www.firstandsecond.com -- Online bookstore -- an Indian experience

Krishnan Thiagarajan

AFTER the roaring success of www.amazon.com as the world's biggest online bookstore, some brick and mortar bookstore giants such as Barnes and Noble have been forced to rework their strategies around the Web.

Over the last couple of years, online bookstore markets in the US and Europe have matured considerably.

So far, the absence of similar `exclusive' online bookstores was acutely felt by book-lovers in India. Among the few `exclusive' websites offering this service in India is www.firstandsecond.com

With a collection of more than a million titles, this site claims to be India's biggest book stop. For book-lovers, professionals and students alike, the site lives upto its billing offering them ``a huge collection, innovative payment options, direct shipping and a host of value added e-mail services.'' Site layout and review The entire website is primarily focussed on three modules -- `browse subjects', `computer science' and `general reading'. The `browse subjects' module, which provides a focussed search trail of the site is broadly categorised into 13 subject-heads. These subjects range from agriculture and animal science, architecture, business and economics to mathematics and science, and medicine. Each of these subject heads is sub-divided into topics for further reference. For instance, `business and economics' includes such topics as accounting, finance, marketing, hospitality, economics, management and tourism and travel management.

In addition to the browse subjects module, the creation of separate modules on `computer science' and general reading' lends greater focus from a user's perspective. These two sections are equally comprehensive and are likely to elicit good response from browsers interested in these two areas.

Modelled largely on the www.amazon.com, the most powerful feature of this site is `book search'. The browser is offered the option of searching this entire site using author/title, subject or even an ISBN (international standard book number' -- a 10-digit identification system which enables booksellers and libraries to classify and differentiate among books).

From a test-check on the site for books ranging from economics, finance, management, literature, history and psychology, using the title or the author yielded fairly good results. However, being a relatively new site, its book review and editorial coverage needs to be beefed up to attract new users.

Apart from an efficient search and retrieval interface, the site offers ease and security of payments for purchase of books. Though the site is managed from New Delhi, the shipping arrangements for delivery of books covers almost all of India. It offers both standard and priority shipping for delivery of books anywhere in India. In the former, the rates are lower, but the buyer does not have an online tracking facility. However, in priority shipping, the site offers this facility to closely monitor the movement of the package to the buyer.

Similarly, the payment for purchases can be made either using a cheque/bank draft or credit cards. To promote the use of credit-cards, the site offers a `safe shopping guarantee' protection for the use of cards.

The other useful features of this site are eNotices which allows customers to receive e-mails on new books on their favourite subjects. Similarly, users can also use the iWish service to submit the list of books which can be procured by the site manager in future.

Site ideas

With over a million books, this site is virtual treasure-trove. However, unless the site-manager can create the necessary positive feedback loop for regular users -- through incentives to participate in online book reviews and discussions -- new user comfort level may not increase.

Any novel scheme which furthers this objective is badly needed, if the full utility of this site has to be capitalised on. Although the site claims that most books are priced at least 20 per cent less than the list price, test-checks revealed them to be about 7.5 per cent for the less expensive books though the discounts were considerably higher for pricey editions. It remains to be seen if the 7.5 per cent discount will be adequate to raise purchase volumes for users across India. From the site manager's perspective, a study, six-nine months down the line on this aspect may prove interesting.

Sites to watch

www.smartmoney.com; http://finance.yahoo.com; www.quicken.com: These are good personal finance websites and worth monitoring to keep up-to-date on developments on the personal finance front in the overseas market.

www.e1947.com: This site aims to create a virtual community of service providers, freelancers, job aspirants, venture capitalists and others interested in sharing information.

www.bankonline.com;www.onlinebankingreport.com: With online banking expected to soon become popular in India, these websites provide information on the financial products offered worldwide and on the latest trends in the online banking industry, respectively.