bpo

In what is known to be a slowly rising trend, Indian Business Process Outsourcing firms have a new vertical on their hands. Indian e-commerce companies are emerging as the new source of business for BPOs. This trend follows the footsteps of the USA based counterparts like Amazon & eBay, who have always outsourced a major part of their back-end work and transaction processing to Indian BPOs. Indian e-commerce players joining in would be a much needed boost to the Indian BPO industry which saw some of the high-end voice processes being moved to cheaper locations like Philippines.  This trend started off as an emergency some years ago. The online payment mechanism of the gifting company Ferns & Petals crashed. A small team of 15 people began calling up customers and selling them stuff over the phone. The crisis was averted but the firm decided to set up a call centre to avoid such situations in the future. However, much of the effort in setting up a call centre is being done in-house mainly because most of the e-commerce firms are still in the startup stage. It is very likely that when these businesses scale up, they would resort to outsourcing. Customer service initiatives by these firms will bring in more jobs and money to the BPO sector. E-commerce firms have realized the importance of talking to a customer making an online transaction. With many people from smaller cities and towns going online, the need for voice based support is growing. E-commerce firms have acknowledged the importance of calling back customers after they bought something online and helping them out with it. Companies have data with them which they leverage and make calls to customers reminding them of special offers and discounts during the festive season.   Naaptol.com exemplifies one such company. With a 1,000 seater call centre, this company has been operational for two years now and sends out about 7000 parcels every day. Making a call to customers has become a major part of their operations.  This move has been perpetuated by the growth of the Indian e-commerce market, which is about $10 Billion. Although this figure is low compared to the American equivalent which is projected to grow to $335 Billion in 2012, customers in India have begun to transact online more often thanks to the internet penetration and trust about online transactions. According to one study, the e-commerce market grew 47% to reach the present value. This industry has attracted over $200 Million over the last years.  As always, there are exceptions – Snapdeal had it the bad way. The pilot run failed miserably as the quality of execution was poor, which led them to have an in house call centre. But even they believe that as business grows, it is a necessity to have customer support centres.  E-commerce firms that want to focus on core operations are likely to outsource customer care, finance, accounts, etc. This opens up a new vista for BPOs. What do you think about this trend? Do you think it will work out well for BPOs? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency