What's hHappening in India........

What's happening in India.............

Monday, May 30, 2016

“SG Corp’s Novel Online B2B Distribution Model To Set A New Trend”

“SG Corporate Mobility India Pvt Ltd is one of the largest distributors of tablets, mobile phones, accessories, peripherals and monitors, among other things. Established in 2009, SG Corp has its Head Office in Karnal and Corporate Office in Gurgaon (Haryana), and 12 branch offices across India.  With more than 100 employees, SG Corp has business associations with most of the big Mobile and Tablet brands. SG Corp, which has been engaged in traditional channel business, now plans to launch unique B2B online-channel business model.”
Shankar Sharma, Group CEO, SG Corporate, clarifies, “B2B online model is at a nascent stage at present in India, whereas B2C has already evolved a lot relatively and is going towards an impending consolidation of sorts. Due to various factors and challenges inherent in the traditional distribution channel and the comparative ease offered by the online channel, retailers today want to try online dealings and this trend is going to increase in the coming years and online is set to emerge as an essential B2B medium, parallel to the traditional channel. Another huge benefit of Online distribution is that it brings complete transparency on pricing and schemes which is a challenge in the traditional channel. Online distribution, once it becomes a regular thing, will help the retailers save a lot of time and stress. We are expecting that the urban retailers will find it convenient first and then the retailers in the smaller towns will follow suite.”o far online business transactions have been limited to B2C where companies & sellers launch or post their products on the online sites and the customers purchase them through credit cards, debit cards, etc but the role of online at present is extremely limited when it comes to distribution & logistics. Now, SG Corp is working on the novel concept of using online medium for distribution purposes. Shankar Sharma, CEO, SG Corp, in an interaction with NCN magazine shares his company’s policy, plans and mission regarding their new Online B2B Distribution model.
In developed markets like USA and Western Europe, the online B2B models have already taken off but in India, where people do not readily trust and accept online deals, the online B2B channel is still at the infant stage and is expected to take some time before it matures into a mainstream channel.
Shankar Sharma explains, “in this model, B2BAdda will be the e-distributor of the products and will service the orders from retailers and direct customers as received on the portal. We will appoint field force to recruit the retailers and customers as buyers on the portal. The field force will initially hand-hold the customers to register them and bring them to comfort on how to order and manage the process. The brands will be allowed to manage their pricing and schemes through a Brand Panel which will show up on the portal, so all the customers have complete transparency on the effective pricing. The Brands on the other hand will also be able to see the status of their product sales.”
He continues, “B2BAdda will service the orders directly and manage the logistics and collections. The main advantages of this Online Model will be flexibility of time for the customer, visibility & availability. The customer can order goods on the website and price hygiene is maintained as it is mentioned on the site for all.”
The market for mobile gadgets and accessories is very dynamic and getting increasingly competitive. Since the B2B online model is a new innovation, selection of products and brands will be an important determinant in its success. Also good credit policy to the local distributors plays its positive role. In this regard, Shankar Sharma clarifies, “We will try to engage customers who are net savvy. In any case, our field force in the areas of operations will hand-hold the customers to help them get used to this new way of ordering.  It is also important that the customers have good credentials and bank records. We are in touch with certain institutions for credit support, but it takes some time before we come up with our final program.”
Regarding future plans and expectations, Shankar Sharma concludes, “It is too soon to talk about expectations as we are still in the development stage of this B2B model; we will take the plan forward in steps, improving the model based on experience and continuous feedback. Going by the trend, we are sure that this concept will work. .”

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