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Indian American software firm in `relationship shopping'
Ela Dutt
New York: An Indian American-founded software firm providing auction of management tools and services for online sellers has launched a new product that will allow sellers to drive shoppers at leading auction sites such as eBay, Amazon.com and Yahoo to their own online store. Called Andale Stores, the product was launched by Andale Inc. this week with Munjal Shah, the firm's founder and CEO, saying the new product would enable small businesses to combine auction wins with fixed price purchases in one universal sales transaction, placing them in a better position to tap into an estimated $6 billion in "relationship shopping" or off market sales. Andale Stores will be available on March 3, 2001. "Small businesses differentiate themselves based on the relationships they've built with their customers to establish an increased level of trust. Buyers and sellers have always and will always maintain direct relationships even in the Internet era. The issue is now how to easily convert those successful auctionpurchases into continued repeat sales on other channels and how to maintain long-term relationships with customers online," said Shah. "Relationship shopping" is where buyers and sellers who have previously completed successful transactions at auction are likely to do business with each other again off market - through online stores and other channels - since they have already established the necessary levels of trust. Today, this is an estimated $6 billion market," Andale said in a statement. "Andale Stores is the first integrated auction and store front selling solution that makes it easy for sellers to efficiently manage business operations across multiple channels while leveraging their most important asset - the trust they've built with their auction buyers," the statement further said. There are several issues that auction sellers have when looking to expand across multiple sales channels. First, businesses must track inventory in real time to make sure that if, for example, five items sell at auction and another 50 on the online store, they can still fulfill all orders. Also, businesses should make sure that they are automatically up selling and cross-selling buyers on one channel to specials on another in order to maximize revenue. Keeping track of customers (along with their specific buying patterns) on each channel in one central location can be a real hassle, Shah's company pointed out. While Andale Stores can be set up for free with no access or monthly charge, the company will get revenues by charging a fee for every item sold on the Andale Store - from one per cent to 2.95 per cent per purchase depending on the final price of the item. India Abroad News Service Copyright © 2001 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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