The promotion of intra-regional commerce as a mechanism for accelerating the CARICOM Single Market process is one of the key goals of the new on-line shopping service launched by Giftland Office Max, according to the company’s President Roy Beepat, speaking with Stabroek Business earlier this week Beepat said that one of the company’s immediate objectives was to place the new on-line service at the disposal of local manufacturers seeking to promote their products and to win new markets in the Caribbean. “Part of the aim of this initiative is to promote a more progressive commercial culture in the Caribbean that will allow for the easier movement of more goods and services across regional borders which is what the Caricom Single Market is all about,” Beepat told Stabroek Business.
And according to him Giftland’s new on-line service could provide an affordable marketing opportunity for small enterprises in Guyana and the region as a whole which have traditionally been stymied by an absence of adequate marketing opportunities. “What we are also seeking to do is to embrace small craftsmen both in Guyana and elsewhere in the Caribbean whose operations do not allow for resource allocation for marketing by providing affordable opportunities for their products to reach the wider regional market,” Beepat said,
Giftland Chief Executive Officer Ian Ramdeo who spearheaded the conceptualization and implementation of the new on-line shopping service told Stabroek Business that the initiative was also a response to what the company saw as an unsatisfied market among Guyanese residing in the diaspora niche for getting goods to relatives at home. Once we began to look at the project more closely we recognized that it could also be applied to the rest of the Caribbean,” Ramdeo said.
Intra regional movement of goods ordered on-line will be facilitated through a contract between the company and the regional airline LIAT using its Quik Pack service.
Ramdeo told Stabroek Business that while the company had been hoping that its service would also cover the forward movement of goods to North America, existing stringent trade regulations did not allow for such a service at this time.
Getting the project established was quite a challenge since it included complex collaboration with Scotia Bank and other entities. What we found, for example, was that while Scotia Bank was offering an on-line credit card processing service we would have been the first customer in Guyana to access that service. It took about a year just to get the security protocols set up.”
Transactions through the on-line credit card system are facilitated by a clearing bank in Bermuda which verifies the liquidity of the card holder and authorizes all credit transactions. Programming for some parts of the company’s web site is being done by a company in Trinidad and Tobago while shipping arrangements for goods ordered overseas are being facilitated by a Canadian company.
According to Ramdeo the new Giftland on-line shopping service covers several areas of coastal Guyana including Georgetown, Berbice and Linden. Essequibo is not yet receiving the service.
Beepat told Stabroek Business that the company’s new on-line service had broken new ground in the region. “Part of what motivated us was the realization that most companies in Guyana and elsewhere in Caricom have not taken advantage of the tremendous marketing potential which is available through the Internet.”
Beepat also says that the new service is also seeking to target Caribbean people in the diaspora who provide regular subsidies for relatives in Guyana and elsewhere in the region through cash transfers and barrels.
According to him research undertaken by Giftland prior to the launch of its new service indicated that foreign remittances to Guyana amounted to more than US$200M annually while remittances to the region as a whole amounted to more than one billion dollars.
And the movement of monies by wire transfer “attract sliding scales of charges which would not be applicable with the online business,” and that this reduced cost would afford the recipient maximum use of the funds. “Such a service would be particularly important to recipients of small amounts of cash.”
Beepat also told Stabroek Business that his company was seeking to impact on “the barrel culture” that has become common to Guyana and other parts of the region by offering both senders and recipients a cheaper more convenient option.
“People are still sending large amounts of barrels back to their relatives and friends. What we seek to do through our on-line service is to save people the valuable time spent acquiring and shipping these items. What our research has also indicated to us is that retail prices for some of the items shipped to Guyana in barrels are significantly lower here than in North American, European and other Caribbean markets. When you consider the time factor involved in purchasing high priced retail items and time spent packing barrels together with the cost of shipping, the problems associated with customs clearance and delivery it would be much easier and cheaper to shop online,” he said.
