Customer relationship management (CRM) is a term that refers to practices, strategies and technologies that companies use to manage and analyze customer interactions and data throughout the customer lifecycle, with the goal of improving business relationships with customers, assisting in customer retention and driving sales growth.

Looking at some broader perspectives given as below we can easily determine why a CRM System is always important for an organization.

1. A CRM system consists of a historical view and analysis of all the acquired or to be acquired customers. This helps in reduced searching and correlating customers and to foresee customer needs effectively and increase business.

2. CRM contains each and every bit of details of a customer, hence it is very easy for track a customer accordingly and can be used to determine which customer can be profitable and which not.

3. In CRM system, customers are grouped according to different aspects according to the type of business they do or according to physical location and are allocated to different customer managers often called as account managers. This helps in focusing and concentrating on each and every customer separately.

4. A CRM system is not only used to deal with the existing customers but is also useful in acquiring new customers. The process first starts with identifying a customer and maintaining all the corresponding details into the CRM system which is also called an ‘Opportunity of Business’. The Sales and Field representatives then try getting business out of these customers by sophistically following up with them and converting them into a winning deal. All this is very easily and efficiently done by an integrated CRM system.

5. The strongest aspect of Customer Relationship Management is that it is very cost-effective. The advantage of decently implemented CRM system is that there is very less need of paper and manual work which requires lesser staff to manage and lesser resources to deal with. The technologies used in implementing a CRM system are also very cheap and smooth as compared to the traditional way of business.

6. All the details in CRM system is kept centralized which is available anytime on fingertips. This reduces the process time and increases productivity.

7. Efficiently dealing with all the customers and providing them what they actually need increases the customer satisfaction. This increases the chance of getting more business which ultimately enhances turnover and profit.

8. If the customer is satisfied they will always be loyal to you and will remain in business forever resulting in increasing customer base and ultimately enhancing net growth of business.

In today’s commercial world, practice of dealing with existing customers and thriving business by getting more customers into loop is predominant and is mere a dilemma. Installing a CRM system can definitely improve the situation and help in challenging the new ways of marketing and business in an efficient manner. Hence in the era of business every organization should be recommended to have a full-fledged CRM system to cope up with all the business needs.

INTRODUCTION TO E - COMMERCE INDUSTRY

India has an internet user base of about 375 million (30% of population) as of Q2 of 2015.[1] Despite being the second largest userbase in world, only behind China (650 million, 48% of population), the penetration of e-commerce is low compared to markets like the United States (266 M, 84%), or France (54 M, 81%), but is growing at an unprecedented rate, adding around 6 million (0.5% of population) new entrants every month.[2] The industry consensus is that growth is at an inflection point.[3]

In India, cash on delivery is the most preferred payment method, accumulating 75% of the e-retail activities.[4] Demand for international consumer products (including long-tail items) is growing much faster than in-country supply from authorised distributors and e-commerce offerings.

As of Q1 2015, six Indian e-commerce companies have managed to achieve billion-dollar valuations. Namely, Flipkart, Snapdeal, InMobi, Quikr, OlaCabs and Paytm.

Market size and growth

India's e-commerce market was worth about $3.8 billion in 2009, it went up to $12.6 billion in 2013. In 2013, the e-retail segment was worth US$2.3 billion. About 70% of India's e-commerce market is travel related.According to Google India, there were 35 million online shoppers in India in 2014 Q1 and is expected to cross 100 million mark by end of year 2016.CAGR vis-à-vis a global growth rate of 8–10%. Electronics and Apparel are the biggest categories in terms of sales.

Key drivers in Indian e-commerce are:

Large percentage of population subscribed to broadband Internet, burgeoning 3G internet users, and a recent introduction of 4G across the country.

Explosive growth of Smartphone users, soon to be world's second largest smart phone user base.

Rising standards of living as result of fast decline in poverty rate. Availability of much wider product range (including long tail and Direct Imports) compared

to what is available at brick and mortar retailers. Competitive prices compared to brick and mortar retail driven by disintermediation and

reduced inventory and real estate costs. Increased usage of online classified sites, with more consumer buying and selling second-

hand goodsEvolution of Million-Dollar startups like Jabong.com, Saavn, Makemytrip, Bookmyshow, Zomato Flipkart, Snapdeal Etc.

India's retail market is estimated at $470 billion in 2011 and is expected to grow to $675 Bn by 2016 and $850 Bn by 2020, – estimated CAGR of 10%. According to Forrester, the e-commerce market in India is set to grow the fastest within the Asia-Pacific Region at a CAGR of over 57% between 2012–16.

As per "India Goes Digital", a report by Avendus Capital, a leading Indian Investment Bank specializing in digital media and technology sector, the Indian e-commerce market is estimated

at Rs 28,500 Crore ($6.3 billion) for the year 2011. Online travel constitutes a sizable portion (87%) of this market today. Online travel market in India is expected to grow at a rate of 22% over the next 4 years and reach Rs 54,800 Crore ($12.2 billion) in size by 2015. Indian e-tailing industry is estimated at Rs 3,600 crore (US$800 mn) in 2011 and estimated to grow to Rs 53,000 Crore ($11.8 billion) in 2015.

Overall e-commerce market is expected to reach Rs 1,07,800 crores (US$24 billion) by the year 2015 with both online travel and e-tailing contributing equally. Another big segment in e-commerce is mobile/DTH recharge with nearly 1 million transactions daily by operator websites.

Closures

Though the sector has witnessed tremendous growth and is expected to grow, a lot of e-commerce ventures have faced tremendous pressure to ensure cash flows. But it has not worked out for all the e-commerce websites. Many of them like Dhingana, Rock.in, Seventy MM amongst others had to close down or change their business models to survive.

Infrastructure

There are many hosting companies working in India but most of them are not suitable for ecommerce hosting purpose, because they are providing much less secure and threat protected shared hosting. ecommerce demand highly secure, stable and protected hosting.Trends are changing with some of ecommerce companies starting to offer SaaS for hosting web stores with minimal onetime costs.There could be various methods of ecommerce marketing such as blog, forums, search engines and some online advertising sites like Google adwords and Adroll.India has got its own version of Cyber Monday known as Great Online Shopping Festival which started in December 2012, when Google India partnered with e-commerce companies including Flipkart, HomeShop18, Snapdeal, Indiatimesshoppingand Makemytrip. "Cyber Monday" is a term coined in the USA for the Monday coming after Black Friday, which is the Friday after Thanksgiving Day. Most recent GOSF Great Online Shopping Festival was held during Dec 10 to 12, 2014.In early June 2013, Amazon.com launched their Amazon India marketplace without any marketing campaigns. In July, Amazon had said it will invest $2 billion (Rs 12,000 crore) in India to expand business, after its largest Indian rival Flipkart announced $1 billion in funding. Amazon has also entered grocery segment with its Kirana now in bangalore and is also planning to enter in various other cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and faces stiff competition with Indian startups.

Funding

As of 2012, most of the e-commerce companies are yet to start making money. However, due to their growth prospects, many venture capital firms such as Accel Partners have invested considerably. In one of the biggest fund raising,Flipkart.com, till November 2014, has raised about USD 2.3 billion. Entertainment ticketing website BookMyShow.com raised 100 crores investment by Accel Partners.

On 10 July 2013, Flipkart announced it had received $200 million from existing investors Tiger Global, Naspers, Accel Partners, and ICONIQ Capital. New investors making up the additional $160 million include Dragoneer Investment Group,Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Sofina, Vulcan Inc. and more from Tiger Global. Snapdeal - USD 50 million in 13 April.In February 2014, online fashion retailer Myntra.com raised $50 million from a group of investors led by Premji Invest, the investment company floated by Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro. May 2014 also witnessed an acquisition of Myntra by Flipkart reportedly for 2,000₹ crores. In October 2014, KartRocket, an Indian e-commerce platform, announced granting of a Series A round led by technology investor Nirvana Venture Advisors and 500 Startups, together with Tokyo-based Beenos, previously known as Netprice.com. Started in 2012, Hopscotch India focuses on bringing thousands of brands to moms in India. They have raised USD 12.8 Million in 2 rounds from 7 investors, including Facebook Cofounder Eduardo Saverin.Started in 2011, voylla online first digital fashion jewellery, Jaipur-based fashion jewellery brand Voylla has raised $15 million (About Rs 98 crore) in funding from private equity firm, Peepul Capital.

Niche Retailers

The spread of e-commerce has lead to the rise of several niche players who largely specialize their products around a specific theme. As many as 1,06,086 websites are registered daily and more than 25% are for niche businesses. During 2014, Royal Enfield sold 200 Bike's of special series Online. Zepo compiled popular online niche brands in their list of Top 100 Quirky Brands in India. 

Online apparel is one of the more popular verticals, which along with Computers and consumer electronics make up 42% of the total retail e-commerce sales. Niche online merchandising brands like Headbanger's Merch, Redwolf and No Nasties partner with and even help sustain independent musicians.  Some of the bigger online retailer like VoxPop Clothing have secured multiple rounds of funding, the last round raising $1 million from Blume Ventures in 2014.

As these niche businesses get popular, they are slowly getting acquired by the big players. BabyOye was acquired by Mahindra Retail, part of the $17 billion dollar Mahindra Group. Ekstop was acquired by the Godrej Group to complement their offline chain of Nature's Basket stores. 

INTRODUCTION TO FLIPKART

In the year 2007, when Flipkart was launched, Indian e-commerce industry was taking its beginner steps. Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, who were working for Amazon.com had an idea to start an e-commerce company in India.

One can easily call that a risky move. In a country where people have various tastes and preferences, an ecommerce start-up will always have enormous challenges. In India, people often prefer to shop in person and buy goods they see and like. Today, thanks to Flipkart, e-commerce has become one of the fastest growing sectors in India.Flipkart began selling books to begin with. It soon expanded and began offering a wide variety of goods. Innovating right from the start, Flipkart has been home to few of the striking features of Indian e-commerce. Flipkart was the first to implement the popular ‘Cash on Delivery’ facility, which every online shopping website in India offers as an option today.

In the first few years of its existence, Flipkart raised funds through venture capital funding. As the company grew in stature, more funding arrived. Flipkart repaid the investors’ faith with terrific performances year after year. In the financial year 2008-09, Flipkart had made sales to the tune of 40 million Indian rupees. This soon increased to 200 million Indian rupees the following year. Flipkart targets to hit the one billion mark by 2015. Going by their ever increasing popularity, it does not seem like a farfetched thought.

Back at the time when Flipkart was launched, any e-commerce company faced two major difficulties. One was the problem of online payment gateways. Not many people preferred online payment and the gateways were not easy to set up. Flipkart tackled this problem by introducing cash on delivery and payment by card on delivery in addition to others.

The second problem was the entire supply chain system. Delivering goods on time is one of the most important factor that determines the success of an ecommerce company. Flipkart addressed this issue by launching their own supply chain management system to deliver orders in a timely fashion.

Flipkart also acquired few companies like Myntra.com, LetsBuy.com etc., to better their presence in the market. With the entry of Amazon.com in India, the competition between the companies has seen many takeovers. Flipkart’s journey from a small book e-retailer to India’s largest e-commerce platform inspires a generation of start-ups. In a country where stereotypes are common, Flipkart managed to break the norm and change the ecommerce industry in India for ever.

INTRODUCTION TO SNAPDEAL

Snapdeal set a niche for itself in the sphere of e-commerce in India. In 2010, when Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal wanted to start their own business, they chose an offline couponing business and named it MoneySaver. 15000 coupons were sold in three months and it was time to take the business to the next level.

It was after they met investor Vani Kola that the venture really took off. The first meeting did not go well but after another round of discussion, Vani Kola’s venture capital firm decided to invest in Snapdeal. Initially started as an offline business, Snapdeal went online in 2010. It was a bumpy ride in the first few months. Mistakes were made, but lessons were learnt. It is this kind of hard work and diligent attempt to offer the best to the customers that gave Snapdeal its initial success.

However, the biggest decision of the founders came in November 2011. Inspired by the success of Alibaba.com, Rohit and Kunal wanted to create something on similar lines. The deals business was shut down and an online marketplace was opened instead.

It was a make or break decision. Snapdeal had a huge market share in the deals business at that time and starting something new was very risky and the move surprised the investors too. At that point of time, eBay was the only marketplace in India.

It was a decision that was not for the short term. When RohitBahl managed to gain the nod the board, the present form of Snapdeal took shape. The very fact that Snapdeal is valued at a billion dollars today is a testimony to the vision of its founders. Currently, more than 50,000 sellers sell around 5 million products on Snapdeal. The company’s phenomenal growth in a short span has been a remarkable journey. The company began to concentrate on building scale and improving speed. When eBay invested in Snapdeal, they brought immense experience to the table.

Snapdeal is one of the fastest growing e-commerce companies in India today with the largest online market place. In just two years, the company went from scrapping their group coupon business and starting an online marketplace to become a billion dollar company. Its year on year growth is almost 600%.The average age of the workforce at Snapdeal is 25. Their values – Innovation, Change, Openness, Honesty and Ownership drive them to press for greater success. The company’s growth had been phenomenal but it is their continued effort to bring the best to the market and their zeal to succeed as the best B2C (Business to customer) marketplace is what sets them apart. Great ideas might be important for a business, but it is the confident implementation of those ideas and the right effort which are more important. It is action and not mere thought that gives results.