Sony plans major e-commerce initiative in India

Sony has planned a major e-commerce initiative in India. NRIs and others who zipped across either to Singapore or Hong Kong to buy products from Sony can connect through the Internet to the SonyWorld terminals or place their respective orders with the Singapore company. The order will be sent by air to the customers.

T Ishii, MD, Sony India Pvt Ltd who was in Pune to open the 22nd SonyWorld outlet, incidentally the largest in India was pretty upbeat on the company plans for the e-commerce initiative. "The response from Malaysia and Singapore has been quite good. We hope for a similar response from India," he told reporters.

According to Ishii, the company's B2C site Sonysambandh, targeted at NRIs is already doing quite well. So far around 15 odd major orders have been placed through this site in major cities. Sony India has introduced special software in the 22 SonyWorlds' that provides stock information to the head office at Delhi.

"This will enable us to find out the kind of products that have been sold through these outlets in real time,'' Ishii said.

In the next four months, Sony India has plans to phase out the production of rounded CTVs from the Haryana plant and focus on flat screens The first flat screen model called Wega was introduced in 1999. Since the tendency is shifting towards flat screens, the company has decided to do away with the rounded screens altogether.

When asked to comment on why the other CTV players had garnered a major market share as opposed to Sony, which has been in India for the past seven years despite a strong brand presence, Ishii replied that the company did not wish to get involved in the price wars and slash prices. "We would rather focus on quality. Getting involved in price wars will not bring in profits,'' he asserted.

Following the announcements by the finance minister on the reduction in peak custom duty rates, the company plans to introduce more high-end play stations, PCs, mobile phone, laptops and
PDAs. 

The 5000 sq feet SonyWorld outlet that was opened in Pune is among the largest in India. Ishii said that another 20 such outlets would come up next year. The company has set a target of 60 Sony World outlets for the year 2003. 

"Under the market expansion plan, we shall be according special care to retail outlets Sony Worlds which is a key to our brand. The Sony Worlds contribute 10 percent to 30 percent of the city-wise sales-Mumbai (10 percent from one Sony World), Chennai (24 percent from two Sony Worlds), Delhi (18 percent from one Sony World) and Kolkata (23 percent from three Sony Worlds). The Hyderabad SonyWorld contributes about 40 percent, " informed Ishii. 

The Sony World outlets showcase the entire range of Sony products in India-projection TVs, DRC Wega Flat CTVs, digital home theatres, audio products including hi-fis, micros, car audios, digital imaging products such as Handycams, Mavica, Cybershot, flat monitors, digital printers, LCD projectors and phones.