Here’s a new metric to call out who’s ahead in the ecommerce game

Photo credit: Tech in Asia’s Andre Gunawan.

First we measured whose GMV (gross merchandise value) was bigger. That turned problematic in the era of discounts, because more GMV often translated to more losses.

Then there was the craze for app commerce. Who could get more app downloads? That lost favor too as the realization dawned that downloads did not mean long-term use. So, measuring user engagement became the new standard.

Different comparison points have their pros and cons. Now there’s a new one – the volume of phone calls that a retailer handles.

Caller ID app Truecaller – which is the third most downloaded app in India after Facebook and WhatsApp – anonymously aggregated incoming and outgoing calls to ecommerce companies in the first six months of the year.

The verdict? Flipkart, Amazon, and Snapdeal lead the pack, in that order. But a closer look reveals some interesting shifts.

Source: Truecaller.

What does a higher share of incoming calls mean?

Calls from a user to retailer (or vice versa) can be anything related to purchasing, complaints, customer service, delivery, etc.