Indiantelevision.com Team

(14 August 2007 4:54 pm)

MUMBAI: Infrastructure company Shapoorji Pallonji group is foraying into multi-utility retail in a major way by launching click-and-mortar model outlets across the country, the company said in an announcement today.

"Our new stream of business is S-Commerce, which stands for 'Service Commerce'. It will roll out in India by September through a new venture 'Suvidhaa' which will provide every important service to millions of consumers in India on one single platform," said Suvidhaa Infoserve Pvt Ltd. managing director Paresh Rajde.

"Suvidhaa is a convenient single point access to consumers and includes services like travel, utilities, telecom, entertainment, finance, education, telemedicine, e-governance, lifestyle and payment collection for utility services amongst others," he said.

Giving details of the roll-out of Suvidhaa's franchisee model, Rajde said, "We will have a three tier-network with Suvidhaa Flagship stores as tier 1. These will be stores of up to 500 square feet. Next will be 'Suvidhaa points' on a shop-in-shop model in the neighbourhood convenience stores. The third tier of our distribution network will be key-corporate accounts for companies and their employees on a shop-in-corporate model. We are targetting an approximate 2500 families at each outlet."

According to an official release, Suvidhaa has tied up with all major telecom operators to use their existing infrastructure of connectivity and bandwidth to power its own technology set-up. Within three years, the company hopes to provide direct employment to around 3,00,000 people.

TBWA\India is handling the creative duties for Shapoorji Pallonji's new venture. Suvidhaa head of marketing Alok Jha said, "We are set to kick of ground promotions in the form of road-shows across major cities in India in the next few weeks."