Besides Jeff Bezos-led Amazon, Walmart-owned Flipkart is also facing a threat from Asia's richest man and RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, who is also betting big to grab a share of the country's e-commerce market.
The US-based firm has marked down the value of Flipkart for the sixth time, the latest at a time when it has been struggling to raise funds at a valuation higher than or equal to $15.2 billion.
Amazon, however, claimed that it is just a service provider and doesn't own goods at any point of sale due to which it is not liable to pay this tax.
Amazon's huge investment of $80 million a month didn't win it favour over customers during the festive season, with rival Flipkart selling more goods, reports Alnoor Peermohamed from Bengaluru.
The company has notched up a total of $540 million in funds over the last six years, $360 million of which has flowed in two tranches this year itself.
E-commerce firms Amazon, Flipkart, and others are expected to witness blockbuster festival season sales of around $9 billion this year, surpassing pre-pandemic sales of $5 billion in 2019. The pandemic has accelerated the shift to e-commerce, with more consumers shopping online at a higher frequency than last year, observed analysts. This year's festival sales (gross merchandise value or GMV) are expected to grow 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to $4.8 billion during the first week of the season and potentially clock over $9-billion GMV during the whole festival month, revealed consulting firm RedSeer's e-commerce festival season report.
Several firms are stepping up to help their workforce cope with soaring temperatures
'If Walmart is a physical retailer, why is it striking a deal with Flipkart for the online space?'
If Sachin Bansal sells his stake at a little over 5 per cent and steps down from Flipkart, as reports have suggested recently, either Binny Bansal or Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart, could be an option for the leadership position.
The deal, which will kick in after the holiday season, in January, will give Apple more visibility among online buyers in India. The partnership could help Apple take on Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus, which has become one of the leading player in the premium smartphone market thanks to Amazon.
Global e-commerce company Amazon has said it sees "substantial uncertainties" in interpretation of Indian laws, which could impact its business in one of the world's fastest-growing multi-billion dollar online shopping market.
'Big Billion Day' scheduled for October 6 is inspired by flat number where co-founders began their journey.
The filing of Swiggy's DRHP has led to direct comparisons with Zomato, which is a direct competitor in food delivery and the fast-growing quick-commerce segment where Blinkit (owned by Zomato) faces off against Instamart (and Zepto). In Q-commerce, Flipkart, Amazon, Reliance and Big Basket are all entering the space. All of them have deep pockets, hence competitive intensity will rise going forward.
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.
Most of Flipkart's business came from consumer electronics.
What seems to have changed over the last two-three years is that earlier the CCI considered online as another channel for retail sales, while it now seems dividing the retail market into two -- online and offline, and looking at them separately, say competition law experts.
While the talks are still at a preliminary stage, sources said major retail players had held discussions with Amazon
Loss of investor confidence in Flipkart last year sparked off a chain reaction in startup sector
Flipkart has described the event as 'rare' and 'isolated'.
At that time, co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal had made a public announcement at a Bengaluru hotel, about a $1-billion fund raising, largest so far in the Indian e-commerce sector. A day later, Amazon issued a statement that it was investing $2 billion in India.
In a filing with the US Security and Exchange Commission on Friday, Walmart said it would allow the initial public offering of Flipkart in four years at a valuation no less than what it invested in the e-commerce firm, if a grouping of minority shareholders asks for it.
Amazon on Sunday won an interim award against its partner Future group selling retail business to Reliance Industries for Rs 24,713 crore after a Singapore-based single judge arbitration panel put the deal on hold. Amazon had dragged Future to arbitration after the Kishore Biyani group firm had agreed to sell businesses to billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance.
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.
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Buyers complain about server errors, allege discounts were 'not real'.
Flipkart has not been able to process with its plans of getting into the grocery vertical and is stuck on running pilots in select cities.
In its first acquisition in India, the American online retail giant is planning to buy out the fashion portal
With the festive season approaching, e-tailers are going all out to woo consumers.
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.
E-commerce in India could grow to $137 billion by 2020 from $11 billion in 2013, says Morgan Stanley, and firms like Amazon, local market leader Flipkart and rival Snapdeal, backed by Japan's SoftBank, are fighting for a bigger share.
Dabbawalas have been in the profession of transporting lunch boxes.
While the investment amount could not be immediately ascertained, a report pegged it at about $2 billion.
Who invested how much into Flipkart in its latest round of $1 billion funding? Vicky Nanjappa/Rediff.com finds out.
Flipkart will need $2 bn annual profit to make Walmart investment viable, which will mean yearly revenue of $100 bn
While JioMart is doing 250,000 orders per day, BigBasket and Amazon pantry are doing 220,000 and 150,000 orders, respectively.
In an email to customers they say 'Big Billion Day' sale today to eclipse all other multi-day festive sales.
Karnataka tax dept may attach assets of dealers; new retailers not being registered
The aim is to replace nearly 40 per cent of its existing last mile fleet of delivery vans with EVs by March 2020. o start with, the company is looking at deploying nearly 160 e-vans by the end of 2019.
Both Indian firms have been in talks with investors for nearly a year to raise fresh funds of as much as $ 1 billion, but with little success so far.
Amazon has seen its India sales growing four times this year.
The term sheet with Flipkart could be signed within this week and the due diligence for the deal would commence immediately thereafter.
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