President and Governing Body of FAIITA, after prudently considering the favourable response received from Asus with reference to submitted Memorandum, has unanimously resolved to revoke the purchase Deferment of Asus products with immediate effect, subject to Asus aligning their regional teams with regional IT Associations and clarify the process of agreed compensation on exceptional disruption of prices across all GTMs including but not limited to Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm & LFR etc.
All member of State Associations and Federations are advised to further intimate their members to resume normal business with Asus, said, Saket Kapur, General Secretary, FAIITA.
Consumer buying behaviour has changed drastically. We believe ASUS has its roots and identity in the Channel Fraternity and we are committed to protecting the interest of our Contracted ALP Partners. And we will take all possible actions to ensure Channel Fraternity can perform and grow the business by being an integral part of ASUS’s channel growth strategy. We at ASUS, need your support and expect all Channel fraternity to not indulge in selling ASUS products through any eCommerce portals without ASUS Team’s approvals thereby violating MOPs in the market and hampering earning potential of both brand as well as Channel fraternity.
We can succeed together serve our customers by the best possible way. ASUS would like to make it clear that all the above points will be applicable for all ASUS contracted ALP partners, said, Arnold Su, Consumer Notebooks & ROG Head, Asus India Pvt Ltd.
ASUS STAND ON THE MEMORANDUM ISSUED BY FAIITA:
1. There is a market need of one Nation and nearly one Price of your product range to obviate customer confusion on correct time, price and place to buy.
ASUS agree and believe to grow the business with all channel partners in a healthy way, Asus has made efforts to do it actively and will continue to do it for 365 days.
As a part of Price Parity across the vertical we are the first mover to bring Activation program for only contracted ASUS channel partners who are under “ASUS Loyal Partners” Programs (ALP partners) during the Online and LFR promotion period since last year Dec 2017.
And for this year, we have announced the activation scheme 3 times already since 1st November 2018 to till date. We will keep announcing activation programs / end customer program for ASUS Contracted ALP Partners to support sustainable and healthy margin across the verticals.
2. Contractually B&M partners should be able to match visibly most competitive price of your products, moreover the brand owner/OEM ensure seamless earning of a minimum sustenance business margin of 5% across entire product range.
ASUS is providing monthly SRP to all contracted partners every month currently, and we will continue to do it to align the similar effective end-customer pricing across contracted channels. In case of any variation of indiscipline, ASUS will correct it quickly.
We agreed that we should support the channel partner, the support will be routed through the contracted partners subject to purchase verification & our activation report, therefore ASUS will develop a support mechanism in case of price disruption continuing, we will work out the detail end user verification mechanism shortly.
Yes, which is including all the ASUS contracted online re-sellers which includes but not limit to Filpkart, Amazon, Paytm, if there is a promotion sales on the Online website and the same skus are available with channel partners, we will have the mechanism to protect our channel partners along with our activation report system/ end-user verification to support our contracted Asus Loyal Partners.
however it doesn’t include the unauthorized/uncontracted resellers which disturbed the price. (which means for example if any non-contracted resellers purchased and sell online with destructive price, ASUS will first find out the person and find a way to correct it.)
3. During Sales Promotion period at online portals (or any other such promotional disruptive price fair), there will be a similar sale at B&M partners with similar pricing fully supported by Brand Owners, ensuring a minimum 5% Margin across entire product range.
We have minimum 3.5%-6% gap between SRP to DBP (Depends model to model) and below DBP we have ASUS BER Structure. We have 5 types of ALPs with 5 product category mix. The BER started from 1% to 3.5% depends on the product category and partner category, partners can discuss with our team members to decide which ALP category they would like to work with.
4. Brand Owners/OEMs shall inform all registered B&M partners at least two weeks in advance; about likelihood of Sales Promotion activity by OLS, and advise partners to inform all footfall customers about it and stock products that will sell during OLS sales, to be in sync with online.
Noted, we will inform our ALP partners in advance if any Big online sales is commencing.
5. The brand owner shall also endeavour to augment the business in the offline channels during such discount periods proportionately to the surge in online sales of its products and provide special visibility through various marketing campaigns as per respective brand promotion strategies.
Noted, we does this and we will continue to do the same. During Online promotional days, ASUS will maximize its efforts in to drive traffic to ASUS Authorised Partners stores through various marketing mediums. We will run special end user schemes and consumer promotions during the Festive period.
6. During sale period, products in stock of B&M partners of nearly similar specifications and configurations as being promoted by OLS will be treated as same and Partners shall be allowed to earn a minimum 5% sustenance margin on sale of these products during promotional period.
Noted, we agree with this point and we will take care.
We have minimum 3.5%-6% gap between SRP to DBP (Depends model to model) and below DBP we have ASUS BER Structure. We have 5 types of ALPs with 5 product category mix. The BER started from 1% to 3.5% depends on the product category and partner category, partners can discuss with our team members to decide which ALP category they would like to work with.
7. A partner agreed Price differential matrix of Product Configuration/Specifications will be submitted by Brand Owner for arriving at stack price of various configurations of products, keeping in mind a minimum of 5% sustenance margin.
Point NO.3 – we covered
8. All the price parity compensatory claims to be settled by Brand Owners within one week .
ASUS Activation report system within ASUS is ready, we will just add the end-user verification process along with it. We will start the support with the immediately effect. (i.e. today onwards.)
9. Targets in post disruptive periods to all B&M partners shall be assigned on basis the actual sell out achieved by B&M partners and not construed to push inventory to them.
We agree with this point. We are with our partners in any circumstances. Even during Demonetization we were the first mover to extend the support to channel. We agree that our Branch Manager will discuss one to one with each ASUS ALP Partners about mutually feasible Target to be achieved in accordance with certain business objectives. ASUS will continue the same practice which ASUS follows today and there will not be any change in the said policy.
10. In the event of termination of partner agreement, it shall be responsibility of brand owner to clear within reasonable time, the unsold inventories of the terminated partner.
Agree with this point. We will take care.
11. During price disruption happened last festive sale our members are piled up with huge stocks for which viable solution is required from vendors so that there loses are covered and there stocks are liquidated.
Yes we agreed as we clarified this point in point NO.1. We always support our contracted ASUS LOYAL Partners.
12. As a matter of fact our Members are liable to pay overdue interest on all outstanding to your Distributors consequently ad idem interest is justifiably payable by you to them towards overdue incentives/ backends claimed.
We will discuss one to one with our ALPs and help resolve their concerns regarding TGT/ Payouts and if any SRN if they want to do.