The homegrown cafe major Cafe Coffee Day is betting on e-commerce to improve the margins.
"We are looking at opportunities outside the stores. To begin with, we are looking at e-commerce. We have a vanilla site right now but are looking at e-commerce in a big way," Coffee Day president S Vejay Anand said.
"Currently we are only at the planning stage and will take three to four months to firm up the plans. We are also hoping to offer customised coffee online," he added.
A part of the Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company, Cafe Coffee Day currently operates 1,300 outlets, across three formats --lounges, cafes and kiosks.
The Bangalore-based company plans to add 700 outlets and take the total to 2,000 by 2014.
The company also sells coffee powder, T-shirts and mugs through its stores, which contribute 8 percent of revenues.
"E-commerce will be a separate entity. We are still chalking out plans on what the numbers are going to be. But it is still early days," he said, when asked about the revenue from the e-commerce site.
"We are not only going to retail through our own website but also plan to tie-up with India Plaza, Homeshop," he said.
On the product offerings, he said, "We are actually working on a portfolio of products and we want to get our act together. We are definitely looking at other partners, who can retail their products through our website. Maybe bags, wallets, coasters, stationery, accessories, something that appeals to the youth."
The coffee chain has partnered with the Indian Premier League teams Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for selling their merchandise in its stores.
Asked if it would retail the cricket merchandise through its e-commerce site, Anand said, "It is still early days. We will take it step by step."