Suparna Goswami, Forbes India Bengaluru, 15 November 2016 Last month, Grofers, one of India’s biggest online grocery delivery services, scrapped its app-only strategy to launch a working desktop site. Previously, their website had not supported purchases, opting in favor of a mobile-only system. Similarly last year, Flipkart-owned Myntra — India’s largest fashion e-commerce marketplace — announced its plan to go app-only. The company said it was meant to improve personalization, as well as benefitting Myntra as users were forced to download the app. Competition would be pushed out as customers would be more captive in a specific environment and shopping…
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Anita Babu & Alnoor Peermohamed, Business Standard Bengaluru, 14 November 2016 Rocket Internet’s $70-million fire sale (the term for doing so at an extremely discounted price, usually under some compulsion) of Jabong has turned out to be a great deal for Flipkart.The online giant has managed to turn around the fashion portal in four months, scoring a mark over rival Amazon.It has even surprised Myntra’s chief executive, Ananth Narayanan, who also heads Jabong. He’d earlier found the customer overlap between the two brands, Myntra and Jabong, was no more than 30%. At the time of acquisition, Flipkart’s management had estimated…
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Sagar Malviya, The Economic Times Mumbai, 24 October 2016 Procter & Gamble (P&G), the world’s biggest consumer goods company, is exploring a long-term partnership with Kishore Biyani’s Future Group akin to the one it has with Walmart in the US, that could involve joint sales forecasting and planning, exclusive product releases, embedding officials at each others’ headquarters and even supply-chain initiatives. Top executives of P&G and Future Group have held a series of meetings to take their association beyond retailer-client relationship, two officials aware of the development said. While discussions are at an early stage, a few senior executives from…
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Alnoor Peermohamed, Business Standard Bengaluru, 24 October 2016 E-commerce companies in India are exploring the idea of setting up offline stores in smaller towns as they look to grow their customer base and improve logistics in the unmapped areas.Rather than investing in their own stores, e-commerce marketplaces are partnering with local merchants who can assist offline buyers in purchasing goods online. Amazon began its assisted commerce programme, Udaan, in 2015 while rival Flipkart is mulling doing the same now. “Project Udaan is going to play a key role in our effort to make Amazon accessible within a few minutes to…
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Madhav Chanchani, The Economic Times Bengaluru, 20 October 2016 Online baby products seller FirstCry is acquiring offline retailer Mahindra BabyOye for Rs 362.1 crore in a primarily stock deal, a development that signals how building an offline presence is becoming important for vertical etailers. Founded by serial entrepreneur Supam Maheshwari, First-Cry will acquire the unit of $18 billion software-to-automobiles congolmerate Mahindra & Mahindra, which in turn will invest in the Pune-based startup. FirstCry has now been valued at $300-350 million (Rs 2,000-2,330 crore), according to two sources familiar with the matter. The deal will nearly double its valuation from about…
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