Generic customer self-service options for developing country markets

Abstract

Customer self-service options reduce the delivered cost of products and enable customers to customize their product during final assembly. Cost reduction by self-service is clearly higher in developed countries given lower labor availability and higher labor costs and their customers are often more adept in the use of self-service. In contrast, developing country customers can use cheap local labor, are less adept in the use of self-service and are unlikely to favor self-service options unless they are significantly cheaper. Lower literacy and inability to follow written instructions can make usual self-service options unviable in many developing countries. However, the cost savings in moving final assembly to customers can be significant even in developing countries as compact packing can significantly reduce packaging costs, transit damage and transport costs. We identify a set of generic self-service options for developing countries that leverage such cost reductions and low cost local labor to enable greater market penetration through lower prices. We draw insights from several industries in India that have created viable product-service combinations that leverage cheap local labor to create “last mile” customization. These self-service options have high potential as developing country markets ar