Rise of a new business model: Online to Offline (O2O)…Is this the future of Retail?

online 2 offline, retail, myntra, amazon, indian retail, imforstyle, aanchal prabhakar jagga

We all know in the recent past, traditional models have been disrupted over and over. In India, brick-n-mortar has been the consumer favourite from times immemorial…but then in the past couple of years came the online e-commerce boom boom!!! And now the e-com giants are again tweaking their strategies to give their customers best of both worlds. Wherein you can search, see, share, engage, understand, compare, pay for your finds as per your comfort and convenience – ‘ONLINE’ and touch, feel, experience, acquire your purchase- ‘OFFLINE’.

What is O2O:

A quick google search says “O2O commerce refers to a general Online-to-Offline business model that utilizes web-based markets and tools to attract the digital shopper to participate in in-person retail consumption.”

Early thoughts on O2O  (Online to Offline) have been diverse-from being stated as  “our industry’s stupidest acronym” (by Tech in Asia) to  “the trillion dollar opportunity” (by Techcrunch). However, with the  rise in trust for this model the future looks promising with Internet of Things (IOT) doing its play!

online 2 offline, retail, myntra, amazon, indian retail, imforstyle, aanchal prabhakar jaggaonline 2 offline, retail, myntra, amazon, indian retail, imforstyle, aanchal prabhakar jagga

So is it to say that we are again wanting to lean-on our preferred ‘in-shop’ purchase mode? 

Trending in China, the O2O business model is definitely growing in India… with many startups drawing mobile users to physical stores, Groupon, Uber, Paytm’s next big thingAmazon announcing hundreds of book stores and the Economic Times reporting  ‘Myntra to open 1st offline store’ the trend of Online 2 Offline seems to have taken wings.

Will it be a win-win model or Is India just following the footsteps of China yet gain? 

Share what you feel…

Love, Aanchal

3 thoughts on “Rise of a new business model: Online to Offline (O2O)…Is this the future of Retail?

  1. Wow amazing article, i really appreciated thanks for sharing this very good article …its a marvellous information for who is blogging.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.