Says GCMMF, Anand, manager (marketing) Jayen Mehta: "As a first step towards e-commerce in India, we are offering the cybershopping experience to netizens in New Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad to start with. We are offering free-home delivery for orders placed online."

Even though the cybershop is just a few weeks old, the launch was on June 8, it has already received 100 orders so far. Says Mehta: "We got orders from the residents of Calcutta, Nasik and other metros not covered initially in this service. There was even one person from Canada who wished to order for his family in India."

To get the cybershop started, the company made concerted efforts to strengthen two elements: logistics and technology. An incremental investment was made to add thee-commerce webpages to the existing website. Amul already had a dedicated VSAT network in the three metros for information exchange. In addition, the 12 dairy plants in Gujarat, along with the six zonal offices are on a similar VSAT network. All the other sales offices have access to internet and e-mail through VSNL or private Internet service providers.

For the logistics part, Amul has a distribution network of 3,700 wholesale dealers (stockists), covering every town of India, who in turn service about five lakh shops. At present, the orders will be serviced by the stockist in the vicinity of the customer ordering the goods.

The prices on the site are the same as the retail prices. In fact, there is a caveat mentioned on the site warning consumers to not pay more than the maximum retail price printed on the pack. As soon as an order is placed, the regional and sales office contacts the stockist in that particular area to deliver the Amul products at the netizen's doorstep.

The minimum order however,has to be Rs 200. The order is delivered to the customer, depending on the option chosen by her: today/tomorrow/2-3 days. At present, the entire Amul range of products is available through the cybershop. "Online transactions involve different business dynamics as compared to the regular business operations," says Mehta.

According to Mehta, GCMMF will launch a full-fledged e-commerce site (by accepting payment through credit cards) as soon as the e-commerce regulations are announced in the country.

The service has already started in USA in April 1999, wherein customers can place orders on the website of their importer (www.kanandairy.com), pay through credit card and receive home delivery through UPS courier.

Through this exercise, Amul claims it wants to use the Internet as a platform to enrich customer relations. Amul's challenge will now be to meet customers' expectations in terms of prompt response to their queries and sales orders.

"Organisations must commit to supporting customers with anoticeably high level of customer service through this interactive media," says Mehta, adding: "We believe that the ability to provide information on demand and perform transactions at customer convenience will lead to our success."

GCMMF plans to offer the cybershopping experience for Amul and Dhara range of products in the top 50 metros in India eventually.

A gifting service too shall be launched for people outside India who want to gift Amul products to their friends and relatives in India. Amul has already built a rapport with net-savvy Indians through the `Amul Surabhi' programme on Doordarshan, telecast every Sunday. "We receive 3,000-5,000 emails each week in response to the quiz question posed in every episode. This number was barely 200 when the alternate mode of sending answers was started six months ago (the other option is competition postcards)," says Mehta.

Amul was also one of the first FMCG companies in India to set up a website in early 1996. Today, www.amul.com has features likerecipes, archives of the popular Amul Butter advertising campaign, and the Amul World Cricket ranking site which is the world's first internet-based cricket ranking site. Plans are now afoot to launch a free email service (www.amulmail.com) with distinct user benefits which include contest prizes, gifts to subscribers, homepages, char facilities, a shopping mall and a special loyalty programme. So, "Get the taste of India at your doorstep with the click of a mouse" is a slogan that could take Amul sales soaring-right into cyberspace.