Amazon.com in India and other fond thoughts - Bookends

Amazon.com in India and other fond thoughts

Samanth Subramanian - Thursday, March 19, 2009 11:41 AM

I'm excited about the upcoming official launch of Pustak, an online book retail service that has been in beta for about five months now. Right now, this space in India is occupied only by Indiaplaza, and while I've ordered books off that web site before, I've been disappointed roughly 50 per cent of the time, either by very late deliveries or by a message (sent a month after I placed my order) to the effect Indiaplaza was unable to procure the book I'd asked for.

A little competition is always good, and I'm hoping that Pustak will prove to be just that. Anand Rao, one of the people behind Pustak, was the erstwhile strategist for Amazon's long-term retail plans in India, and I hope he'll bring to Pustak the customer service and promptness in delivery that I love Amazon for. Its range -- over 12 million titles -- looks impressive for a web site that hasn't yet officially launched.

But best of all is that sweet, sweet phrase at the top of the web site: "Free international shipping." I'm intrigued by how that's viable, but it's something that spells the freedom to buy virtually any book you want, rather than just those titles that are gathering dust in warehouses in India. The home page right now advertises a book titled Color Atlas of Microsurgery in Endodontics, for instance. Now, I have no idea what in heaven's glorious name endodontics is, and I doubt that my local Crossword (shudder!) or Oxford (shudder!) bookstore will ever be able to enlighten me on that aspect. But should I ever want to discover more, I am pleased to know that an atlas of its microsurgery, and in color no less, is just within my reach. This kind of knowledge lets me sleep better at night.

Some weeks ago, I heard rumours that Amazon was regaining interest in launching operations in India -- essentially an Amazon.co.in web site -- after initially being deterred by the rules of foreign direct investment in retail in the country. I wasn't able to confirm that, although it appears that some hires have happened. But if it happens, it'll be even happier days for book-buyers, especially if Amazon can somehow work its large, beautiful network of second-hand book sellers into the supply chain to India.

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19 Comment

From Rockus

March 19, 2009 1:16 PM
You seem to have missed out on Flipkart.com. Of all the Indian online book shops this has to be best in terms of presentation and reliability. I have bought several books and they have promptly delivered it within the mentioned timeframe. Pustak Mahal and Indiaplaza has to go a long way in terms of web design. They may have a large collection, but they are neither very accessible nor intuitive as Flipkart. P.S: I have no business interest in Flipkart. :-)

From Manidipa

March 19, 2009 1:24 PM
Samanth, indiaplaza is far from alone. Until Pustak and Amazon launch here, I suspect you'll find better pickings at www.firstandsecond.com or www.landmarkonthenet.com. I've ordered off both websites in the past. Landmark is the more erratic in its communications (I've had them drop an order they couldn't service in absolute silence; only my weekly checks on order progress alerted me, but I'd have appreciated an email), but doesn't often disappoint with regard to delivery timings. Firstandsecond can be considerably slower at times, but are a better bet for titles harder to get hold off, though you may end up paying a premium for them.

What tends to be more of a problem is the range of titles in other Indian languages (admitting English as one of them), a common failing in bookshops online as well as on street corners. I'd be delighted if Amazon or Pustak can remedy that, and make it easy to find, say, 'Ha-ja-ba-ra-la' in the vernacular

From Samanth

March 19, 2009 3:18 PM
Rockus: Thanks for the pointer to Flipkart, which I just checked out and found very interesting, and I'm glad to hear that the service is better as well. You're right about Indiaplaza's web site design, which I find pretty rotten; it's another reason why I like what I've seen of Pustak thus far.

From Samanth

March 19, 2009 3:19 PM
Rockus: Thanks for the pointer to Flipkart, which I just checked out and found very interesting, and I'm glad to hear that the service is better as well. You're right about Indiaplaza's web site design, which I find pretty rotten; it's another reason why I like what I've seen of Pustak thus far.

From Samanth

March 19, 2009 3:22 PM
Manidipa: I had the same problem with LandmarkOnTheNet.com the one time I bought from them. FirstAndSecond.com thrilled me no end when I first discovered it and its vast list of books that are hard to find even in stores in the United States -- but the prices! I searched for a slim paperback once -- and not a very rare one at all -- and was quoted a price of Rs1,450 or something like that. That sort of put me off. That's a great point about vernacular books, though. Somehow the retail models for English books and for vernacular books haven't managed to intersect too greatly at all in India.

From Hemangini

March 19, 2009 10:55 PM
Rockus, Manidipa, Samanth, I am quite surprised with all your statements and comments about pustak, indiaplaza, landmarkonthenet, firstandsecond, etc. But yes I totally agree, Amazon is the market leader in online shopping specially their books collection, no one can think for a second to compete with them and indiaplaze, pustak & firstandsecond are far behind even to think about them. Having said about amazon, still there is one site in India since almost 2 years i.e. http://www.infibeam.com/Books/ - these guys launched their online shopping portal initially with automobiles (cars, bikes & rentals) and then step-by-step they started launching more stores like Mobiles, Cameras, Gifts. After few stores, they launched Books with over 30 millions books readily available. Believe me guys, I am not joking, their site really very very fast and so does their books search. They are very quick in processing the order and delivering @ your place as well. I know, because I ordered 4 books and they got it delivered before their estimated time always. These infibeam guys also partnered with futurebazaar.com books section and they are powering futurebazaar's books store. I just tried once with flipkart, firstandsecond and seriously they didn't match with what infibeam is offering even today as well.

From Sanjiv

March 19, 2009 11:47 PM
Can the author please remove this shameless self promotion by Hemangini?

From JD

March 20, 2009 9:47 AM
Online book selling is going in a right way. Amazon is a big name in this industry. In india i know Flipkart, Infibeam, Indiaplaza, A1Books, Rediff and many more of them. I have great experience of Infibeam & Rediff for their good online selling services. Its really nice to have these all online sellers to ease in buying books one needs.

From Samanth

March 20, 2009 11:48 AM
Sanjiv: Actually I'm sort of tickled pink that Hemangini even thinks this blog is a worthy venue to promote her web site! :-) Since we've identified the self-promotion as such, we'll leave it be, and readers can make their own judgements. Caveat Emptor and all that.

From Ravi Purohit

March 27, 2009 7:55 AM
Flipkart is indeed the best. Have been dealing with them for the past 5 months and the service is awesome. The only thing they lack is the "used" books section, when compared to Amazon.

From Ravi Purohit

March 27, 2009 8:01 AM
And, besides, I just checked Pustak.co.in. There pricing is completely out of whack. They are selling Snowball by Warren Buffet for over a thousand bucks, I bought the same for less than 900 bucks on Flipkart. Snowball was shipped to me in 2-3 business days from Bangalore to Mumbai, whereas Pustak.co.in indicates a delivery time of 3-4 weeks!

From Prashant

March 27, 2009 9:11 AM
The more the merrier for sure. Anybody here used a1books.co.in. They manage to get books from across the world, of course, with stiff pricing. But sometimes, one wonders how well these guys will do if they can't compete in price. Point in case. Referring to the above comment by Ravi Purohit, Snowball was 900/- at Flipkart. The same is sold by the Strand bookstore in Mumbai for 665/-. For all popular books, bookstores like Strand kills the competition. Only for niche and not very popular books, these websites might help. But can they survive on that alone?

From Dr. Supriyo

March 29, 2009 4:39 PM
ya I am glad such a discussion going on...I am a busy man workin hard through hospital and also preparing PG....I was always searchin for a good online shop...so far I had bought 4 books( some are text and MCQS) fro flipkart.com....and all the books are delivered astonishgly in time(wat I can't believe happening in place like INDIA).....though some books are costing more but I am satisfied to see their service....I have ordered some books from sapnaonline... but they r not showing such promtness...till the review written I don't know they have delivered or not....another thing I want to warn all people is that don't believe in sites like futurebazar, indiatimes....they r frauds...Indiatimes has received money from my debit card...but they say it will require 45 days to deliver a magazine( IC CHIP magazine).....can anybody believe it? I am so much angry with them that I may go to Ministry of Consumer Affairs website and also Consumer Court......plz don't buy anything from them...I am saying so coz I m a real sufferer... In conclusion sites like Flipkart should continue their good works...hats off to them

From Rohit

April 3, 2009 2:22 AM
flipkart.com has amazing pricing and even better delivery. For those who haven't tried it yet, I earnstly request them to do so before making any judgments. The shipped books are in extremely good condition and the shipping time is maximum 5 days. Also they seem to have the most number of payment delivery options. FLIPKART rocks !!!

From Jyoti

April 17, 2009 12:25 AM
I'm glad to know about flipkart, pustak and even infibeam - yes, more the merrier. Have used indiatimes in the past and found them consistent with their delivery. But haven't found their collection complete and with the option of purchasing through landmark or crossword through indiatimes, even though more titles are available, there are virtually no discounts offered. Would like everyone to steer clear of indiatoday who took my money, didn't ship my order and have spammed me relentlessly!

From Saurav Basu

April 21, 2009 1:39 PM
Indiaplaza beats the competition because of its big discount policy and frequent promotions, free gift certificates. But ever since they broke up with Manohar, it is impossible to find any Indian title from Oxford, orient longman, permanent black, mrml, mlbd, etc Flipkart is good but 5-10% discounts are no good when any decent bookshop like Midlands offers no question asked 20% off

From Vijay Sarma

April 22, 2009 11:37 AM
Will we ever see the Kindle being launched in India?

From Chetan

May 28, 2009 11:31 AM
Quiet informative blog. Really enjoyed reading. Thanks all for the information:-)

From Deepak

July 29, 2009 7:05 PM
Flipkart gotta be the best as far as my experience goes in buying books online (even better than buying from market).... cheap, reliable, fast and everything available....

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