Reportedly the online versus offline fight in retailing of mobile phones has surfaced again with the offline retail trade body writing to the government of india to put an end to the practices being followed by e-commerce companies. Meanwhile the All india mobile Retailers Association (AIMRA) has not named any specific e-tailer in its letter.
Furthermore the festival season has begun in india and will last around a month at least till diwali. Perhaps there is an estimate that the e-commerce platforms could end up selling products on their sites to the tune of close $5 billion and Flipkart’s Big Billion Days and the Great Indian Festival on Amazon could account for over 80% of this figure and the sale of mobile phones leads the pack with 56% of the value of items sold online.
Reportedly if the government can or will make an intervention in this matter. At the centre of this issue are the exclusive deals that the mobile phone manufacturers themselves strike with the ecommerce platforms and offer a bulk discount. Moreover if such deals are being made outside the country how much of hold the Indian government may be able to exercise will be a question and AIMRA has pointed out that there were retailers (they claim unregistered) who purchased from the online platforms at lower prices and then selling them offline.
