Shinmin Bali, Financial Express Mumbai, 21 February 2016 Having created quite a stir at the time of their launch, hyperlocal companies are now witnessing a dampened mood. While several have folded up operations in some cities, others have downsized staff, tweaked the services they offer and even made alterations to their business models. A recent example is Grofers shutting down operations in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Coimbatore, Kochi, Ludhiana, Mysuru, Nashik, Rajkot and Visakhapatnam. TinyOwl last year was in the news for a poorly-handled downsizing operation in Pune, with a dramatic hostage situation involving its co-founder Gaurav Choudhary. PepperTap also recently shut…
Anushree Bhattacharya, VCCircle New Delhi, 18 February 2016 Naina Singh no longer buys her skincare products from the upscale showrooms of Greater Kailash in Delhi. This home-maker now prefers to pick them up from a small store sporting the red banner of Patanjali Ayurved, from which the picture of patron and de facto owner Baba Ramdev smiles down benignly. It was her tryst with Patanjali Kesh Kanti Natural shampoo that made her a convert last summer. “I now buy almost everything that Patanjali makes, from atta to ghee to the creams as well as pulses and the spices,” says Singh.…
Tarush Bhalla, Your Story New Delhi, 12 February 2016 Aditya Agarwal, 25, lived in a nuclear family in Varanasi. When it was time for him to leave for his higher studies in Allahabad, he had one concern: "Once I went for my higher education, I was always concerned, what if someone in my family got sick, who would take care of their health needs? Back then I didn’t have a solution." His anxiety grew when he moved further away to Delhi in July 2012 to study for his MBA. But, it was there that he was hit by the e-commerce…
Richa Maheshwari, The Economic Times Bengaluru, 11 February 2016 Paytm is tying up with mobile and large appliance retailers to list their brick-and-mortar stores on its ecommerce platform as part of its omni-channel strategy. "We will help these retailers create brand stores on Paytm and enable their offline channel to come online," said Amit Bagaria, associate vice president and mobile and electronics head at the payment wallet to ecommerce company. With this, shoppers will get to choose the offline store from where they want their product. They will also have the option of either picking up their purchase from the…
Richa Maheshwari, The Economic Times Bengaluru, 10 February 2016 Snapdeal has integrated Redbus, Zomato and Cleartrip inventory in its mobile application as a pilot that will help customers book bus tickets, flight tickets, hotel tickets and food directly from the application. This association gives Cleartrip, Zomato and RedBus access to Snapdeal's user base. In return, Snapdeal will earn a commission for each booking made through its platform. Air ticket is a large gross merchandise value (GMV) category, while food ordering is a high frequency category. "Horizontals are looking at monetising their user base with a focus on GMV and repeat…
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
