Scared to shop online using your debit or credit card? You don't have to be any more

By Tapasya Mitra Mazumder

mjunction services limited, India's largest eCommerce company, announced the launch of http://www.straightline.in/ - their debut business to consumer (B2C) initiative - on October 13. The website developed by mjunction in partnership with Cognizant and IBM was launched by PC Sorcar Jr at the Tata Steel Centre.

Offering an enormous product range and trusted online shopping experience, the website aims to compete with global websites like ebay and amazon on sheer credibility, which is analogous to Tata Steel, with their customers.

Among the other panelists present were managing director, mjunction, Viresh Oberoi; VP of Cognizant, S Venkatramani; Nitin Singhal, country manager, IBM Software Group; head of technology, mjunction, Ankur Basu and head of B2C initiative K Senthilnathan.

Speaking on the ocassion, Oberoi called the B2C initiative a new journey which will bear promising results. He led the audience through a slide presentation where he talked about mjunction's vision to have a net worth of $10 billion by 2012-2013. It was started back in 2001. Senthilnathan then briefed about www.straightline.in.

Senthilnathan emphasised that the entire software, hardware, shipping, reports and analysis would be taken care of by straightline to provide maximum consumer convenience. "It will be a clutter free portal devoid of excess advertisements that do nothing more than simply distract consumers," he said. The search functions, he says, have been created using advance technology to provide for easy intuitive search. One can even create one's own shopping list basing on their preference of brands and products and mail it to friends and relatives.

There is a comprehensive product comparison facility with detailed product description which helps the user to make the right choice without future disappointments. Through user reviews and ratings, ease of navigations and issues of seller services can be addressed. There is also a cart mile program where the customer will be rewarded with loyalty points for every purchase. The feature real time information will provide users with live information on the progress of their purchase.

"I see a lot of potential in the youth of today becoming bona fide online shoppers. It has a simple user interface which will convenience online shoppers," said Venkatramani on his impression about the website. Singhal outlined the amazing concept of straightline and agreed with Venkatramani on it providing easy-to-use interface. "The site is also secure," he reasoned.
"We encountered the challenging task of living up to our promises. The interface will be secure and seamless," said Basu on a round up.

When asked about plans to include travel, the largest revenue generator, in their website, Oberoi opined, "We might not have included travel today at such a nascent stage of straightline but we might in the near future. We aim at taking straightline to the level of coaljunction and metaljunction with new innovations," concluded Oberoi.

Photo: Goutam Karmakar