With more Indians logging on to the net; digital camera makers Canon India and Olympus are increasingly tapping the expanding e-commerce market in the country to push up sales.

The e-commerce market in India, according to industry sources, currently stand at $400 million (Rs 1,800 crore) and is dominated primarily by mobile handsets.

Canon India is witnessing a substantial 10 per cent monthly growth in sales of digital cameras and inkjet printers through home-shopping channels and e-business sites, this year. Expectation is rife that e-commerce revenue will increase ten-fold to Rs 20 crore during 2011.

“Our e-businesses are growing at 10 per cent on a month to month basis this year,” Mr Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice-President, Canon India, told Business Line .

Olympus said that 7 to 8 per cent of its camera sales are from e-commerce sites.

Canon has a 20 per cent market share in the digital camera segment while Olympus has 6 per cent. Market leader Sony, however, claimed that it was not into e-commerce.

Tie-Ups

Canon India and Olympus have already entered into distribution agreements with TV shopping channels such as Homeshop TV 18 and Star CJ; and online shopping sites such as flipkart, Letsbuy, infibeam, futurebazar and eBay. Canon is also planning to enter into a similar agreement with Amazon (once it starts India operations).

“Since multi brand digital stores are few in number; online shopping sites are emerging as a good option for camera companies,” Mr. Rahul Sethi, President, e-commerce, ibiboWeb Pvt Ltd, which manages the online shopping site Traders.in , said.

These sites generally follow the pricing policy of digital camera makers, he added.

Canon, in order to prevent price discrepancies across its network, allows a maximum price reduction of 3 per cent on its MRP. Olympus, in some cases offers special offers on its SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) while regular products are available at a minimum operating price.

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