Welcome to myjunction ~ the junction for junctionites!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

straightline.in partners with Patton & Lafarge to boost eRetailing in the Construction Materials Market

straightline.in at a press meet held today at TATA Centre announced its tie up with two industrial leaders - Patton International Ltd and Lafarge India Ltd to widen the scope of eRetailing in the construction materials market.

The collaboration will create an eSales channel for Patton Ltd., which will start with eRetailing of plastic water tanks, rigid PVC pipes and SWR pipes from its product portfolio. Patton products will be available for procurement currently in West Bengal and will extend services for buyers in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Sikkim soon.

Citing strengthening of distribution channels, access to remote places, additional distribution channel and expand market size as reasons for venturing into e-retailing via straightline.in, Mr. Sanjay S. Budhia, Managing Director, Patton Ltd, said, “Patton has chosen straightline.in as its online sales platform because we want to leverage on the benefit of this unique distribution channel for venturing into eRetailing”.

The marketing tie-up with Lafarge India Pvt Ltd is initiated through a pilot program, which has been started in Kolkata and Siliguri, which will be up-scaled to the entire eastern region, where Lafarge is the largest selling brand of cement.

Mr. Viresh Oberoi, Managing Director, mjunction services limited, said, “The concept of eCommerce is evolving. We have transformed the traditional steel and coal supply chains selling over 5 million mt of steel and 20 million tonnes of coal online. With straightline.in, we will provide an efficient and convenient electronic platform for small and large customers living in Urban and Rural areas to source directly from reputed manufacturers avoiding value destroying middlemen.”

Apart from the convenience of buying online, buyers on straightline.in would share the benefits of savings in supply chain costs. The price benefits range from 1% to 3% at present. The overall savings to the buyers would range between 5% and 10% on account of price, multiple point handling, additional legs of freight and even the profit margin of the middlemen. In addition, orders are delivered within 72 hours - far earlier that the 5-8 days taken for fulfillment through the traditional channel truly endorses the time–saving model adopted at straightline.in. It provides online payment options through ICICI, HDFC and PNB along with offline payment options.
straightline.in is aggressively looking for tie-ups in the construction materials segment. It aims to become a one-stop e-shop for construction materials- after having started with eRetailing of TMT bars, it has added galvanized sheets, steel pipes etc to its product portfolio. The target audiences for straightline.in are both the B2C and the B2B segments, which include individual house builders, small builders and rural housing developers.

There is a requirement of eCommerce in the construction industry. It is estimated that in the construction industry 60% to 80% of the total cost of management operations is directly attributable to information management. The value proposition of straightline.in as an e-marketplace is providing tightened coordination between buyers and suppliers resulting in cost optimization, improved sales and distribution and reducing inventory-carrying cost for its clients.

No comments: