e-Commerce is not e-retail
The good story is that e-Commerce has started getting coverage that it justly deserves across all the media channels in India. The unfortunate part is that the media confuses e-retail for e-Commerce. E-retail which focuses on sale of consumer products has not really been able to get their act in order and has led to astronomical valuations of some companies despite unbelievable losses which have been over-shadowing many wonderful initiatives that have taken place in the other spheres of e-Commerce in India over the past decade. As a matter of fact some of the e-Commerce initiatives launched in India have silently grown to become the largest in their class in the world. Creating convenience, efficiency and transparency for all the stakeholders that they have touched.
A leading example of a value creating e-Commerce initiative is www.metaljunction.com .This initiative focused on solving the problem that small and medium sized re-rollers, fabricator and traders of steel had in sourcing secondary steel products from the main producers of steel. metaljunction was able to identify and eliminate not only the pain points of both seller and buyer but also eliminate those middlemen who were not creating value but adding to cost. In view of the improved e-Commerce process for the sale of secondary steel, metaljunction has enabled 12 million tons of steel to be sold online for their clients to a buyer base across India which exceeds 4000. It would be important to mention here that one of the pain points that metaljunction was able to focus on and eliminate was the need for the seller of steel to be paid upfront while small and medium sized buyers required 30 to 60 days of credit. This funding requirement, before metaljunction entered the picture, was fulfilled by middlemen who charged the buyer interest in excess of 24% per annum. metaljunction was able to encourage both foreign and Indian banks to offer the buyers buying on the metajunction platform to get overdraft facilities at rates which were half of what was being paid by them, i.e., 12%. It was a win-win solution that the seller, buyer and the bank benefited from and which helped disintermediate the middlemen. Needless to mention the entire process is online which makes it convenient, scalable and efficient as well.
There are many more such problems that mjunction, of which metaljunction is a strategic business unit, has been able to resolve with the help of e-Commerce which I will share in the days to come.
Head Procurement & SCM Welspun Corp | Steel & EPC Infrastructure Businesses | Sales Marketing | Procurement | Profit Center | 31+ Years | Ex Head Steel Procurement L&T | Ex-KEC International- JSPL- ISPAT | Views Personal
10 年Dear Mr. Oberoi, Congratulations for your thought provoking write-up. I totally agree with your viewpoint regarding the undue media hype being accorded to current and sudden flow of funds towards a particular category of Online Businesses. As rightly pointed out by you, these businesses are only a specific type of eCommerce and not the ONLY eCommerce. Being B2C eCommerce, the only point in their favor is that these businesses are able to touch the lives of a large cross-section of society. And therefore these transformations are in a way unprecedented. Now, would like to discuss about the progress of eCommerce in Steel and other similar businesses. Being myself an a active follower as well as implementer of eCommerce in Steel Industry since the start of this century, I wish to appreciate all the good work done by MetalJunction over all these years under your leadership, which was indeed pionering. I would like to bring the following thoughts to your attention :- 1. Most stakeholders treat eCommerce as totally different game rather than approaching it as just another distribution channel. And therefore there is still a lack of integration of eCommerce transactions with traditional business transactions. 2. Even after more than a decade of existance, it is still a platform mostly used for secondary and surplus inventory rather than prime product sales. Even today, due to its inability to offer the entire spectrum of products to a Steel buyer, eCommerce in Steel is not considered seriously as an option by most of the stakeholders. 3. Logistics is yet another challange area for success of eCommerce in Steel wherein we are yet to emulate the Amazons and Flipkarts even to the slightest extent. 4. Market intelligence in whatever form it exists today, need to have more applicability (usability) for the Small and Medium Enterprises to be able to assist them in enhancing their businesses. 5. Though you have mentioned about providing funding solutions through eCommerce, which is definitely a great initiative. However, one important area of integrating these online fund limits with traditional bank limits also needs attention to be able to really offer greater flexibility to SME buyers. 6. Last but not the least, there is still much less participation from SMEs and actual users of Steel at such Online Platforms as compared to Traders. Real success lies in getting them more and more onboard which much depends on the above mentioned points. Looking forward to having more such interactions. With Best wishes & Regards, Manish DR. MANISH LUNKER M.B.A., Ph. D. - Management (eBusiness)
CIPM (IAPP), LL.M. Data Protection & Privacy I ISO/IEC27701 LI I Certified in Cybersecurity (ISC2) I Healthcare Essentials: IT and Security (ISC2) I CT-DPO I MBA
10 年Great, an innovative b2b solution.....
Chief Information Officer at mjunction Services Limited
10 年Sir, Great insight into b2b, value chain and business process mangement. Look forward to next set of articles. Regards, Amit
Data science & AI | Founder - Business Brio
10 年A very good insight into the potential of B2B e-commerce. Looking forward to more in near future !
Nice article. Looking forward to more such write-ups !!!