NEW DELHI: Upping the ante in the fight against e-commerce companies, that are vying for the strongest kirana network for its next phase of growth, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) along with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) is gearing up for a nationwide rollout of its e-commerce marketplace for neighbourhood stores early next week.
“We’re in the final stages of synergising the efforts of various companies including logistic partners and start-ups working in the supply chain to help the local grocery stores take orders online and ensure last-mile contactless delivery through the e-commerce marketplace. We hope to launch the portal on coming Monday or Tuesday,” CAIT Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal told this publication.
CAIT and DPIIT apart, the other promoters of this marketplace include Startup India, Invest India, All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation and Avana Capital who are working jointly to eventually onboard about seven crore traders in the country dealing in non-essentials items as well.
The move comes close on the heels of Amazon, Flipkart as well as the combined forces of JioMart and Whatsapp aggressively ramping up efforts to enable local retailers to sell their products online. The traders’ body has been typically critical of e-tailers such as Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart for a long time largely on "deep discounting", flouting of FDI norms and have alleged the e-tailing behemoths of making the trade uncompetitive for the offline traders.
CAIT had begun the process of nationwide registration of traders a few months ago to provide them with the licence required to operate such a platform. "Manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, retailers of all verticals of domestic trade and consumers will be the integral part of this portal. The platform would also be duly embedded with an efficient delivery ecosystem and digital payments," it said on Friday.
"With the current crisis, the population in the Tier II and III cities that were highly dependent on these kirana stores for their daily supplies are now facing challenges and to overcome this situation, the e-commerce marketplace has been perceived by both DPIIT, which is a department under the commerce ministry and CAIT. It is not only restricted to the present crisis but is conceptualised and designed as a permanent solution for digitising existing business in ensuring supply of goods across the country,” CAIT added.