Consumer durables firms smoke the peace pipe with e-tailers

Top consumer durable companies seem to have mended fences with online retailers over the contentious issues of heavy discounting and after-sales support.

Companies such as Lenovo, Samsung, HTC, Dell, and Panasonic have removed e-commerce players such as Flipkart and Snapdeal from the list of barred e-tailers and have placed them back on the authorised services provider list. This has been done following an assurance from the e-tailers that pricing parity would be maintained across the buying platforms. Battle lines were drawn last year when durables firms launched scathing attacks against online players for retailing products over the web at heavy discounts.

“With connectivity becoming pervasive, we cannot ignore the e-commerce phenomenon,” says Manish Gupta, Director, Consumer & Small Business, Dell India. “Consumers today have multiple options of buying products. It boils down to accessibility, especially when people today are doing online research before making a purchase decision.”

Companies had alleged that online players were selling their products with heavy discounts, thereby impacting the business of offline retail partners. E-commerce players have always maintained that online marketplaces are selling platforms that do not exercise control over prices.

“We have been regularly monitoring the developments in both the online and offline retail spaces. As a key stakeholder in our growth strategy, the interest of our business partners is of prime importance to us,” adds Rajiv Mishra, Vice-President (Media), Samsung India. “We have been able to successfully manage expectations of our partners by ensuring that their interests are well taken care of and will continue with the same strategy in the future.” The growing popularity of e-commerce in India has propelled several consumer durables and electronics offline retailers such as Croma, The Mobile Store, Vijay Sales and Sangeetha Mobiles to join the online bandwagon.

In view of the recent Big Billion Sale fiasco by Flipkart, most brands have asked online players to refrain from offering discounts of over 15 per cent during the festival season. Flipkart was accused by retailers of selling goods at rock-bottom prices during its Big Billion Day sale on October 6, which apparently backfired as the company’s servers failed leading to discontent among consumers.

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