Homeshopping channels look to raise sales from online platform

Homeshopping channels Homeshop18 and Star CJ are all set to explore sales in the virtual space, with both announcing plans to unveil new e-commerce portals to boost sales across the country.

Sundeep Malhotra, chief executive officer, Homeshop18 said, “Our intention is to build a virtual retail business. We had a static website previously, which served as a catalogue for our customers who shopped on television. Now we have a new portal to offer products and to improve our engagement with consumers online. Eventually, we would also look at growing business globally by expanding operations through our online platform.”

At present, around eight per cent of Homeshop18’s revenues filter in from sales made online. Malhotra added the company expected business to grow non-linearly over the next couple of years on the back of an increase in internet penetration in the country.

Homeshop18 has set up a second facility in Bengaluru to monitor the e-commerce business. The centre has 50 people which will be upped in the course of the year.

Online shopping, excluding travel, is a Rs 800-900 crore market on Saturday According to the data available with Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) there are around 52 million active internet users in the country which is set to double over the next two years.

“Consumers are increasingly using the internet for sourcing information before making purchase decisions and this is happening across categories as diverse as consumer durable, financial products and automobiles. There are new modes of payment which have increased security of transactions made online”, informed Paritosh Joshi, chief executive officer, Star CJ Networks. The channel projects that as much as 15 per cent of their overall revenues will come from online transactions over the next three years.

While the customer profile of shoppers online is diverse geographically, Malhotra informed that more males, aged usually between 18-35 years, from A and B towns are shopping on the web. Joshi said, the customer who shops online is comparatively more educated, technology savvy and has great disposable income at hand. So though the size of the television universe (there are 135 television households in the country) is more than double that of the internet, what Star CJ loses in volumes would be made up for in value.

Besides, cost structures for online operations are relatively less expensive than that for television. Homeshop18 which showcases 700-800 products on television every year, would have information for over a million products across categories on the net. Products such as books, movies, music, certain apparel and accessories, health and beauty products would be exclusively merchandised through the website and not via the homeshopping channel on television.

Homeshop18 is looking at doubling its turnover this fiscal from the Rs 330 crore it had made last year.