Book: When it Clicks: Field Notes from India’s E-Commerce Revolution
Author: Amitabh Pandey
Publisher: Pan Mcmillan India
Pages: 156; Price: Rs 299
In the 21st century one cannot imagine a time when there was no electronic transaction or e-commerce in India. But just over a decade and a half ago “persuading an Indian customer to buy and pay online” was a considerable challenge, says Amitabh Pandey, who led the digitization of Indian Railways’ ticketing system.
In his new book When it Clicks: Field Notes from India’s E-Commerce Revolution, Pandey reminisces about his role in the creation of the website (www.irctc.co.in) for Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) that changed the face of rail ticketing in India
The story begins with the first sarkari foray into e-commerce and goes on to explore how contemporary private players such as MakeMyTrip, Yatra, and others, are performing today. Pandey quit academics to join the Railways where he had an “exciting, frustrating and ultimately rewarding” ‘journey’. He takes the readers into the deep corridors of the Railways administrative office where getting a project passed and explaining its efficacy to unrelenting babus is a herculean task. However, he did not let that derail his efforts and managed to conquer hearts over numerous “cups of tea and samosas”.
The website was launched in August 2002 and witnessed a ten-fold increase in just a few months. “Ticket sales grew from 3,526 in August 2002, to 32,348 in December 2002…” With launch of e-ticketing one could not only avoid long queues at Rail booking counters but also “official human interaction with sarkari denizens…a time consuming, expensive, frustrating, and all too often, degrading experience”, says the former Economics professor. Not many would tend to disagree on this.
Pandey says he took the plunge despite warnings that “the Indian consumer was not ready to pay on line and that…, the project was doomed to fail.” On the contrary, the sale of reserved railway tickets on line turned out to be a “runaway success” and boosted e-commerce in India.
The author says “we grew rapidly in an environment where e-commerce was unknown and online payments regarded with profound suspicion.” Besides internet dial-up connections were quite unstable at that time and very few people had access to the internet.
“Average daily ticket sales climbed from 819 in 2002-03 to 675,745 in 201-18, which accounts for the bulk of reserved ticket sales (between 60 per cent and 70 per cent)…” Pandey’s role in the creation of the website was remarkable given the fact that he was not a software engineer nor had he touched a computer till the “comparatively ripe age of thirty-eight”.
However, he says, technically it was no rocket science. The technology was available and all that had to be done was the development and integration part of it. The process took just seven months. Though Rediff.com, Sify.com and Bazee.com were among the pioneers of Indian e-commerce, it was only after the Railways provided an e-platform that e-commerce got the much needed boost, concludes Pandey. Simple and lucid, the author’s first non-fiction book makes for an engaging read.