The plan envisages formation of new Amul Icecream Cyberstore in 100 cities, launch of Amul Cyber clubs in 125 cities, create four global e-commerce hubs in US, Dubai, India and Singapore. In addition to this, it will upgrade gifting services and to evolve Amul Family site as a customised portal for kids, teens and homemakers.

The Federation has already launched Amul Cybrestore in US in March 1999 and similar cybrestore in India in June last year. It has launched Amulmail.com in September last year.

According to the Federation managing director BM Vyas, it would focus on enabling e-transactions in village cooperatives. However, he admitted that the challenges related to limited Internet access, infrastructure bottlenecks and consumer exposure would have to overcome for the growth of e-commerce in India.

Vyas said the www.amul.com has over 3 lakh viewers per month of which 39 per cent are from India. It has already set up cybershops in 125 cities and fetching average order of Rs 300 plus per visit. It has e-mail database of over one lakh customers.

On digital marketing, Vyas said that there has been a dramatic increase in export inquiries since 1996 both from trade and consumers. There has been high customer involvement due to "emotional attachment" with a brand.

The Federation has a currently an installed base of 300 computers at village milk societies in Gujarat and over 1,000 computers at 14 dairy plants.

Additionally, 500 computers have been installed in the Federations' offices and additional 3,000 computers at dealer points.

The Federation has achieved an 100 per cent computer literacy in 1997 and all employees are being trained in e-commerce since April this year.