KOCHI: As e-commerce companies eat away their share of business, the IT hardware dealers in Kerala are exploring the possibility of boycotting national dealers of major brands such as HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, Toshiba etc.
The All Kerala IT Dealers Association (AKITDA), which has about 1800 members, wants the national dealers to provide the same discount they offer to e-tailers.
Since e-tailers buy the products in large quantities for all-India sales, the national dealers give them huge discounts of 30-40 per cent while it is as low as 5-6 per cent for individual dealers, said James Joseph, president, AKITDA.
According to him, the entire network of AKITDA should be considered as a single entity purchase and be given the similar discount provided for e-tailers.
E-commerce companies armed with heavy discounts undercut prices for products offered through their websites, luring away business from brick-and-mortar dealers. “We want to bring the entire IT dealers in Kerala numbering around 5,000 under AKITDA and demand margins similar to ones provided to e-commerce companies,” said Joseph.
National dealers for IT products include companies such as Reddington, Ingram, Sadex, Compuage, which have import licence for computer hardware products.
Ajimon George, secretary of AKITDA, said Confed-ITA, the IT dealers association of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, have already decided to stop billing for the purchase of computer products from national distributors from November 1.
Similarly, All Delhi Computer Traders Association has written to Competition Commission of India (CCI) regarding the ‘unfair business practices’ of large e-tailers. Joseph said a meeting of AKITDA would be held soon and take a decision regarding boycotting the products from national distributors.