B2B commerce is still in its infancy: Umesh Modi

Post GST online B2B aggregators have been witnessing reduction in share of unregistered retail suppliers who were not paying excise and other taxes which has resulted into registered supplier’s goods becoming more competitive. Also the recent reforms and steps taken by government have led to transparency in the dealings, reduction in formalities and less government restriction. Recent changes like GST has reduced business formalities to a great extent and working much smoother. However, due to increase in the usage of internet facilities and setting up of businesses by young entrepreneurs there is a rise in the usage of aggregators. Hence talking about the change in trends of searching retail categories at aggregator platforms, Umesh Modi, Chairman and MD, Jupiter Infomedia Ltd. which runs Jimtrade.com, an online aggregator platform spoke to Indianretailer.com.

How B2B retail connect gaining momentum online post GST?

Due to implementation of GST there has been great reduction in share of unregistered manufacturers who were not paying excise and other taxes. This reduction has made registered suppliers goods more competitive. Thus, online marketplace also is the major beneficiary of this change.

How Jimtrade.com helps a manufacturer or a supplier bid their business?

B2B portals like jimtrade.com acts as an important source for product sourcing. B2B portals gives a wealth of information related of new products and its suppliers. Due to this, for any product sourcing, buyer is able to develop a large number of suppliers and which in turn leads to reduction in cost of purchase. In this space we compete with Indiamart.com and Tradeindia.com.

What is the tenure of connect in retail from manufacturers to supplier and vice versa?

Basically, there are two types of requirement from an enterprise, viz. one time requirement and regular requirement. When an enterprise is opting for one time requirement, the jumping from one supplier to another has more probability. However, if an enterprise has a regular requirement the probability of jumping is very less, once they find a suitable supplier or manufacturer.

How has been the space of aggregator evolving rapidly?

The use of the internet to facilitate commerce among companies promises vast benefits: dramatically reduced costs, greater access to buyers and sellers, improved marketplace liquidity, and a whole new array of efficient and flexible transaction methods. But the B2B market is still in its infancy, and its structure and players remain in rapid flux. Despite breathless press coverage, very little is known about how business-to-business commerce will evolve on the internet. However, due to increase in the usage of internet facilities and setting up of businesses by young entrepreneurs there is a rise in the usage of aggregators. In India, we are at the inflection point for internet and mobile usage. India is the world’s second-largest internet user base overtaking the US. China has the largest internet user base, with over 600 million users. The rapid pace of penetration ensures the exponential growth for aggregators for many years.

Off-late, what have been the trends online and what product categories are largely being searched?

Due to increase in the usage of internet there has been increase in the digital economy which in turn has increased the usage of online portals. With better infrastructure for internet, where people find it now more convenient to trade online, which is time as well as cost efficient. In case of B2B search, the products used in any manufacturing units are mainly searched. These are machineries, equipments tools etc. In case of B2C, it is mainly consumer products such as mobile phones, gadgets, accessories, apparels, etc.

How has been the government regulation making business environment more conducive?

Recent reforms and steps taken by government have led to transparency in the dealings, reduction in formalities and less government restriction. Recent changes like GST has reduced business formalities to a great extent and working much smoother.

What are your future investment plans?

We would like to focus on development of various verticals with strong content and user base. Till now, these developments have been from the internal accruals and entire cost has been written off. During this value creation stage also, our aim is to grow our bottom line (after writing off the development cost) at exponential rate through our treasury management. Our future investment will be done entirely from internal accruals.

What new product categories have you added recently?

JimTrade.com is India’s largest online business directory. We have 20,000+ product categories. Every month, thousands of new products are added in the directory. We are into the development stage for our e-commerce verticals and are doing the marketing at a very small scale just to test the various marketing strategies.