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Online Vs offline: Steep discounts by e-tailers on phones, TVs irk traditional brick-and-mortar stores

Some models of leading brands such as Samsung, Apple, Realme, LG and Sony are being sold online at a 15-20% lower rate than the price at which retailers procure from brands, as the festive season sales by dominant e-commerce players got underway on Friday, according to a report.

ET Now Digital

Updated Sep 25, 2022, 07:19 IST

Traditional brick-and-mortar stores have always argued that online sellers or e-tailers are in an advantageous position in the age of Internet and on this pretext they have been knocking the government’s door seeking a level-playing field between online and offline sellers.

Every year during the festive season, especially before Diwali, this rivalry intensifies as ecommerce giants like Flipkart, Amazon and others come up with their annual sale programmes and dole out heavy discounts especially on products like smartphones, electronics and electrical items.

Again this year ahead of festive season, steep discounts on smartphones and televisions is back online, and offline retailers are crying foul.

On some models, the prices are so low that it can be construed as predatory discounting, retailers said.

This time the massive discounts come after two years lost to the Covid-19 pandemic when supply constraints wiped away the usual higher discounts that used to be available on online purchases.

Offline retailers have already complained to brands about this, while a re-tail group said it would take up the issue with the antimonopolies watchdog, Competition Commission of India (CCI).

“We are reaching out to brands on how they can support such low pricing in e-commerce, while we highlight such individual cases of steep discounting to the CCI,” the ET report said citing Rajkumar Pai, president of the Association of Consumer Electronics and Home Appliances Traders, which has 40 leading retail chains with a cumulative revenue of over Rs 20,000 crore.

“In some cases, the discounts are higher on older models rather than recent ones, while in others we are trying to match prices to the extent possible in order to not lose any business,” Pai said.

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