Online Marketplace, the Entire Marketing Strategy of Kaymu Bangladesh
Through internet or others computer networks products or services are bought and sold which is widely known as E-commerce. E-commerce improves the efficiency and effectiveness of business, government and not profit organization agencies. Online transactions can effectively save a lot of time and money which often is the main reason for consumers to shop online rather than purchasing from a physical marketplace.
As the people in Bangladesh are not much aware or educated, they still cannot be the large market worldwide. Previously, people would use computers for completing educational assignments or used for governmental or private projects. Just recently, the online market boomed and now more and more people are shopping online.
For more than a year Kaymu is the leading online marketplace for emerging markets. Kaymu replicates the e-Bay model (online marketplace where buyers meet sellers) in emerging countries where they do not have e-Bay. Kaymu is a venture of Rocket Internet which is one of the world’s largest e-commerce focused venture capital firms and startup incubators. The company’s business model is to identify successful internet companies from other countries (often the United States) and replicate them in predominantly emerging markets. Kaymu operates an online marketplace enabling end customers to buy and sell basically anything online. Kaymu’s successful peer model is eBay which is the leading C2C online marketplace in the world.
Objective:
- To learn about the current operations and business model of Kaymu Bangladesh
- To study the market prospects of Kaymu in Bangladesh and evaluate in terms of competitor websites like
- E-commerce websites, social media, online customers, etc.
- To learn how the business model of Kaymu can be a viable and sustainable e-commerce business.
History
The mother company of kaymu.com.bd is the Rocket Internet. This is world’s largest Internet incubator which was found in Berlin, Germany in 2007 by the Samwer Brothers (it is headquartered in Berlin).The Rocket team has been building online companies since 1999 and has created over 100 market leading companies in 50+ countries.
The founders gained visibility through successful investments in Groupon, eBay, Facebook, Linkedin, Zynga, etc (either through early direct investment or through taken over target companies).
The company’s business model is to identify successful internet ventures from other countries (often the United States) and replicate them in predominantly emerging markets. In 2013, Rocket Internet raised close to $2 billion from investors including Russian billionaire Leonard Blavatnik, Swedish investment firm Kinnevik, and J.P. Morgan.
This is in addition to nearly $2 billion that Rocket raised in 2012. The firm, tightly controlled by its founders, is known for its aggressive approach in managing its invested ventures. It prides itself for the speed of execution and ability to hire exceptional talent.
Rocket Internet operates in more than 50 countries and has more than 75 ventures in their portfolio such as the e-commerce retail companies Zalando in Germany, Jabong.com in India, Lamoda.ru in Russia, ZALORA in South East Asia, The Iconic and Zanui in Australia, the global food delivery platform foodpanda/hellofood, the global property listings site Lamudi, Carmudi, etc. Rocket Internet’s various companies created more than 20.000 jobs worldwide. Previous ventures include, for example, Citydeal, which was purchased by Groupon for US$126M, which profited by US$90M.
Rocket Internet launched 4 companies in Bangladesh last year- Carmudi, Lamudi, Foodpanda and Kaymu. Kaymu as mentioned before, replicates the eBay model in emerging markets and since Bangladesh is an emerging market where eBay has not been introduced yet, Kaymu decided to come in!
Products/ Services Offered by Kaymu
Kaymu is, first and foremost, an online marketplace of its kind. One can browse through categories like – Clothing, Footwear, Jewelry, Watches, Mobiles & Accessories, Jewelry, Books & Media, Electronics, Footwear, Watches, Mobiles, Computers, Electronics, Home & Living, Health &Beauty, Toys, Kids & Babies, Books & Media, Sports & Outdoors and so on to see all the products under these.
When a customer sees something they like, they click on the product and view the details that include pictures, descriptions, payment options and shipping information.
Customers also can search for their desired products by using keywords in no time. Kaymu provides advanced search option in which Customers can narrow down their search and shop comfortably.
Just as one can buy almost anything on eBay, one can sell almost everything, too. Using a simple listing process, one can put all of the junk in their basement up for sale. People can sell old laptops, clothing, furniture, etc.
But if one wants to sell as a business, they need to enlist in Kaymu as a Kaymu seller via which they get a Kaymu e-store. When one sells an item on Kaymu, they pay a certain percentage of the final sale price to Kaymu.
There is no listing fee except this commission on sales and for people selling personal products, there is no commission either. Kaymu operates an online marketplace enabling end customers to buy and sell basically anything online.
The Leading Online Marketplace: kaymy.com.bd
Around 2013 on October Kaymu Bangladesh Ltd. started its journey in Bangladesh. And on November 2013 it was launched. As we know that Kaymu is the leading online marketplace for emerging markets. It sells everything, starting from books, to mobiles & tablets, fashion wear and accessories, electronics, jewelry, home and living products, kid’s products and many more. It is the one stop solution for customers to find their products online. It is the fastest growing online shopping platform in the emerging markets, with over million customers. Kaymu operates an online marketplace enabling end customers to buy and sell basically anything online.
Organizational Structure/ Operational Network Organogram Kaymu has different departments to run its operations in Bangladesh. Right now Kaymu has 6 different departments which are also called teams.
- Sales
- Human Resource
- Customer Support
- Finance
- Public Relation
- Seller Management
Description of kaymu’s Workflow
Bangladesh is producing new sellers every day. The Sales activity of Kaymu Bangladesh starts with lead generating of the new potential sellers of different products. After sourcing the leads, Sales intern tries his/her best to convince them to sell on Kaymu, explaining them the features of the website, of the company itself. I would like to mention here, that it is not an easy task to do at all.
After the sellers come on board to sell their products, Kaymu Sales Intern helps them to open their personalized e-store on Kaymu website. To register on Kaymu Website, Sellers need to fill up a form with their necessary details.
After they register their e-store on Kaymu website, the launch page for them looks like this in the following:
This is viewed when the sellers login to Kaymu’s websites. From here, they can add their products in their e-store. They also can view their pending orders from this page.
To purchase any product from Kaymu website, buyers need to open an account too. It is the same account as the sellers. When buyers open an account, they not only can buy from the website, but also can list their own products for selling. So after creating an account, if the buyer buys and products from Kaymu, they will get a text message and verification email. They need to verify the order. After they verify their order, a notification will go to the Seller, from whom they want to buy the product. Then the seller will contact the buyer and set a delivery time and deliver his/her order. In the meanwhile Kaymu Customer Support is also contacts the Buyer to check the status of their order. If the buyer does not get their ordered products in a briefed time period, then the Seller Management team contacts the sellers and urges him to deliver the order as soon as possible.
After the delivery of the product, Kaymu Customer Support contacts the buyer to get the feedback on the order delivered. Buyers pay for their orders via cash on delivery. Sometimes, a few sellers demand prepayment when they get orders of very expensive products.
Kaymu Sellers also can contact Kaymu Sales team or the Seller Management team or the Portfolio Management team regarding any query. It is the duty of Seller management team and Portfolio Management team to provide any assistance required for the sellers. From the very beginning of the buy and sell process, Kaymu’s different departments are working to provide any support to the sellers and the buyers. This is the main reason why they are becoming so successful.
Marketing Strategy
Bangladesh is one of the top 10 countries with the largest population where emerging trends are headed for smartphones and online transactions. The young people these days possess entrepreneurial skills and wish to make progress. The e-commerce industry in Bangladesh is experiencing new horizons of success and innovation as more and more online trading platforms are emerging on daily basis.
A look into kaymu’s unveiling of the large market potential would tell us that Kaymu catered to an important need. Kaymu not only caters to big companies but also to individuals, giving their businesses a chance to grow by providing a medium.
To get maximum people’s attraction, the main strategy kaymu follows is – –
- Giving Advertisements Online: The mother company Rocket Internet makes different rules for its different ventures. So it did for kaymu; that no offline marketing is allowed. Which means as much as we can promote kaymu but only online. For example: giving ads on other websites is one of the main strategy to grab maximum attention.
- Using Youtube As a Large Media: Not only still pictures, kaymu also promotes itself on youtube, one of the large platform where not only in Bangladesh but also from all over the world can see what kaymu Bangladesh can do.
- Blogs/Write-ups: kaymu’s social media does a great job by posting minimum 10 blogs on kaymu.com.bd every month so that people can also read about it.
- Targeting Celebrities: Kaymu recently signed an agreement with Bangladesh national cricket team opening batsman Tamim Iqbal. As per the deal, Tamim will use Kaymu’s sticker on his bat. The agreement was signed at Kaymu’s Banani office in the city. Kaymu Bangladesh chief executive George Wolf and chief public relation officer Sayeda Umaela Akter were present at the signing ceremony.
- Collaborating With Prothom Alo Digital: Kaymu.com.bd, one of the online shopping communities in Bangladesh, has signed an agreement with ProthomAlo Digital (a concern of Mediastar Limited) to feature ‘Prothoma’ Store at Kaymu.com.bd. By giving Kaymu users all across Bangladesh access to such a great assortment of books on the Prothoma e-store, both companies are venturing into unchartered territory.
- Facebook Promotion: kaymu has an official facebook page with more than 40 lacs likes. Time to time giving posts about new products in kaymu’s website makes the visitors crazier to love the service.
- Targeting Different Occasions: On this year’s Pahela Baishakh, 1422; kaymu arranged a large program with its employees along with successful sellers with lots of funfair and enthusiasm. So that these sellers can go home thinking they are with a big organization which not only think about the profits but also gives good attention to their precious clients. Thus a corporate relationship is made. (http://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/kaymu-bangladesh-welcomes-pohelabaishakh-1422-77564).
These are the main strategies of kaymu. Apart from that, thinking about the marketing theory/ marketing mix, the 4 p’s – Product, Price, Promotion, Place; kaymu covers all of them pretty nicely. Kaymu sells all kind of products starting from clothing, footwear, jewelry, home and living appliances, health and beauty products, electronics, food and beverage and so on. By these we get the clear idea that kaymu doesn’t only represent one or two kind of products but a large variety of them.
In kaymu.com.bd there are products that cost 1000 tk. to more than 10,000 tk. So that anyone can afford to shop online. Though kaymu’s policy does not give the freedom to give any television ads but so far whatever kaymu did was enough to make around 40 lacs people to know that kaymu exists.
From all over Bangladesh anyone can give the order for any product through kaymu’s website. So place is not al all a big issue. Also kaymu provides a very organized and trustworthy delivery service controlled by daraz, another venture of Rocket Internet.
How Kaymu Functions
e-bay model was first introduced in Bangladesh by kaymu being the first online marketplace. One can browse through categories like Clothing, Footwear, Jewelry, Watches, Mobiles & Accessories, & Accessories, Jewelry, Books & Media, Electronics, Footwear, Watches, Mobiles, Computers, Electronics, Home & Living, Health & Beauty, Toys, Kids & Babies, Books & Media, Sports & Outdoors and various other categories. When a customer sees something they like, they click on the product and view the details that include pictures, descriptions, payment options and shipping information. If the customers have a pretty good idea of what they are looking for, they can search for it using simple keywords, such as “Ladies Watch,” or using more advanced search criteria that helps narrow the results, such as item location, brand and price range.
Products are usually sold at fixed prices. The option of selling at auctioned prices is also available, but so far no seller has chosen to sell their products by auctioning. So when a customer sees what s/he likes, they place an online order, they buy it, pay for it and wait for it to arrive at their doors! If they reside in Dhaka, they usually get home deliveries and many sellers provide cash on delivery even outside Dhaka (meaning customers can pay after receiving the product).
Customers can pay for an item on Kaymu using variety of methods, including cash on delivery (this is available only in few cities at the seller’s discretion), bank deposit, bkash or other mobile banking methods, etc. Unfortunately, online payment gateway has not yet been installed and customers can not yet make online payments to buy products from Kaymu thereby making it difficult for people outside Bangladesh to purchase products.
Just as one can buy almost anything on e-bay, one can sell almost anything, too. Using a simple listing process, one can put all of the junk in their basement up for sale. People can sell old laptops, clothing, furniture, etc. But if one wants to sell as a business, they need to enlist in Kaymu as a Kaymu seller via which they get a Kaymu e-store. When one sells an item on Kaymu, they pay a certain percentage of the final sale price to Kaymu. There is no listing fee except this commission on sales and for people selling personal products, there is no commission either.
Once anybody registers (for free) with Kaymu, he/she can access all of their Kaymu buying and selling activities in a single location called “My Accounts”
The Buying and Selling Process of Kaymu
Unlike other websites, kaymu provides very flexible and user friendly process for both the sellers and buyers to get registered in the website. Bothe the processes are describes below:
The Buying Process:
To purchase something, one must have an account in Kaymu. One simply needs to register by providing some basic information (name, address, birth date, phone number etc.). With that account they can place orders on Kaymu. Once a buyer likes something, he/she places an order online by clicking on ‘buy now’.
After this, a text message/email is sent with a code to validate the purchase. If the buyer validates it, the seller can see it when they login to their account and then the seller is responsible for calling up the buyer, confirming the order, answering to any necessary queries, and deliver the product. If the buyer is unable to validate the order, a customer service agent from Kaymu calls the buyer up and validates the order.
And then the seller’s process starts as mentioned above. This process generally takes about 3-5 working days and the buyer usually gets it by then unless there are other issues. Often, pre-payment is necessary and then the delivery time becomes higher as the seller would not dispatch the product without the buyer paying first.
Most sellers provide cash on delivery to buyers residing in Dhaka, meaning the buyers can pay after the product reaches their home. Some sellers provide cash on delivery facility outside Dhaka as well, but not most sellers.
Therefore, most customers outside Dhaka need to prepay via bank account or mobile banking.
Following is a flow chart showing how a customer can buy through kaymu’s website:
After verifying the seller will get an email from kaymu regarding the order and accordingly he/she will deliver the product to the customer.
The Selling Process:
To sell through Kaymu, one needs to have an account as well. Once an order is placed it is showed in the account where details of the buyer is given with the product details (the one that the buyer chose). The job of the seller is to contact the buyer, confirm the order, answer queries of the buyer (if any) and deliver the product. The seller pays Kaymu a percentage commission on the final sale amount. The commission payment is made after a month. The advantages sellers get are the fact that the products stay with them so they are not stuck with stock that hasn’t sold. Also, they get free marketing via Kaymu.
To get started with Kaymu as a seller, one needs to sign a simple contract paper that enlists them as a Kaymu seller. Afterwards, they need to send their product listings along with product details and images so that it can be uploaded in their e-store. Sellers can upload from the front end as well by login into their accounts.
Kaymu’s Interaction with Sellers and Buyers
The way Kaymu works is pretty straight forward. Vendors can register on our site, upload pictures, description and price of the product they would like to sell.
Similarly, buyers are able to open their own accounts and browse through the site to find the products they would like to purchase. Once a buyer has selected a product they want to buy from a particular vendor, Kaymu confirms the order, and the vendor dispatches it to the buyer.
Now there are two alternatives through which the shipment takes place. A vendor may have their own shipping company or could avail the services from our shipping company called Kaymu Shipping.
We emphasize on cash on delivery shipping, so that the buyer can ensure that the product they intended to purchase is the same one that was delivered to them and in proper condition. There are no fees incurred by vendors to host products on our platform but only after a successful transaction has been made that Kaymu takes a small commission.
Now there is a process through which it all happens. On the next page is a flowchart showing the full system of kaymu starting from finding the sellers till helping them in every way also what kaymu does for the customers.
Analysis
I have tried to analyze Kaymu Bangladesh’s market prospects and competitors of in terms of competition, challenges faced, customer base and overall industry analysis. The financial analysis of Kaymu was not properly done because of lack of financial information due to confidentiality issues.
Overview of E-commerce Industry in Bangladesh
The internet revolution has already begun in Bangladesh, and the Bangladeshi people are also using the internet with more authority day by day. The most popular form of using internet is Facebook. Bangladeshi people have becoming so addictive to this social media site, according to reports, right now, every single minute One Bangladeshi is opening a facebook account. Based on these, the small and medium sized enterprises started selling their products through websites. Then different websites, classifieds came to enhance the use of e-commerce. The e-commerce industry of Bangladesh is increasing exponentially. A huge number of e-commerce websites have emerged in last two years.
Major Players of E-commerce
Kaymu is an online marketplace where sellers sell their products to buyers through Kaymu website. Kaymu can be compared to physical marketplace, only difference is, in a physical marketplace, you have to visit different shops located at different floors for different products and in Kaymu website, you can visit different e-stores for different products with a click of the mouse. Kaymu has some competitors who are also trying hard to grab the opportunity to get settled in this emerging market. OLX, Ekhanei, ClickBD, Akhoni, Bikroy, Rokomari are some of the other popular e-commerce websites who are also becoming popular.
OLX is an Indian online classified who are operating in Bangladesh since early 2013. OLX website can be used through internet and mobile applications. OLX allows its users to post free advertisements to sell their products. They are looking forward to getting revenues by streaming advertisements on their website.
Ekhanei is a free classified online advertisement website. Ekhanei is venture of Grameenphone Limited which is providing a mobile based online buying and selling platform. They are also generating revenue through advertisement streaming.
Bikroy is another online classified which is also providing a platform for the Bangladeshi people to buy and sell products for free. This is right now the most popular platform for the Bangaldeshi people. ClickBD is the first e-commerce website of Bangladesh which started its journey in 2005. ClickBD is mostly used as a second hand product selling website. ClickBD now has 25 online stores along with its classified to provide its customers a wide range of product choice.
Comparison with the Competitors
If you try to compare between Kaymu and the other e-commerce website, first of all, you will find out that, most of the popular e-commerce websites are actually classified, whereas Kaymu is an online marketplace.
In the classifieds, when the sellers post advertisement, they are not organized, but when someone is posting their advertisement on Kaymu, their advertisements are showing in one e-store under the seller’s name. If a buyer visits a product of a seller, from that very page he/she can see all the products from that seller.
Results and Discussions
As a venture of a hugely successful multinational company, Kaymu Bangladesh has been enjoying some added advantage over its competitors and at the same time it is also facing some challenges in operating their company in Bangladesh. The main problem occurs, most of the targets and strategies are made from Germany. As Bangladesh is quite different from a lot of countries, sometimes it becomes very difficult for the Bangladeshi employees to reach their targets.
Kaymu is also facing challenges in delivering the orders. Kaymu does not have dependable delivery partner except AIG express. Sometimes when the orders are a lot, then the buyers need to wait for the delivery of their products.
The stock of the products depend on the sellers, So if stock for one product from seller is out then Kaymu itself cannot restock the products by itself. Kaymu Business model does not support having product inventory so they do not have any warehouse to inventory the products of the sellers of their website.
Recommendation
To overcome the obstacles Kaymu need to change a few of their strategies a bit. The targets should not be determined from Germany as they do not have the proper market knowledge of Bangladeshi market.
Kaymu is expanding rapidly, it is high time that they open up service centers in other major districts of Bangladesh.
Some customers have complaint about the sellers because they don’t respond on time. So, since the seller management team is responsible for the sellers; team should be more aware of that.
Another complaint Kaymu gets most of the time is regarding the delivery service which is sometime works very slowly. Kaymu should open up their own delivery service.
Sometimes either seller’s or buyer’s contact number/ address changes. In that case update sellers and customers information as soon as possible is very necessary. But for some reasons Kaymu employee doesn’t change them on time. Whereas it should be done right after they know about the change.
Since it’s just been 1 and a half year that the company started, many data are still not properly been documented.
Training helps an individual to improve him/her for giving better output. I believe, it is necessary for Kaymu Bangladesh Ltd. to provide training every month for the betterment of the company.
Conclusion
Kaymu Bangladesh is one of the largest e-commerce website in Bangladesh and it has earned the reputation of top online marketplace of Bangladesh. It is constant in detection of business innovation and improvement. While working with the Sales Team, Kaymu Bangladesh, I experienced the work process of multinational company is a big achievement for me. Sales activities along with other activities has developed my practical knowledge and provided me an amazing experience.
