At a time when Flipkart has entered the quick-commerce race with a service called "Minutes", executives at rival players said they are in a wait-and-watch mode. They said they would be concerned only once the e-commerce firm is able to succeed in this space. The Walmart-owned firm's quick-commerce service has gone live in some parts of Bengaluru, putting it in competition with firms such as Zepto, Swiggy's Instamart, and Zomato's Blinkit.
'A struggling actor once came to me and told me there's no work.' 'I said when there's no work, that's when you have a lot of work.' 'He said he didn't understand.' 'I explained that you have to keep reading, watching, writing, traveling.' 'It is like riyaaz for an actor.'
Quick commerce major Zepto has raised $340 million in a follow-on financing round at a valuation of $5 billion as it gears up for an initial public offering (IPO). This is Zepto's third big-ticket fundraise within a year. With this, the company has raised more than $1 billion in 12 months.
Kishore Biyani led-Future Group has filed a caveat before the Delhi high court requesting it to be heard if any plea is filed by e-commerce major Amazon over its Rs 24,713 crore deal with Mukesh Ambani-led RIL. Anticipating a move by Amazon, which had got an interim arbitration award in its favour, putting the announced deal on hold, the Future Group firm has moved the Delhi high court.
Probe has allegedly found calculation errors by Amazon. The company paid higher GST but instead of claiming refund took wrong input tax credit.
As quick commerce gains ground, emerging direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are betting big on digital channels to drive growth. According to Aman Gupta, co-founder of wearables brand BoAt, new-age brands in India have been expanding at a much faster pace than expected, driven by digital channels like quick-commerce. "Investors doubted the potential of D2C brands when we started, but today there are multiple brands in the startup market that are growing on the shoulders of these digital channels," Gupta said while addressing a session at Razorpay's D2C and Retail Summit recently.
In December last year, Amazon invested over Rs 1,700 crore into its payments and wholesale business units in India, while in October it had infused over Rs 4,400 crore (more than USD 600 million) in its various units in India, including marketplace and food retail. Bezos last visited India in 2014 when he presented Amazon's Indian unit with a giant cheque for USD 2 billion. Since then, Amazon has pledged a further USD 3.5 billion to expand in the country and the USD 1 billion investment announced on Wednesday would take the total committed investment to USD 6.5 billion.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is in India this week and is expected to meet top government functionaries, business leaders and SMBs.
From virtual yoga to empathy, the pandemic has prompted the e-commerce giant to double down on building innovations focused on improving remote work culture especially employee well-being, both mental and physical.
Amazon has also signed a term sheet with Kishore Biyani-led Future group to invest $600 million to $700 million for a 12 to 15 per cent stake in the retail giant, it is learnt.
The TIME 100 AI list is an interesting assortment of titans. Indians make up about 20 per cent of the coveted list, which is pretty commendable, notes Sandeep Goyal.
With digital adoption fast gaining currency, India is likely to see retail digital payments double to $7 trillion by 2030 from current levels, a study by Kearney and Amazon Pay said. In the report 'How Urban India Pays', Kearney-Amazon Pay said strong adoption of digital payments in online purchases has potentially led to a permanent shift in consumer behaviours, fuelling offline adoption as well.
Jeff Bezos, chief executive officer of Amazon, has committed to invest $5.5 billion into India and that figure is approaching quickly.
While the investment amount could not be immediately ascertained, a report pegged it at about $2 billion.
From a conqueror's epic journey to a school kid's nocturnal adventures, fasten your seatbelts as OTT takes you to multiple destinations this week.
Several firms are stepping up to help their workforce cope with soaring temperatures
The cities where services have resumed include Bengaluru, Mysore, Pune, Ludhiana, Noida, Gurugram, Raipur, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Industry experts believe it would be at least 4-5 days before the backlog of orders can be cleared.
Sellers downloading their monthly financial reports were served with those of other vendors, leading to a breach of competitive businesses data.
While the talks are still at a preliminary stage, sources said major retail players had held discussions with Amazon
The case may drag for a few years, experts say, as CAIT and DVM have said they will appeal against the interim relief granted to Amazon.
Reliance Retail's digital commerce platform JioMart will morph into an e-marketplace offering multiple brands - from electronics, consumer durables, fashion and lifestyle, beauty, home, kitchen, and grocery - as it girds up to take on the likes of Amazon and Flipkart ahead of the festival season sales. India's largest retailer was in the process of onboarding third-party sellers these past few months, further increasing its selection across categories multifold. Its website and application offers general merchandise as well.
Amazon India Country Head Amit Agarwal refers to all talk of mergers as 'noise'. 'All this is a distraction, when the focus should be on the customer,' he says.
The department for promotion of industry and internal trade has rejected Walmart-backed Flipkart's proposal seeking approval for entry to the food retail sector, citing a regulatory issue, an official said on Monday. The government permits 100 per cent foreign direct investment in food retail for food produced and manufactured in India.
Amazon India is waiting for clarifications from the government on several aspects of the latest FDI guidelines to be able to carry on with business in the country. Sources said, no new investment is likely till at least the second half of 2019.
Not displaying the mandatory information, including country of origin, on products sold on their platforms in India, draws government's attention.
Stories of friendship, former life and fights against the system dominate the OTT this week. Sukanya Verma lists her recommendations.
While JioMart is doing 250,000 orders per day, BigBasket and Amazon pantry are doing 220,000 and 150,000 orders, respectively.
With expectations of customers changing and demand for seamless, uninterrupted shopping increasing, tech companies are now using this fear of becoming irrelevant as a sales pitch to sell their products to traditional retailers.
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
Team Amazon would also educate and train the khadi artisans to directly sell their products to online customers.
The top five most trusted brands are Samsung Mobiles, Sony, LG, Nokia and Tata.
Woke Barbie, detective Red Riding Hood and gangsters galore on OTT this week.
2023 has seen some beautiful performances in films that released on OTT as well as in theatres.
You will be as smitten with this Singaporean soup as I was.
'Given that the market is now demanding disciplined growth, well-run companies should be able to demonstrate profitability with the cash on hand.'
Bots don't suffer from the same nervousness that real matches do. This makes every conversation with a bot almost flawless and smooth, alerts rediffGURU Ravi Mittal.
Something is cooking in online food delivery. After 15 years of grappling with the demands of the business - read cash burn - Gurugram-based Zomato reported its first profit in the first quarter of 2023-24 (FY24). Not satiated, it reported a profit in the following quarter as well: Of Rs 36 crore in the second quarter compared to Rs 2 crore in the first. A year ago, in the second quarter of FY23, it had reported a loss of Rs 251 crore.
Future, which recently tied up with Amazon in India to sell its fashion and food products exclusively on the American giant's marketplace platform, is looking at a gross merchandise value of about Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) in the next three years from the venture.
As for his interest in space, Amazon founded Blue Origin, a privately funded aerospace company.
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