Two Estores from Partners Associations - A Bird's Eye View

There are two large Estores set up by two Partners’ associations, which are being debated in the Partners circles nowadays. More are being planned by the regional Partners associations. One is already set up in Jalandhar, which the DQ Channels had covered in an earlier issue. So, what are the main features of these two large Estores for the Partners?

FAIITA and PCAIT have set up their own Estores where Partners can register and set up their own catalogue profiles. This is aimed at helping the Partners to reach their clients even during the lockdown. These two E-stores are being debated intensely in the Partners communities. There are some similar and some different features between them. Here’s a quick look.

In a nutshell, both FAIITA and PCAIT Estores allow catalogue access to the registrants, they both have employed teams to manage the platforms and the registrants’ profiles and they both are spending great efforts on building their stores. They both have attracted a large number of registrants. They both claim to provide data security to the registrants as well as to the customers.

Main Difference

So, what’s the main difference? The FAIITA Estore charges some money for registering. It says that this money is being used for the maintenance of the E-store platform and the Partners will get back a part of the money they’re giving to FAIITA. Further, they are keeping the data of the registrants and the customers anonymous even for the office bearers of FAIITA.

“FAIITA through a proper legal and procedural framework  has ensured the safety of this data   in a manner that even the office bearers of FAIITA will also not be able to access the data.”

--Devesh Rastogi, Senior VP, FAIITA

“Since  Unistal has a long experience of data security, the registrants' as well as the customers' data will be secure on the PCAIT platform.”

–Alok Gupta, President, PCAIT

Some Thoughts

The large E-commerce platforms use data analytics to reach the visitors and engage with them even after they’ve stopped browsing. This enhances their sales. Of course, they get the data of the visitors and use it to their advantage. This is no secret and they openly state in the public that this is their strength which leads to business growth. The visitors know that their data is being used. Although some visitors may not like it, but they still go online to purchase from the E-commerce platforms, simply because it’s low cost and it’s convenient.

If we contrast the above with the Partners’ Estores, then if the registrants’ data remains anonymous on FAIITA platform, then it means that FAIITA is not using their data, which may be good for their security. In contrast, Unistal assures data security to the visitors and the registrants, but there’s a scope that Unistal may use data analytics for its business growth. This would be along the lines of the E-commerce platforms and it’s not regarded as a wrong practice as stated above. But this also means that FAIITA may not be using data analytics for the business growth of the E-store or of the people who are involved in creating this platform.

In the long run, how both these Estores turn out remains to be seen. Further, they both face stiff competition from the large E-commerce platforms. Whether they will be able to stand up to the competition also remains to be seen.

What Should be the Role of the IT Companies?

The IT manufacturing companies need to take a transparent approach to this problem of Partners losing out to the newer technologies. If they feel that the Partner chain is needed more in the non-metro areas, then they should have concentration of Partners in the non-metro areas, as people in the metro cities have largely transitioned to the E-commerce platforms. But even in the metro cities, there are large circles of population in the lower income group who want to go to a store to shop. The IT companies should take cognizance of this and have their Partners concentration in such areas dispersed across the metro cities. Further, a categorisation can be made between single buyers and large enterprise size buyers. The E-commerce platforms can be used for single buyers and the Partners Estores can be used for large scale buyers.

The IT companies need to look at the situation seriously and iron out the issue of Partners losing their business because new technologies directly reach the end customers. We can’t stop the progress of the new technologies, but how we can accommodate the Partners in the melange of new technologies is something the IT companies need to configure. The Estores from the Partners can also be supported by the resources from the IT companies. This is an issue that the IT companies need to decide.