Veopar Mandal to promote shops online in Shimla

Bhanu P Lohumi

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Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 13

The Veopar Mandal, Shimla, is contemplating to promote local shops online by creating a platform for local delivery of all goods as people are opting for home delivery rather than visiting markets for shopping.

The sales of local businessmen have been badly hit by online shopping sites like Snapdeal, Flipkart, Amazon and Myntra, which offer huge discounts.

In fact, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, online shopping has become the order of the day.

While the markets were closed or the timings of opening of shops were restricted, online sales became the first choice of customers as it was convenient for them to see a variety of products on a large number of sites, compare prices on their mobile phones sitting at home without any physical movement and order products on cash payment on delivery.

A large number of local businessmen started selling their products online during the pandemic.

Home delivery of medicines, grocery items and food is common now. “We are planning to promote local business through an online platform to increase sales and compete with the online sites”, said president Veopar Mandal Shimla, Inderjeet Singh.

“Products could be displayed in various categories. Being in the city, we would have an advantage of delivering goods within hours and quality of goods would be ensured due to personal liaison with customers”, he said and added that the move would save the customers from physically visiting the markets and ensure safety.

About 4,000 business establishments are registered with the Veopar Mandal, Shimla, which provided employment to about 20,000 persons. “A large number of employees lost their jobs in the pandemic but now with the situation improving, we have called back 70-80 percent of our work force,” he said.

“Veopar mandal had requested the state government to charge 5 per cent entry tax on online goods sold in Himachal as maximum online purchase is done on “cash on delivery basis”, implying that money is paid on delivery by the buyers within the state but the tax has not been implemented yet”, said a local shopkeeper, Amit.

The move would have earned revenue for the state besides providing a an even play filed to the local businessmen who have to pay salary to staff, property tax, water, electricity and garbage bills, bank installments but no step has been taken so far.

Online shopping order of the day

• Amid the ongoing Covid- 19 pandemic, online shopping has become the order of the day
• The sales of local businessmen have been badly hit by online shopping sites such as Snapdeal, Flipkart, Amazon, Myntra and others, which offer huge discounts
• While markets were closed or the timings of shops curtailed, online sales became the first choice of customers as people opted for home delivery of goods rather than visiting the markets