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Think global and act local. This is the philosophy followed by e-commerce based Direct Selling company QNet in India. The 16-year old Asian direct selling company is a comparatively young player in an industry dominated by larger direct selling giants.
With the power of e-commerce fueling its growth, QNet has expanded from its heart in South East Asia to more than 100 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, Central Asia, East and West Africa and most recently Europe and Russia.
In India, QNet has been doing business for more than a decade and has experienced its fair share of challenges battling allegations of “prize chits and money circulation”, which the company strongly denies.
Zaheer Merchant, Director of Corporate Affairs from QNet’s global headquarters in Hong Kong speaks to Dilip Kumar Jha to clear the air regarding its business and talks about the company’s plans for India. Edited excerpts:
There are allegations of cheating against the company. Where did you go wrong?
We didn’t do any wrong. We are a genuine e-commerce company present in the Indian market for 13 years, with mega plans. India requires a regulator for online sales. QNet appeals for regulation at the earliest so that genuine companies can operate without fear of being accused of running any sort of ‘scheme’. Despite having a fully legal structure complying with all regulations and paying the relevant taxes and duties, QNet is being subjected to various legal challenges arising from baseless claims. If clear legislation was in place, investigators would be able to see QNet’s operations are legal, compliant and transparent. This has not just affected QNet’s business, but also its reputation on the global platform. If our intention was to make quick money and run, why would we fight to clear our name? To identify solutions, we will continue to work through the challenges with our customers, the authorities and the government.
Why has the going become difficult for QNet in India?
Evidently, India’s investment climate has challenges. Many multinational companies want to come to India and see it as the last frontier; however, they are cautious. India’s regulatory landscape will, no doubt, evolve to provide a safer business environment for foreign companies. Policies need to be created to regulate emerging segments such as direct-selling.
Despite the challenges in India, we remain committed to our distributors here. We are investing in manufacturing facilities and new product development. We already produce some of our watches in India and our energy drink nutriplus was primarily created for the India market. It is produced in Himachal Pradesh, and eventually, we want to take this to our global markets. Shifting production to India will give us a cost benefit of eight-12 per cent.
What is your strategy for Indian markets?
One of the things that set QNet apart in this segment is the depth and range of our product offerings. We offer about 30 different brands of products, classified into nine different product categories that focus on enhancing the lives of our customers and promoting a healthy lifestyle. QNet’s products range from wellness, skincare and nutrition to Swiss-made watches and jewellery. We also offer various services, including vacation packages and online learning courses.
Three years ago, we decided to change our business strategy for Indian markets by focusing on a niche segment, choosing products that added value and making a difference to the lives of our customers. Since then, the overreaching product criterion has been ‘life enhancement’. This shift from lifestyle to life enhancement allowed us to expand our product offerings into education, weight management, air purification and water filtration.
Currently, not all products are available in India, but we are working towards making more of these available to our customers here.
There are a few unique aspects we look into while evaluating new products. As a company, we follow a vegetarian philosophy. All meals served at company events are vegetarian; we also promote vegetarianism as a means to a healthy lifestyle. This is reflected in our product strategy, too. We do not allow any non-vegetarian ingredients in our consumable products and are against animal testing. We also fight against the growing rates of obesity, diabetes and other degenerative diseases by reducing sugar, artificial sweeteners and chemicals in our products.
Why is there skepticism on QNet’s wellness and energy product range?
Our wellness and energy range is sold under the brand Amezcua. We have an exclusive licence to distribute products such as the Bio Disc and Chi Pendant, two of our most popular products in this range. The glass from these products is produced in a state-of-the-art technology facility in Germany, which has more than 100 years of experience in glass manufacturing. This glass is energised using proprietary technology to create the finished product. We have never made any other claims apart from the ones clearly shown on our website and the marketing material for Amezcua products.
