Indiatimes brings Godrej Appliances online after NokiaShop

Godrej Appliances has announced its online shopping portal in association with Indiatimes.com. It will be an exclusive online storefront from Godrej. This is similar to the partnership between Indiatimes and Nokia, wherein they launched NokiaSHop, an online Nokia store. It had announced that this will be a focus area for them from now on. It had listed brands like Durex, Epson, Florista, IBM, Funskool, Godrej Interio among others in the roster.

The Godrej portal will offer the entire range of consumer durables from air conditioners and refrigerators to washing machine and microwave ovens. There would also be deals of the week which would offer appliances at discounted prices.

Speaking while announcing the alliance, Kamal Nandi, executive VP, sales & marketing, Godrej Appliances, said, "Given the increase in online shopping, Godrej was keen to reach out to its loyal customers on the online platform, With our expertise in the class products space and indiatimes.com's expertise in the online retail space, we hope to bring greater value and opportunities right to the doorstep of our consumer looking for value options".

Commenting on the tie-up, Subhanker Sarker, COO, Indiatimes shopping, said, "Indiatimes Shopping is geared towards bringing trusted and leading offline brands like Godrej Appliances onto the online platform. We have invested in our warehouse, last mile logistics and CRM infrastructure to support brands across categories, to jointly provide a superlative consumer experience."

Godrej Appliances aims to grow its online business at more than 150 per cent year on year, it said in the official release.  Though Indiatimes has always sounded bullish on 'Shop Brands' initiative, whether appliances have an online market is yet to be seen. Also, it remains to be seen how Godrej will build its brand online via the shop in shop concept, where other brands' appliances will be available with equal ease and for competitive prices. What do you feel?

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)