Dealers warn Samsung against price variation

As the war between online and offline trade has been going on for quite some time now. The DQ Week has been following it tirelessly to provide channel partners with the immediate twist. The story has now taken another turn when dealers sent an email to Samsung head, India.

The mail essentially talked about the rough time which dealers are undergoing. Since Samsung enjoys the largest market share in Indian market due to its maximum features and low cost smartphones, dealers decided to begin with it.

The South-Korean giant has replied positively with some steps proposed. But the possibility of them becoming reality soon seems bleak to Ajay Kumar, Park Network. He also added that an immediate action is required. "We have lost most of our business due to e-commerce. Even government has not been of much help," says Kumar.

Recent quarter reports revealed globally, Samsung has reported its worst quarterly profit in two years due to slowdown in sales of its smartphones and tablets. IDC estimates that Samsung's global smartphone shipments saw y-o-y drop in the second quarter, from around 33% market share to 25%.

Coming to a conclusion is an immediate need. In a recent ICT conclave organized by PICAT whose agenda was to dwell into the economics of the business model. As a known fact, the e-commerce is thriving on the complex tax evaluation process in India causing huge loss to dealers and government.

In the midst of all this hope comes from government of Kerala and Assam. They have come up with a regulation that has brought some relief to dealers. Government of Kerala has banned e-commerce in the state after firms didn't respond to the order of paying sales tax. On the other hand Assam government has passed on a regulation of ‘entry tax' according to which now every product that enters in the state needs to pay tax.

The demand for nationwide uniform tax regulation on online shopping was proposed earlier as well. But now with rising temperatures and dealers deciding to boycott Samsung will affect consumer directly. Hence the time calls for all stakeholders to face the challenge in a very direct manner.