In a significant move, a group of textile sector entrepreneurs are joining hands to promote ‘Tirupur brands’ in foreign markets through e-commerce route, thanks to a coordinated step taken by Tirupur Thozhil Pathukappu Kuzhu (TTPK) and Sripuram Trust, the two textile entrepreneurs’ forums.
“Till now, awareness about marketing own brands in global market has been lacking as the knitwear exporters here were simply relying on the orders from foreign buyers and only executing the same though many of the same manufacturers have their own brands for the domestic market,” T.R. Vijayakumar, coordinator of TTPK, told The Hindu .
According to him, this need to change and hence, the immense marketing opportunities available through e-commerce portals for marketing such brands into foreign markets too need to be tapped.
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Both the TTPK and the Sripuram Trust have started reaching out to major e-commerce portals like Amazon.com for organising interfaces with the exporters here so as to explain the businessmen the benefits of using the e-platforms since the electronic mode of trading is still in a relatively nascent stage in the cluster even in the case of domestic sale of the brands.
TTPK and Sripuram Trust coordinators pointed out that the marketing of the Tirupur brands through e-commerce routes would have its own economical advantages apart from putting the brands in global market. “Manufacturers will get good margins as intermediaries in the trade can be avoided and they need not have to spend huge amounts on marketing the brand by visiting the foreign countries,” said Mr. Vijayakumar said. A major advantage which the trade consultants see if the manufacturers try to market their brands through e-commerce route, is that they would be able to easily reach out with their brands even to potential buyers in non-traditional export markets.