AIMRA asks for a regulator for e-retailers

The flash sales organized by the e-retailers have turned out to be a nightmare for the various small and medium size mobile phone retailers. The online deals have affected their business and the physical store retailers have decided to ask the government to formulate a regulatory authority to ensure a level playing field between online and offline stores. The physical store retailers were badly hurt by the ‘predatory pricing’ of e-commerce portals like Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal.

As reported by Economic Times, Dheeraj Malik, general secretary AIMRA, said, “The body wants all the retailers to follow fair trade practices. We don’t want that online retail alone should be regulated; the rules should be same for all retailers, online or offline. We want a level playing field.” He also added that, the association was talking to the government and had met minister of state for commerce and industry Nirmala Sitharaman seeking an inquiry committee into the discounts being offered by the e-tailers.

Diwali is one of the biggest festival and at this time sale volumes for all consumer products raise dramatically and retailer margins rise from 10-15% to up to 20%. Flipkart easily earned Rs 600 crore within 10 hours of its Big Billion Day sale.