{"id":16128,"date":"2019-08-30T11:28:39","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T09:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/?p=16128"},"modified":"2019-08-30T11:51:40","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T09:51:40","slug":"the-best-time-to-startup-in-ecommerce-interview-ian-jindal-internet-retailing-gpec-summit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gpec.ro\/blog\/en\/the-best-time-to-startup-in-ecommerce-interview-ian-jindal-internet-retailing-gpec-summit","title":{"rendered":"It’s the best time to start-up in e-commerce. Interview with Ian Jindal (Internet Retailing) at GPeC SUMMIT May 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"IanWith a 30% growth in 2018, the Romanian e-commerce market is one of the fastest growing markets in Europe. At GPeC SUMMIT we talked to Ian Jindal<\/a>, the founder of Internet Retailing<\/a> magazine about the e-commerce trends in Europe and Romania in particular. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Ian has studied thousands of businesses and thinks the Romanian digital retail market has a few particularities. First, there is a small number of global players selling into Romania, while very few local players sell cross-border.<\/p>\n

What we\u2019ll see over the coming years is that more global players will deliver to and sell in Romania, so there will be an increase in competition, and some of the bigger Romanian players will start selling cross-border. It won\u2019t happen overnight, but, overall, we will see a growth towards a more cross-border marketplace.<\/p>\n

Check out the interview below for his insights on growing opportunities for start-ups and mid-sized companies in the following years.<\/p>\n

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GPeC: How would you gain marketshare if you were an e-commerce start-up in Romania?<\/strong><\/p>\n

No one just gets marketshare. If you\u2019re starting a business you don\u2019t wake up in the morning and think \u201cOh, I\u2019ve got no customers and no product, I want to be a retailer!\u201d. So, most are driven by an opportunity and there are two types of opportunities. One is product-focused, which says \u201cI want to.. there\u2019s a gap in the market, I\u2019ve got a great product I can offer\u201d, in which case you will sell that wherever you can: marketplace, own store, physical store. Other people are focused on customer, saying \u201cWhat does my customer need? Where does she go, what is she looking for?\u201d and then you service that customer. So, people who are starting a business will generally have either a product or customer expertise. But the best ones will have both.<\/p>\n

And that means you take your product, you connect with the customer wherever she is, her interests, her passions, her life, and that way you can sell to her relevant product.<\/p>\n

\"\"GPeC: One of the main challenges on the Romanian market is achieving operational excellence. What would you advice e-commerce entrepreneurs in this matter?<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you are expert and it makes a difference, do it yourself. If you\u2019re just copying other people\u2019s operational excellence, use a partner. So, an example being delivery, I physically can\u2019t drive to everywhere in Romania and deliver tomorrow, whereas people like DHL, the post office can. So, what we find is that the e-commerce platforms are getting better and cheaper, logistics: better, cheaper, delivery: better, cheaper, so, it\u2019s never been a better time to start! 4.10 So, use experts, or be better experts, but don\u2019t be in the middle.<\/p>\n

GPeC: What should they look at when choosing their partners?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I think a partner has to share the same understanding of service that you do. So, if you\u2019re offering next-day delivery, but there\u2019s no customer help-line, there\u2019s no service recovery, then you don\u2019t need that, because it\u2019s just giving you problems. So, I\u2019ll look first of all for:<\/p>\n