PALAKKAD: KShoppe, the e-commerce portal (www.kshoppe.in) launched by the Kerala State Industries Department on Thursday to market the products of public sector organisations under the state government, is receiving a warm response, according to the authorities.
Though the portal -- a first-of-its-kind launched by a state government in the country -- currently offers just 350 products ranging from packaged food items to clothes to farming products made in 19 public sector companies, KShoppe has received over 17,000 unique visitors and 800-plus customer signups during the first 72 hours after it became operational.
The platform received 75 order placements as well, mainly food and farming products.
3 lakh+ page visits by Saturday evening
“What is more interesting is that by Saturday evening, KShoppe received over three lakh page visits, which is considered to be a good show. In the coming days, we intend to increase the list of products and market the portal in a much professional way,” said Vipin S S, deputy general manager, Keltron, Thiruvananthapuram.
KShoppe, which is also available as a mobile app on Google Play Store, has been prepared under the supervision of the Board for Public Sector Transformation (BPT) with the help of Keltron spending around Rs 30 lakh. The portal has the capacity to handle up to 2,000 visitors at a time, which can be expanded as per requirement.
Authorities said KShoppe.in has been rigorously audited by Cert-In empanelled agency to meet security standards. The payment gateway service of KShoppe is provided by Punjab National Bank. India Post is the logistics and delivery partner. Keltron will ensure smooth operation, development and maintenance of the portal.
Onam festival season offers in the offing
“Currently, there is a weight limit as we can courier products weighing up to 35 kg. Also, maximum hits are received from Kerala. With the support of the State industries department, we are planning to introduce attractive discounts and offers during the Onam festival season, which would definitely give a push to the traffic as well as sales figures,” said another senior official, who is part of planning and marketing of KShoppe.
Several boards and traders organisations from the state have launched online platforms to attract customers who are currently depending on sites like amazon.in, Flipkart, Uber, Zomato, etc.
However, those platforms could not survive in the highly-competitive sector as they could not offer discounts, a variety of products or services and ensure ‘freshness’ to the platform.
“Those small platforms actually outsourced all the marketing, technical, finance and website monitoring service from third parties which made their operational expenses very high. Here, KShoppe stands different, as it has got dedicated in-house professionals from Keltron. If the government swiftly responds and the respective public sector companies come up with attractive discounts on a regular basis, this platform is definitely going to be a hit,” said a top-level officer from the State Industries and Commerce department. Keltron will be immediately focusing on online promotion activities, AI-based search engine optimisation and customer analytics, he said.
Currently the e-commerce platform has made available selected products from Capex Cashews, Coircraft, Foam Mattings, Hantex, Kadco, Handicrafts Development Corporation of Kerala, The Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation, Kerala Soaps, KCCPL, Hanveev, Keltron, Kerala State Textile Corporation, Steel Industries Kerala Limited, Travancore Titanium Products Ltd., Coconics, KEL and Kelpalm.
Industries Minister P Rajeeve, during the launch, had announced that the operation of the e-commerce platform would be extended outside India so as to strengthen state public sector institutions and make them profitable.