Evaluating “Omnichannel” readiness of leading eCommerce players in India

Last week, I received three pre-paid American Express gift cards each having a denomination of Rs 5,000. As many of us would understand, these cards are just like any other normal credit cards but come loaded with pre-denominated cash value. I wanted to buy an item online whose cost was Rs 17,000 and I thought it will be interesting to check which of the big ecommerce player support this. Moreover, I wanted to check if they are really “Omni channel” – that is if the information presented on one channel (website) is consistent with another (call center)

Scenario: Called call center of following merchants to check if I can make the transaction through an Amex gift card. Secondly, can I pay by multiple gift cards for the same transaction?

Time of calling the call centers : Friday between 10:30 pm to 11:15 pm

Overall Verdict:

• Surprising to see that 3 of the 4 leading ecommerce players rejected the transaction due to lack of knowledge. Infact :

1. All of them accept Amex gift cards because they are credit card (just that they are prepaid). None but one knew this!
2. There is a workaround to pay by multiple gift cards / credit cards for a single transaction – just convert them to the vendors own eVouchers/gift cards. All of them have of their own gift cards but again three of them did not suggest this

• Jabong leads this test due to its extremely knowledgeable call center employees with Amazon following it due to the global best practices it brings(click to call etc)
• A big gap exists between the information on the site versus shared with the call center employees. Opportunity exists to make FAQ much richer and contextual to Indian conditions. Moreover, call center employees should be trained to find solution especially when a customer is just one step away from purchase

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