 "Gold again emerging as a safe haven")
GoldnSilver.in, an e-commerce start-up floated by Hyderabad-based publicly-listed IT solutions and products company, Nihar Info Global Limited, is gearing up to enter the business-to-consumer (B2C) space, according to its Managing Director BSN Suryanarayana.
“There are over 150,000 village level entrepreneurs in the country. We have signed letters of intent with over 25,000 of them across 10 states to sell gold and silver coins through their citizen service centres. We will do trial runs in a month’s time before commercially launching the B2C service,” he said.
Launched in October 2015, GoldnSilver.in currently offers 280 gold and silver coins, bars and other products sourced from various brands, including Whorra Enterprise’s Episode, Muskan Silver Arts, Vgold and Trisa Retail on its online portal, with the prices ranging from Rs 400 to Rs 2 lakh.
Currently, there is no transparency in pricing and the retail business sets it own standards when it comes to wastage and making charges, Suryanarayana said, adding that GoldnSilver.in was floated to bring in a new yardstick.
GoldnSilver.in now operates under the business-to-business (B2B) model, primarily piggybacking on the cement, pharmaceuticals and pesticides sectors, which place bulk orders for gold coins and silver bars to incentivise their dealers performance.
“We are generating gross merchandise value (GMV) only through the B2B business, which currently stands at Rs 1.6 crore. We are targeting to generate GMV of Rs 100 crore by the end of the next financial year,” he said.
Stating that GoldnSiver.in had entered into a partnership with Stock Holding Corporation of India for selling minted products of MMTC-PAMP and sovereign gold bonds, Surayanarana said that company was currently piloting few projects with the latter.
