Mumbai: Khadi and Village Industries Commission plans to adopt e-commerce in a “big way” to reach its sales target of Rs 5,000 crore by 2018, a top official said.

“We are in talks with e-commerce players and are targetting online sales in a big way to reach our sales target of Rs 5,000 crore,” KVIC’s Chief Executive Officer Usha Suresh told PTI here.

“We are in the process of tying up with Paytm, and are also looking at tie-ups with other e-commerce majors to promote online sales,” she added.

KVIC, part of the MSME Ministry, is eyeing at least 10 per cent of its sales coming from online channels in the next few years, she added.

In order to promote khadi as a fashionable fabric, KVIC is looking to open premium lounges across major cities, called ‘Khadi India Lounge’.

“We are set to open Khadi India Lounges across metros in the country in the next few months. We are opening these premium outlets in Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur initially, and will take it to all major cities by next year,” Suresh said.

Further, to increase sales from the current Rs 1,500 crore, KVIC has several expansion plans in the pipeline.

“We have announced a franchise scheme, where we will have four outlets in each of the state capitals, and two in different districts,” she added.

Currently, there are 26 exclusive Khadi stores, and over 7,050 sales outlets.

KVIC is also in discussions for launching outlets in airports.

She said that KVIC is also setting up export cells to promote overseas sales of its products, as there is good demand from countries like US and UK.

Currently, KVIC is not doing direct exports but is looking at international market through tie-ups, which will help in making khadi an international brand, she said.

KVIC’s products are manufactured by about 7 lakh privately-owned household units.

These units are funded through schemes such as Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme.

Source: The Economic Times