A group of retailers has stopped stocking Bosch and Siemens line of products in an apparent pushback against e-commerce platforms that offer deep discounts, a media report says.
Some of South India's biggest retailers have issued a trade advisory to their stores saying they have stopped purchases of products of white goods giant BSH Husger GmbH from December 26. The sellers include the Viveks, Vasanth, Girias, Darling, Shahs, and Sathya
All stores will liquidate the existing stocks by January 15 after which there will be no sales, the circular says.
The retailers' action has come the same day the central government issued policy guidelines that discourage deep discounts and single day promotions of online platforms.
Online pharma traders recently suffered a setback after the Madras High Court stayed all online medicine sales on a petition
"Purchases with BSH to be stopped from 26th December 2018 onwards. All sales promoters at the store shall be retained to liquidate the stocks which are in hand till 15th January 2019. All sales promoters to be removed on 15th January 2019," the group said in the advisory issued on December 25, according to the Economic Times.
BSH Household Appliances Group is one of Europe's largest manufacturers of home appliances and making Bosch and Siemens line of premium home appliances.
The company has been on an expansion spree in India with plans to set up a 100 million euros (Rs800 crore) plant near Chennai to manufacture refrigerators. The company already makes washing machines in the country.
Trade sources say the deep discounts that some e-commerce platforms offered on Bosch and Siemens products have aggrieved the offline retailers as their sales were affected during the Navaratri-Diwali festival season.
Apparently, BSH India officials had expressed their inability to stop online discounts, the sources told the website.
A source said the retailers had collectively met top management of major consumer goods companies to discuss how to stop online discounting. "We are not against any brand but we have to safeguard our interests since we have invested crores and lot of jobs are at stake if this trend of online discounting on electronics continues. Almost all companies responded positively and said they would get back on how to stop online discounting, except BSH India," the report quoted the source as saying.
