Interview Questionnaire
Senior Manager – Snapdeal
What is your opinion regarding the current market performance of your company in this competitive e-business market?
First, I would like to opine that our company has performed better by industry standards. In India, the e-business market has seen huge traffic both from buyers as well as from sellers with several players vying for their market share. This has led to severe competition between us and our competitors. Despite the competition, we have performed remarkably well than we did last year or years before that. The immense number of sellers has been added to our online trading platform and this has led to a surge in buyer traffic. All this has led to an increase in our business and our market performance has shown a considerable improvement.
What is your opinion with respect to your (e-business) competitors in India? And can you please share your idea about their market share?
Our competitors are our biggest rivals and their performance is one of the areas of concern for us. Their performance is of utmost importance to us since we can judge how we have performed by comparing theirs with us. Our main rivals like Flipkart, eBay, Jabong, Amazon are all equally good money-spinners. This country has seen a surge in online retail traffic like never before where people love to buy and with the advent of e-commerce, many retailers have started selling online in order to cater to the ever-increasing online buyers. Every company involved in e-business is worried about its market share and explore ways to increase it at any cost. As far as the market share is concerned I am of the opinion that Flipkart which was leading in the e-business space has seen its market share decline to 18% from 20% for the year 2106-17, eBay, on the other hand, had a market share of 20%, Jabong with a market share of 15% has struggled to stay afloat whereas my company was on par with eBay and we hope to achieve more in the years ahead as far as market share is concerned.
Do you feel the market share of your competitors can overcome your market performance? If yes. Kindly clarify. How?
No doubt at all. There is ample scope for our competitors to overtake us and occupy the top slot and leave us behind. Our competitors have seen a surge in business through their online trading platform and buyers from all over India have used their websites for making purchases involving various categories of products. We had to struggle our way up last year and our sales dwindled for a period of six months. During that period our peers surged ahead with decent sales figures and market share.
Who are all your suppliers? Can you tell the supplier’s name?
Well, there is nothing secret about it but since you are insisting, I would like to reveal a few names for your sake.
1) HUL
2) ITC
3) Samsung
4) Intex
5) Voltas
6) Lenovo
7) Xiaomi
These are some of the leading suppliers and there are many more in our database but I have given you the names of a few of them.
Is there any business model developed by your company to attain its competitive position and better organizational performance in the e-business market? If yes kindly answer the upcoming questions.
Yes, we do have our own innovative business model in place and it will be implemented in the coming months.
What kind of business model has been adopted by your company in order to achieve their competitive position? Kindly explain?
Frankly speaking, our business model is simple yet competitive. We as a leading e-business player are going to target niche clients who have not explored the online market place yet and those who have ready cash at their disposal. In other words, clients who are shopping geeks and are willing to splurge on luxury items. By targeting those who haven’t exploited the nuances of online shopping and who are new to this concept, it will give us immense advantage and depth in the services we provide. In this way, we think we can enhance our competitive advantage to a significant extent. Another subtle plan is to advertise our services in social media and make aware of the prospective customers about the products we deliver online and the relative advantages of shopping with us.
Do you have any experience working with a business model before? If yes how did it look like? And when it was used
Yes, I remember we did have a comprehensive business model based on customer satisfaction and it was a couple of years ago when we were a new entrant in the e-business market place. Compared to what we have today our previous business model was experienced based. That time we placed emphasis on experienced buyers who were already buying online with companies like Amazon for example. But this time we are targeting youngsters and virgin buyers. Taking into account the business models of ours and our peers, our business model has worked very well and we are satisfied that we have achieved better results with our innovative model.
What is your opinion, are there any components missing in the existing business model when compared to your competitors?
To be precise I don’t think so, because we have covered all aspects of retail business and there is no scope for any error. We have a comprehensive business model that caters to all categories of buyers given their financial advantage. Our competitors are also having their own business model, which they have implemented along with us, and we have studied their business models and all this has given us enough leeway in the crowded e-business market. The business model of my company and our competitors are more or less similar provided we all are online trading companies targeting different categories of customers.
What is your opinion, are there any components that should not belong to the existing business model when compared to your competitors?
I will keep my fingers crossed. There is no need to slash any component from our existing business model since we have thoroughly gone through every minute detail with precision and all parameters have been tested. Eventually, a comprehensive business model is the ultimate way to achieve success and I can see my company’s morale has increased manifold after the existing business model has been implemented.
Do you think the business model developed by your firm is a useful tool to reach their stakeholders?
Yes of course. Our business model is our brand image and it has done everything to raise our company’s image. Our business model has been appreciated by our competitors and it has become a case study in management schools across the country. Our stakeholders are part of our family and they all have welcomed our new business model with much interest and have encouraged us to continue with the aggressive e-business model to increase our stakes amongst our stakeholders.
Do you have any suggestions to improve the service areas in order to tackle this competitive market?
Our service areas are well coordinated and there is no scarcity of excellent service professionals in our organization. We shall strive to improve in every field we operate and in order to achieve this; we shall lay emphasis on customer satisfaction as our topmost priority by providing just in time services and products from our warehouse located at strategic places so that there is hassle-free delivery to the customer’s doorstep. We have excellent warehouses at strategic locations and they are equipped with the latest hi-tech machinery manned by highly skilled personnel round the clock. Last but not least providing timely and quality service is our mantra and we aspire to do so in order to stay ahead of our peers and capture a major portion of market share from our competitors.
