Easybuymusic has actually taken steps to do what its name suggests—making buying music simpler. Ordering a product through the site doesn’t require registering or using a credit card. The company offers a nation-wide toll-free number, in addition to ordering via cell-phone. It has entered into tie-ups with cellular service providers in Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Pune for the purpose. Payment, going by the prevailing trend, is on delivery.

George, a management graduate in marketing and consumer behavior from New York, has taken lessons well from Internet’s e-tailing pioneer, Amazon.com. The loss-making billion-dollar revenue site has amply exhibited that better distribution and a focus on customer service is very important to attract and retain customers. Currently, Easybuymusic has call centers in Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and Chandigarh. Its service is available at store prices, with no delivery fee, payment being cash on delivery—critical to consumer satisfaction, and completely in tune with the Indian consumer’s psyche.

Customer service representatives equipped with online systems to record customers’ preferences and buying habits man the call centers. A CRM software, partly built in-house, is there to aid the process, while an integrated supply chain and inventory management system tracks the warehouses of the music companies. This, in turn, helps the company source products from multiple locations.

Customer-aided branding

Easybuymusic has spent very little on marketing its brand, unlike many dot-coms which splurged on marketing gimmicks without realizing that they were running out of working capital. This led to the failure of many a dot-com. "On the Web, we have a policy of ‘no-spends’, so the obvious methodology to use here is viral marketing. And, we work very closely with the music companies to promote their products, which in turn prompts them to buy through Easybuymusic.com." George’s strategy here is straight—"if we have half-a-million customers, the brand is built." George recalls, "Our worst schemes have been where we worked on just a brand advertisement. We spent a significant amount of money just promoting what we do and expected people to call. The result was nowhere close to when we showcased a product and asked people to call us if they wanted to buy the product showcased. Our phones didn’t stop ringing."

In future, George is also looking at the possibility of using the Napster model to supplement its own distribution model, "The P2P platform is a distribution methodology. I would like to see Easybuymusic.com evolving wherein I can use P2P technology to distribute music." Easybuymusic is in alliance with leading music companies like HMV, Magnasound, BMG, Virgin and Sony, and is also in talks with major international labels for tie-ups. As part of Easybuymusic’s strategy to offer licensed international music over the Net, the company has tied up with Listen.com. And it has ambitious plans to release 300,000 international special release items, which are not released in the country at all.

Bijesh Kamath in Mumbai