[Nepal] ecomnepal.com

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

ecomnepal.com

EcomNepal provides a unique business platform to Nepalese Co-
operatives, exporters , manufacturers and entrepreneurs. Its 
objective is to attract international buyers for Nepalese products 
and also provide innovative business services for the local market.

Conventional marketing in Nepal is expensive and time consuming. This 
project enables SMEs to work more efficiently and cheaply and promote 
themselves locally and globally for a $40 annual fee. Each member can 
put up unlimited advertisements, build a company Web page and use the 
group-purchasing tool, which also generates revenue for the site and 
enables SMEs to offer equal or better prices than their bigger 
competitors. The online product catalogue eliminates reprinting every 
time new products are added and the trade-lead feature is a 
marketplace for the most competitive prices and supports an extensive 
trade in used goods. eCommerce will soon be available in Nepal and 
that promises to create additional revenue streams. Over 75 percent 
of Internet connections in Nepal are in businesses and while many 
have websites, most do not have the staff to maintain and promote 
their websites which the project does for them because its success 
depends on the business it generates for its clients.

EcomNepal aims to provide solutions for:

    * Cost effective and efficient trade promotion services for the 
export sector

    * Support to village based co-operatives to market their products

    * Platform for entrepreneurs to showcase their ideas and generate 
feedback

    * Database of Laws , Schemes and Govt. Packages for all 
industrial sectors.

    * Promotion of e-business in the local market through services 
like a structured second hand goods market, group purchasing system, 
online outlets and online office supply system.

    * Publish articles and industry news.

    * Invite business leaders and Govt. Officials to participate in 
interactive segments like chat sessions to field questions from 
public.

* Publishing and developing interactive CD``s on the basis of 
information collected through above initiatives.

EcomNepal is a small web consulting company and the entire initiative 
for developing and maintaining this project is currently being 
carried out without any outside support. It was started as a small 
project after interacting with a number of clients and getting 
feedback from them on the problems they faced in competing at the 
international level. It gave an opportunity to use the team´s skills 
and resources to make a positive impact on the needs of this segment.

Slowly the organization developed more services and included features 
which would enable more interaction with the local market also. They 
then realized that the potential for the project can extend to nearly 
every organization or individual who is involved in business or 
community welfare in Nepal. Ideally the EN team would like to balance 
the commercial and non-commercial aspects and provide the project 
with a unique edge to meet the economic and social needs of the 
users.

Challenges to be faced:

As the scope of the project increases the team is under pressures of 
time and resources to match the needs of the project. This is how 
they describe their situation:

"We are functioning with the same team that has to support the main 
business of web consulting from where we generate the funding for 
this project. Sometimes we get help from volunteers, but these are 
only temporary. This results in development, implementation and 
research taking longer periods.

Many users need to be trained. We have tried to make the system self- 
manageable for the users (this helps to save us a lot of time) but 
they still need personal help.

Current Needs Include:

    *

      Marketing support. Difficulties in obtaining and monitoring 
cross promotional methods.

    *

      Govt bureaucracy for compiling database of laws and schemes.

    *

      Developing a business model to get the project on its own feet

    *

      Better hosting solution for the portal with adequate support 
for emails

    *

      Software and programming solutions ( will save us a lot of time 
)

    *

      Expertise on increasing the efficiency of the b2b platform

    *

      Ideas / expertise on how we can implement a local online 
payment system

    *

      Solutions for online security of portal

    *

Access to Funding

Contact:
Amit Dayal dayal@vianet.com.np
www.ecomnepal.com  


source: 
http://www.techempower.net/0/Editorial.asp?aff_id=0&this_cat=Projects&;
action=page&obj_id=883