Lockdown forces offline traders to launch e-commerce platform

Kolkata, Apr 22 () After a slump in business frombrick and mortar stores during the Covid-19 induced lockdown,an organization of traditional small traders on Wednesdayclaimed that it would launch an e-commerce portal foressentials "in a day or two" in association with its partners.

An official of the Confederation of All India Traders(CAIT) that represents seven crore traders and 40,000 tradeassociations said the project aims at delivering essentialitems to the doorstep of a customer by a neighbourhood store.

"A pilot has been going on in six cities of Allahabad,Delhi, Jhasi, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Lucknow for the past sevendays involving around 800 local traders. We are planning apan-India launch with a target of involving one lakh tradersand stores in a day or two," CAIT West Bengal generalsecretary Rabi Shankar Roy told .

Only essential items would be delivered through theE-Lala portal during the lockdown and after it is lifted, thee-commerce site will also deal with non-essentials, he said.

Bengal based traders body, Confederation of WestBengal Trade Association, said they are taking steps toempower consumers with details of local stores in theirwebsite and proposed to join the e-commerce bandwagon at alater stage, its president Sushil Poddar said.

Connecting consumers with neighbourhood stores willhelp maintain social distancing without any travel hurdles, hesaid.

Roy said Global Linkers is the technology partner ofE-Lala while Consumer Products Distributors Federation and AllIndia Transporters Welfare Association are part of theecosystem.

He said it is free for traders to be on board whileconsumers will have to pay a small delivery charge for homedelivery by the local store.

Roy said CAIT has launched a nationwide campaign forcollecting data of seven crore traders and their employees. BSMNN NN