MMTC plans retail bullion portal

State-owned trading company MMTC plans to put in place a full-fledged portal for bullion transactions.

“The idea is to expand the retail footprint for gold and silver. MMTC wants to reach a wider customer base through a dedicated portal for bullion. Though we have a site for e-procurement, it needs to be substantially upgraded,” an MMTC executive said.

MMTC has invited bids for deployment of software for its ecommerce portal. The selected bidder will be responsible for the retail operations, customisation and deployment of the software on the cloud, and maintenance for five years.

Eligible bidders must be companies registered in India with a minimum turnover of ~10 million in each of the last three financial years through ecommerce platform development and maintenance. Also, their net worth needs to be positive for each of the last three financial years.

The scope of work includes deployment of software, including its integration with the payment gateway, and a mobile application. MMTC expects to complete the project within 16 weeks from the start date.

MMTC’s customers will be able to search for products using keywords on the e-commerce site. The site will also offer an advanced search option.

The site will have a temporary shopping cart for guests and a permanent shopping cart for registered customers. Buyers will be able to view the shipping prices for their purchased products. That apart, customers will be able to pay for the purchased products on the website using an integrated payment gateway provided by the client. The website will be integrated with social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.

In addition to its own outlets in the country, MMTC has tied up with Indian Overseas Bank, Vijaya Bank, Federal Bank and Yes Bank to sell gold coins of 5 gm and 10 gm as well as 20 gm gold bars. The company also has a transparent buyback process for coins made from recycled gold.