[Accompanying Image credit: Amazon Go; CC/Wikimedia Commons/Brianc333a)] To many, retail seems to be having an identity crisis. Closed storefronts on American and European streets and dead malls in India and China are blamed on the growth of online retail. At the same time, the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon, is opening physical stores and buying offline retail operations in the US and in India, while the world’s largest retailer, Walmart, is busy digesting India’s ecommerce market leader. Even India’s online fashion and lifestyle websites – among them Myntra, Firstcry, Yepme and Faballey – are acquiring offline brands or opening stores.…
Written By Shambhavi Anand, ET Bureau New Delhi: Chinese fashion firms are joining the Diwali party this year. Shein, Romwe and ClubFactory—which figure among the top 10 most downloaded apps, according to app tracking firm App Annie — plan to roll out mega offers to take on the likes of Myntra, Jabong, Ajio and others during the upcoming festive season. ClubFactory, which recently roped in Ranveer Singh and Manushi Chhillar as brand ambassadors, has planned its biggest sale of the year called the ‘Club Diwali Sale’ during October 10-14. Apart from three flash sales per day, all those placing orders…
Written By Sagar Malviya, ET Bureau MUMBAI: The Indian unit of Walmart said it could leverage Flipkart to cross-sell each other’s private brands, use the expertise of the e-commerce firm in technology and analytics, and in turn, help them with grocery retailing. “Currently, we are selling our private brands only in our stores but don’t see any reason why we can’t sell it outside our stores. With Flipkart, there is an option,” said Krish Iyer, chief executive at Walmart India. “Flipkart is a platform and there are sellers on it, and when you talk about grocery, it’s about getting the…
Written By KOLKATA: Witzig Advisory Services, that acquired More supermarkets from Aditya Birla Retail, has officially confirmed that Amazon has invested in the facility support backend company, adding that the deal is compliant with India’s retail FDI norms. Amazon too confirmed its investment in Witzig. “Samara Capital and Amazon have agreed to co-invest in a facilities support and management and value added services company called Witzig Advisory Services Pvt Ltd. We confirm Witzig has agreed to acquire the grocery retail chain More,” said Paurush Roy, director, Witzig, in an emailed response. “We will ensure Witzig complies with all applicable laws…
Written By Writankar Mukherjee & Sagar Malviya, ET Bureau KOLKATA | MUMBAI: The Aditya Birla Group is selling supermarket chain More to Witzig Advisory Services, owned by Samara Alternative Investment Fund, in a deal that will eventually see Amazon picking up a 49% stake, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The deal pegged at about Rs 4,200 crore will give the online giant access to more than 500 physical outposts across the country, albeit indirectly. The Witzig-Samara end of the transaction was made public in an exchange filing on Wednesday. RKN Retail, which owns Birla’s retail venture along…
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
