A fillip to forest produce through online portal

Visakhapatnam: Tapping the booming online market, Girijan Cooperative Corporation Limited (GCC) has forayed into domestic e-commerce retail segment with a range of forest produce.

The initiative that serves as an additional growth driver has begun its e-commerce operations at Visakhapatnam head office, little over a month ago. With the business volume touching Rs 75,668 just within a month, GCC now plans to expand its product range and online business volume in the next few months.

Earlier, the e-commerce business of GCC was handled by an outsourcing agency based in Telangana. But now it is vested with GCC, Visakhapatnam.While 65 per cent of the online business volume is contributed by Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, the rest is catered to by Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Delhi, Mumbai and other parts of the country.

Of all the products, honey tops the list on online chart, contributing 40 per cent of business followed by coffee that constitutes 30 per cent. Shampoo such as shikakai and soap nut, body soaps and herbal sharbats are other items that garnered wider reach. "Apart from streamlining the e-commerce platform for better transparency, accuracy, tracking and improved delivery mechanisms, we are soon going to add new products to the list, including arrowroot, pepper, tinned cashews (roasted and unroasted) and amla sharbat. The idea is to give a fillip to forest produce, improving the living standards of Girijans," explains T Baburao Naidu, GCC CMD. The new products are expected to feature on the online portal www.apgirijan.com in a few weeks.

"This way, the Adivasis will have a better market exposure for their produce and wider clientele. In addition to increasing the number of items in online catalogue, the objective is to generate revenue Rs 3 lakh per month through online portal," says S Ashok Kumar, GM (retail marketing division), GCC.