The Rs 117-crore Navneet Publications (India), engaged in printing and publishing business along with manufacturing and exporting paper stationery items, has begun e-commerce activity on the net recently. Says Navneet's electronic publishing division head Mandar Kanvinde: ``The idea behind e-commerce globally is to reduce the distance and enhance communication between the end-user and the manufacturer. The website is the one-point contact of the end-user.''

For the purpose, all products of Navneet: books (work books, activity books, long books and note books), CD-ROMs, stationary items, toys, board games and newshouse (the news magazine for children published by Navneet) are listed on the site. The site is also offering books of other publishers like BPB Publications, Comdex and Techno India. While the products on the net are at par with the MRP, discounts up to 20 per cent are being given with many of them. According to Kanvinde: ``This is felicitated because the distribution commission is bypassed and the benefit given to the end-user.''

To secure safe transactions, Navneet has incorporated SSL (Secure Socket Layer protocols) to prevent interception of transfer. The company is in the process of tying up with Verisign for SSL certification too. Says Kanvinde: ``We have encrypted data for credit card numbers for which dynamic passwords are available only to the transaction officer. No information goes to the bank without the authorised signature of the transaction officer.'' Since there is no system for credit card verification in India, the company takes a maximum of 24 hours to validate the authentication of a credit card.

Apart from credit cards, a consumer has the option to pay by VPP, money order and demand draft. At present, the delivery system of the company involves sending the order from the mail despatch centre and warehouse at Dadar. ``We are planning to exploit our existing distribution network (branches, franchisees) around the world and country,'' he adds.

Unlike a lot of companies which incur shipping charges, in this case it is passed on to the consumer. The consumer has the option--post or courier. For delivery purposes, the company has a tie-up with a courier company which takes care of custom clearance and insurance. The courier company also provides a tracking number to the consumer. The user has to type in the tracking number after which he gets the information about the status of the goods to be purchased.

Though the company does not ask for a minimum limit to be purchased, the courier charges are in the slab of 1/2 kg. So he benefits if he procures up to 1/2 kg of the commodity, says Kanvinde.

The site is about a fortnight old and is receiving about 10 orders a day, the value varying from Rs 500 to Rs 3,000 on an average. The company expects orders to increase up to 30 per day in the next three months. The company expects the net transaction to be 50 per cent of the volume.

And to achieve this goal, the company is in the process of making the site more interactive. In the next few months, it is planning online chats, replies to queries from children on education, problems in their life, self-development career watch online with the help of organisations and individuals and much more. Sums up Kanvinde: ``We don't want to make net a `make hay while the sun shines' business. We have clear goals and strategies chalked out for the coming year.'' No wonder then that the company proposes to spend Rs 1 crore including marketing and promotion for the next six months.