India Post to Launch its Own E-Commerce Marketplace.
India
Post to unveil an e-commerce portal like Amazon or flipkart.
India
Post to unveil an e-commerce portal like Amazon or flipkart. India post
is all set to launch its own e-commerce portal like Amazon or eBay soon. This
portal will a part of India Post’s IT based modernization initiative worth Rs
5,000 crore, says a report in Economic Times.
India Post, having one of the
largest logistics network in the world, is now all set to launch their own
ecommerce portal, which will
work as a market place to connect buyers and sellers from all over the country. Although still in the planning phase, as per reports
coming in from ET, the portal would be live within next 6 months.
Mr. John Samuel, member of Postal Services Board said, “At planning and designing phase now, the final
rollover of the dedicated postal e-commerce portal may take another 6 months.
But we are excited about this new avatar in our service basket,”
This is the second Government run body after IRCTC to step
into e-commerce. IRCTC had launched its portal in partnership with Yebhi, but
that didn’t work out and Yebhi itself changed its business model in 2014. India
Post comes with an experience in handling e-commerce logistics, also it had
gotten into an MoU with companies like
Snapdeal, Amazon and Shopclues to propel this particular segment. Will this new
arm create a conflict of interest with portals dealing in the same space?
3 Reasons It Can Become India’s Largest Online
Marketplace
Massive Infrastructure and Reach
India Post is world’s most widely
distributed postal system, with 1.5 lakh+ post officesall over the country. It has an army
of 4.6 lakh employees, who are distributed across every nook
and corner of the country. An average post office serves 7000 citizens, and
21.23 square kms and the most crucial factor: 90% of all post offices are in rural areas.
With such massive infrastructure and
penetration, India Post can beat all existing online market places in India; in
fact, if we visualize its reach, then it can compete with Alibaba in no time.
Last year, India Post successfully
processed cash on delivery orders worth Rs 280 crore for other ecommerce portals
such Snapdeal and Flipkart. As per recent study, 50-70% of all ecommerce orders
are cash on delivery medium, and once India Post launches their full-fledged
ecommerce operations, they can capture this segment, overtaking all existing
players.
Inbuilt Banking
Platform & Payment Options
India Post has recently amended the “Post Office Savings Bank General Rules, 1981”, which has
empowered them to issue ATM cards to their saving bank account users. Thus, Post
Office has now almost transformed into a Bank. Although only selected CBS
enabled post offices has ATM cash withdrawal option, but as part of their IT
modernization drive, soon all post offices would be covered under this scheme.
Banking industry is closely watching the
developments, as the Government can very soon give final approval to convert
India Post into a full-fledged bank; and once that happens, it will become
Asia’s biggest banking platform, overtaking Japan and China, which are
currently world’s largest Postal Banking platforms. In the year 2012-13, India
Posts had generated revenues worth Rs 9365 crore has atleast 10 times assets
and deposits.
Imagine a scenario where both the buyer
and the seller has bank accounts with India Post: not only the transactions on
their ecommerce platform would be seamlessly processed, but also India Post
would be able to provide easy & fast credits and loans for their customers.
A whole eco-system can be created, just like Ebay did with Paypal, where both buyers and sellers are
protected and chances of fraud are diminished. In case of India Post, it would
be a step ahead, as they would be the official banking platform as well.
Trust Factor
India Post was founded in April 1st, 1774, and has been
operational ever since. Department of Posts comes under Ministry of
Communications and Information Technology of the Government of India. It is a
well-organized structure having an apex body known as Postal Service Board
which consists of a chairman and six board members covering: personnel,
operations, technology, postal life insurance, human-resource development (HRD)
and planning.
When such a dedicated organization starts
a digital business platform, then it will attract trust and confidence. Buyers
and sellers from all over the world can trust and rely on India Post because
they will have the Government backing, an organized managed, massive infrastructure
and an inbuilt banking system.
The above three reasons are coming out of
an optimistic digital marketer, who understands that
India Post needs to shed their old fashioned outlook, and embrace
technology in a big way.
Instead of hiring candidates from other Government organizations, they should
invite technology experts from the IT industry and invest on technology. They
will have understand that ecommerce is now a technology business, and they have
to realize that they have the required infrastructure and manpower to make it
really big.
Mr. Samuel sums it well, when he said,
“We need to bring change in our own attitude at certain corners to churn out
the best out of this initiative,”
Share with the world !!
that's good news
BOOK RAILWAYS TICKETS ONLINE
Great News!!!!