Amway Enters E-commerce Market and Boosts Sales

Amway India leverages a network of over 450,000 Amway business owners (ABOs) in India to sell its products. The company aims to achieve a revenue target of Rs 2,500 crore (US$542 million) by 2012, a little over double where it is today.

Highlights

-- Amway needed an e-commerce framework that was robust, available 24x7 and rich in features

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Amway India leverages a network of over 450,000 Amway business owners (ABOs) in India to sell its products. The company aims to achieve a revenue target of Rs 2,500 crore (US$542 million) by 2012, a little over double where it is today.

Highlights

-- Amway needed an e-commerce framework that was robust, available 24x7 and rich in features

-- Sales jumped from Rs 30 lakh a month to Rs 7 crore in just about nine months on Amway's website

To do that the organization needed to chalk out aggressive growth plans. Sanjay Malhotra, VP-IT/BS and eBiz, decided that the time was ripe to foray into e-commerce. But, other than being an ambitious expansion plan, there was a pressing need to take the online route because the company wanted to offer ABOs the flexibility of working from anywhere anytime.

"A considerable number of ABOs work part time with Amway. They need to visit Amway offices to either place orders or to take delivery of goods. Sometimes the office could be far. This was time consuming and inconvenient," says Malhotra.

Amway already had a custom-built ERP and a website serving ABOs, customers and casual visitors, but these were still not equipped to meet growing business needs. "We needed an e-commerce framework that was robust, available 24x7 and rich in features,'' says Malhotra.

The new platform basically created a virtual office offering all the facilities of a physical one. Thanks to it ABOs can now order, cross sell, add new distributors, and evaluate their business performance and their line of sponsors - from the comfort of their homes.

However, devising the e-commerce strategy was easier than implementing the solution.

Malhotra realized that with thinning budgets, the amount the company wanted to invest (Rs 3.5 crore), meant that the project would not pass muster on the basis of just ROI. So, he convinced the management with intangible benefits like convenience and ease of use and real time information for the business, among other benefits.

Today, the profits the project generated speaks for itself. From an average sale of Rs 30 lakh a month to Rs 7 crore in just about nine months on Amway's website since the day it launched is a feat a few companies can achieve.