Review of Storrz.Com - First Online Mall to Accept Credit/Debit Cards?

By Vipin Agnihotri

Storrz.com is a fine example of online retailing in India. The best part about Storrz is that it is using interesting methods to break the online shopping barrier. In my opinion, Storrz.com is probably the first online shopping mall in India that accepts payment at home through any credit or debit card.

Interestingly, Chennai-based retail chain Subhiksha has delayed launching its online store. One reason Subhiksha has done this because the top management of the company is of the opinion that it is much simpler to walk to your nearest grocer and buy than to place an order online for delivery.

The layout and design of website is quite good with only limitation being that the service at this moment of time is restricted to Bangalore only. May be they are using Bangalore as a testing ground but fact remains that there is a vast difference between retailing situation in Bangalore and Uttar Pradesh.

Signing up is quite easy in Storrz.com. What’s more, they also run number of discount schemes. For example, they give Rs 1,000 gift hamper every week through Shop & Win scheme. First time shopper get Rs 50 off on every first purchase.

Storrz.Com is owned and operated by JustOnDemand Technologies Pvt Ltd. When you go to the ‘About us’ page of Storrz.com you will see below-mentioned message:

“Storrz.com provides a complete ecosystem where real world retailers can interact with consumers on line and trade their produce. The Marketplace has been designed with the best features of a traditional mall and the latest on on-line shopping.”

All in all, if you are a Bangalorean who prefers to devote some quality time with your family and don’t want to go to grocery store for shopping then Storrz is tailor made for you.

The India Street Rating: 8/10

Suggested Reading:

• The India Street Opinion on the Right to Information Act in India

• Retail: Next big thing in India ~ The India Street - Business ...

• Reliance Industries Limited on a shopping spree! ~ The India ...

• India Mall Boom – Will it lead to a Mall Bust? ~ The India Street ...

The India Street review of Cricinfo.com

By Vipin Agnihotri

Indians love cricket. As a matter of fact, it’s like religion to them. You may not believe at first but it’s true that cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly and MS Dhoni are even more popular than Bollywood stars like Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan. We also created a virtual cricket stock exchange example and believe there is a need for such a site.

Taking this into account, The India Street decided to review the best cricket site of the world, Cricinfo.com. The best part about Cricinfo.com is that it has a wide array of database of both international and domestic players. In addition, website has records of all the national and international teams.

If you are one of those individual who love cricket but can’t watch it on TV because of time constraint then Cricinfo.com is tailor made for you. You can get the live scores of all the matches being played internationally in Cricinfo.com with excellent commentary.

If you want expert opinion and exclusive interviews of your favorite stars then Cricinfo.com is the site for you. Most of the cricketers prefer giving exclusives to Cricinfo.com because of its popularity among cricket lovers. The site is organized very well with picture gallery section also quite exceptional.

In my opinion, Cricinfo.com helps cricket lovers immensely in keeping pace with all the tours and matches going around the world. For statistician, Cricinfo.com is like a second home because they can gather information for just about any past or present first class, test match or one-day international match that has ever been played. The ’statsguru’ section of the website is mind blowing.

It’s really amazing how the staff members of Cricinfo.com manage to place all the world cricketing news on a great looking homepage. Another good thing about Cricinfo.com is its way of splitting cricket information into individual countries. For example, if you are more inclined on knowing the Indian Cricket, Australian Cricket or any other cricket nation you are just a click away.

All in all, Cricinfo.com is an absolute must for cricket lover.

The India Street rating: 9/10

Suggested Reading:

• Job Performance Review of Naukri.com

• Virtual Cricket Stock Exchange of India ~ The India Street ...

• Analysis of the Top 25 IndianPad Users

Analysis of the Top 25 IndianPad Users

We recently decided to review the top 25 users on Indianpad.com as ranked by Karma. The top Indianpadder list can be found here. There appears to be around 30,000 users on the system but growing daily. The users are gain power (or karma) on the system by actively participating on the site, by submitting and voting on stories, and by voting early on an emerging article or video.

New users start with a Karma level of 6.0 and can increase to as high as 20. When a user has a high Karma level, the user wields considerable power on the site. For instance, if a high karma user votes down your story, you can pretty much kiss it goodbye.

You have to admire these users though, they spend significant time building a community that in the future will have considerable influence on what’s popular in India.

The Gender Break Down

The gender break down was a little surprising given the amount of men that dominate the list. 16% of the users didn’t identify themselves as either so they are listed as unknown in the chart below.

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The Age Range

The average age of the IndianPad user is 24.6 years old but only 13 of the top 25 gave their age in their profiles so the sample is slightly limited. The oldest user in the top 25 is only 36 which may mean that the community is likely to cater to the younger Indian generation or that younger users have more time to build up their Karma. I did a quick sort on the age tab and found that the oldest user is

Geographic Break Down

Most of the top 25 users are located in India, while the remainder are predictably in the US and the UK (one power user is in Canada). This shows that while articles and videos on India are mostly being promoted on this site by Indians, the site does have some top users from outside of India.

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Vote Count

Votes are used on the Indianpad to promote or demote a story. The top 25 users have much more influence than you do over which stories are put on the Indianpad’s homepage (which creates more traffic). I was amazed at the amount of votes some of these users have made with the top voter Indianboy responsible for an amazing 41,574 votes. According to his profile, Indianboy started on Indianpad on July 11, 2006 which means that he is voting on average 100 times a day!

Karma Levels

As we mentioned earlier Karma is a score that is determined by the user’s participation on Indianpad but also how other users view your participation. For instance, you can’t spam the site or your Karma will be quickly driven down. The Karma levels on Indianpad are interesting because even the top Karma user Devilsworkshop has only a 14.8 (out of 20) rating on Indianpad. One wonders even with all of his work on the site, the user can get to 20.

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News Stories Submitted

It’s clear to me that the number of stories that are submitting by users has a significant effect on a users Karma level. As you can see below, the top users;

devilsworkshop

spencer_911

indianboy

TollywoodBollywood

avaksi

all have contributed a significant amount of story items. In fact the top story submitter Devilsworkshop is also the top Karma user.

Comments on Stories

The number of comments also seems to be a significant part of the Karma equation while maybe having a slightly less effect than story submission, because it appears that a story that is submitting then promoted to the front page gives one a higher Karma while a comment cannot. spencer_911 and avaksi seem to be benefiting from higher comments levels and for that contribution it helps them stay in the top 5.

In Summary

The top 25 Indianpad users wield significant influence on what is published or sent to the front page. The amount of time invested by the top 5 individuals is immense yet they do it without apparent compensation. In the future, high ranking profiles will wield significant influence over what is seen by the internet community. Think of them as individual public relations engines that will someday replace the large "mainstream" public relation companies but much more mobile.

…and if you found this useful; feel free to submit to www.Indianpad.com or give it a stumble.