Co-optex to tie up with e-commerce portals for sales

In an effort to tap the potential in online sales, Tamil Nadu Handloom Weavers’ Co-operative Society (Co-optex) plans to tie-up with a couple of e-commerce portals for sale of its products.

Its managing director T.N. Venkatesh told The Hindu here on Saturday that talks are on with Flipkart and Snapdeal. Co-optex launched sale of products online – through its website – in December last year and already there are three to four orders a day. These come from customers in different cities and towns in the northern States too.

It is hopeful of signing agreement with at least one e-commerce portal soon. Initially about 100 products, including sarees, bed sheets and apparels, will be available through the portal.

3-day expo

It has organised a three-day exhibition-cum-sale at The Residency here from Saturday, which was inaugurated by the District Collector Archana Patnaik. A similar expo is going on in Madurai and in Chennai it will be held from April 30. Usually, special sale are held at the Co-optex outlets. The idea of organising an event in a different venue is to attract more customers and to create awareness of Co-optex products.

The expo called “Cool Comforts” has sarees from 10 major weaving centres in the State – Madurai, Negamam, Karaikudi, Salem, Dindigul, etc., and includes organic sarees. The price of the products range from Rs. 650 to Rs. 4,000 each. All the products are cotton and hand woven and the designs have been developed at the Co-optex design studio.

Sales during summer (April – June) last year was Rs. 32 crore and it is expected to be Rs. 40 crore this year.