winds of changeludhiana due to tough times being faced by the industrialists in the wake of frequent lockdowns in states that are big consumers of their products they have started looking for other solutions online selling and ecommerce platforms which have become most soughtafter modes of sales in the country were unfortunately not opted by a lot of ludhiana factories so far the ones that have taken to this model are of the view that though online selling is challenging they will have to adapt to it industry associations of the city are also taking initiatives to help local units sell their products online according to komal kumar jain chairman of duke fashions limited we have been using online platforms for selling our range of garments and footwear for quite some time now and about 1015 of our total sales come from this mode online selling is very challenging especially for manufacturers as there is a requirement for huge stock and variety besides the circle of order placing and payment realisation is very big and there is a high rate of return and exchange regardless of all these factors one has to change the business strategy with time and those who are capable of adapting to this change must do it for their own goodsome business associations are using social media for connecting buyers and sellers upkar singh ahuja president of chamber of industrial and commercial undertakings cicu says keeping in view the changing times when lockdowns have become frequent people are turning more to online mode of shopping so we started a facebook group called make in ludhiana in august last year during the first wave of coronavirus this group now has 30000 members from all over india and even other countries products made by ludhiana factories and services offered by the local companies are advertised free of cost in this group purchase queries are posted by customers from all over india and abroad a big number of business queries have matured in the group as people can get to multiple suppliers and have competitive rates without spending any fee or commissionahuja adds to make local businessmen aware about online selling we have been organising interactions with experts online selling is not easy but sooner or later businesses will have to adapt to this medium for their survivalnarinder bhamra president of fasteners manufacturers association of india says in the ongoing situation when people are afraid to go out to shop online shopping has caught up manufacturers also need to adapt to this mode running a website with payment gateway and other features is costly at present and the other option of selling goods through ecommerce platforms attracts huge commission but it is an effective tool of sales so ludhiana factories need to shift to it but as far as those manufacturers are concerned who supply their goods to original equipment manufacturer oem online selling or ecommerce do not have any utility