If you can’t beat them, join them: the Kerala Vyapari Vyavasayi Ekopana Samiti (KVVES) — one of India’s largest associations of brick-and-mortar retailers — which has been campaigning for curtailing online retailing, has done just that: it is itself launching an online retail platform.
The online retail will begin in July on the platform www.buzfiz.in, developed by Kochi-based Buzfiz Information and Marketing Technology. It will be available in Google Play Store in June.
“Our online venture is going to be a boon to both retailers and consumers in Kerala,”
T Nazirudeen, President of KVVES, told
Goods would be delivered within a five-km radius of the traders’ brick-and-mortar shops, but would later reach the villages too.
“From ‘pins to cars’ is our aim,” Nazirudeen said, referring to the range of products available on buzfiz. Abdul Latheef, CEO of Buzfiz Information and Marketing Technology, said the online shopping will initially be within Kerala, but later it would go national. “We can provide almost the same services as offered by amazon or flipkart, plus after-sale services,” Latheef said. “There will be an online consumers’ forum for consumers’ grievances.”
Change of tackInterestingly, KVVES had last year launched a campaign against online retailing because it was ‘stealing the livelihoods of ordinary retail traders.’
Nazirudeen had said that since the e-tailers’ very low cost of operation allowed them to sell goods cheap; ordinary shops could not compete. Asked about this, Nazirudeen said that since the Government had in the recent budget imposed taxes on e-tailers, these issues did not matter now.