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Earlier this year, Jeff Bezos, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Amazon, announced an investment of $1 billion in India. He also added that by 2025, Amazon aims to export $10 billion worth of Indian goods. However, amidst this huge investment announcement, there were protests against Amazon’s business plan in India as small traders and retail businessmen anticipated that it would lead to an unfair competition, eventually pushing out hundreds of physical stores out of business. Many industry experts also stated that since Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policies were lopsided in India, Amazon would benefit much more from their investment as compared to the Indian economy.

In order to secure the position of Indian small traders and retail businessmen, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has tied up with the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Government of India, to link millions of small retail outlets to digital commerce.

Recently, CAIT announced the launch of ‘bharatmarket.in’ in collaboration with several technology partners. While addressing a video press conference during the launch of the portal, Praveen Khandelwal, Secretary General, CAIT, said that the portal is a by-product of the experiences gained by CAIT while working with DPIIT to ensure supply of essential goods in containment zones during the lockdown.

E-commerce is presently one of most availed avenues opted by people to procure their requirements and the lockdown has made people realise the importance of e-commerce even more. Traders are of the opinion that there is good scope of e-commerce business in India. More and more online purchases will be yielding more revenue for traders who will be onboard with the portal. When asked about the revenue estimates from the portal, Khandelwal told BE, “Since we have just launched the portal, any estimation of revenue is a futile exercise at this point. However, the fundamentals of the portal are quite unique and strong and every person whether in supply of goods or in logistics will gain immensely.”

This initiative was initially started as a pilot project and was limited to essential items in six cities – Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur, and Bengaluru. CAIT sources stated that it received tremendous responses in these cities from retailers, distributors and consumers and since then, the portal has grown in more than 90 cities in two weeks with around 6300 traders onboard. B.C. Bhartia, National President, CAIT said at the conference, “The mission of the portal is digitalising the end-to-end supply chain for India’s traditional self-organised chain of traders.”

CAIT has assured that the platform will be yielding to the data localisation policy and other regulations set up by the Indian government. It will also ensure the safety of its customers and sell verified products. If any trader is found flouting these norms, they will lose their shareholding. Market insiders believe that this platform will allow retailers to hire more which would help the Indian economy.

Over the years, CAIT has raised a number of allegations against e-commerce giants — Amazon and Flipkart - accusing them of flouting FDI norms, forcing local businesses out of operations and evading the Indian tax structure.  

Khandelwal said that traders have welcomed this initiative but anticipated unhealthy challenges from e-commerce companies involved in predatory pricing, deep discounting, and others.

Reacting to the competition that ‘bharatmarket.in’ could face from Flipkart and Amazon, Khandelwal said, “I don’t see any competition from them since they indulge in malpractices which the country is now aware of. If they have to survive, they will have to change their business modalities and will have to follow the laws of the government.”

Industry insiders are of the opinion that the fundamentals of this portal distinguish it from others and expect it to gain market confidence. Additionally, since the portal is providing both the options of visiting the brick and mortar store and also of online delivery at the doorstep, it is sure to attract a lot of consumers.