KVIC to launch e-commerce marketplace

Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) plans to launch its e-commerce marketplace that will feature around 700-800 products. KVIC has products currently listed across 58 categories selling groceries, footwear, apparel, herbal medicines, spices, and more. It launched the beta portal in August and now rolls it out completely on January 1 or 2. Currently, it is being managed by KVIC itself while the new marketplace will be operated by a franchisee.

The e-commerce marketplace is expected to cross Rs 2 crore turnover by end of the current financial year 2020-21 with khadi masks, khadi fabric, and honey being the top-selling product products. The launch comes around KVIC’s recent crackdown on fake khadi products being sold on e-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, and others as claimed by the commission. It had said in September that it forced such marketplaces to remove more than 160 web links selling products in the brand name of Khadi.

KVIC had stated then that it had sent legal notices to more than 1,000 firms using Khadi India brand name to sell fake products and “thus causing damage to its reputation and the loss of work to Khadi artisans,” according to its statement. The action had also led to shutting down of multiple retail stores selling fake khadi products.