Quality of product and credibility of suppliers will decide the future direction of on-line auctions in India. While in office, Prasad, the accountant, logged on to a leading auction website to purchase a mobile phone instrument. He clicked a few icons, entered his suitable price, and completed the transaction. The payment was made through credit card on-line. After two days he got the delivery of his mobile phone. Incidentally, he got a bargain, at a price much less than the market rate.

Some days later, I had my travel agent Rajubhai logging onto the website to show me the procedure of buying air tickets on-line by way of auction procedures at a down-to-earth price. Once a quote is finalized, the rest of the transaction takes hardly a few seconds and printout of the ticket is in the hand of the successful bidder. On a user-friendly 14" color monitor, he had an easy access to the availability of seats and on-line price status at every moment. From now on, he need not send his office boy to the airport, get into payment hassles, stand in queues and face harrowing touts. The same might possibly be extended to other form of travel and allied bookings. Now, all that Rajubhai has to do is to maintain an account with the principal company, which is adjusted and finally, billed to me.

In the last few years, we, as an economy, have started moving from an economy of consumerism to that of an economy of experience. Petrol pumps, shopping malls, travel, medical care, and many other sectors are changing their form and approach to business, and are focusing more and more on customer experience. Suddenly, buying soap from a kirana shop is outdated and instead, one buys the same from a fabulous shopping mall, which has more choices on offer and provides a consumer experience for the weekend with his/her entire family.