India's 20 hottest e-commerce startups

Group buying sites, discounted fashion brand retailers and specialised online stores dominate the list of 20 hottest e-commerce start-ups, according to a study conducted by Dataquest.

The sites have been rated based on three broad parameters - business model, user experience, and traction. The business model score of a site was derived from estimated actual revenue, positioning, funding received, and their relative positioning within a category.

Online retail is picking up in India, after a false start about a decade ago. The business model of these companies is far more robust than the companies set up in the first phase ten years ago, says Dataquest.

Many of these sites have adapted models better suited to Indian needs eg: a combination of factors--pay on delivery, buy two and return one (for shoes), create your own designs for t-shirts etc, imported labels in garments, perfumes and gizmos.

The list of 20 hottest e-commerce sites is based on research carried out by Dataquest, in partnership with SapientNitro and JuxtConsult.

(Dataquest excluded companies in existence before 2007 as also single product companies like Amway, Dell, Shoppers Sstop. Also excluded were sites set up by media houses like Sify, Rediff, Indiatimes, Homeshop18. It also excluded travel, insurance, movies.)

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(The list is in alphabetical order)

20north.com

20north.com, launched in 2008, gets products from the US for Indian buyers with a guaranteed delivery to over 500 cities and towns in India.

Founded in 2008 with the vision of allowing Indian consumers to buy anything in the world from anywhere in India, 20North.com is one of India's leading online retailers.

Electronics and gadgets, sporting goods, home accessories, movies, books, shoes, apparel and thousands of other products are on offer.

99labels.com

99labels.com, is a members-only sales site for luxury fashion brands launched in 2010. 99labels offers fashion-wear, accessories, jewellery, lifestyle products and furniture.

99labels offers exclusivity and an extensive brand choice at cheaper rates.

Bindaasbargain

Targeted at the impulse buyers, Bindaasbargain follows 'One Deal A Day Concept' under which products are sold to retail consumers at wholesale prices and usually allows each user to buy 3 of each item.

An online store that operates within a brisk time frame, Bindaas Bargain offers a new deal every day. The products include gadgets, home theatres, luxury watches, smash games at cheap prices delivered to your doorstep.

Buytheprice.com

Set up in December 2009 electronic appliances website, Buytheprice.com, is based on the model that the more demand you create, the lesser you pay for the product.

Caratlane.com

Launched in 2008 online retailer of diamonds, Caratlane.com, combines the advantages of an offline and an online site - the trust enjoyed by a three-city brick and mortar diamond store that offers 5-15 per cent lower prices online.

Dealsandyou.com

A group buying portal, Dealsandyou.com, provides discounts on services and products. Set up by Harish Bahl and Group Buying Global AG in June 2010, the site has an outreach of over 1.5 million members.

The site has secured 'Series A' funding from Group Buying Global AG.

Fashionandyou.com

Fashionandyou.com is already transforming the online business space with innovative consumer driven approach, providing great bargains on the most sought after fashion and luxury brands of the world.

Just 11 months old, the site has secured funding of $8 million from Sequoia Capital. The site has 8 lakh members and gets about 3 lakh visitors and 2,500 orders every day.

It is also a member of Brand Alliance, formed by major private sales companies in Brazil, India, Russia and Switzerland.

Flipkart.com

Flipkart.com is among the top 3 in each of the research parameters: business model, user experience, and traction.

Launched by IIT-ians Sachin and Binny Bansal, Flipkart.com sells books at low prices with free shipping, and has over 6 million titles listed across all categories.

Indiangiftsportal.com

Headquartered in Lucknow, Indiangiftsportal.com delivers gifts across the world. The portal has a wide range of Indian handicrafts which are procured from regional manufacturers.

Infibeam.com

Ahmedabad-based Infibeam.com was launched in 2007 as a B2C online shopping portal for books, and has now expanded into handsets, consumer electronics, used cars and bike classifieds, etc.

In terms of business, it is among the top e-commerce sites in India and competes with the likes of eBay, Indiatimes Shopping, Rediff Shopping and Homeshop18.

Inkfruit.com

Launched by IIT Bombay alumni Kashyap Dalal and Navneet Rai as a customized t-shirt selling site, Inkfruit.com challenges its users with design contests from time-to-time. It is involved in buying and co-creation.

Besides t-shirts, buyers can also try other products like mugs, posters, and calendars. While the company raised a round of angel investment, it has to raise further funds to create marketing impact.

Magazinemall.in

Magazinemall.in entered the Dataquest list primarily because of its user experience score.

It provides online subscription of magazines at one place. Within a year of its inception it has entered into agreements with more than 37 publishing groups covering more than 200 publication titles across various categories.

Myntra.com

The customised gifts and merchandise site myntra.com, is a brainwave of 6 IIT-IIM graduates.

In 2009 Myntra stepped into the real e-commerce and retail arena for creating or buying customized and personalised merchandise such as t-shirts, mugs, calendars, watches, and notepads.

Myntra offers the option to pay cash on delivery of products, which is a bit hit. Myntra has raised 3 rounds of funding. And has over 4 lakh Facebook fans and serves over 1,000 orders per day.

Naaptol.com

Established in January 2008, Naaptol.com boasts to be the first comparison based social shopping portal in India which sells consumer electronic goods, laptops, mobiles, cameras, LCD TVs, and home appliances.

The website lets users find the latest deals and the lowest prices available in the market.

The site has over 50,000 offers listed across a wide range of categories and hopes to clock Rs 140 crore (Rs 1.4 billion) revenue this year.

Perfume2order

Perfume2order lets the consumer buy choicest perfume brands, sitting in the comfort of one's home in Jaisalmer or Guntur.

Promoted by entrepreneur and NRI, Pramod Raghav, perfume2order offers competitive choice of about 125 designer perfumes and 450 brands spanning over 3,500 fragrances.

Playgroundonline.com

Playgroundonline.com, a sports equipment and apparels site, is popular for FIFA and IPL merchandise.

Founded in 2008 customers can search any particular product by category, so it has focused on refining the search experience of the users.

SnapDeal

SnapDeal is the leader in the hottest category of ecommerce models: group buying. Founded by Jasper Infotech in 2010, a coupon player, SnapDeal sells everything from dining to beauty packages, health services to lifestyle products, holiday packages to movie tickets.

SnapDeal attracts 500,000 visitors everyday, and more than 600,000 subscribers to its daily deal newsletters. On the ground too, it has tie-ups with 50,000 merchants across 30 cities in India, and has also extended services to 5 overseas locations.

Set up in February 2010 the site has already attracted a round of angel and a round of institutional funding from NEA IndoUS Ventures.

Taggle

In the e-commerce space, dotted by young entrepreneurs, Taggle stands out in terms of management depth. Its co-founders have all come with decades of experience.

The company started in June 2010, has already got funding of $8.75 mn from Battery Ventures and Greylock Partners - one of the highest in the e-commerce space in India.

Timtara.com

Launched in April 2010 by Arindam Bose, Timtara.com is an online retail venture of InfoSecure Consulting that wants to change the shape of Internet retail.

It offers products across 15 different categories such as mobiles and accessories, consumer durables, home appliances, apparel, health and hygiene, entertainment, telebrands, and more.

Yebhi.com

Yebhi.com, started in 2009 as bigshoebazaar.com, sells shoes online and has taken a bottom-up approach in growing inventory.

Promoted by Kanpur-based shoe trader, Danish Ahmed, who hails from a shoe manufacturing family, Yebhi is one of the top Indian online retail sites by users and traffic.

Knowing that size is often a big issue with shoes, it encourages its users to buy 2 sizes and return one.