Catalogue retailing, online shopping and dedicated television channels, alternative retail channels are rooting well.

The biggest chunk of business still comes from online shopping, which started soon after Internet arrived in India.

But it is only now that things are getting big with retailers getting on to the online platform. As the credit-card base widens and cash on delivery becomes popular, business here picking up.

Industry players estimate that e-commerce (minus the travel segment) should touch Rs 1,000 crore within a year.

With no rental and maintenance costs, retailers find it viable to offer discounts online without shrinking margins.

Giving competition to Rediff and e-bay are pioneer retailers such as Pantaloon and Shoppers Stop, with the latter planning to go online in a few months.

Future Bazaar, Pantaloon Retail’s virtual retailing unit which started last June, is doubling its sales month-on-month now and sales are expected to touch $20 million by the time it completes one year of business.

Hypercity has online, catalogue and physical retail outlets. Future Bazaar is now opening smaller format retail centres called Big Bazaar Unlimited, where people could go through catalogues and use kiosks to order.

HomeShop 18, another TV18 venture, is present online as well as with catalogues and now has gone a step further. It has started a 24*7 television channel just for shopping.

Raman Gulati, VP, finance and operations, HomeShop 18, says his venture will change the way people shop in India.

“Convenience is just a call away. Imagine sitting in an air-conditioned room and shopping, while watching television,” Gulati said.

The revenues from a channel are expected to be five times that of a online portal. Considering the penetration of television, once the distribution is set up, the retailer can go all out to target their consumers sitting at home.

They can offload old inventory, advertise about new products, take showcasing and demonstrating to a new level.

However, alternative channels may not be able to provide the sort of experience that malls can.