Amee Modi, a fashion designer from
the city, has almost com pleted her Diwali shopping.
Unlike previous years, this time,
she did her entire shopping from online shopping portals. According to Amee,
the pocket-friendly deals were just too attractive to ignore.
She says, “Diwali is a time for
gifting. The attractive deals offered by online shopping portals ensures that I
can get more for my money. It not only helped me save a lot of money, I was
able to get more stuff for my family members.“ Amee is just one of many who
have discovered the treasure trove of discounts online.
Result: the brick and mortar shops
are feeling the heat of the steep discounts offered by e-tailers like Flipkart,
Snapdeal, Amazon and Infibeam.
Bhaskar Dave, manager of Care an
electronics shop, said, “Previously, all we had to worry about was compete with
physical retailers. But now, online players have also started giving a
competition. To sustain our business and to attract customers to the showroom,
we have to come up with equally attractive discounts.“
He adds that's several customers
walk in to the store, check out the product and immediately log online to
compare the price with online stores. With the shoppers seeking the best
possible discounts, and the online shopping portals catering to this demand,
many electronic stores selling multi-brand products have not only increased the
range of products but are offering extensive discounts to attract customers who
have taken to online shopping.
For instance, Sales India is
offering discounts in the range of 25 per cent to 50 per cent a range of
electronic products. The showroom's manager Muntyazali Saiyed explains, “Before
pricing any product, we do a comparative study of the online and retail prices
of the same product. Based on the results, we have increased the discounts
offered on all products. We have also come up with additional incentives for
customers.“
However, their attempt to compete
with their online counterparts is hurting their profit margins. Dave says, “We
are forced to offer more discounts which have certainly de creased our margin
of profit. The additional incentives that we are offering are being paid for
from our pockets. So, naturally the profits go down.“
Arguing in favour of physical
shopping, sales manager at Vijay Sales Dipak Sharma said, “online retailers
might give very attractive discounts but they don't provide guarantees on
products like we do. If there is a technical glitch, we are in a better
position to solve it compared to the e-tailers.“
Denying the allegations, Shekhar
Singh of Infibeam claimed that online portals offered as good a service as any
store. “Portals enter into partnership with several brands and sell their
products. Hence, all the customer benefits are provided. Also, most portals
have 247 customer care service to address their queries round the clock.“
He also added that online portals
also tie-up with various banks to provide easy EMI facilities, which is lacking
with the retailers The competition is not only limited to electronic goods,
even garment industries is feeling the impact of the discount war. Many garment
selling companies like Fab India and Pantaloons are getting into online
business.
No comments :
Post a Comment