Customer Centricity Key To All E-commerce Business Decisions

At the inaugural Ecommerce Logistics Summit 2019, stakeholders came together for compelling deliberations on issues facing the industry. Building business intelligence, keeping the customer at the centre, understanding regulation for smoother business were among the key points discussed by enthusiastic panel members.

- Blessy Chettiar

A round 150 industry stakeholders representing 100 organisations attended Indian Transport & Logistics News’ inaugural Ecommerce Logistics Summit 2019 held at ITC Gardenia in Bangalore on August 22 to discuss and deliberate upon issues to the everchanging ecommerce industry.

Vandana Aggarwal, economic advisor, ministry of civil aviation, government of India inaugurated the Summit, giving a historical perspective on regulation governing trade. She acknowledged that it was felt there was a "need for a regulatory mechanisms for e-commerce in the Indian space equally well to establish all the networks and interconnectivity needed between regulators" and that there was much to be done before India was in a position to participate in international negotiation on international rules on e-commerce.

"Fortunately, things went into a spin and so far there has been no specific negotiation on a subject called e-commerce. Recognising that it's a technology-driven activity, it got embedded into the rules governing goods, services, customs valuations, rules of origin, pre-shipment inspection, you name it and all standards, industrial and phytosanitary, and others which are all part of the import-export regulatory system," she added.

When Sabiha Mulla, director, Apt Logistics based in Andaman Islands raised a question during a panel discussion about poor internet infrastructure in 2-tier cities and towns of India, Aggarwal urged airline and logistics industry stakeholders to adopt districts to develop community trade.