What are the benefits obtained in selling products on e-commerce portals compared to physical stores?
The ability to see the product before buying is very important for the consumer. This is available in both e-commerce portals as well as in physical stores. I consider both marketplaces to be equally important.
Is it viable to depend solely on e-commerce websites as a selling medium and have no customer-facing stores at all for an organization which cannot afford to buy large retail space?
Sales are necessary in both brick-and-mortar stores as well as e-commerce storefronts. One can't solely rely on e-commerce as a selling medium. A mixture of both is needed.
What are the decision-making criteria used by sellers to choose an e-commerce website?
We advertise through television and a large number of e-commerce websites. We are trying to gain the maximum reach possible and hence there is no such decision-making criteria that we are making use of.
Do you notice any trend indicating that e-commerce websites offering `Cash on Delivery' as a payment option result in greater sales of the product?
I do not see anything like that. In my opinion, using a credit card is a better payment option than using CoD.