Online fashion store Abof .com is going to close down its operations by the year end, due to being unable to compete against the heavy discounting model of online rivals such as Flipkart and Amazon.
December 31st, the Last Date of its Operations
On Thursday morning Abof (Aditya Birla Online Fashion) held a 20-minute town meeting where it informed its employees that December 31st would be the last date of its operations.
Giving Compensation to Employees
“Abof employees will be given four and-a-half month salaries as compensation, in case they wish to quit the company.” Said Santrupt Misra, HR director at Aditya Birla Group. This is the second e-commerce venture closure for Aditya Birla Group after it wounded up Trendin.com last year for same reasons.
Views of Chief Prasant Gupta
Aditya Birla Group launched Abof saying the site would not offer rebates and, rather, offer a more restricted and elegant scope of stock. Chief executive Prashant Gupta in an interview had told ET that their “target consumer is not the guy who is looking for a deal.” However, over a year later, around 70% of the items on the gateway were accessible on rebate.
Ecommerce in India has become synonymous with offering products at discounts and this can be seen in this ongoing festive sales where Flipkart, Amazon, Paytm are luring customers with discounts.