India logs on to e-tail for discounts on white goods

Products such as air-conditioners, washing machines, televisions etc. are being picked up by netizens with ease that most e-commerce sellers have witnessed a 100-200 per cent increase in the category over the last year.

“We are seeing a 15 per cent increase every month in the consumer durables category and last year we saw an amazing 600 per cent growth in the same,” said Mr Amit Maheswari of Snapdeal.com.

Since the onset of this summer, air-conditioners have topped the sales charts of white goods, he added.

The key trigger is better deals offered by online market players who offer same products 10-15 per cent cheaper compared to offline retailers. “Driven by the price benefits, lot of consumer are exploring products offline while ordering it online,” said Mr Upamanyu Bhattacharya of eBay India.

Lot of big names such as Whirlpool, IFB, Croma are logging on to the net to encash the positive sentiments, he said. However, these deals are being offered only by e-retailers and not by the brands themselves, clarified Mr Kumaraguru Seshadri of Homeneedsonline.com, part of the Butterfly group.

“Most brands prefer that we respect their operating price, but online companies are taking a hit to retain customers,” he said.

But the appliance maker has taken a call to maintain same price for Butterfly brand of products, both offline and online. “Apart from keeping our channel partners happy this way, we have also roped them in as e-sourcing agents,” he added.

It has also tied up with channel partners of other brands and this has helped it to launch same day delivery service of e-purchases. To address the after sales and warranty issues, most companies are exploring tie-ups with company service centres of brands directly.

“We have roped in one of the largest customer service providers to offer at home service for all our products, be it in warranty period or not,” Mr Seshadri said.