Godrej Soaps' consumer products which include soaps, detergents and toiletries have gone live on indiSHOP.com and these products are being sold at a slight premium to the retail-level price of these products. For instance, a Godrej FairGlow attracts a price of about Rs 13 online as against the offline price of Rs 11. A basket of Godrej Soaps' soap and toiletry products are also being offered on the site -- as is seen in most online selling sites -- at a price of Rs 97.50.

IndiSHOP.com, promoted by Rohan and Sameer Bulchandani of Annet Communications Pvt Ltd, has its own 15,000 sq ft warehouse in central Mumbai, directly linked to their database to give updated online information on availability of products.

The database is also directly linked with Transport Corporation of India for online order tracking. Through this system, indiSHOP is offering courier pick-up and delivery of products including cash on delivery option in over 150 locations in India.

Godrej Soaps did not want to go the Amul way by setting up their own logistics to sell their products on the Net. The company is on the verge of tying up with more e-grocers to grab the opportunity of being part of the new market through Internet sales.

Among other FMCG companies, multinational Hindustan Lever (HLL) has deep reach into both the urban and rural markets to sell their products online. HLL has the advantage of having a diverse range of product portfolios from which a consumer can order in one go. This is not the case with Godrej Soaps and most other companies. These companies are thus adopting the e-grocer-route to sell their products online.

``We are not looking at huge volumes through Net sales to start with. We will supply stock to the e-grocer depending on the movement of products on the Net,'' says Godrej Soaps president (consumer products division) HK Press.Godrej Soaps will also initiate its business to business (B2B) initiative in due course to connect its distributors, C&F agents, and maybe later link up the vendors. This is currently at a nascent stage of development.

FMCG majors believe that the success in e-biz will depend on the technology, the consumer insight and physical fulfillment. Companies with unique strengths in consumer understanding backed by a vast distribution system are likely to excel.