Assignment 1

Project Proposal
A report submitted to
Prof. Subhash Jha

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the course

Market Research

By
Nagashruthi Chakilam (Roll: 155037)
Nitish Kumar (Roll: 155081)
Chandan Sagar (Roll: 155038)
Mehul Popat (Roll: 155068)
Priyank Verma (Roll: 155098)
Section B
Group B3
On
29-02-2016

Industry Introduction:
E-Commerce as the name suggests is the trading of products and services online through
internet. World Wide Web is the greatest revolution of modern era, which has made possible the
commercial transactions through internet. The growing penetration of internet and mobile phones
has changed the business scenario completely. E-commerce has taken a significant stride in
countries like US and China, but its still in a nascent stage in India. Asia Pacific region is the
next biggest prospect for this booming industry as it is expected to contribute up to 38% of
global market by 2018. Following are the reasons which make this industry very attractive:

Availability of wider range of products than the brick and mortar shop
No location barrier, as one can sell to anybody in India where the product can be shipped
Products are available at much discounted rate online
Convenient to buy products as one doesnt have to travel to the shop

India is heading towards the Worlds second largest smartphone user base. A large percentage of
users are connected with broadband internet and users of 3g/4g internet are burgeoning every
day. This makes India very attractive for E-commerce business. Some of the largest contributors
of e-commerce industry in India are Travel industry, e-tailing, online recharge etc.
Company Background
Myntra is an Indian e-commerce company of fashion and casual lifestyle products,
headquartered in Bangalore. It started as selling of on-demand personalization of gift items, but
later shifted its focus to apparel business. In 2011 Myntra tied up with various popular brands to
retail a wide range of latest merchandise from these brands and moved away from
personalization business. In May, 2014 Myntra merged with Flipkart to compete against Amazon
which entered the Indian market in June 2013. Myntra also took a major decision in 2015 to
move from web based platform to mobile only.
Problem statement
Which type of discounts do consumers prefer on Myntra?
There are numerous kinds of discount models which company gives to woo the consumers like
Dollar or Percentage Off, BOGO (Buy One Get One), Quantity Discounts, Rebates, Free
Shipping, Cashback, discount after minimum amount of purchase, credit and debit card discount,
recharge bonanza etc. We would like to study how different discounts affect consumer behavior
and hence which types of discounts do consumers prefer the most. How companies are
leveraging the Psychology of discounts to make more money is also to be considered. At the

same time we would also like to study how Myntra is benefiting from these discounts. We will
be using qualitative and quantitative tools to carry out our research.

Implication for the company

In order to reach out to the customers and woo the prospects, company is using different kinds
of discount models. Discounts are essentially a customer acquisition strategy. Once the
customers are acclimatized with this, it would help company in incremental sales and hence
revenue. It attracts new customers without a large marketing campaign. It helps in clearing last
season's stock, or outdated models. It also increases the visibility of company. In the balance
sheet, company enters it under the heading of promotional expenses. This increases the expenses
and hence decreases the EBIAT. It will increase the extra burden upon the company. This has led
to paradigm shift from brick-mortar shop to online marketplace. Discounts encourage propensity
to buy so more products will be sold off. Consumer behavior is affected in a positive way and
they want to buy as much as possible during discount season. Willingness for unplanned
purchases also increases. It sometimes also increases doubt in the mind of consumers about the
quality of products. Consumers might believe that its a strategy of company to dispose-off old
products. If in the coming days discount scheme would have been repealed then consumer might
shift their buying habit which will led to decrease in sales and hence revenue. So company
should stick to a discount model that will help them in long run rather than in short run.