That's because India does not have a serious venture capital industry with an appetite for risk, observes T N Ninan.
While Flipkart and Amazon go on a fund-raising spree, the real battle will begin once big industrial houses such as the Tatas, Reliance and the Aditya Birla group join the race.
India's e-commerce sector is a prize, but one that may end up being spread thinly.
The Centre has slapped as many as 148 notices on e-commerce players in the past three months for not complying with the mandatory display of the 'country of origin' tag on products sold. "Of the 148 notices, 56 have compounded it (the offence) and paid up around Rs 34 lakh," a senior official told Business Standard. "Every product has to display the country of origin, along with other basic information," the official added. In the case of e-commerce companies, these details have to be clearly displayed on their portals.
The overall e-commerce opportunity in India and China is comparable, yet it's hard to see any single player in India emerging with Alibaba-like market share.
So what's up? Why are so many promoters heading for the door? It cannot be that all of them lost their appetite for a good fight at the same time.And if Naresh Goyal of Jet Airways and Subhash Chandra of Zee Entertainment do bow out, will it be seen as chickening out when the going got tough or the entrepreneurial instinct of surviving to fight another battle waned, wonders Shailesh Dobhal.
In its new avatar as the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), it will directly be responsible for 'the welfare of traders and their employees'.
Prominent e-commerce marketplace players include Amazon.in, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, Shopclues and Jabong
Higher advertising spends to grab customer eyeballs take a toll on startups across segments
However, many of these firms were facing an uphill task of convincing the people on the ground to return to work, as many are apprehensive of their safety.
There is a lot of police action on the ground and even inter-state movement has been stopped, because of which deliveries of essential items via platforms, such as Flipkart, Amazon, Grofers, and Milkbasket, aren't happening. Food-delivery firms -- Swiggy and Zomato -- are facing similar challenges, according to the sources.
Snapdeal to invest up to $200 mln to improve deliveries.
RIL is setting up infrastructure for a full-fledged horizontal e-commerce offering - internally called the New Commerce - to simultaneously launch pan-India by October-November.
Credit card spends jumped 57 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in September, aided by the festive season. According to the latest Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, in September, credit card spends totalled Rs 80,477.18 crore compared to Rs 77,981 crore in August, thereby registering a 3.2 per cent growth sequentially, despite the high base. In the corresponding period last year, credit card spend was to the tune of Rs 51,356.68 crore.
The big breakthrough in e-commerce came in October when the big three of Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal went into an overdrive to win customers and offered pre-Diwali sales with eye-popping discounts.
Recipients of these damaged mementos have been given the option to either seek a refund of their bid amount or get a replacement for these broken items.
Investment by US PE firm KKR will add fire to Ambani's battle for dominance in the retail market that is also being eyed by Jeff Bezos' Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart.
Consider these six things before going crazy on the big sale war between Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal!
Live commerce, quick commerce, group buying, WhatsApp commerce, dukaantech have made their mark.
Of the 23 companies, eight have raised funds after Shark Tank India.
At Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion), e-commerce has seen one of the fastest rates of growth in investment activity this year.
Reliance Retail will acquire the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing businesses of the Future Group. Future Group's financial and insurance businesses are not part of the deal.
IIM Lucknow has concluded its 2020-21 final placements.
E-commerce firms and sellers including Amazon and eBay have made recommendations to the government for a differentiated policy framework for e-commerce in the revised Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) which is expected to come into effect from April 1, 2021. This is because the existing policies on exports have catered largely to traditional, offline and business-to-business exports. Suggestions have been made to the government that through the FTP, it is important to create a conducive policy framework for e-commerce exports that lowers the entry barrier for small businesses to start exporting, according to the industry sources.
The delivery channel of India Post is being utilised primarily for small towns and cities.
The warning by the anti-trust watchdog has come days ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' India visit, about which the Seattle-headquartered company has been tight-lipped. Sources in the know indicated that Bezos, coming on a short trip, has sought a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'It's pretty likely that Kissinger, Rice et al came bearing gifts (read Trojan Horses) from McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, Grumman, Northrop, and all the other Military Industrial Complex stalwarts,' argues Rajeev Srinivasan.
The rises in the sector follow an increasing churn rate.
US private equity firm Silver Lake Partners will invest an additional Rs 1,875 crore in the retail arm of Reliance Industries, the Indian firm said in a statement on Wednesday.
As India's online population crosses 450 million, e-commerce ventures are trying to grab a pie of online sales estimated to hit $48 billion by 2020.
The move is significant since it signals the growing importance of foods in Marico's overall strategy. It also comes six months after Marico stepped into honey, a Rs 1,500-crore category dominated by players such as Dabur.
Snapdeal delivers to the Dharavi centre, where buyers pick up their orders.
'Technology is streamliming the entire process of aid distribution and making it transparent and digital.'
Not chasing IIM-A graduates whose joining dates have been deferred by rival Flipkart, says the company
'For how long can investors fund loss-making companies?'
What sets 2018 apart from previous years is the magnitude of the shocks that hit our brand ecosystem, says Bharat Bambawale.
Vinai Kumar Saxena's current job as lieutenant governor of an Opposition-ruled state will raise the bar -- not just for him, but also for the Aam Aadmi Party government, which never says no to a fight with the representative of the central government in India's capital.
The move comes at a time when Snapdeal is aggressively looking at optimising costs amid intense battle with Flipkart and Amazon.
A dip in 'dream job' applications could also mean that students are bagging their desired offers in the first go itself.
Categories such as lifestyle, food and electronics accounted for over 1,350 sellers across the country last year.
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