Indian online retailers have been raising funds to expand and compete with bigger rival Amazon.com Inc as more Indians shop on the Internet.
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.
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.
'Saying that Snapdeal is not doing well is beyond premature. Suggesting that someone has won or lost is myopic.'
'The boycott has not achieved success. Sales figures for Chinese products on the top three Indian online retailers in the first week of October hit a new record. Amazingly, the Chinese mobile phone company Xiaomi sold half a million phones in just three days on the Flipkart, Amazon India, Snapdeal and Tata CLiQ platforms.'
According to analyst firm RedSeer, the absence of cash on delivery has hit daily e-commerce sales by 30% over the past few days.
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.
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).
ndian media reported last week that the country's air force had issued alerts to its personnel and their families against using Xiaomi phones on security concerns.
The company has been a part of the start-up ecosystem in a big way from early stages right up to when the companies start achieving full scale.
The market, however, reacted negatively to SpiceJet's announcement and the company's stock dropped by 0.87 per cent as analysts became wary of diversion into a new business during a high fuel price environment.
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.
Snapdeal said it will give its users the option to defer the delivery by a few days till new currency notes become easily available.
Along with Lord Ganesha and goddess Laxmi, electronic gadgets will also enter the pantheon of Hindu gods this Diwali.
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.
Google is going ahead with a policy revision mandating 30% charge on in-app purchases across all apps on Play Store. This has left developers' community worried about tighter squeeze on their earnings, says Yuvraj Malik.
The government guidelines say online marketplaces must not influence the sale price of goods and services but experts say e-commerce majors categorise discounts under marketing expenses.
Each dept could handle a designated area.
Snapdeal said on Wednesday it bought online mobile recharge firm Freecharge for an undisclosed amount.
It is still "discounts" that e-commerce players have to rely on to bring in customers, though they might claim otherwise.
'Almost 75 per cent of our total sales come from the top 50 cities in India.'
Spends by e-commerce players have now touched Rs 1,000 crore.
Seattle-based Amazon had considered debuting drone delivery services in Mumbai and Bangalore by Diwali this year
Among other things, taking note of complaints against several Chinese e-commerce players such as Shein, Ali Express etc for sending shipments as 'gifts' to customers in India and avoiding duties, the government has now mandated that all e-commerce sites and apps must have a registered business entity. This will be the importer on record and subject to customs rules, report Subhayan Chakraborty, Neha Alawadhi and Karan Choudhury.
The likes of Microsoft and Cohesity have offered crore plus salaries to some students.
A hot sale of a Chinese product, whether assembled in India or anywhere else in the world, may make the country of origin rule fall by the wayside. Moreover, its execution is challenging for businesses as there are no clear guidelines or definitions from the authorities on what constitutes 'country of origin'.
Snapdeal's rival Flipkart had last announced its GMV in March this year -- $1 billion. Many rounds of funding later, sources estimate Flipkart's GMV at about $3 billion, a figure Snapdeal is trying to catch up with.
While e-commerce operations for these firms are small at the moment, it is slated to grow in the next 3 to 4 years.
US retail major is in talks with Flipkart, Snapdeal, ShopClues and Grofers for partnership.
"We are concerned about the data localisation law and the new e-commerce regulations...they do not fully take into account the needs of all stakeholders, including American and other foreign companies," acting principal deputy assistant secretary of the US, Thomas Vajda said.
Abu Dhabi-based sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Co will invest Rs 6,247.5 crore to buy a 1.4 per cent stake in Reliance Industries Ltd's retail arm -- the billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led firm's third such deal in less than two days.
It is not clear whether the drop in offers is a fallout of demonetisation.
Sources said a merger could benefit both as Grofers' private labels business would be a draw for Zomato, as well as its experience in the online grocery delivery space.
The group began to outperform the broader market only with the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 while earlier it was largely keeping pace with the Sensex. The group's market cap is up 164.4 per cent since the end of March 2020 against a 105 per cent rally in the Sensex.
This is the second investment by General Atlantic in a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, following a Rs 6,598.38 crore investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year.
The sale of Nature's Basket, Godrej's chain of food stores in west India, is the second exit by a big group in a year in the category
Across the country, companies have stepped up their act to contain the crisis. IT and other new economy firms seem to have taken a lead.
The possibility of harassment by cops and fear of the unknown have forced a large number of truck drivers to abandon vehicles at the transport centres and flee home. Transport of goods remains badly hit as confusion remains among various stakeholders and road transport becomes the victim of disconnect between policy makers and local authorities.
Mukesh Ambani-owned RIL's JioMart is set to launch a slew of new products including financial services, electronics to airline tickets to take on the competition from upcoming rivals like the Tata Super app and other established players including PayTM, Amazon and Flipkart. This comes at a time when RIL's e-commerce revenues are set to grow by 35 per cent to $15 billion within four years and its core retail revenue is expected to grow at the same pace to $44 billion, as per a forecast by Goldman Sachs. "The Tata vs JioMart war will be the next big corporate battle to watch. "While Tata has an upper hand like in-house products and brands, RIL has the backing of global biggies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft," said head of a rating firm asking not to be quoted.
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