Tag: flipkart

  • ShoppRe online portal targets Indians living abroad

    ShoppRe online portal targets Indians living abroad

    International shipping and consolidation company ShoppRe.com is setting up in Dubai with a series of marketing campaigns. The shopping portal optimises cross-border e-commerce from India, acting as a bridge between people living abroad and Indian shopping sites such as Flipkart and Myntra.

    According to the site’s founders, most Indian sellers do not offer international shipping and several Indian websites do not accept international card payments.

    ShoppRe’s brand ambassadors, actress Priyamani and her husband Mustufa Raj, kick-started the official launch in Dubai by releasing the new ad campaign.

    “I can totally relate to people who have just shifted abroad and badly miss shopping from India. ShoppRe makes it possible to have your favorite Indian goods delivered right to your doorsteps,” said Priyamani.

    The firm’s major investor V A Hassan said: “I have been in Dubai for more than four decades. I have seen the huge demand for Indian products like fashion, food, etc, which are popular everywhere, but not easily accessible or are extremely overpriced”.

    ShoppRe was founded in October 2016 and has fulfilled orders worth INR 40 million (US$565,200) for more than 15,000 customers, including both Indian and non-Indian consumers. It has shipped products to more than 80 countries.

  • Amazon in advance stage to buy stake in Future Retail

    Amazon in advance stage to buy stake in Future Retail

    Online retailer Amazon is in advanced stage of talks to buy around 9.5 percent stake in Kishore Biyani-led Future Retail, according to sources. According to a report: A final shape to an agreement between the two parties is expected to take place within the next 10 days, the sources said although in case of last minute hurdles the deal could be announced as late as January 2019.

    When contacted, Amazon declined to comment while messages sent to Future Group Founder and Group CEO Kishore Biyani remained unanswered by the time of filing story.

    According to a media report, the Amazon-Future Group deal is initially estimated to be around Rs 2,000 crore executed under foreign portfolio investor (FPI).

    The agreement could also include Amazon buying out Biyani and promoter group’s entire holding in future subject to applicable regulations in India.

    As of September 2018, promoter and promoter group had 46.51 percent share of Future Retail Ltd, which operates hypermarket and supermarket under brands which include- Big Bazaar, Easyday, Foodhall, HyperCity, FBB, Heritage fresh, ezone and WH Smith.

    It has presence in 250 cities across the country.

    Leading e-commerce major Amazon, which is looking to expand its presence in India, already has stake in Shoppers Stop and More.

    If the deal is through, this would be the third investment by the US-based company in the Indian brick-and-mortar retail ecosystem.

    Last year, retail major Shoppers Stop had announced raising Rs 179.26 crore from Amazon through an issue of equity shares on preferential basis. The deal with Amazon.com Investment Holdings LLC translated into just over 5 per cent shareholding for Amazon in Shoppers Stop.

    In September this year, Amazon said it has co-invested in Witzig Advisory Services, the entity that is acquiring Aditya Birla Retail’s ‘more’ chain of stores in India.

    According to market watchers, this deal is expected to help Amazon strengthen its play in the Indian retail market that is still dominated by offline retailers.

    The move would also intensify competition further between Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart that are locked in an intense battle for leadership in the Indian e-commerce market.

    The US’ largest retailer Walmart had picked up 77 percent stake in Flipkart for US$ 16 billion, the largest deal in the Indian e-commerce space so far.

    Both Amazon and Flipkart are pumping in millions of dollars towards building infrastructure, and expanding operations in the country.

  • Snapdeal trims losses for FY18, exudes confidence on hitting profits

    Snapdeal trims losses for FY18, exudes confidence on hitting profits

    E-commerce firm Snapdeal has narrowed its consolidated losses substantially to Rs 613 crore for FY2017-18, as per regulatory documents. According to a report: The company, which competes with larger rivals like Amazon and Flipkart, had posted a consolidated loss of Rs 4,647.1 crore in FY2016-17, documents filed with the Corporate Affairs Ministry showed.

    The consolidated revenue from operations declined to Rs 436.1 crore for 2017-18 as against Rs 903.8 crore in the previous financial year.

    On standalone basis too, Snapdeal trimmed its losses to Rs 440.7 crore in 2017-18 from Rs 4,638.9 crore in the year-ago period. Total revenue was at Rs 514.6 crore in FY18 as against Rs 1,105.7 crore in the previous fiscal.

    Snapdeal, in its filing said, the company had embarked on its journey towards profitability last year.

    “This year, we continued on this path and focused on building a leaner and more capital efficient business. We substantially reduced our costs, both variable and fixed overheads,” it added.

    The company said it reduced its business promotion expense by 88 percent year-on-year, whereas fulfilment expenses were lower by 67 percent y-o-y.

    “We optimised the team structure and leveraged technology more efficiently, which was critical in trimming our employee expenses by 68 per cent y-o-y. While all of this has come at the expense of lower top line, your company is extremely proud of its achievements over the year and is absolutely confident that it is heading in the right direction to achieve profitability,” it said.

    When contacted, a Snapdeal spokesperson said, “Our prime focus last year was to maximize the operating efficiency of the marketplace ahead of implementing our planned growth initiatives. We are extremely pleased to see the incredible results from our disciplined execution with losses reducing by 88 percent”.

    In addition, parts of the revenue, which were disproportionately loss-making, were identified and curtailed during the year in order to realign the business for growth with healthy margins, the spokesperson added.

    Snapdeal, which had seen its business being impacted severely by the intense competition in the e-commerce segment, had last year dumped the US$ 950-million takeover offer from rival, Flipkart.

    It was then that Snapdeal Co-founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal had said the company will pursue a fresh strategy in the Indian market.

  • Flipkart, Amazon see bumper in India festive sale

    Flipkart, Amazon see bumper in India festive sale

    With festive sales drawing to a close, e-tailing giants Amazon and Flipkart have claimed bumper sale on their platforms, and that they were ahead of the competition, as they received orders from customers from over 99 percent of the pin codes in the country.

    According to a report: Citing a survey by Kantar IMRB and other reports, Amazon India Senior Vice President and Country Head Amit Agarwal said Amazon emerged as “the most visited and transacted shopping destination in India this festive season” (October 10-15, October 24-28 and November 2-5).

    “With 99.3 percent of pin codes placing at least one order, 89 percent of new customers coming from smaller towns, almost 70,000 small and medium businesses getting at least one order and new Prime memberships growing by nearly 2X, we are humbled that India trusts us to find, discover and buy anything online,” he said in a release.

    Asked about another report stating that Flipkart cornering 51 percent share of the festive sale between October 9-14, Agarwal said, “we don’t comment on reports that are based on non-scientific methodologies”.

    The said industry report had stated that Amazon.in had a 32 per share in the first leg of the festive sale before Dusshera.

    Both Walmart-backed Flipkart and Amazon have claimed record-breaking sales numbers across categories like smartphones, large appliances and fashion during their festive sales.

    “The current sale (November 1-5) is already more than 2X of our Big Billion Days sale this year. We were the clear leaders in the fashion category… we had all brands (of smartphones) except one…competition is no where close to that,” Smrithi Ravichandran, Head of Growth, Flipkart said.

    She added that customers on an average spent Rs 7,500 on various purchases during this festive sale and that its gross merchandise value (GMV) was up 90 percent over last year.

  • Flipkart corners more than 50 pc share in India festive sale: RedSeer Consulting

    Flipkart corners more than 50 pc share in India festive sale: RedSeer Consulting

    Increased buying in smartphones and fashion verticals helped Walmart-backed Flipkart corner over 50 percent share during the first leg of the festive sale, according to research firm RedSeer Consulting. As per RedSeer’s latest report, Flipkart had a 51 percent share, while Amazon India had 32 percent share of the festive sale from October 9-14.

    “Flipkart accounted for more than half of GMV for the entire industry. Between Flipkart and Amazon, the share was 62-38. Higher share for Flipkart was driven by higher sales in both mobiles and fashion verticals,” RedSeer said.

    An Amazon spokesperson termed the report as ‘speculative’ that ‘lack robust and credible methodology’.

    “We received an overwhelming response to the Great Indian festival, with first 36 hours nearly surpassing the entire first wave last year and the entire wave growing by 96 percent versus last year…the festive season so far has exceeded our most aggressive plans,” the spokesperson said.

    Other players like Snapdeal, Paytm Mall and ShopClues also ran their festive offers and accounted for 17 percent share of the sales.

    Flipkart in a statement said the company “pushed the boundaries on many fronts and hit some of our biggest-ever numbers during its Big Billion Days (BBD).

    “We maintained a clear leadership in deep-penetrated and high ASP categories,” it added.

    As per the RedSeer report, the fashion and smartphone verticals grew by 78 percent and 70 percent, respectively.

    However, consumer electronics grew by only 45 percent despite large investments by both players in supply chain and affordability initiatives like debit card EMIs, it added.

    RedSeer said its report is based on interview with experts from supply chain, banking ecosystem and brands, seller views, customer surveys and other research.

    The report said Day 2 of the five-day sale was the biggest in terms of gross merchandise value (GMV) as it saw the launch of multiple new exclusives in mobile phones and offers on other platforms as well.

    Post second day, the growth of GMV stalled a bit with last three days accounting for only 42 percent of sales compared to 60 percent in the first two days, it added.

  • Amazon, Flipkart clock Rs 15,000 crore in just 5 days of festive sale

    Amazon, Flipkart clock Rs 15,000 crore in just 5 days of festive sale

    E-commerce companies in the country are estimated to have raked in sales worth Rs 15,000 crore in about five days of their festive sales with giants like Amazon India and Flipkart claiming stellar show across categories like smartphones, large appliances and fashion.

    RedSeer Consulting in its report said e-tailers had a better “sales performance over the five festive days from October 9-14”, generating about Rs 15,000 crore (around US$ 2 billion) in sales. This translates into about 64 per cent year-on-year growth compared to US$ 1.4 billion (around Rs 10,325 crore) generated in the 2017 edition.

    “The industry witnessed a higher growth this time compared to the last year. This was driven by multiple drivers, key being a larger shopper base from tier II (and beyond) cities. Affordability and loyalty schemes introduced by e-tailing players also played a huge role in converting the visitors into shoppers,” RedSeer said.

    Amazon India Senior Vice President and Country Head Amit Agarwal said their ‘Great Indian Festival’ sale in the first 36 hours alone nearly surpassed the numbers it registered during the same period last year.

    “The event exceeded our most aggressive plans across all the categories…more than 80 per cent of the new customers came from small towns, and we received orders from 99 percent of the serviceable pin-codes in the country in just four days,” he further said.

    He added that smartphone sales accounted for the largest portion in terms of value, while fashion was the biggest in terms of the units shipped.

    “Fashion was also the biggest category in terms of acquiring new customers with 63 percent orders coming from Tier II and III cities… We also saw 2 out of 3 customers using schemes like exchange, EMIs and bank offers,” he said.

    Interestingly, Amazon’s Hindi Website, which was launched recently, saw 2.4 times new customers coming and shopping on the platform as compared to a non-sales day.

    Arch rival Flipkart said its latest edition of the Big Billion Days sale has “smashed all the existing records to set new benchmarks for the entire Indian retail industry”.

    “Flipkart has recorded over 70 percent share of entire Indian e-commerce market in the 5 day-BBD’18 sale, matching scale with global marquee retail events…Gross merchandise value (GMV) grew 80 percent over the last year, whereas units grew by close to 2X year-on-year,” a Flipkart spokesperson said.

    Walmart-backed Flipkart claimed to be cornered 85 percent share in online fashion market and 75 percent share in large appliances category during the sale, while three-in-four smartphones bought between October 10-15 in India were on Flipkart.

    The spokesperson said there was almost 50 percent growth in number of new customers coming in, while one out of two shoppers used payment schemes like EMIs and bank offers.

    Flipkart pointed out that it saw close to 25 million people visiting its app on one of the sale days. This is the first mega shopping event being organised by Flipkart after Walmart acquired 77 percent stake in the company in a US$ 16 billion deal earlier this year.

    Paytm Mall, which is backed by investors like Alibaba and SoftBank, said over 12 million items were sold on its platform, led by categories like mobile phones, consumer electronics, fashion and groceries.

    It added that it had registered five times increase in transactions and sales compared to regular days with over 60 million visitors coming to the platform during the week-long sale. Also, over 2 lakh shopkeepers participated in the sale. ShopClues, which crossed the 1.5 million-order mark, said over 75 percent of its orders came in from tier III and IV towns, especially, from states like Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Gujarat, and Punjab.

    For Snapdeal, new buyers account for about 38 percent of all the orders placed during the sale so far. Paytm Mall kicked off its festive sale from October 9, while the others began a day later. While the first leg of the sale ended on these platforms on Sunday and Monday, more offers are expected to be rolled out as Diwali approaches.

  • Flipkart arm to invest Rs 991 cr for logistics hub in Bengal

    Flipkart arm to invest Rs 991 cr for logistics hub in Bengal

    Instakart Services, a part of the online e-commerce major Flipkart, is set to invest Rs 991 crore for setting up a logistics hub in West Bengal, a Minister said on Wednesday.

    “The company proposes to invest Rs 991 crore for setting up a logistic park at our Haringhata Industrial park which has road network advantage and is near the airport. According to the detailed project report, it will provide 18,310 jobs,” Finance, Commerce and Industries Minister Amit Mitra said.

    West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), in its board meet on Wednesday approved in principle the company’s proposal, which will now go to the Cabinet standing committee for its nod, he said.

    The state government has about 358 acres of land at an industrial park, of which the company will be provided around 100 acres at Rs 63.49 lakh per acre, Mitra said adding that it will act an as anchor investor in the park.

  • E-commerce majors see strong growth in apparel, large appliances as festive sale kicks off

    E-commerce majors see strong growth in apparel, large appliances as festive sale kicks off

    E-commerce giants Flipkart and Amazon India have seen a strong start to their festive sale with categories like apparel and large appliances driving record transactions and new customers coming on board.

    According to a PTI report: These companies have put in months of preparation in ramping up selection, setting up warehouses and strengthening delivery network ahead of the festive sale to ensure a smooth shopping experience for customers, with demand being much higher than on non-festive days.

    Players like Flipkart, Amazon India and Paytm Mall kick-started their festive sale from October 10 that will continue for the next 5-6 days. More offers are expected to be rolled out over the next many days leading up to Diwali.

    “The scale of Big Billion Days (festive sale of Flipkart) has only grown with each passing year and this year too, we expect the trend to continue. While each category sees manifold growth, we expect smartphones, large appliances and apparel to be phenomenally big categories,” Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart said.

    He, however, declined to comment on the volume of business expected to be generated, saying “its early to speculate as the growth always end up surprising us”.

    Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President and Country Head at Amazon India, said the first day of the Great Indian Festival 2018 has been the biggest day ever with record-breaking sales across categories.

    “We are off to a great start and have seen phenomenal numbers during early access and first day that is still on. Three out of four phones sold in the country were on our platform. We saw record sales in large appliances category like TVs, washing machines and refrigerators,” he said, adding that there has been 2.7X growth in number of new customers shopping on Amazon.in compared to previous year’s Diwali.

    Agarwal said Xiaomi, on its platform, sold more than a million devices in a day, while OnePlus has seen record bookings worth Rs 400 crore.

    “More customers bought fashion products than any other, as Amazon fashion saw its biggest day ever more than doubling its growth over last year,” he further said.

    About 20 million people are expected to shop on various e-commerce platforms during the festive sale, translating into sales of around US$ 3 billion for players like Amazon and Flipkart, according to a report by research firm RedSeer.

    The report states that the share of items like electronics and furniture during the sale could be higher this year due to various affordability initiatives being undertaken by the e-commerce players. Mobile phones currently account for a lion’s share of sales on the two leading e-commerce platforms.

  • Walmart India eyes 10 pc revenue from private labels, 30 stores by 2019

    Walmart India eyes 10 pc revenue from private labels, 30 stores by 2019

    Walmart India, which runs 22 Best Price wholesale stores, is planning to increase the share of its private labels to topline to 10 percent by next year as it plans to tap the Flipkart platform.

    According to a report: The company opened its 22nd store in Ludhiana late last month, which is the sixth in the state, where it began with and the second in the Punjab city.

    The company will have 30 stores by the time it completes a decade of its second coming next year.

    Globally, the retail major which is bigger than Boeing, Coca-Cola, Facebook, and the Google parent Alphabet in total sales–nets around 20 percent of its topline from private labels, which are low-priced but high margin items while from a volume perspective it is around 25 percent, which it has already achieved in the country as well.

    Walmart India closed fiscal 2017 with a topline of Rs 3,609 crore, up around 14 percent, according to government filing.

    The numbers for FY18 is not available for Walmart.

    “Currently, our revenue from private labels is 6-7 per cent from our two brands–Right Buy and Member’s Mark, wherein the first is the cheaper than the other. We hope to take this to 10 per cent by 2019, when we close our first decade,” Krish Iyer, Chief Executive, Walmart India said.

    Internationally, its private labels are a US$ 60 billion business for them under the name of Sams Club, while its total volume is over US$ 500 billion.

    India is the only market where Walmart is only into wholesale.

    Iyer, also said he expects an uptick in private label sales going forward as the company is planning to cross-sell these brands on Flipkart, its online marketplace subsidiary here.

    In the biggest M&A deal, the world’s largest retailed Walmart had bought 77 percent of the homegrown online marketplace Flipkart for over US$ 16 billion in August.

    It can be noted that FDI norms allow only 51 percent in multi-brand retail, whereas in cash & carry 100 percent is permitted.

    Flipkart also has developed private brands like Billion though not exactly in the grocery segment.

    “What can be done is while we can’t sell on Flipkart, our manufactures can do and vice versa, which can be beneficial for both,” Iyer said.

    But he was quick to add that both are independent companies with independent boards and the process can take time.

    “Nothing will happen immediately at least over the next quarter or so. But we do see tremendous scope for synergies as Flipkart is very good at their logistics, deliveries, customer relationship management, artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics, among others. We too have similar strengths, which can be combined,” he said.

    The company made a reentry in 2009 after exiting its failed jv with Bharati Enterprises, on its own and opened the first wholesale store in Amritsar. The new 56,000 sq.ft. store in Ludhiana is the sixth in the state and the first one since August 2015 in Agra.

    The company has announced plans to open 50 stores by 2025. When asked where it would be by the turn of the first decade (next year), Iyer said, adding they would have 30 stores by December 2019. We will also two fulfilment centres by then, and the next one is coming up in Vishakapattanam by December 2019.

    He said the company has created over 1 million customers since 2009, and each store typically generates around 2,000 jobs of which around 250 are direct jobs.
    Walmart eyes 10 pc revenue from private labels, 30 stores by 2019

    Walmart India, which runs 22 Best Price wholesale stores, is planning to increase the share of its private labels to topline to 10 percent by next year as it plans to tap the Flipkart platform.

    According to a report: The company opened its 22nd store in Ludhiana late last month, which is the sixth in the state, where it began with and the second in the Punjab city.

    The company will have 30 stores by the time it completes a decade of its second coming next year.

    Globally, the retail major which is bigger than Boeing, Coca-Cola, Facebook, and the Google parent Alphabet in total sales–nets around 20 percent of its topline from private labels, which are low-priced but high margin items while from a volume perspective it is around 25 percent, which it has already achieved in the country as well.

    Walmart India closed fiscal 2017 with a topline of Rs 3,609 crore, up around 14 percent, according to government filing.

    The numbers for FY18 is not available for Walmart.

    “Currently, our revenue from private labels is 6-7 per cent from our two brands–Right Buy and Member’s Mark, wherein the first is the cheaper than the other. We hope to take this to 10 per cent by 2019, when we close our first decade,” Krish Iyer, Chief Executive, Walmart India said.

    Internationally, its private labels are a US$ 60 billion business for them under the name of Sams Club, while its total volume is over US$ 500 billion.

    India is the only market where Walmart is only into wholesale.

    Iyer, also said he expects an uptick in private label sales going forward as the company is planning to cross-sell these brands on Flipkart, its online marketplace subsidiary here.

    In the biggest M&A deal, the world’s largest retailed Walmart had bought 77 percent of the homegrown online marketplace Flipkart for over US$ 16 billion in August.

    It can be noted that FDI norms allow only 51 percent in multi-brand retail, whereas in cash & carry 100 percent is permitted.

    Flipkart also has developed private brands like Billion though not exactly in the grocery segment.

    “What can be done is while we can’t sell on Flipkart, our manufactures can do and vice versa, which can be beneficial for both,” Iyer said.

    But he was quick to add that both are independent companies with independent boards and the process can take time.

    “Nothing will happen immediately at least over the next quarter or so. But we do see tremendous scope for synergies as Flipkart is very good at their logistics, deliveries, customer relationship management, artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics, among others. We too have similar strengths, which can be combined,” he said.

    The company made a reentry in 2009 after exiting its failed jv with Bharati Enterprises, on its own and opened the first wholesale store in Amritsar. The new 56,000 sq.ft. store in Ludhiana is the sixth in the state and the first one since August 2015 in Agra.

    The company has announced plans to open 50 stores by 2025. When asked where it would be by the turn of the first decade (next year), Iyer said, adding they would have 30 stores by December 2019. We will also two fulfilment centres by then, and the next one is coming up in Vishakapattanam by December 2019.

    He said the company has created over 1 million customers since 2009, and each store typically generates around 2,000 jobs of which around 250 are direct jobs.

  • Flipkart acquires Israeli startup Upstream to strenghten pricing capability

    Flipkart acquires Israeli startup Upstream to strenghten pricing capability

    India’s leading e-tailer Flipkart on Tuesday said it has acquired Israel-based Upstream Commerce startup for an unspecified amount to strengthen its selection and pricing capability.

    “The acquisition enables us to help sellers boost sales and serve customers better with Upstream’s advanced and data science-based intelligent solutions,” said the city-based retail giant Walmart-owned company in a statement here.

    A leader in real-time pricing and product assortment optimisation solutions, the eight-year-old Tel Aviv-headquartered startup builds cloud-based, automated competitive pricing and product analysis tools.

    “The acquisition will also help us to have an overseas centre to support our business in India with its 20-member team based in Israel,” a company spokesperson told IANS.

    Post-acquisition, the startup will continue to work in Tel Aviv and become one of Flipkart’s global centers for data science work.

    “Upstream’s solutions will enable us to give insights to our sellers, help them optimise product assortment, pricing strategy and find gaps in the market,” noted the statement.

    The buyout is in line with Flipkart’s vision to solve e-commerce challenges through innovations and will help provide wider selection and better pricing for its customers.

    “We have spurred e-commerce growth across the country and solved local problems through innovations. With Upstream, we will have tech and talent presence across Asia, Israel, the US and some global hubs for innovation,” said company’s Chief Executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy on the occasion.

    Backed by YL Ventures as a leading investor since its inception in 2010, the startup will be one of Flipkart’s excellence centres to do cutting-edge data science work.

    Upstream Chief Executive Amos Peleg said Flipkart’s choice to have presence in Israel through the acquisition was a vote of confidence in his team, technology and domain expertise.

    “We share the same passion for technology and vision for the contribution of data science in future and success of online retail as Flipkart,” said Peleg.

    Though Flipkart has been developing machine learning algorithms to improve the selection and pricing parametres for sellers and helped thousands of small and medium businesses get online, it is betting on Upstream providing it with automated pricing and planning better selection.

    “Upstream’s expertise will be a huge addition for us and our in-house AI capabilities, which will share actionable insights with sellers to help them make informed decisions on products and their pricing,” added Flipkart’s Marketplace Head Anil Goteti.

    The 11-year-old e-shopping portal claims to have over a lakh sellers and offers a whopping 80 million products across 80 categories, including smartphones, books, media, consumer electronics, furniture, fashion and lifestyle.

  • Amazon, Samara Capital buy India’s retail chain More

    Amazon, Samara Capital buy India’s retail chain More

    Samara Capital, a private equity company, has teamed with Amazon to buy Indian grocery retailer More from Aditya Birla Retail.

    While the value of the deal has not been disclosed, it is reported a person close to the transaction putting it at around ₹4,200 crore (US$584 million).

    It is believed Amazon’s stake in the business will be capped at 49 per cent to comply with Indian foreign investment regulations. The balance will be held by Samara Capital, which is an Indian entity founded by former Citigroup executives.

    Amazon has already committed US$500 million to build its food retailing business in India, where it sees massive opportunity for growth.

    Analysts say that by investing in More, Amazon can build both online and offline food retailing operations simultaneously and find ways to marry the two. But it faces intense competition from Walmart which spent $16 billion acquiring Flipkart in a deal completed last month.

    More operates more than 500 supermarkets and 20 hypermarkets, ranking it fourth among Indian grocery retailers.

  • Flipkart gets over Rs 3,462 crore infusion from Singapore entity

    Flipkart gets over Rs 3,462 crore infusion from Singapore entity

    Flipkart Internet, the online marketplace arm of the Walmart-backed company, has received over Rs 3,462 crore fund infusion from Flipkart Marketplace, Singapore, as per regulatory documents.

    According to a PTI report: The fund infusion — done in two tranches — will provide more ammunition to Flipkart, which is locked in an intense battle with US-based Amazon for leadership in the burgeoning Indian e-commerce market.

    “…in accordance with the Letter of Offer dated August 14, 2018 circulated by the company for the rights issue of shares, the board of directors of the company be and hereby allot 14,57,598 Class A equity shares…for an amount aggregating to Rs 30,07,02,46,740 for cash to Flipkart Marketplace Private Ltd, Singapore,” regulatory documents filed with Corporate Affairs Ministry said.

    The resolution was passed at the board meeting held on August 30, 2018. The board, during the same meeting, also passed another resolution (in accordance to a Letter of Offer dated July 18) for allotting 2,21,002 equity shares for Rs 455.92 crore for cash to Flipkart Marketplace, Singapore.

    The fresh capital also comes close on the heels of festive sale season that not only brings in discounts and deals for customers, but is also an annual showdown of sorts between the two largest players in the segment — Flipkart and Amazon India.

    Market watchers expect the competition between the two to be even fiercer this year as both companies have invested significantly through the year to ramp up product offerings as well as logistics infrastructure to ensure speedier delivery.

    While Flipkart now has the backing of US retail giant Walmart (via a Rs 16 billion deal signed earlier this year), Amazon India too has received millions of dollar in funding through the year from the US parent across operations like marketplace and payments business.

    About 20 million people are expected to shop on various e-commerce platforms during the festive sale next month, translating into sales of around Rs 3 billion for players like Amazon and Flipkart, according to a report by research firm RedSeer.

    In a statement Tuesday, Flipkart said it expects to see a surge of 8-10X in sale of perfumes on its platform during the sale season. This growth, it said, would be on the back of an overhaul undertaken by the company.

    “Project ‘Authenticated’ promises a revamp of Flipkart’s portfolio comprising over 2000 perfumes and a seal of authenticity on the listing image, a new feature that showcases brand-approved sellers,” it said.

    The company will also add more exclusive partnerships and expand its collection of globally recognised labels in coming months, it added. The size of the perfume industry as a whole is predicted to grow 50 percent to Rs 3,000 crore over the next five years, the statement said.

  • Flipkart unveils Indian version of eBay for refurbished goods

    Flipkart unveils Indian version of eBay for refurbished goods

    Retail giant Walmart-owned leading e-tailer Flipkart on Wednesday unveiled a dedicated portal ‘2GUD’ for refurbished goods, including mobile phones, laptops and tablets, a week after shutting its eBay India operations.

    “The independent platform ‘2GUD’ aims to bring affordability, accessibility and availability to the refurbished market, while also addressing the problem of trust and convenience,” the company said.

    The platform offers refurbished mobile phones, tablets, laptops and other electronic accessories along with a 3-12 month warranty.”

    Through 2GUD, we aim to remove the trust deficit that exists in the refurbished goods market,” the city-based company’s Chief Executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy told reporters here.

    The platform has been launched on mobile browsers initially through the site 2gud.com, and it will soon be accessible through desktop browsers and a mobile application.

    The company’s executives, however, declined to give the investment being made in its new arm.

    “Every product that is sold on the platform goes through about 47 rounds of checks and is sold in five grades based on their physical condition — ‘Like New’, ‘Superb’, ‘Very Good’, ‘Good’ and ‘Okay’,” the company’s Vice President heading 2GUD operations Anil Goteti said.

    The prices of products on the platform will vary based on their condition.

    With the refurbished goods market remaining “highly fragmented and unorganised”, 2GUD will remove the buyer-seller interaction by performing the necessary quality checks itself, Goteti said.

    The platform also allows customers to return their products, he added.

    The company estimates the refurbished goods market in India to be worth US $20 billion in the coming five to six years.

    The launch of the independent platform for old goods, which was developed over the last 10 months, comes a week after Flipkart shut down the eBay India operations on August 14.

    Several of eBay India’s staff are now working with Flipkart’s new arm for refurbished goods, the company’s executives said, though they declined to share the specifics.

    The Bengaluru-based Flipkart in 2017 acquired eBay India’s operations in a US $1.4 billion fund-raising deal from several investors, including eBay, which invested US $500 million and received US $200 million worth stocks in Flipkart.

    With Walmart acquiring a majority stake (77 percent) in Flipkart in a US $16 billion (Rs 1,07,662 crore) deal in May this year, California-based eBay had announced that it would sell its stake in Flipkart back to the company for about US $1.1 billion and relaunch its India business soon.

  • Flipkart acquires AI-led startup to get next 200 million online shoppers

    Flipkart acquires AI-led startup to get next 200 million online shoppers

    In a move aimed at getting the next 200 million online shoppers to its platform, e-commerce major Flipkart has acquired Liv.ai, an artificial intelligence-led speech recognition startup. The company, however, did not disclose the deal amount.

    Post the acquisition, Liv.ai will become a Flipkart centre of excellence for voice solutions, and help accelerate an end-to-end conversational shopping experience for its users, Flipkart said in a statement.

    Founded in 2015, Liv.ai is the first Indian company to build speech to text application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable speech to text conversion in 10 Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.

    US retail giant Walmart has recently completed its US $16 billion transaction to buy 77 percent stake in Flipkart.

    “The next wave of growth of internet users is coming from tier II+ cities and 70 percent of these current internet users are native/vernacular language speakers and this proportion is only increasing,” Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.

    Given the complexities in typing on vernacular keyboards, voice will become a preferred interface for new shoppers, he added. He explained that building a voice interface is complex, especially in Indian context given multiple languages and accents.

    The team at Liv.ai has been able to solve this through multiple technological innovations including deep neural net-based methods and this expertise is a big capability add-on for Flipkart, he said.

    “Ultimately, we want to give our customers a conversational e-commerce experience and believe that with the voice interface the opportunities are endless including discovery, search, engagement, transactions etc,” Krishnamurthy said.

    Flipkart said this will help build voice and speech capabilities to help get next 200 million online shoppers, who will prefer native language interaction on the web. As per industry studies, Hindi internet user base is likely to outgrow English user base by 2021 and along with Marathi and Bengali users, will drive the volume growth.

    Liv.ai co-founders Subodh Kumar, Kishore Mundra and Sanjeev Kumar, along with the entire Liv.ai team will join Flipkart as a part of the deal.

    The team under the leadership of Ravish Sinha, Vice President Flipkart, will act as a centre of excellence to drive further developing the voice solutions, integration with Flipkart app and developing use cases for various categories.

  • Alcis Sports Ties Up With Flipkart to Rollout 2018 World Cup Fan Wear Merchandise Online

    Alcis Sports Ties Up With Flipkart to Rollout 2018 World Cup Fan Wear Merchandise Online

    After bagging the rights for the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia Licensed Apparel Merchandise for India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Alcis Sports today announced their partnership with Flipkart to bring Indian fans the official fan-wear merchandise of the biggest single-sport event in the world – the FIFA World Cup. Alcis Sports has inked an exclusive deal with Flipkart to retail fan-wear merchandise on the online platform.

    The World Cup in Russia promises to be one of the biggest tournaments in the world and Alcis Sports expects an unprecedented response from football fans in India. Alcis Sports has lined up a comprehensive range of over 550 articles that will be exclusively available on Flipkart. The exclusive merchandise that will be available on Flipkart includes popular apparel categories such as T-Shirts, Polo T-shirts, Shorts, Track pants, and Tracksuits.

    “Football has always been popular among fans in our country and it got a further boost when we hosted the U-17 World Cup in India. With the Russia World Cup just a matter of few days away, it is the right time to introduce these products to these fans”, said Roshan Baid, Managing Director, Alcis Sports.

    “Ours is a young and youthful brand and with our audience being online, this medium is a very important channel for us. And for that Flipkart was an obvious choice for us,” he further added.

    Anuj Batra, President, Alcis Sports said, “The mandate from FIFA for the 2018 Russia World Cup licensed apparel merchandise is a wonderful opportunity for us at Alcis Sports to showcase our manufacturing capabilities and prowess. AlcisSports is known for its advanced apparel technology at attractive price points, and we are confident that this range will find great traction among football lovers of the country. Besides online with Flipkart, products will also be available across all our 5 exclusive stores and large format retail outlets such as Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop, Central, Globus, Sports Station, etc.  ”

    Allowing football lovers to cheer for their favourite country, the licensed apparel range also incorporates country-specific merchandise for some of the fan favourites such as Brazil, Germany, England, Spain, Portugal, France, Uruguay, Belgium and Sweden.

     

    The licensed apparel merchandise for the World Cup starts at Rs. 399 and comprises of apparel categories such as T-Shirts, Polo T-shirts, Shorts, Track pants, Tracksuits, Hoodies, Jackets, Sweatshirts, Jerseys and Caps. This comprehensive range consists of over 550 unique articles.