Team News Riveting
Khadi and Village Industry Commission’s (KVIC) foray into the online marketing segment has found tremendous public patronage.
Testimony to this is the gross turnover of over Rs 1.12 crore in just 8 months of the launch of Khadi’s e-portal www.khadiindia.gov.in.
Launched on July 7, 2020, Khadi e-portal has delivered orders to over 10,000 customers out of the 65,000 people who visited the e-portal till date. KVIC has also delivered more than 1 lakh articles and commodities to these customers. During this period, the average online purchase has been recorded at Rs 11,000 per customer which is an indication of Khadi’s ever-growing popularity and the diversity of its product range to suit all segments of buyers.
Union Minister for MSMEs, Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has lauded Khadi’s successful e-commerce venture saying this provided a wide marketing platform for various Khadi and village industry products to a larger population. The e-marketing of Khadi was proving to be a game-changer, Gadkari said, adding that effort should be to reach a turnover of Rs 200 crore per year.
KVIC has developed the e-portal in-house without spending a single rupee on web-developing. This is another factor that differentiates Khadi e-portal from other e-commerce sites – unlike other online portals, KVIC takes care of all logistics and infrastructure support like cataloguing, product photoshoot, maintaining online inventory and packaging and transportation of goods to the customers’ doorsteps. This saves Khadi artisans, institutions and PMEGP units manufacturing Khadi products from any financial burden.
KVIC Chairman Vinai Kumar Saxena said all expenses incurred on operating Khadi e-portal were borne by KVIC. While in case of other e-commerce sites, product cataloguing, packaging and dispatch are the responsibility of the respective sellers; KVIC has a policy that the Khadi institutions and PMEGP units are exempted from any such financial and logistical burden. He said, this saves them a lot of money and, therefore, Khadi’s e-portal is a unique platform for lakhs of Khadi artisans. He added that Khadi’s e-portal has given a big push to Swadeshi. He said that while this has provided artisans an additional platform to sell their goods, it has also displayed people’s love for Khadi and their resolve to make India Aatmanirbhar.
Khadi’s online sale that started with just Khadi Face Masks during the Covid-19 lockdown, has evolved into a full-fledged E-market platform with nearly 800 products. The product range includes hand-spun and hand-woven fine fabric like Muslin, Silk, Denim and Cotton, Unisex VicharVastra, trendy Modi Kurta & Jackets, Khadi’s Signature Wrist Watch, a variety of honey, Herbal and Green Tea, Herbal Medicines and Soaps, Papad, Kacchi Ghani Mustard Oil, cow dung/cow urine soaps and a range of herbal cosmetics among many others.
A number of unique products like Khadi fabric footwear, innovative KhadiPrakritik Paint from cow dung and the just-revived Heritage Monpa Handmade Paper are also being sold online. The product range is priced from Rs 50 to Rs 5000, keeping in view the choice and affordability of all sections of buyers.
KVIC has received online orders from all 31 states and union territories that include the far-flung Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir among others.
