Rediff Launches E-Tailing Service

Starting August 15, books and music shall be delivered to your doorstep even as you make hotel and movie reservations on-line.

All you have to do is access India's new e-commerce service on www.rediff.com, courtesy the on-line publication Rediff On The Net.

You can find what you want through a fast-search feature placed across the site. Navigation is intuitive and helps you add the products of your choice to the shopping basket and enter your credit card or check details and complete the transaction.

Rediff already has a collection of 40,000 music titles and 100,000 book titles lined up thanks to its arrangement with publishers and music companies.

 

Music includes international as well as Hindi and regional titles. Books are primarily Indian-authored.

Besides being able to browse, search and place on-line orders, the site will offer music and book reviews and top-ten listings. What's more you have the option of airing your views about a book as well.

You can also listen to music before you place an order. Discounts offered range from 40 to 60 per cent.

For those who are a little uneasy about revealing their credit card numbers on-line, Rediff has promised measures that will ensure that the transaction is a secure experience.

Data encryption is possible if the client uses a security-enabled browser like the Microsoft Internet Explorer version 2.1 or greater or Netscape Navigator version 2.0 or greater.

The store website is also registered with site identification authorities to enable the client's browser to confirm the store's identity before transmission.

US-based courier major Federal Express has been signed on to deliver merchandise to customers outside India who currently represent the bulk of Rediff users. Of the 40 million hits that it gets per month only 35 per cent are from India.

Says an executive from FedEx, "Even if you add on the freight cost, for users abroad, the products they order on the service will still be cheaper than if they were to access it in their own countries."

Rediff was started two-and-a-half years ago as a news service about India. Even now, the attempt is to provide largely India-dedicated merchandise to both Indian and foreign clientele.

In its attempt to become a full-fledged on-line service, Rediff is offering free personal web pages, e-mail and a new chat service which can accommodate a hundred participants simultaneously.