Friday, 24 July 2015

If You cannot lick them ; Join them





CAIT stands for Confederation of All India Traders


It has over 4.5 million retailers as its members


Till a few weeks back , CAIT was opposed to e-commerce in retail trade


But when it realized that the e-Commerce tide was unstoppable , it decided to join it !


Recently , CAIT General Secretary , Khandelwal said :


" E-commerce is a reality. We cannot be blind to it. Through ‘e-Lala’, our aim is to retain consumers who were traditionally with brick-and-mortar outlets but are now shifting away to online stores 

We are being forced by circumstances to get into this. We have to move with the times ”


By October 2015 , CAIT plans to launch its own e-Commerce portal " e-Lala" to take on the likes of Amazon / Flipkart / Snapdeal / Myntra etc


But unlike these existing e-Commerce portals , CAIT does not have a war-chest of billions of dollars , to


>   Set up Fulfillment Centers ( Warehouses ) all over the country

>   Advertise online / offline , in a big way



But when you have 4.5 million Fulfillment Centers ( of course small ) , spread all over the entire country , covering every street , then why do you need to build central warehouses ?


And when 10 million delivery boys / girls , deliver a billion packages every day to millions of households , with a plastic bag / card-box carton that reads " YOUR  e-LALA DELIVERY  " , then why do you need to waste money on advertising  ?


Now the bad news :


>   How will e-Lala control the quality of products being delivered by 4.5

     million retailers  ?

>   How will it ensure timely delivery  ?

>   How will it ensure that Member-Retailers do not overcharge ?

>   Existing e-Commerce portals buy in bulk , directly from the         manufacturers ; then offer heavy discounts over the printed MRP . 
     How will e-Lala counter this  ?


>  Today , barely 5 % of the retail buyers , pay thru Credit Cards . 95 % pay in cash

     If e-Lala insists on advance payment using Credit Card thru a online Payment Gateway , will this put-off buyers from using e-Lala portal  ?

          Again , today , almost all buyers pay " Cash Against Delivery " to their neighborhood retailer.

      They may not like to pay in advance of the delivery !

>   To- day, buyers do refuse to accept deliveries for various reasons , such as :

     #   Wrong product or labeling or package size or brand

     #   Expiry date exceeded or about to expire

     #   Even , change of mind !


     All because , there is no online advance payment , and nothing is lost by refusing !

>  To-day , buyers are even able to return the purchased goods to their neighborhood retailer , a couple of days later.

     And the retailer usually accepts the " Return " , in order to retain the

    client on a long-term basis - a client whom , he knows personally !

    This will not be easy to duplicate in E-Lala ecosystem !


This is not to say that CAIT's e-Lala experiment is doomed  !


If anything , e-Lala would do well to think through these issues , then provide answers thru a FAQ page on its e-com web site


And in order to crystallize this thinking , it may not be too late even now , for CAIT to host: TRUE / FALSE : YES/ NO : MULTIPLE CHOICE : online Questionnaires , on its existing web site


One questionnaire for the End-Consumers  and another one for its 4.5 million member retailers


In today's " Dog it Dog " world of e-commerce , one can neither dictate nor predict , a competitor's actions


That kind of wishful thinking just does not work


To stay two steps ahead of the Competitors , you need to think and decide :


"  What am I going to do this morning ? "


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

hemen  parekh

25  July  2015

B2BmessageBlaster

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Make    Yourself    Heard

Dear Visitor :

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By emailing this suggestion - incorporating your OWN improvements - to the following Policy Makers

(  Just multiple copy all the following Email IDs into the Recipient column of your Outlook and Copy / paste this suggestion in the Message Box ) :


    narendramodi1234@gmail.com; 38ashokroad@gmail.com;ajaitley@del5.vsnl.net.in; jayant.sinha19@sansad.nic.in;piyush.goyal@gov.in;nitin.gadkari@nic.in; spprabhu1@rediffmail.com;bandaru@sansad.nic.in;smritizirani@nic.in;nsitharaman@nic.in; ravis@sansad.nic.in;sureshprabhu@irctc.co.in;prakash.j@sansad.nic.in;secy-ipp@nic.in; amitabh.kant@nic.in; shaktikanta.das@nic.in; rsecy@nic.in; adhia1981@gmail.com; ceo-niti@nic.in; atul-chaturvedi@nic.in; uma.bharati@sansad.nic.in; d.pradhan@sansad.nic.in; rprudy.office@gmail.com; rudypr@rediffmail.com; eam@mea.gov.in; mosvks@mea.gov.in; mvnaidu@sansad.nic.in; mnaqvi@sansad.nic.in; rao.inderjit@sansad.nic.in; mljoffice@gov.in; sadananda.gowda@sansad.nic.in; ministerminority@gov.in; najmah@sansad.nic.in; minister-ca@nic.in; ramvilas.paswan@sansad.nic.in; gandhim@sansad.nic.in; akumar-alpha@sansad.nic.in; jpnadda@sansad.nic.in; hm.moca@nic.in; geete@sansad.nic.in; simratbadal@yahoo.com; ns.tomar@nic.in; rmsingh@sansad.nic.in; tc.gehlot@sansad.nic.in; dr.harshvardhan@sansad.nic.in   



   








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