a purchase online compared to the same purchase offline. This definition is modelled on a
similar one used by Amaro and Duarte (2015) for online travel. It also draws from Cox and Rich’s (1964)
insights that the loss experienced by the buyer, in addition to being monetary, may be related to loss of
time, frustration, etc.

Perceived risks in online transactions have been widely studied. Those leading to financial loss, potential
violations of privacy and security and product quality losses are often considered the dominant ones
(Bhatnagar, Misra, & Raghav Rao, 2000; Chen & Barnes, 2007; Kim et al., 2008). Examples of financial
loss abound, be it in the form of credit card fraud, payment system failures or even user errors that turn
contentious. Privacy concerns related to perceived (and often actual) lack of control over Internet’s
collection and use of consumer’s private information (Alberto & Montoro, 2007) are quite prevalent.
Security risks include threats related to unauthorized access, denial of service, threat to data integrity, etc.
(Belanger et al., 2002). Product risk, according to Bhatnagar et al. (2000), varies based on not only the
technological complexity of the product, but also whether the product is attached to a consumer’s self-
image, e.g., sunglasses. Many of these risks may be overstated and could be countered through
information (Friedman et al., 2000).

The current study has decided to focus on perceived risks of the above types. The conjecture is that higher
perceived risks would detract consumer interest from online shopping and drive it towards offline
alternatives.

2.7. Moderating effect of product type

Several product classifications have been discussed in the literature in the context of the online retail
domain (Alba et al., 1997; Klein, 1998; Peterson, Balasubramanian, & Bronnenberg, 1997). Nelson
(1974) divided the products into two categories: search and experience goods. “Search goods” are those
goods that can be evaluated completely based on information available before purchase, whereas
“experience goods” require personal experience and involvement with the product. Fashion, in our case,
lies towards “experience goods” end of that continuum and electronics products belong to the “search”
category. Chiang and Dholakia (2003) used the same classification and determined that the consumer’s
intention to shop online was greater for search goods than experience goods. Girard, Silverblatt, and
52

Korgaonkar (2002) studied the influence of product type on consumer preferences for online shopping
based on e-tailers’ attributes like convenience, security/privacy, perceived value, customer service,
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retailer reputation, etc. Lian and Lin (2008) and Keisidou, Sarigiannidis, and Maditinos (2011) tested the
 relationships of personal innovativeness of information technology (PIIT), self-efficacy, perceived
security, privacy and product involvement with consumer attitude and studied how they varied for
different product types. Chiu et al. (2009) also termed product type as a potential moderator and
recommended it for future studies.

Recently, PwC Total Retail Survey (2017) also gave a glimpse into the variations in online purchase
behaviour between different product types. Some differences that are captured include differences in how
consumers research, what platform they use for research and purchase and frequency of purchases. How
do the aforementioned antecedents behave when moderated by product type? Existing research does not
have a clear answer to this question, certainly not in the Indian context. As online shopping is getting
segmented by products and market has matured with more players with product niches; the product-based
differences in purchase behaviour can be expected to garner vital interest in Indian markets soon as well.

For certain antecedents, i.e., perceived risk, trust and perceived self-efficacy, existing research (e.g.,
Bhatnagar et al., 2000; Chiang & Dholakia, 2003; Lian & Lin, 2008; PwC Total Retail Survey, 2017)
guides us towards a directional hypothesis. For the remaining antecedents, we hypothesize that product
type would have a moderating effect but the direction of the effect is to be tested.

The research methodology included primary data collection through a questionnaire survey. As there was
no reliable sampling frame available for employing probability sampling methods, a combination of
purposive, convenience and snowball sampling was used to collect data for the study. This approach is in
line with recommendations from researchers in online domain for such scenarios (Amaro & Duarte, 2015;
Chiang & Dholakia, 2003; Goldsmith & Horowitz, 2006). Participants were asked screening questions in
section II of questionnaire to ensure they possessed sufficient prior shopping experience, given the
study’s focus on purchase behaviour of existing online buyers. Questionnaires were distributed to online
buyers during the period of 1 March 2017 to 30 April 2017. Questionnaires were mostly circulated among
respondents through email and with the help of social media (Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram). Most
of the respondents (85%) turned out to be from three metropolitan cities of India, i.e., Delhi, Mumbai and
Bangalore. According to ASSOCHAM-Resurgent study in 2016, these three cities were also found to be
among the top three spenders with respect to online shopping (Banerjee, 2017).

A total of 574 online buyers were contacted through questionnaires, but since the questionnaire used in
this study was quite exhaustive, only 483 filled questionnaires were returned. Thus, the response rate of
the questionnaire survey was 84.14%. Out of the total, only 344 complete questionnaires with no missing
value were found useful for the purpose of study. There are many views regarding suitable sample size in
the context of structural equation modelling (SEM). Usually, a sample size of 100–200 is considered
adequate for performing SEM (Kline, 2005; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2001; Teo & Noyes, 2014). For multi-
group modelling, the thumb rule is 100 cases or observations per group (Kline, 2005). Another widely
accepted rule for sample size is that it should be 10 times the number of items that are observed in the
research (Nunnally, 1978). As our sample meets these guidelines, we conclude the sample size to be
adequate.

The survey was self-administered with instructions provided by the researchers. The participation in the
survey was voluntary, and no extra rewards or incentives were provided to respondents. Hence, it can
safely be assumed that no response bias occurred in recording data.

Instrument development

The questionnaire was divided into three sections: the first section was intended to elicit demographic
information about the respondent like age, gender, occupation and education; the second section catered
to questions regarding the Internet experience and familiarity of the respondents towards Internet and
53

online shopping; and the third section was designed to extract information measuring customer’s
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perception of the constructs (perceived usefulness, perceived risk, attitude, subjective norms, perceived
self-efficacy, trust, intention to use and actual purchasing behaviour (APB)) used in the research model.
 All the question items used in the questionnaire were adapted from literature, wherever possible. To
increase the validity and precision of the instrument with respect to the Indian environment and to foresee
any problems that could arise during data collection, a pilot test and pretest were conducted. A pilot
questionnaire was formulated and circulated among 22 doctoral students majoring in IT-related courses.
The primary objective was to understand how much time respondents took to fill out the questionnaire,
the difficulty level of the questions, the consistency and relevance of questions (Chiu et al., 2009). Two
questions were dropped from the questionnaire based on the analysis and feedback from pilot test as the
participants noted that those questions appeared redundant in the company of other measuring items.
Additionally, language and wordings of questions were also simplified and modified to facilitate Indian
respondents’ understanding and make the questionnaire easy to comprehend, in general. The final
questionnaire (section III) consisted of 33 question items for eight constructs. These constructs are
“Perceived usefulness or PUse” (6 items), “Perceived risk or PRisk” (6 items), “Perceived self-efficacy or
PSE” (3 items), “Trust” (6 items), “Attitude” (4 items), “Subjective norms or SNORM” (3 items),
“Purchase intention or PINT” (3 items) and “Actual purchase behaviour or APB” (2 items).

Afterwards, a medium-scale pretest of the questionnaire was conducted with the help of a sample of 75
undergraduate students. Many studies have advocated the fact that student sample is suitable for online
behavioural studies (Cassis, 2007; Delafrooz, Paim, & Khatibi, 2011; Lian & Lin, 2008). Exploratory
factor analysis was performed to examine whether the items produced the anticipated number of factors
and whether the individual items were loaded on their appropriate factor as expected. Principal
component analysis with varimax rotation was used to extract the number of factors. For adequacy, KM
Bartlett’s test of sphericity and Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy were
conducted. A KMO index of 0.5 and above indicates the adequacy of the data for performing factor
analysis (Kaiser, 1974). For the pretest data, the KMO value was 0.926 and Barlett’s test observed a
significance level of 0.000 with a chi-square value of 13,794.968, thus meeting the adequacy
requirements.

For examining the reliability of each construct, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated. According to
Nunnally (1978), Cronbach’s alpha values are dependent on the number of items in a construct and it
should have a minimum value of 0.7. As reported in Table 1, values for all the constructs are greater than
0.7 (all values between 0.815 and 0.922), establishing construct reliability. For evaluating construct
validity, both discriminant and convergent validity need to be examined. In Table 1, we see clean factor
structure showing factor loadings for each construct and it is also evident that there are no cross-loadings
among factors. All the factor loadings are above the minimum cut-off level of 0.5 (Hair, Black, Babin, &
Anderson, 2010), establishing convergent validity for the constructs, and the absence of cross-loadings
confirms discriminant validity for the constructs. Thus, the above results indicated that no further
modifications in the questionnaire were needed and that it was ready for the main study.
54
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 CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPOSIBILITY BY RELIANCE

Creating shared prosperity, sustainably

We contribute to the well being of people by introducing sustainable measures and providing assistance to
institutions and welfare organisations, across India, reaching well beyond our business locations,
impacting the lives of marginalised communities. Our initiatives have reached millions over the years and
nearly 4,00,000 people benefit from our continuing programmes every month.

We contribute to the well being of people by introducing sustainable measures and providing assistance to
institutions and welfare organisations, across India, reaching well beyond our business locations,
impacting the lives of marginalised communities. Our initiatives have reached millions over the years and
nearly 4,00,000 people benefit from our continuing programmes every month.

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environment. Reliance has developed infrastructure for water conservation and constructed community
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Ethics

We work with a high ethical standard and are responsible in our daily actions. In Reliance, we are
committed to exercising good business ethics and behaviour in accordance with the mission, vision and
values as well as existing policies and guidelines of Reliance

Client references

We do our job discreetly, observing full confidentiality, and we do not advertise the assignments we
perform for our clients.
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 FINANCIAL REPORT
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Page 58
Page 59
 MAJOR COMPETITORS
Some of the major competitors for Ajio in online sector are Flipkart, Amazon, Jabong, Snapdeal,
Myntra etc .

However Ajio is trying its best to compete its competitors.

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 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETAION

GENDER

GENDER
MALE FEMALE

42%

58%

INTERPRETATION:

From The Above Result It Can Be Inferred That Majority Of Our Respondents Are Male , Number Being
35 As Compared To 25 Female In A Total Of 60.

AGE GROUP

AGE
15-25 25-35
35-45 45 & ABOVE

18%

15% 48%

18%

INTERPRETATION

From The Above Result We Come To Know That Out Of 60 Respondents , 29 Are In Age Group
15 To 25, 11 Belongs To 25 To 35 , 9 Belongs To 35 To 45 And 11 Belongs To 45& Above Age Group.
This Shows That Majority Of Respondents Are Young People Between The Age Group 15 To 25 Years.
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 Q1.Do you shop online?

Yes

No

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
YES NO

INTERPRETATION

It Has Been Observed that Majority Of Correspondents are happy with the online shopping services. Only
20 around respondents are not happy with the online services.

Q2.Which do you prefer, shopping online or in stores?

Online shopping

Shopping in stores
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 5

4.5

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
online stores

From above chart we can come to know most of the people preferring shopping online cause its saves
their valuable time.

Q3.How often do you shop online?

Extremely often

Moderately often

Slightly Often

4.5

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
extremely often moderately often slightly often
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 From above chart we can say that most of the people do shopping on extremely often basis.

How is the quality of Products online ?

o Very Satisfy
o Average
o Unsatisfactory

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
very satisfy average unsatifactory

INTERPRETATION:

From the above respondents we can conclude that the satisfaction level of the brand is not up to mark
however the average ratio is more than unsatisfactory respondents. Since it is new to market so Ajio will
take time to build its goodwill in the market.
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 The attendants knowledge on service on products of Ajio?

o Very Satisfy
o Average
o Unsatisfactory

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

0
very satisfy average unsatisfactory

INTERPRETATION:

From the above Chart we can conclude that the service partner who is sitting at the at head office has
satisfactory knowledge of the products which are offered by Ajio. Also the unsatisfactory result is much
lesser compare to average.
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 Where do you prefer shopping on Apps or on Websites

o Apps
o Websites

Category 1 Category 2

INTERPRETATION:

Category 1 represents the app and category 2 represents the website. So from the above table it can be
conclude that majority of respondents use website to purchase goods. However app user are also not less.
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 Are you happy with the Delivery time taken to deliver the products?

50

45

40

35

30

25

20

15

10

INTERPRETATION:

Form the above chart most of the respondant are happy with the delivery services by Ajio. However only
few of them are not happy with the deli very time taken by Ajio.
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 DO YOU RELY ON ON ONLINE PRODUCTS ?
o Yes
o No

80

70

60

50

40

30

20

10

0
YES NO

INTERPRETATION :

From the above charte we can conclude that majority of people nowadays relying on online products.very
few

Do privacy concerns stop you from online shopping?

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 Yes

No

Sometimes

4.5

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
Yes No Sometimes

INTERPRETATION:

The above table shows that sometimes people may no purchase online because of privacy issue.

Also nowadays hackers can hack from online portal as well.

Which payment method do you usually use when purchasing products online?

Credit Card

Debit card
69

Other, please specify

Page
 5

4.5

3.5

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
Credit Card Debit Card Others

INTERPRETATION:

From the above chart we can say that most of the respondent are using credit card for the payment.
However many of them are using others sources to make the payment.
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 How would you describe your views about online shopping?

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
very satisfy average unsatisfactory

INTERPRETATION

From the above chart we can say that people are enjoying doing online shopping as they purchase good
on their fingertips.
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 CONCLUSION
AJIO is Reliance’s natural digital fashion extension that launched at the Lakme Fashion Week in April
2016 at Mumbai. AJIO holds the distinction of being Reliance Retail’s first pan-Indian ecommerce
venture. The differentiator of brand AJIO is that it’s the one stop shop for styles that are handpicked, bang
on-trend, at prices that are easily the best you’ll find anywhere. Celebrating fearlessness and uniqueness,
AJIO is constantly looking to bring a fresh, current and accessible perspective to personal style. At the
heart of it all, AJIO’s core philosophy of xDoubtIsOut believes in inclusivity and acceptance as the
natural way forward for individual expression of personal style. This philosophy is brought to life through
key campaigns like NotWhatIWear which took a bold stand on women’s rights in the 2017 Lakme
Fashion week. The DoubtIsOut belief runs in AJIO’s very DNA, through capsule collections that make
putting together great looks easy, making exclusive international brands available in one place, reviving
India’s rich textile heritage through the Indie collection and the hyper-trend focussed in-house brand
AJIO Own. AJIO deals in categories of womenswear, menswear, kidswear and technology. With fashion
technology in particular, AJIO forayed into a category that combined the convenience of technology with
the aesthetics of contemporary fashion by featuring a carefully hand-picked selection of premium gadgets
and tech accessories. With the advanced internet infrastructure built by JIO and a robust physical retail
business built by Reliance Retail, AJIO is at the fore of a differentiated e-commerce model for India. This
model will entail seamless omni-channel integration of online and offline models while innovating across
superior customer experience, delivery services and payment ecosystem. The AJIO app is available for
download on the Apple App Store & Google Play
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 RECOMMENDATION

The reliability of the website

Its better to avoid making purchases on a recently created website. If you have any doubt about the origin
of the website, go to the "About Us" section or the imprint of the website. Also search for the customer
reviews about the service or website.

Contact and customer service department

Check if it is possible to easily get in touch with Customer Service (a contact email , hotlines,..etc). Don't
forget to check the terms and conditions that apply for the return, exchange or refund of a product.

Shipping
The shipping conditions and delays must be clearly advertised on the product .
Make sure that the shipping address and billing address are indicated .

The product

You need information on the characteristics of the product? Visit the manufacturer website to get all the
necessary information.
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 BIBLOGRAPHY

SEARCH ENGINES:

GOOGLE

YAHOO

CHROME

INTERNET EXPLORER

WEBSITIES:

https://www.mbaskool.com/marketing-mix/services/17438-ajio.html

1. ^ "Reliance Retail sales cross $10 bn mark". The Economic Times. 28 April 2018. Retrieved 13
September 2018.
2. ^ "Reliance Retail's pre-tax profit jumps 40% in FY17 - ET Retail". ETRetail.com. Retrieved 13
September 2018.
3. ^ "Reliance Retail's total revenue up by 21.2 percent - ET Retail". ETRetail.com. Retrieved 13
September 2018.
4. ^ "Reliance retail reports highest ever quarterly turnover of Rs 6,042 crore in Q3". The Economic
Times. 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
5. ^ "Subsidiaries of Reliance Retail Limited". ril.com. Archived from the original on 12 August
2013. Retrieved 27 August 2013.
6. ^ "Few RIL retail arms still making losses". Business Standard. 11 May 2013. Retrieved 27
August 2013.
7. ^ https://relianceretail.com/reliance-smart.html
8. ^ Jump up to: a b c "Reliance Retail's growth trail". The Hindu Businessline. 31 July 2013.
Retrieved 19 August 2013.
9. ^ "Fashion Has A New Destination – AJIO.com". sassyshifsays.in. 4 Apr 2016. Retrieved 4 April
2016.
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 ANNEXURE-1 QUESTIONNAIRE

NAME:

OCCUPATION:

AGE (IN YEARS):

GENDER:

Q1.Do you shop online?

Yes

No

Q2.Which do you prefer, shopping online or in stores?

Online shopping

Shopping in stores

Q3.How often do you shop online?

Extremely often

Moderately often

Slightly Often

How is the quality of Products online ?

Q1.Very Satisfy
Q2.Average
Q3.Unsatisfactory

The Attendants knowledge about the product service offered by Ajio?

o Very Satisfy
o Average
o Unsatisfactory

Where do you prefer shopping on Apps or on Websites

75

o Apps
Page

o Websites
 Are you happy with the Delivery time taken to deliver the products?

o Yes
o No
DO YOU RELY ON ON ONLINE PRODUCTS ?
o Yes
o No
o

Do privacy concerns stop you from online shopping?

Yes

No

Sometimes

Which payment method do you usually use when purchasing products online?

Credit Card

Debit card

Other, please specify

How would you describe your views about online shopping?

o Very satisfy
o Average
o Unsatisfactory

ANY SUGGESTIONS
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