Digital Disruption and Economies of Scale

In the industrial revolution, mechanization and mass manufacturing achieved competitive advantage by concentrating production in large factories thus achieving economies of scale.

In Digital revolution the information technology providers concentrated the computing resources in large datacenters where land & power are cheap. Thus was born the cloud computing.

In Next level, the manufacturing is being disrupted by Digital Evolution of 3D printing and new business models around the CAD and 3D printing. Catching upon the long tail of manufacturing of one of custom product (N=1 R=G) and maintenance of products that does is obsolete and parts not available.

In Future, can we attain economies of scale by aggregating design and product technology knowhow, through a digital platform and creating new business models around it? For example, Recycling, Solar & Bio Power generation, organic Farming.

Why can't this disruptive model be extended to the online commerce? by creating the hybrid commerce model, can we not create a Digital Platform to achieve economies of scale and yet let's the corner shop be independent?

I am evangelising this idea with two startups I mentor, UVAPoint and Kheti Badi.

How ICICI Bank Looses e-Commerce Transactions

Today, ICICI Bank lost an opportunity to fulfill a payment for my evening shopping at Snapdeal.

 I saw a really good deal, with 80% off and decided to go for it. While checking out, I selected the Internet Banking payment option and choose ICICI Bank. However, after the first factor authentication, it's risk profile software, somehow decided to send me a SMS OTP (One Time Password)  on my registered number, which happens to be a prepaid Airtel mobile. Being the end of the year, with SMS traffic on it's peak, the SMS failed to reach me on time and the transaction timed out.

Fortunately, Snapdeal did not loose the transaction, and I could re-order from the shopping cart. I eventually had to pay by my virtual Visa Card.

A few lessons I learned from the CX (Customer Experience) :

• It's a good idea not to empty the shopping cart before the transaction is fulfilled. I remember, Flipkart cleaned the cart out in past and I lost the full cart.
• Banks should use more intelligent risk profiling, for example, I had logged into my ICICI Bank account about 15 minutes ago, using the same, IP, browser and the machine. If ICICI had taken a note of it, it could have avoided sending me an OTP and for second factor could have used the  usual means of debit card matrix. 
• Be aware that SMS is not reliable, so either use USSD or send a backup OTP by mail. HDFC and Amex do this.
• Having a mobile wallet would make immense sense for e-commerce sites. Flipkart has it.