As a part of these initiatives, the company has set up abusiness-to-business (B2B) portal to take orders from industrial consumersand is set to launch a business-to-consumer site in a couple of weeks forits non-industrial consumers.

The B2C site will enable non-industrial consumers order liquified petroleumgas cylinders refil and other products online. The B2B portal allowsindustrial consumers to place their orders and track them online. Thecompany claims that as many as 500 transactions are posted on this B2B siteeveryday.

BPCL's deputy general manager, brand management S Ramesh told The FinancialExpress that the company was preparing to leverage the Internet to establisha leadership position in the petroleum industry. He said the company had putin place its e-commerce strategy about months ago.

"As an organisation, we are increasingly focusing on non-fuel offering likeConvenio stores, car washes, ATM, Internet kiosks, as well as dhabas andrest rooms on the highways," BPCL general manager, retail (north) RB Sahisaid. The B2C e-commerce facility would be available at the company'sexisting Website: www.bharatpetroleum.com. "We plan to leverage IT forcustomer relationship building," Ramesh said.

As a part of the e-commerce strategy, BPCL has undertaken massiveterminalisation of the retail outlets all over the country to handle creditcard, debit card and smart card based transactions. "Cash cannot remain thepredominant form of payment in future."

BPCL has also launched Petrocard in Delhi and Mumbai. This debit card can bepurchased by consumers for a one-time fee of Rs 250. The card can beuploaded for a minimum amount of Rs 500 and in multiples of Rs 100thereafter. The card will be accepted by BPCL petrol pumps not only forpetrol purchase but also lubricants and other general merchandise item atthe BPCL retail outlets.

BPCL is also setting up smartcard-enabled Internet kiosks at its retailoutlets as a part of the initiative to drive the e-commerce activity. Apilot study at five petrol pumps in Mumbai has received tremendous response,Ramesh said.

The Petrocard has a 4 kb microprocessor chip capable of supporting a varietyof functions. Initially, BPCL is offering a prepaid and rewards services,but "plans to add value subsequently". The card is re-usable and can beloaded and used at most Bharat Petroleum outlets. In Delhi, the card wouldbe accepted at 50 of the 84 outlets in the first stage.

The card has been launched in cities such as Chennai, Coimbatore, Kochi,Trivandrum, Hyderabad and Mumbai. In the next one month, the card will belaunched in 14 more cities including Chandigarh, Jaipur and Ludhiana. Thecard has a base of 16,000 customers at present, and BPCL expects to increasethat to 5 lakh by the year end.

The company is not making any transaction charges, service charges or annualfee over the one time fee. Under the rewards programme-Petromiles-a customergets points every time he uses the card at a BPCL outlet to purchasepetroleum product, or other products from the Convenio store or at theInternet kiosk.

The Petromiles can be collected and exchanged for wide range of giftsranging from music cassettes to personal stereos and gas tables to microwaveovens.