Offline merchants on the net

Another idea, which I believed in sometime back, was get offline merchants online....

Makes perfect sense in a place like India....where there are a number of merchants offline and just getting to be internet savvy…have heard about it and want to be part of it but don’t have the bandwidth or knowledge to create a website…

Plus the consumers in India still believe in physically checking the product themselves…

Charge merchants a fee every time a person asks for their address or contact details....
or go 1 step further let the user dial the merchant through the internet so the merchant is convinced that it is a genuine customer....

How this helps the customer??
Customers can now online compare rates/other details across a city/state and get in touch with a particular merchant...so u know u get the best rates possible here....

I hear its pretty popular in the US but will somethink of it in India??

We can only wait and watch...