This had to happen someday. Kishore Biyani’s E-Zone was on an expansion spree with many outlets in Bengaluru. The Rajajinagar one was the biggest of all and the Future Group started gobbling up many more properties to open an e-zone everywhere. But what he did not anticipate is the performance of other small time players with the weapon they had against him –  ONLINE SHOPPING!

It is important to understand that when you open an physical store, it is going to cost you money. From the rentals to the employment you need to generate to keep the store going, and the miscellaneous bells and whistles like the parking space the footing of electricity bills and generator fuel and what not. Not to forget to mention the traffic jams generated due to your store, the physical store route is always the least profitable. When it came to electronic gadgets, distributors caught on to the fancy of opening their own stores a-la-ebay.

The small time players dealt everything online and slowly grew big. This included sites like the erstwhile fabmall.com which got taken over by indiaplaza.in, flipkart.com which is waiting on a potential acquisition from a bigger player like Amazon in the USA, and infibeam.com –  another suitor. Now we are not even still talking about online retailers like lootspot.com, letsbuy.com, naaptol.com, theitdepot.com and the likes who can collectively kill E-zone’s entire marketing strategy in one flat year sending it into a loss making enterprise.

Kishore Biyani being an intelligent guy has understood this issue well and has decided to offer e-zone on a platter –  so that young online shoppers who do not have the time and convenience can pick up the items they need online from the same huge store across the street. What matters then are the logistics of how to overthrow established players like flipkart.com in the longer run. E-zone’s strategy for sales has always been linking non moving products bundled into some ridiculously highly priced ‘offers’ which people with common sense can easily grasp and stay away from this store. Their products except the MRP’d ones, have always been on the costlier side of things. Given that they are entering online and the fact that Amazon is going to set up shop in India, this kind of selling strategy might fool a few people but not all those who have time and energy to search out a best deal among participating sites. Amazon can with one sweep of their hand kill E-zone’s forward thinking moves with their established presence and product lines.

Better late than never is always appreciated but unless E-zone tries to price its products competitively online owing to the fact that the factors mentioned in para number two are not there anymore as a liability, this is going to be turning out into yet another dormant online shopping portal. We have see this happening with other portals before, and E-zone is not special to get itself out of this mess. Only time will then tell whether this venture is a success or not.

The government of karnataka has today announced the second phase of KHB Suryanagar site allotments. The advertisement is specifically for LIG and MIG houses of 550 square feet and 600 square feet respectively. These translate to roughly 30×40 and 30×50 homes. The number of LIG houses is 110 and the number of MIG houses is 68 that are still available. The payment terms are Rs. 4lacs for the LIG and 4.75 lacs for the MIG. The total value of LIG homes is Rs.16 lacs, and the MIG is Rs. 19 lacs.

The following will be the conditions of the scheme:

1. The application process is now open
2. Applications which are not filled properly will be summarily disqualified without assigning reasons
3. The rules of allotment will be as per stipulated standards of the housing board
4. If you are from specific castes like SC/ST a certificate from tashildar is required to be provided along with the application
5. If you are from the army or other forces a certificate from the same office would have to be enclosed with the application
6. If you are a government employee a letter from the office you work from has to be enclosed with the application
7. If you are a handicapped person you must enclose a certificate stating your handicap from a registered government practitioner (doctor)
8. All senior citizens have to attach a copy of their age proof or birth certificate along with application
9. Every applicant have to provide an affidavit stating how many other properties in the state they have purchased amongst their immediate family members (if any)
10. The last date for submitting duly filled in applications is 8th of August, 2011 at the designated bank branches
1. Axis bank Jayanagar
2. State bank of mysore, CBAB complex caveri bhavan
3. Corporation Bank, SC road,
4. Union bank of india, Navrang Circle
11. For those who have already applied, they need to deposit the difference of initial deposit directly in the name of Commissioner, Karnataka Housing Board, Bangalore using a challan in any of the bank branches mentioned above. All prior applicants must also mention all their personal details along with previous application number, in a slip attached with the challan compulsorily. If any of the details are not mentioned, then those applications cannot be processed due to lack of information
12. All applicants must pay the intial deposit and the fee for application in one single DD in the name of Commissioner, Karnataka Housing Board, Bangalore. Those not providing initial amount would not be considered for allotment
13. All allotments are using lottery basis. For those unallotted members, their money (excluding fee) would be reimbursed with interest
14. Each allottee has to pay the rest of the amount in 4 equal installments. For those who fail to pay the 4 installments as per stipulated time their allotments would be rejected summarily without assigning any reasons.
15. Only after all successful allotees have paid their full amounts will the house absolute sale deed be executed in their name
16. For more information you can contact the department coordinator at Suryanagar project division, Suryanagar during office hours or by telephone on 080-27803076
17. You can also contact Chandranayak or Rajanna at 1st Floor, Cauvery Bhavan, KG Road, Bangalore during office hours or by telephone on 080-22273511-16

NOTE: For all queries on this topic, please discuss on www.khbsuryanagar.com