Mumbai: The home shopping channel Best Deal TV, owned by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar and celebrity couple Shilpa Shetty and Raj Kundra, has suffered huge set-back in sales due to the demonetisation and the company has decided to suspend operations of the standalone channel for two months or so as it has seen a drastic fall in business that works on the cash-on delivery model.
Scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes has squeezed the home shopping business, said Hari Trivedi, chief operating officer, Best Deal TV. “The cash-on delivery (CoD) business is negligible due to very high currency crunch in the market, thereby impacting the call flow,” he said.
The company, which sold products worth Rs 4.5 crore in October, saw business shrink to less than Rs 1 crore in November. “Our overall business is not even 20 per cent of what we achieved during October 2016,” Trivedi said.
He added that investment sentiment is negative for the home shopping industry.”As per the various reports and economic surveys, we feel that the situation is not likely to improve for the next two to three months at least. Owing to this scenario, companies in the home shopping channel category, including us, are not able to meet internal fixed expenses to the extent of even 30 per cent.”
Best Deal TV has decided to put operations on hold for the next 45 to 60 days, suspending operations “temporarily” in terms of media activity, call centers, etc. and the company will take a call on the future after this period.
