It is a known fact that the coronavirus has had a severe impact on the Indian economy. Due to the countrywide lock-down for almost 2 months, all businesses, shops and other stuff had to be put to a complete stop. The economy saw a great dip during this time, but some businesses are being reopened to get it back on track. One of those is the alcohol sector which saw the biggest hit during the pandemic crisis. However, it seems that not only liquor shops are allowed to open but soon you can get home delivery of alcohol from Amazon and BigBasket. E-commerce giant Amazon has received permission start delivering alcohol in West Bengal along with Big Basket, the online groceries delivery company. Alibaba backed venture - Big Basket has also received approval to deliver alcohol in the state. West Bengal is the fourth most populated state in India with a total number of over 90 million people. The report states, "Amazon has been invited to sign a memorandum of understanding with the state. The report explains that Amazon’s interest in delivering alcohol in West Bengal hints at an important move which makes way for a market that worth $27.2 billion, as per the reports in the research market.

India may soon make it compulsory for ecommerce companies to display clearly whether a product being sold on their platform is made in the country or not, as the government seeks to curb Chinese imports. The clause is likely to be a part of the ecommerce policy soon. China had a trade surplus of about $47 billion with India in the first 11 months of the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2020. ( as per sources) “It will be like a checkmark, wherein consumers can decide to buy goods made in India,” The Draft National Ecommerce Policy, which the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade had floated last year, mandated ecommerce companies to make seller details available on the marketplace website for all products. It had proposed that the full name of the legal entity, its address and contact details be provided. Sellers must provide an undertaking to the platform about genuineness of products they are selling and the same must be made accessible to consumers,” the draft had proposed, as part of a measure to check online sale of counterfeits. Experts said the move to have clearly labelled goods on e-marketplaces was a positive one and would support Atmanirbhar Bharat mission, besides giving consumers the option of buying locally made products upfront. “Given the sentiment today, it syncs well with the country’s agenda of self-reliance and will alert people to what they are buying,” said an expert on ecommerce. The draft policy may also pitch for a regulator with powers to penalise those who spread misinformation. The policy aims at promotion of ecommerce, jobs, rural productivity and exports.

Empowering local shopkeepers and retailers, to leverage the best of both worlds. Over the last 6 months, Amazon has been running a pilot with 5,000+ offline retailers and local shops to bring the benefits of online selling closer to them. Code-named ‘ Local Shops on Amazon ’ this program helps customers discover products from local shops in their city (many they already trust and love!) from the convenience of their homes, while helping shopkeepers supplement their footfalls with a digital presence and expand beyond their normal catchment. It is expected that this will be a win-win situation for customers who will benefit from access to greater selection, faster deliveries, and additional value-added services, and local shops as well who can transform themselves into digital stores. Additionally, shops can sign up for our existing programs that help them earn additional income – ‘ I Have Space ’ to act as delivery and pickup points, and ‘ Amazon Easy ’ to offer expanded selection to their walk-in customers.

Thousands of shopkeepers, from across the country, are already taking advantage of the pilot to showcase a wide range of products, ranging from consumer electronics to mattresses, kitchen items to grocery and consumables, apparel and shoes to gifts, and even fresh flowers and cakes.

With this expansion, Amazon will also encourage and train retailers and shopkeepers who have no prior experience. India will become one of the first markets where Amazon will try the program.

Earlier in January, Amazon announced a $1 billion investment for small Indian businesses online by 2025.

The move by Amazon also comes just days after Facebook invested a nearly 10 percent stake in Reliance Jio. Reliance and Facebook on Wednesday announced that WhatsApp is set to power Reliance Retail's e-commerce venture JioMart.

As a result of the partnership between Jio platforms, Reliance and WhatsApp, customers will be able to access their "nearest kiranas who can provide products and services to their homes by transacting seamlessly with JioMart using WhatsApp", Reliance Industries said in a statement.

Fulfillment By Amazon (FBA) service provides storage, packing and logistic assistance to sellers. This takes the burden off of customers and gives them more flexibility in their selling practices. This service allows sellers to ship their products to an Amazon fulfillment center aka Warehouse, where items are stored until they are sold. When an order is placed, Amazon employees physically prepare, pack, and ship the product(s). Benefits of Fulfillment By Amazon ( FBA ) Services · Having Amazon Prime Tag associated with your Products. · No burden of Packing and Shipping. · Lower Shipping Fee. · Product returns Managed by Amazon. · No need to Hire a Warehouse of your own. · Super-Fast Delivery. Fulfillment by Amazon allows small or big businesses to get their products in front of millions of customers and take advantage of the largest fulfillment network in the world. It also allows you to take benefit of their world-class Seller Support and warehousing capabilities. And the added advantage is that customers are more likely to trust your products when they have Amazon Prime badge on them, so it’s a great way to get more sales and increase brand recognition.

A day after e-commerce marketplaces received government nod to deliver non-essential items beginning April 20, companies have begun evaluating all possibilities of resuming operations to make the most of this lifeline. According to the fresh guidelines issued by the Centre, e-commerce has been deemed as an ‘essential’ service and vehicles used by these companies will be allowed to ply with nod. Sellers on e-commerce marketplaces are wary about products finding buyers as leading e-tailers Amazon and Flipkart have yet to provide clarity on demand despite a government directive allowing sale of non-essential items after April 20. Flipkart has notified sellers via email that they should prepare to start processing and dispatching orders, while Amazon has told them that it was awaiting clarity on the revised government guidelines. As per the MHA guidelines, Flipkart interpreted it as sales can begin from April 20 and Amazon said they seek clarity. This makes e-Commerce sellers business decisions very uncertain because their maximum sales are driven by these platforms. While some, who have been allowed to begin production activities, are unsure how they will do so and at what capacity given the absenteeism of labour and logistics constraints, optimists say that there is adequate inventory to cater to the demand during the extended lockdown. As per Ministry of Home Affairs, e-commerce has been deemed as an ‘essential’ service and vehicles used by these companies will be allowed to ply with permission except the demarcated containment zones – hotspots or red zones – where the spread of the infection is high. Adhering to the new rules, e-retailers such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and PayTM Mall are preparing to accept orders and deliver all items, including non-essentials. E-retailers are also awaiting state nod on the ‘non-essential’ goods that can be sold and delivered post which third-party sellers could begin shipping their goods to fulfillment centers of these marketplaces. State-wise Rajasthan, Odisha, Goa and Maharashtra have so far permitted these firms to function fully, while Uttar Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka are likely to take a decision soon.

And do it without taking too big a risk. If you’ve been wondering when to get into e-commerce, the answer is now. E-commerce is huge, and getting bigger every year. According to SellersDrive, in 2014 the global e-commerce market was 1.3 trillion dollars. In 2023, it’s projected to be a whopping $6.5 trillion. The best time to get in was when it was still nascent. The second best time is right now. “Okay,” you say. “But I have no idea what I’m getting into. How do I even choose what to sell?” A great question, and one that’s easier to answer than you might think, but it’s important that you get it right. The products you sell are fundamental to everything you do. They’ll affect your marketing, your profit margins and the design you use. Logistics and legal restrictions come into play, too. For example, what if you’re selling alcohol? You have to deal with extra types of taxes. Or what about shipping large, bulky items like mattresses across the country? Maybe you’re importing from a foreign country and have to learn about import duties. Whatever the case may be, the product is the bedrock of your e-commerce efforts. Here's how to home in on the one that's right for you. Look for a Niche The e-commerce field is saturated, but people are still finding profitable niches where they can turn a profit. Everyone wants to find the maximum audience and would love to be the next Apple, Google or Microsoft, but you’re often better off staking your claim on the niches . Noted marketing thinker Seth Godin is one of the chief proponents of this. “Stake out the smallest market you can imagine,” he says in one of his personal blog posts. “The smallest market that can sustain you, the smallest market you can adequately serve. This goes against everything you learned in capitalism school, but in fact, it’s the simplest way to matter.” Instead of just being one more wine provider, corner the market on Merlot from the Canadian Okanagan Valley. Or instead of just selling dice for tabletop gamers, produce specialized custom dice with die-cut carry cases for Warhammer 40K. If you can find a niche large enough to sustain you but small enough that you can be a major player, you’re in business. Address a Need When the future founders of dog-product sellers Active Hound were talking to other pet owners at their local park, they came across one complaint over and over: The dog toys they were buying wouldn’t hold up. They decided to do something about it, and they launched Active Hound to sell more durable toys that wouldn’t fall apart under the stress of everyday life. As a recent Shopify blog post on them mentions, they were so successful that they expanded into other dog products, too. Is there a need that’s not being filled? If you work in a particular industry or have passions in a particular hobby, that’s a great place to start. You’ll know better than anyone what you’re looking for. Or maybe it’s like Active Hound, where you’re listening to what people want. Either way, filling a need is one of the best ways to choose a product . Turn a Profit One of the most important things about your product is the question of cold, hard cash. Can you make enough money selling it to keep the lights on? Especially when you’re starting out, selling something that has a higher profit margin is a good way to make sure you don’t go under immediately. Jacob Elggren, founder of wallet-maker Andar , knows a thing or two about this. “We knew going in that we wanted something that we could turn a profit with fast,” he told me in a recent email conversation. “We saw an opportunity with leather goods -- accessories tend to have a little higher margin than some other niches we were looking at -- and the proof is in the numbers. With Amazon and Shopify, we went from $531 in revenue in the first couple of months to $1.7 million in 2018. Having a higher margin early on helped us stay afloat.” After you’ve been up and running a little while, you can trade more on volume and take a lower profit. When you’re first getting started , every dollar counts. Make sure you have a product that can support the business. Check Trends If you’re just looking to sell a product and don’t much care what it is, you can browse Amazon, eBay, Facebook Marketplace and other large e-commerce platforms to find out what’s hot. Look over a period of time and note what’s consistently good. Don’t jump on fads; look for trends. A fad dies out fast, but a trend has staying power. If you’re seeing a certain genre or type of product show up consistently across platforms and over time, you’re probably looking at a trend. Think of fidget spinners, which had massive success very quickly and then died fast. You don’t want to do that, especially if you’re dealing with physical inventory and not just dropshipping. You might wind up sitting on inventory you can’t sell. Trends are important. Fads aren’t. The only way to capitalize on a fad is to catch it at the start so you can get off the wave before it dies. It’s far better to choose something with some staying power. Choosing the right product is critical for any e-commerce business, and if you want to find success you’re going to have to put the effort in. With these tips, you’ll be well prepared to find your perfect product.

Data shared by both marketplaces indicate that most of these shoppers used some kind of financial affordability construct like EMI or product exchange offers to make purchases, especially on electronics. India’s largest ecommerce companies Flipkart and Amazon said their festive sales have surpassed estimates on the opening day on Sunday, primarily boosted by new product launches, steep discounts, and bank offers of loans and no-cost EMIs.
Data shared by both marketplaces indicate that most of these shoppers used some kind of financial affordability construct like EMI or product exchange offers to make purchases, especially on electronics.
Flipkart said customers opting for affordability options spent 2.5 times more than other customers, while Amazon said the number of customers opting for EMIs doubled and 75% of them were from smaller towns and cities.
People from smaller towns and cities, who were otherwise holding back purchases, especially at full-price, due to the country's sluggish consumer sentiment, look at these festival sales to buy products owing to discounts and affordable EMI constructs, experts said.
Over a third of electronics on Amazon were purchased under product exchange programmes, while three out of four customers availed no-cost EMI offers, the company said.
“Our penetration keeps going up every year,” said Amit Agarwal, global senior vice president & country head at Amazon India . “Fashion grew five times over last year and attracted the most new customers, followed by smartphones.”
Top three premium smartphone brands Samsung, OnePlus and, Apple accounted for Rs 750 crore in sales in one day, while Amazon’s own product Echo Dot was the most sold product on the site.
Domestic online retail players are collectively expected to clock almost $4.8 billion in sales during the entire festive period, as per Forrester Research.
“There is no doubt that ecommerce has lifted consumer sentiment,” said Kalyan Krishnamurthy, group CEO at Flipkart.
Flipkart said the number of transacting customers from tier two cities and beyond have doubled over last year sale period, adding that travel has emerged as the fastest growing category on the platform.
ET could not independently verify the authenticity of the numbers shared by the ecommerce firms. However, three brands that ET spoke to indicated a spike in orders. “We overshot our sales estimates on both marketplaces (Amazon and Flipkart), witnessing a 7X spike in order volumes,” said Manish Chowdhary, CEO at Wow Skin Care. “Early data shows this was a mix of our loyal customer base who purchased routine products plus tried out new launches, and new customers who bought our flagship product range.”
The annual festive sale is the first large event for Flipkart and Amazon after the implementation of revised ecommerce policy that bars online marketplaces from owning their vendors and prohibits them from controlling the inventory sold on their platforms.
The boost in sales comes in at a time when the GDP growth rate has slipped to 5% in the first quarter of FY20, the lowest in over six years, in part is driven by the weakening of household spending that forms nearly two-thirds of the GDP for the country.

The government recently released new changes to the FDI policy governing the e-commerce sector. These guidelines which strike down at predatory pricing and deep discounts aim to provide a level-playing field for all can prove to be a game changer for the sector. I . High Level: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry recently released new changes to the FDI policy for the e-commerce sector which aim to cut predatory pricing and deep discounting by retail giants, thereby bringing about a "level-playing field" for the smaller and multi-channel players, as well as the brick and mortar retailers. II. Differentiation: The guidelines differentiate between a Marketplace based model of e-commerce and an Inventory based model of e-commerce, allowing 100% foreign direct investment through automatic route in the former, but no such capital injection in the latter. Marketplace based model of e-commerce: In this model, the role of the e-commerce entity is restricted to being a facilitator between the buyers and the sellers with no ownership or control over the inventory or the good and services to be sold. Inventory based model of e-commerce: Within this model, an e-commerce entity owns the inventory of goods and services and sells them directly to the customers. III. Why?: Experts opine that it was the heavy discounts, primarily funded by FDI which made it difficult for smaller players and offline retailers to compete against the big players. The new guidelines would ensure fair play for all. IV. Current Scenario: Till now big the retail giants such as Amazon and Flipkart were bypassing the Marketplace model by creating legal entities which first buy from vendors (i.e in a way keep inventory). V. Changes: Concentration: As per the new regulations, an e-commerce marketplace entity will be deemed to control the inventory of a vendor if the marketplace entity or its group companies purchases more than 25% of such a vendor’s inventory. Equity: An entity having equity participation by e-commerce marketplace entity or its group companies, or having control on its inventory by e-commerce marketplace entity or its group companies, will not be permitted to sell its products on the platform run by such marketplace entity. No more Discounts: E-commerce marketplace entity are prohibited from directly or indirectly influence the sale price of goods or services. No more exclusivity: The regulations dictate that platforms cannot enter into exclusive deals with sellers. This would mean that online exclusive brands would now have to tap multiple companies to sell their products. VI. Cause & Effect: For Brands: Brands like BPL, Sanyo, Thomson, Xiaomi, OnePlus, etc, operate as online-exclusive brands on online marketplaces such as Amazon India and Flipkart. In light of the new guidelines, these are likely to enter into partnerships with multiple platforms, become sellers by themselves or venture offline, focusing on retail expansion. For retail giants: Flipkart and Amazon have launched their private labels such as Smartbuy (Flipkart’s native label for chargers and cables) and MarQ (Flipkart’s homegrown brand for air conditioners and smart televisions) and Amazon Basics (the giant’s native arm which sells electronics, kitchen and dining, travel and more.) which offer goods and services at lower costs and higher margins. Flipkart and Amazon may have to enter into re-seller agreements with multiple Indian companies to be able to sell their products as per the new FDI guidelines. VII. Loopholes: The new FDI rules state that an online marketplace cannot sell products from a vendor in which they have a stake. However, they do not say anything about selling goods from a subsidiary firm of a vendor. For example, Cloudtail is a joint venture between Amazon.com and Narayan Murthy’s family office Catamaran Ventures, which forms a majority of Amazon's sales. VIII. The Watchdog: The government is also considering the appointment of a dedicated e-commerce regulator. If implemented with due diligence, the new rules can provide the much-needed fillip to small players and brick-and-mortar retailers who have suffered massive losses on back of the colossal discounts and cashbacks offered by the retail giants over the years. IX. Next steps: The FDI rules are expected to come into force by February 1st, 2019. A new comprehensive draft policy for e-commerce sector as a whole is expected to be released in a few weeks.

The revised e-commerce norms come in the backdrop of several complaints by traders on deep discounts offered by Flipkart and Amazon. Bengaluru/New Delhi: The government on Wednesday barred online retailers such as Flipkart and Amazon from selling products of companies in which they own stakes and disallowed them from entering into exclusive deals for merchandise, unveiling norms that industry figures warned could upend India’s $18 billion e-commerce industry. Barring e-commerce marketplaces from selling products of firms in which they own stakes could hit Amazon in particular, given that it has several such joint ventures, including Cloudtail and Appario. Cloudtail is a joint venture between Amazon and N.R. Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures. The commerce and industry ministry’s decision to introduce the new norms follows complaints by small traders, who contend that deep discounts offered by the likes of Amazon and Flipkart are driving them out of business. The issue is of crucial importance for the government, given that national elections are due by May and traders are a core voter base for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. The move to ban exclusive deals for products also hurts top online retailers such as Flipkart and Amazon. Flipkart, for instance, has exclusive partnerships with top smartphone brands such as Xiaomi and Oppo. Smartphones contribute over 50% of overall e-commerce sales in India. E-commerce companies have to go back to the drawing board and see if their business models comply with the new requirements that are effective prospectively from 1 February, said Anil Talreja, partner, Deloitte India. A senior government official said the changes in the foreign direct investment policy (FDI) on e-commerce were aimed at tackling “anti-competitive” behaviour by e-commerce entities. “There is a wrongful subsidization of products by e-commerce players. In the marketplace model, the e-commerce entity should be neutral to all vendors,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Another official said the government would address queries related to the new norms either on Thursday or Friday. The announcement of the policy evoked massive protests from executives of top e-commerce companies, who warned of a swift pushback. Top executives from both Flipkart and Amazon said they would lobby strongly to either have the new policy scrapped in its entirety or to have significant amendments made to it in order to ensure “minimum disruption to Indian e-commerce”. Executives from both companies also claimed they were not consulted before the policy was issued by the government and that there had been no dialogue with commerce and industry minister Suresh Prabhu on this matter. “This policy makes no sense and is utterly ridiculous. The way this new policy has been crafted shows a complete lack of understanding of the retail landscape in India and how it functions. We were not even consulted before this was issued,” said a top executive at Amazon, who requested anonymity. Publicly, large e-commerce firms said little. Flipkart did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “We are evaluating the circular,” said an Amazon spokesperson. Most large e-commerce firms previously exploited loopholes in existing FDI rules and created complex structures to get around the norms. For instance, when the government put rules in place that restricted large sellers on platforms such as Flipkart and Amazon from contributing more than 25% of sales, online retailers set up complex structures to get around those loopholes by mandating other sellers to buy from those large sellers and then in turn sell those products on online marketplaces. In other instances, large sellers formed multiple entities, which sold their products separately on online marketplaces. The latest policy is aimed at plugging those loopholes. Surprisingly, Kunal Bahl, co-founder of Snapdeal, welcomed the new policy. “Snapdeal welcomes updates to FDI policy on e-commerce. Marketplaces are meant for genuine, independent sellers, many of whom are MSMEs. These changes will enable a level- playing field for all sellers, helping them leverage the reach of e-commerce,” Bahl said on Twitter on Wednesday evening. The new FDI norms, however, may not be in sync with the spirit of competition and free market economy. Only those exclusive arrangements that have an appreciable adverse effect on competition are prohibited under the Competition Act, said Subodh Prasad Deo, partner at law firm Saikrishna and Associates, and former additional director general at Competition Commission of India. One of the factors that will help in making that assessment is whether such exclusive arrangements create entry barriers to new entrants in the market. “I’m expecting almost all e-commerce firms with marketplace models to relook their current structures and models. Overall, we will see a lot of introspection by the marketplaces on their current business models to comply with the new policy and a lot more work for the statutory auditors,” said Sreedhar Prasad, a former partner at KPMG, who recently joined Kalaari Capital as a partner. #Ecommerce #Account #Management at #Flipkart #Paytm #Amazon #Snapdeal #Myntra #Jabong #Moglix etc. #ProductListing #Cataloging #Photoshoot #reinstantment #Advertisement #GST #Trademark #FSSAI https://www.SellersDrive.com #Amazon #Flipkart #Paytm #Snapdeal #Myntra #Jabong #Pepperfry #Homepunch #Moglix #OnlineShopping #online #seller #services #3rdpartyservices #accountmanagement #market #trend #retailers #buyers #stores #business #festival #AmazonATES

Bengaluru police are on the lookout for four men who allegedly duped billion dollar e-commerce giant Amazon of Rs 70 lakh by replacing original products with fakes and returning them to the company. Bengaluru: In a shocking turn of events, four men have been accused of duping e-commerce giant Amazon of a staggering Rs 70 lakh. The matter came to light after an authorised representative with the billion dollar company filed an official complaint with the Koromangala police accusing four men including two assistant managers of a third-party service provider. In his statement to the police, complainant Nishad Sharma has identified four men namely Ravi Kumar, Sonu, Mohammed Anwar, and Shiv Naik. A copy of the FIR accessed by Times of India ascertains that Anwar and Naik are assistant managers with a Koromangala-based third-party service provider. According to reports, the accused used Amazon's "Returns, Refunds and Replacement" policy to steal close to Rs 70 lakh from the e-commerce giant. Since Amazon refunds customers who receive either damaged or substandard quality goods, Anwar and Naik who were in charge of such refunds used the policy to line their own pockets. At the time, all of the accused are absconding. With the help of the two others accused in the case, Naik and Sharma purchased several different commodities and returned them only after replacing them with fake ones. While Naik and Sharma approved the refunds, the other two posed as customers. In fact, the complainant claims that the accused returned as many as 854 goods to the company causing it to suffer a loss of Rs 69,61,939. The fraud came to light only after Amazon executives began checking the products that were sent with the fake products returned to the company by the accused. #Ecommerce #Account #Management at #Flipkart #Paytm #Amazon #Snapdeal #Myntra #Jabong #Moglix etc. #Product #Listing #Cataloging #Photoshoot #reinstantment #Advertisement #GST #Trademark #FSSAI https://www.SellersDrive.com #Amazon #Flipkart #Paytm #Snapdeal #Myntra #Jabong #Pepperfry #Homepunch #Moglix #Online #Shopping #online #sellersdrive #services #3rdpartyservices #accountmanagement #market #trend #retailers #buyers #stores #business #festival #sale

BENGALURU: Following a judgement by the Delhi High Court last month on counterfeit products being sold on ShopClues, an association of online vendors has written to the government asking for applying the guidelines laid out by the court to all ecommerce marketplaces in the country.
While coming down against ShopClues based on a complaint by American electronics brand Skullcandy of counterfeits being sold on the platform, Delhi High Court directed the company to disclose details of all sellers on its website, obtain a certificate from sellers on genuineness of products, and also enter into agreements of authenticity with sellers.
ShopClues did not respond to specific queries on whether these steps were being followed. The All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) has written to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion as well as the Consumer Affairs Ministry to direct all ecommerce marketplaces to adhere to the guidelines laid down by the court. “Concrete preemptive action needs to be taken to keep counterfeit goods away from being listed. The government needs to get proactive and issue a guideline in line with the judgment and issue severe punishment for system override,” an AIOVA spokesperson said. ShopClues had been pulled up for a similar issue of counterfeit products in a judgment by the Delhi High Court wherein it restrained the platform from selling counterfeit products of French cosmetics company L’Oreal. In both judgements, the court said that ShopClues was disqualified for the exemption under Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000 stating that the “the role of the website is more than that of an intermediary.” #Ecommerce #Account #Management at #Flipkart #Paytm #Amazon #Snapdeal #Myntra #Jabong #Moglix etc. #Product Listing #Cataloging #Photoshoot #reinstantment #Advertisement #GST #Trademark #FSSAI #Online Shopping #online #seller #services #3rdpartyservices #accountmanagement #market #trend #retailers #buyers #stores #business #festival #sale

Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy says the online retailer is at least ‘twice the size’ of its nearest competitor, implying Amazon Bengaluru: Walmart-controlled online retailer Flipkart has transaction growth of more than 80% in some months as e-commerce is booming again in the country, and the company plans to push newer categories such as furniture and groceries over the next three years. In an interview with Mint on Tuesday, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said that the online retailer is at least “twice the size” of its nearest competitor, implying Amazon. Amazon India chief Amit Agarwal had in a recent interview dismissed those claims, saying that Amazon did not have time to focus on “unsubstantiated claims.” Krishnamurthy also indicated that Flipkart may either partner with a video content firm or build out its own content offering, as part of Flipkart’s broader loyalty programme, which was launched a few months ago. “It’s a very unique loyalty programme and the uniqueness of the loyalty programme hasn’t fully played out yet….If the Indian customer wants content as part of that, then we will offer content to the Indian customer as part of the loyalty programme. We are working on it and we will get to a situation where we will offer some sort of a content experience for customers. It could be through partnerships or we could build it on our own,” said Krishnamurthy Mint had reported on September 17 that Flipkart has held talks to buy a stake in Hotstar, Star India’s video streaming service, as part of a broader strategy to bet big on video content and attract more Internet consumers and shoppers. Krishnamurthy said that Flipkart plans to invest heavily in growing newer categories such as furniture and groceries. Flipkart may invest in or partner with offline retailers in groceries and furniture to become a leader in these categories. “Furniture is a small market, so I won’t take pride in saying that we’re number one there. There are only 3-4 players. What is unique about the furniture business is that it’s heavily built on private labels. Everything will expand there. The reach of the furniture supply chain is way lesser than that of eKart in general. So, that has to go up. The cost structure will improve, the experience will improve, so all of that will improve,” said Krishnamurthy. “Grocery is by far one of the most difficult businesses we have launched. In Bangalore, we’ve seen a huge amount of customer adoption and a lot of learnings. So, right now we’re in four cities. Today the grocery business is primarily about the monthly basket approach. If I look at that market versus the on-demand market, it’s about 80% in favour of the monthly basket purchase in India. Does that mean we will not get into the on-demand business? Once again, that’s another business where globally more people have failed than succeeded. So, we’re very cautious of that and when we do it, we want to do it the right way...In the long-term, we might not have an online-only approach (in groceries) -- we will partner with the ecosystem...any kind of tie-up or partnership is possible,” added Krishnamurthy. A majority of India’s $18 billion e-commerce market comprises sales of mobile phones, fashion and televisions, in that order. But the overall retail market is structured differently with groceries and fashion the two largest categories. If e-commerce has to continue growing at high rates over the next few years Flipkart and Amazon will have to significantly scale up sales of groceries and fashion. Last month, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal had resigned, following an internal investigation into an allegation of “personal misconduct.” The subsequent probe into the incident cleared Bansal of any wrongdoing, but revealed “lapses of judgement” on his part, especially with his handling of the matter. On Tuesday, Krishnamurthy and Walmart declined to comment further on the probe into Bansal and Walmart’s communication surrounding Bansal’s departure from Flipkart. Krishnamurthy also declined to comment on whether a new leadership will be appointed at Myntra to replace the current management led by Ananth Narayanan , but said that some Flipkart executives will be “selectively” given roles at Myntra and vice versa. “We might move people across our group companies, we might do that selectively based on skills and needs of the business,” said Krishnamurthy. Mint reported on Monday that Myntra’s chief executive officer (CEO) Ananth Narayanan has resigned from his role with his position set to be abolished, and Flipkart executive Amar Nagaram has been tasked with heading Myntra. Separately on Tuesday, Flipkart’s Singapore-listed entity infused roughly Rs. 2190 crore ($304 million) into its Indian subsidiary, according to a regulatory filing sourced from Paper. VC. #Ecommerce #Account #Management at #Flipkart #Paytm #Amazon #Snapdeal #Myntra #Jabong #Moglix etc. #Product Listing #Cataloging #Photoshoot #reinstantment #Advertisement #GST #Trademark #FSSAI #Online Shopping #online #seller #services #3rdpartyservices #accountmanagement #market #trend #retailers #buyers #stores #business #festival #sale