indiamarkets targets tie-ups in national spread plan

indiamarkets.com, one of India’s first business-to-business (B2B) infomediaries, has lined up investments in ‘e-fulfillment’ to strengthen its hold on the segment.

The strategy will see the portal expand its sales, service and call centers to 70 cities from the current 14 by the end of the year and also tie-up a string of alliances for logistics to fulfill online orders.

“Going forward, when our users engage in e-commerce they will make more demands on us for value-added services. The suppliers on our site may expect us to manage even the delivery of goods that have been ordered online. For this we are investing heavily in off-line infrastructure,” said Rohan Ajila, managing director, IMO Communications.

For logistics, the portal has already tied up with Transport Corporation of India and more will follow. Ajila sees the portal’s registered user base expand to 100,000 from 24,000 by the end of the year on the back of these investments.

Ajila added the portal was not averse to entering into alliances with international B2B sites planning to enter India. “We would have to weigh each one of them on a case-by-case basis. As long as the alliance is equitable, fair, mutually beneficial, we would be for it. Though our focus would be India, such an alliance would give our visitors a gateway to the international market,” he said.

“There is a tremendous amount of interaction that takes place on the site. We expect users will start being comfortable displaying products online, doing some preliminary documentation,” he added.