Onus of online menace lies on Vendors: SITA Surat

SITA Surat one of the prominent IT associations in Gujarat said that vendors, parent companies and channel partners who are directly or indirectly associated with online portals are equally responsible for online menace that has disrupted the traditional channel.  SITA Surat said that with changing business scenario, E Commerce is inevitable, however, proper regulation on e-tail can curb unethical practices done by online giants.

Unnat Mehta, President of SITA Surat said, “Without support of vendors and parent companies to E Commerce portals, unhealthy and unethical business is not possible. Channel partners who are directly or indirectly associated with e-commerce portals are also equally responsible for such situation.”

“E-commerce is the future of Indian retail market and no one can stop them. However, it should be regulated and policies should be framed to safeguard interest of offline partners”, he said.

Extending support to FITAG’s statewide shut down call, SITA Surat appealed partners to boycott vendors by not purchasing goods from 12th November to 17th November which received tremendous response. However, in order to continue routine business cycle in the city, the association has restricted buying back to back and has advised channel not stock the materials till FITAG’s next instruction.

SITA Surat had called Sub-Distributors, Retailers, local RDs and local channel partners in September 2014 to discuss the problems of malpractices of E Commerce portals. It also presented its concerns to the vendors.

“In October we mailed our concerns to majority of the companies and sought their explanations on unhealthy and unethical online business. Some of the companies immediately reverted but what we found was not much justifying”, he said.

Mr. Mehta said that apart from E Commerce cash crunch and LFRs are major challenges to the channel partners. He said that many small resellers have been compelled to close down their businesses due to shortage of finance in last 3 years. Vendor warranty and replacement policy as well as direct selling to end customers is also disturbing the channel ecosystem.

He said that SITA Surat has constituted Trade Disciplinary Team (TDT) which looks after smooth trade among members as well as Local Distributors and RDs. TDT has sorted out number of local issues of partners efficiently. Every year the association organizes IT Expo to provide a platform to resellers and vendors for branding and networking. Apart from the association undertakes many welfare programmes for benefit of partners.

“SITA is always for the member, by the member and to the member, will be more focused for the members by all means in future”, he said.