Startup Banter: Success lies in working with many

For the discerning customer, who wants value for money, bringing online and offline retailers on a common platform holds the key for increasing the scope for ecommerce enablers, say Rahul Chowdhri, director at Helion Venture Partners, and Sulakshan Kumar, founder of price comparison website, Mysmartprice.

Rahul:In the US market alone, price comparison can generate around 20% of the revenue for ecommerce. There is no benchmark in the offline world, and being able to capture only 5% of the market will be a huge opportunity. Offline retailers might find it easier to work with smaller players as they get better margins and get to keep their consumers.

Sulakshan: The fact that we only focus on electronics is an opportunity and we have a 10m user base that can be leveraged later.

Rahul: For me, an intent to buy (of consumer) is more important than the number of categories offered by a price comparison portal.

Sulakshan: We are trying to make shopping smarter, and after reaching a critical user base, we are looking to re-educate them to convert them to other categories, which should happen in six-eight months.

Rahul: Success lies in working with multiple vendors.

Sulakshan: We would like to be the single app for searching multiple stores.