Kolhapur partners feel e-commerce heat

The partners are increasingly feeling threatened by the rising trends of e-commerce portals and LFRs affecting their business

Kolhapur, one of the growing cities of Maharashtra, wherein the IT market is facing the perils of the penetration of online e-commerce portals and LFRs. The channel partners in this region have voiced out a concern against this emerging competition which is now eating into their business significantly.

Shrenik Bindage of Purvaja Infotech who is also the chairman of Computer Association of Kolhapur (CAK) said, "The last couple of years have been really difficult for the channel partner community in this region. Now with the emergence of e-commerce portals and LFRs, the channel community is facing a very tough competition. There are many cases where the partners are not able to match the prices with these formats. Although businesses in general might have improved a bit but with the newer formats gaining momentum, the business is getting affected."

The market is facing challenges in terms of fast moving goods like pen drives, keyboards, mice, and even laptops. Nasir Borsadwala of Classic Enterprises said, "The channel partners are indeed having problems with emerging formats. But we at the association are educating our partners and taking initiatives to make them understand the significance of services."

Rahul Patil of Atharva Technologies and also chairman of CAK said, "The market scenario is only going to get difficult with the newer formats gaining momentum. We had also taken up this issue in FITAM, we will be working out some solution to address these challenges as soon as possible." He further added, "Channel partners will now have to think of doing business more innovatively and get more serious about service side of the business. Also, solutions providing is an option that many partners are yet to explore."