Govt launches online portal 'e-lala' to safeguard interest of small traders

New Delhi: With an aim of promoting interests of 5.77 crore small businesses, an online portal ’e-lala’ was launched to promote business-to-business and trader-to-customer transactions and reduce costs. [caption id=“attachment_2518806” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  E-commerce. Shopping cart and credit cards on laptop[/caption] Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated ’e-lala’, an e-commerce portal of Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT). Naidu complimented CAIT for e-lala initiative which is aimed at promoting the interests of 5.77 crore small businesses in the context of rapid expansion of e-commerce in the country. He said online shoppers in the country are expected to increase from 34 million in 2014 to 100 million in 2016 and e-commerce has grown manifold from Rs 3,600 crore in 2011 to Rs 53,000 crore in 2015. By leveraging digital technology under e-lala initiative, he said the emerging global threat from e-commerce to small traders could be addressed with proper outreach and marketing strategies. e-lala, a city and location based portal, seeks to promote business-to-business and trader-to-customer transactions in a city and thereby eliminating middlemen and resulting in reduced cost of goods and services. e-lala’s distinctive features include a speciality corner promoting unique products associated with each city, an inquiry corner enabling consumers post their enquiries for a particular product which will be responded to in 24 hours and an artisans corner enabling artisans and entrepreneurs display their products. According to CAIT, e-lala enables physical stores to have their own online stores enabling them to retain their customer base besides additional source of growth in business. Since it is a city-based portal with involvement of only local traders, choosing an object becomes easy for consumers. PTI