Chief executive officer Sachin Bansal of Flipkart.com quit his high-paying job at Amazon and along with fellow IITian, Binny Bansal, decided to launch a business of his own.
Ordering groceries, vegetables and daily essentials is just a WhatsApp away as billionaire Mukesh Ambani's e-commerce platform JioMart taps into the popular messaging app to scale up online business in its fight for dominance in the giant Indian retail market with Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart. Ambani's twin children, Akash and Isha gave a preview of the ordering at Meta's second edition of the Fuel for India event on Wednesday. A new 'tap and chat' option allows users to order groceries through WhatsApp.
The Chinese billionaire and founder of Alibaba is said to be planning a significant investment in business to business e-tailing as well as payment services and logistics companies.
Last year, traffic jumped 15 times on Snapdeal's 'Big Sale Day' on Oct 6, when it had clocked Rs 1 crore a minute of sales over 10 hours.
To create a community, the consumer can share the details of the offer with friends and family who want to buy the same goods.
The deal, which is expected to close in the next four to five weeks, will give exit to investors Alibaba, Abraaj Group and IFC. The parties are awaiting approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
The agreement means consumers will enjoy more choices and varied price points.
Indian retail market would have a size of $1 trillion by 2020, said India director for e-commerce and local classified, Nitin Bawankule, on Thursday.
The partnership will also see the two parties cooperate on technology initiatives, including development of affordable smartphones.
Over the last 12 months, thanks to bold bets by venture capital firms like Sequoia, SoftBank Vision Fund, and foreign strategic investors like Naspers, pipeline of start-ups with potential to achieve $1 bn in valuation is at an all-time high.
India's total online shopper base at 30 per cent of its internet population is low when compared with 78 per cent in China and 70-plus per cent in the US.
Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata said e-commerce is one of the areas where is he looking to personally invest because of its "good potential" as a large proportion of the country's consuming public do not have the required access to goods.
While Reliance has the clout to negotiate prices with suppliers for its e-commerce, not to forget the cost advantage of integrated warehouse and supply chains, Amazon and Walmart are no pushovers, they too have deep pockets.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Industries Ltd's retail arm on Thursday raised Rs 9,555 crore from Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia, taking total fundraise in the last two months to Rs 47,265 crore. PIF will take a 2.04 per cent stake in Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL), the Indian firm said in a statement. The investment values RRVL, the retail arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, at a pre-money equity value of Rs 4.587 lakh crore.
Flipkart's appointment of Kalyan Krishnamurthy as CEO and Ola's choice of PepsiCo's Vishal Kaul for COO speaks to the growing trend of bringing in experienced professionals to run business. Karan Choudhury reports.
Use a "virtual credit card" for every online transaction when you can't pay cash on delivery.
Urvi Malvania looks at what is in store for the IPL's 2019 edition.
Eleven years into the league and after a 70 per cent year-on-year growth in merchandise sales over the past three to four years, albeit on a low base, the franchise owners are coming up with innovative games and shows around their teams besides spinning a wider range of merchandise around their star players.
The threat may be a decade away, but it has brick-and-mortar sellers rethinking their strategies and banking on the govt to regulate online companies.
Gits now has super food mixes like brown rice and flax seeds idli mix, oats idli mix and such other products. It has also launched an organic and vegan version of ready meals abroad. It also has an e-store, besides selling through Flipkart, Amazon and Big Basket.
India's first home-grown mapping company MapMyIndia is looking to list in the public market by raising around Rs 1,200 crore at a Rs 6,000-crore valuation. Sources said the company is ready with its draft red herring prospectus documents and is likely to file as early as next week. While the money will be used for business expansion, it will also give MapMyIndia's early investors, including Qualcomm, PhonePe, and Japanese mapmaker Zenrin Co., a chance to exit. The Verma family, which founded the company, will continue to remain promoters.
Kerala's tax authorities are also reviewing other e-commerce companies for similar discrepancies, and might fine more defaulters.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Friday backed the proposed data privacy and cryptocurrency bills, saying India is putting in place the most forward-looking policies and regulations. Ambani, who has been a votary of Indians owning and controlling their own data and the nation drafting strict rules around how digital information is stored and shared, said nations have the right to build and protect strategic digital infrastructure. Stating that data is the 'new oil', he said every citizen's right to privacy has to be safeguarded. "India is putting in place the most forward-looking policies and regulations," he said at the Infinity Forum, hosted by International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA).
Snapdeal is conducting due diligence on ShopClues, a move that may lead to a potential acquisition of the latter, which may bring in a fresh infusion of funds for the new entity.
Saksham Karwal shares the lessons he's learned along the way.
The company currently controls over 30 per cent of the online smartphone market in the country, but says that isn't enough.
On Tuesday, while several consumers took to social media to share their grievances about the Snapdeal site crash, many others said they visited the website to either compare prices or for window shopping.
Kishore Biyani met Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, in Delhi last week and "discussed many things like the macro environment and the prime minister"
The government, in February, had released the draft national e-commerce policy proposing setting up a legal and technological framework for restrictions on cross-border data flow and also laid out conditions for businesses regarding collection or processing of sensitive data locally and storing it abroad.
After six weeks into the second half, the faltering offline channel, which traditionally rakes in 60 per cent of sales for the market, has become the biggest hurdle towards the path of revival.
Retailer bodies to demand govt action against I-Day sales offers, threaten legal action for breach of FDI rules.
Consumers are set to gain from discounts.
From mass layoffs to acquisitions, here's how the Indian start-up industry kept us on our toes.
The company, which recently hit the run rate of $1 billion in gross merchandise value ahead of the target date, is the largest mobile phone retailer in the country, counting online and offline stores, estimates show.
Indian online retailers have been raising funds to expand and compete with bigger rival Amazon.com Inc as more Indians shop on the Internet.
The new iMac, two iPads and iPhone 12 and 12 Mini will be open for ordering starting April 30, just like in the US, the UK, China and Japan.
Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd, run by India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, on Tuesday raised Rs 5,512.50 crore from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), taking the total fundraise to Rs 37,710 crore in less than four weeks.
While global competitors Amazon and Walmart are looking to explore B2B online in India, traditional Indian retailers like the Future group and Reliance Retail and e-commerce players such as Snapdeal and Flipkart have no immediate plans in this area.
From Samsung to Apple iPhone XR, smartphone firms are showering discounts in April.
The power of the small neighbourhood retailer can barely be ignored as organised players look to leverage their last-mile connectivity and reach, luring them by promising support in technology, inventory and tax management.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances