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Category: e-commerce

  • Amazon heavily dependent on Diwali sale for revenue

    Amazon heavily dependent on Diwali sale for revenue

    MUMBAI: Not only do Indians eagerly await Diwali but so does Amazon it seems. The largest online retailer across the world has published a mixed result for the third quarter. While its revenue fell short of Wall Street expectation, it posted a record profit. On the other hand, despite the growth in domestic business, the international business showed a significant slowdown. Interestingly, a late Diwali in India has been cited as the reason which shows how crucial the Indian market has become for it.

    “There's also material change in the Diwali calendar in India. About half of our Diwali sales last year were in Q3. This year they'll be fully in Q4. So those are a couple factors that hit the international growth area in particular,” Amazon chief financial officer Brian T Olsavsky said in an earnings call.

    In India, Amazon is already fighting the domestic player Flipkart which is now backed by Walmart. The first leg of Diwali sale from both the player was around same time. Despite Flipkart’s popularity in India, three fold number of people signed up on Amazon to shop in the first two days compared to last year.

    “We've seen great response from customers. We've had 60 per cent growth in new customers during the period. Orders are coming in from 99 per cent of the pin codes in the country. So, great first wave of the, what we call the Amazon's Great Indian Festival, which lead into Diwali,” Olsavsky added.

    Advertising has been one of the major areas where the company reaped high profit. The revenue from the unit representing its display, sponsored product and other advertising revenue jumped 123 per cent, more than double the growth rate a year earlier.  While it is locked in a battle with Google, Facebook for digital ad pie, the company has made it clear that it won’t go down the road of ad-supported Amazon Prime Video soon.

    Amazon Prime membership, the card at hand to turn more consumers into shoppers, has continued to grow in US, as well as other countries. The company claims to be satisfied with the renewal data and annual sign up data since the price increase earlier this year.

    “Since then, program remains very strong, both in membership and engagement, and a lot of our video content, music and shipping definitely as well as other Prime Benefits. We just continue to see that ramp up, not only in the US, but in other countries. So we do continue to make the Prime offer better as well,” Amazon CFO said.

    Although the slowdown in international business led to fall in shares, it continued to reduce losses, which came down to $385 million in Q3 from $494 million in Q2. However, on the back of Diwali sale Amazon expects a huge boost to international segment reaffirming India’s importance in its business.

  • Amazon Q3 results fall short of Wall Street expectations

    Amazon Q3 results fall short of Wall Street expectations

    MUMBAI: E-commerce giant Amazon could not beat Wall Street expectation with its revenue and fourth quarter guidance in its third quarter earnings despite turning in a record profit. The company has reported a $2.9 billion profit for the three months ending in September topping $1 billion for the fourth consecutive quarter. Revenues of $56.58 billion fell short of expectations for $57.1 billion as well as guided revenue of $66.5 billion to $72.5 billion for next quarter.

    Its high margin business including cloud, advertising and third-party seller services propelled the growth of its profit more than its core retail business. Its cloud business by revenue saw sales up 45.7 per cent to $6.68 billion. On the other hand, its advertising business, jumped 123 per cent to $2.5 billion in revenue.

    “Net sales increased 29 per cent to $56.6 billion in the third quarter, compared with $43.7 billion in third quarter 2017. Excluding the $260 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 30 per cent compared with third quarter 2017,” the company said in a release.

    For the fourth quarter guiding too, Amazon has anticipated an unfavorable impact of approximately 80 basis points from foreign exchange rates. But this quarter is most important for the company’s sales due to the holiday season.

    While total revenue increased 29 per cent from last year, a considerable trait has to be discussed. Though in its home market its growth was at high speed, in international markets that was lower. North American sales were $34.3 billion, up 35 per cent from last year but international sales grew just 13 per cent to $15.5 billion. The disappointing international result indicates that competition in e-commerce space is escalating.

    “Amazon Business has now reached a $10 billion annual sales run rate and is serving millions of private and public-sector organisations in eight countries,” said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos especially mentioned this segment.

    “Amazon Business is adding customers rapidly, including large educational institutions, local governments, and more than half of the Fortune 100. These organisations are choosing Amazon Business because it increases transparency into business spending and streamlines purchasing, with increased control. The team is doing a fantastic job building and innovating for customers,” he added.

    Though Prime Video is a part of its attempt to turn customers for shopping by engaging through the video content, it has become a major competitor of streaming giant Netflix. “Prime Video continues to announce original series debuting in 2018, including: Homecoming, a psychological thriller starring Julia Roberts, and produced and directed by Sam Esmail; as well as season 2 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, recent winner of eight Emmy awards including Outstanding Comedy Series,” the company added.

    Amazon is also launching monthly Prime membership in Canada and Mexico, quarterly Prime membership in China, and monthly Prime Student membership in Germany.

  • UC Ads lends a hand to individual content creators in India

    UC Ads lends a hand to individual content creators in India

    MUMBAI: Mobile marketing in India is no longer a side dish. It’s the entree.  Brands know today that they need to invest a good chunk of their marketing budget to mobile ads. Sensing the opportunities in the evolving market, Alibaba Mobile Business group’s UCWeb launched innovative mobile marketing platform, UC Ads, last year. Alibaba UC Ads general manager Morden Chen, in an interaction with Indiantelevision.com spoke about business strategy and differentiated features of the platform.

    While UCWeb is an integral part of the Jack Ma led e-commerce giant’s strategy, it offers three core products including UC Browser, UC News, 9 Apps. Explaining how UC Ads is increasing its reach in India, Chen mentioned that it’s correlated with its overall product strategy.

    “Our product strategy is to serve another half of the global users who are just getting started for mobile internet. Users who just got their new Android phone, who just started mobile internet, can explore this interesting mobile world through our browser, a product with newsfeed and app store,” he said.  On the back of huge consumer base it has already created with existing products, UC Ads can help brands with the insights for targeted advertising.

    Talking about the clients, Chen said almost every e-commerce player and phone manufacturer are currently working with them including Amazon, Oppo, Vivo, Honor and Lava.

    After being in the Indian market for almost one year Chen says, “This market is rapidly growing. From my perspective, it will grow even faster due to new phone adaptations. It’s a booming market which I think will continue to boom in the next 10 years.” Interestingly, according to KMPG 2018 annual report, mobile advertisements are expected to grow from Rs 34.5 billion in FY17 to 304.5 billion in 2023 at a 43.8 per cent CAGR.

    “Before 2013-14, it was small. Around 2015, it’s getting more and more attention. Advertisers also want to invest, try and experiment in the sector. With more resources coming in it will get better. Mobile has many advantages that traditional players lack. Location-based, device based tracking is super easy compared to TVC. It has huge potential,” he added further.

    According to him, Indian online video space is full of long-form ads which are similar to TVC. On a different line, it is focusing more on short-form video created by individuals or small studios or individuals who want to have a studio and individual bloggers. It will mix official media content with articles from bloggers who have a deep understanding of something particular. “We want to let their articles also be viewed by users,” he added.

    While Chen was asked about competitors, he said everyone would mention those “two big guys” but he would not do so. According to him, the ever-interesting advertisement space is full of “feminies” (friends and enemies). If someone does better in one front, a competitor can do in another. According to him, working together will help everyone. The real challenges are fast adaptation, better infrastructure and 4G quality for seamless user experience.

    Talking about the Indian market, Chen also highlighted the necessity of good market research. Many internet startups came into India thinking it would be easy to monetise the product with the huge population. While getting users is not difficult, making the venture profitable is the real challenge.

    “We want to stay here, grow with the market and align with the local players,” Chen concluded. Currently, while UC Ads is present in India, Indonesia, Russia, the product may be available soon in Vietnam.

  • Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in talks to buy stake in India’s Paytm

    Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway in talks to buy stake in India’s Paytm

    MUMBAI: Berkshire Hathaway is in talks to invest about Rs 2,000-2,500 crore in Paytm parent One97 Communications, in what could be the first direct investment in India, according to an Economic Times report.

    Berkshire, the conglomerate run by billionaire Warren Buffett, is said to pick up a 3-4 per cent stake in Paytm’s parent and the deal is being done through a primary subscription of shares, the paper said citing people familiar with the matter.

    The Noida-based company said last month that it conducted 5 billion transactions worth $50 billion in gross transaction value (GTV) on an annualised basis based on its performance in June. It saw total income increase by 38 per cent to Rs 828 crore with losses of Rs 899.6 crore in the year ended March 2017, according to the Registrar of Companies (RoC) filings.

    If the transaction goes through, it will give Paytm more firepower to strengthen its market leadership against Flipkart-owned Phonepe and Google’s Tez besides potential competition from Facebook-owned WhatsApp and Reliance Jio.

    One of Berkshire’s key fund managers, Todd Combs, who is also seen as a potential chief investment officer at the company, is leading the transaction, as per the reports.

    Through One97 Communications, the company owns 49 per cent in Paytm Payments Bank with the remaining stake held by Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma in his personal capacity as per regulations.

    Berkshire’s investment could be clinched in the coming weeks, valuing Paytm at over $10 billion, the report stated.

    Japan’s SoftBank and China’s Alibaba Group are among the major backers of Paytm.

  • Paytm launches AI Cloud service with Alibaba

    Paytm launches AI Cloud service with Alibaba

    MUMBAI: Paytm parent One97 Communications has partnered with Alibaba to launch its artificial intelligence (AI) cloud computing platform Paytm AI Cloud for developers, start-ups, and enterprises.

    Paytm AI Cloud will offer a suite of business-centric applications including ready-to-use services that will allow businesses to automate their workflow, integrate payments, and provide messaging, customer engagement tools. The company said that its cloud will process and store all consumer data locally, in servers located only in India.

    Reports claim that the company has earmarked Rs 250 crore for this vertical. It will be interesting to see how the homegrown company’s foray into the cloud computing business pans out in the coming months. Paytm may gain an upper hand if it leverages the cloud computing business of its key investor Alibaba. The Chinese tech giant opened its first India data centre in Mumbai this January.

    The platform has also built various solutions that include ‘easy-to-access’ computing services, pattern recognition tech, pre-trained models, and predictive computation to businesses, the company said. 

    Paytm also announced that it will soon offer enterprise-messaging solution in partnership with DingTalk to facilitate conversations across email, chat, call or audio-video conference.

  • Amazon scaling up investment for Indian marketplace biz

    Amazon scaling up investment for Indian marketplace biz

    MUMBAI: E-commerce giant Amazon has invested additional Rs 2,700 crore for its Indian marketplace unit at a time when it continues to battle its local rival Flipkart along with investing about Rs 100 crore for food retail business in India, according to a report from Mint.

    According to the regulatory documents filed with the Registrar of Companies sourced by Paper .vc, the marketplace arm of Amazon India , Amazon Seller Services, received the funds earlier this month. Now its total investment in India stands roughly at $4 billion. The company has been spending all its cash on building massive warehouses, a large logistics unit, marketing, discounts and increasing product assortment.

    Earlier the online retailer pledged to invest at least $5 billion in India along with allocating an additional $500 million to build its food retail business. Back in June 2016, Amazon Inc CEO Jeff Bezos committed an additional $3 billion after fulfilling the initial target of $2billion made in 2014. The Indian market holds high importance for Amazon Inc’s international expansion.

    The report also says that earlier Amazon India chief Amit Agarwal indicated that the company will invest as much as necessary to conquer the Indian market. Flipkart is also leaving no stone unturned, especially on the back of the deal with deep-pocked Walmart. Both the companies are focusing on sales growth rather than cutting losses.

  • POPxo Launches Ecommerce Platform

    POPxo Launches Ecommerce Platform

    MUMBAI: POPxo, India’s largest digital community for women today announced the launch of its e-commerce platform selling private label merchandise. POPxo is the market-leader in creating short and engaging content. The recent success of its first web series, “Unmarried” has established POPxo in the long format content space as well. Now it’s all set to enter the world of retail with products that are well-priced and designed to appeal to the millennial audience. The pricing for the new range of products starts at Rs. 299, for mugs. Laptop bags are priced at Rs. 999, canvas pouches at Rs. 599 and tote bags at Rs. 999.

    POPxo Founder & CEO, Priyanka Gill says “Millennial women are a large and under-served market, especially in the lifestyle products category. The POPxo ecommerce platform will create and sell product lines especially for them. We already know what appeals to women online – our private label is a natural extension. Content-Community-Commerce has always been our mission and with this launch we solidify our position.”

    “We are uniquely placed as the marketing costs for our ecommerce platform are very low. We already have millions of women who engage with POPxo content on a daily basis – now we hope to wow then with our private label offering”, she adds.

    Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital says, “POPxo has established itself as a content-platform-of-choice for young women in India with a strong community of over 17M users. We believe that Commerce is the most logical step for the company at this stage. The lifestyle products market is fragmented & women-centric, and POPxo’s private label can service this market really well through its rich data-driven personas & enhanced personalization.”

    Just like their content, POPxo’s merchandise has been designed especially for their users. With five collections to suit every mood and personality, the content giant is offering lifestyle produces like laptop sleeves, tote bags, multi-purpose pouches, phone covers, and lots more. They will expand into fashion and beauty over the next few months.

    Shubham Jain, Business Head – Ecommerce at POPxo says, “From design to production and distribution – we are running the entire process in-house and via our partnerships with service providers.  It is very exciting to launch ecommerce for an established brand, loved by millions as we have a large, established buyer base and proven marketing strength.”

  • Serie A club, Napoli partners Amazon to launch merchandise store

    Serie A club, Napoli partners Amazon to launch merchandise store

    MUMBAI: The runner-up club of 2017-18 season, Napoli in Serie A has tied-up with e-commerce giant Amazon to launch an exclusive brand store. The Napoli Amazon brand store has been launched featuring official team products from the club’s technical supplier Kappa along with a full range of Napoli Calcio-licensed merchandise.

    Napoli hope the new partnership will make it easier for its international fans to access kit and merchandise.

    Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis said, “Napoli have become a regular fixture among the top 20 clubs in UEFA rankings, have over 40 million fans worldwide as well as a further 120 million with a passing interest. It is very important to us to be able to offer them easy access to our merchandise, and Amazon offer extraordinarily efficient distribution and order management services,” according to Sportspromedia.com.

    The club released its 2018-19 season kit which is starting from 19 August 2018 and the partnership will also reach other markets like Italy, France, the UK and Spain, with the aim to launch in the North American market in the near future.

    The Amazon partnership is part of the club’s international development strategy designed to strengthen the Napoli brand in foreign markets.

  • Prime Members in India enjoyed the biggest Prime Day yet; record number of members shopped deals and streamed movies and music

    Prime Members in India enjoyed the biggest Prime Day yet; record number of members shopped deals and streamed movies and music

    More customers in India joined the Prime membership program in the week leading up to Prime Day than in any other week before, with more than 35% of new members living in tier 2-3 towns.

    The best-selling Amazon devices in India this Prime Day were Fire TV Stick with Voice Remote and Echo Dot.

    The best-selling categories were smartphones, large & home appliances, apparel and daily essentials.

    Prime Day saw 200+ exclusive product launches from brands including Nestlé NesPlus, OnePlus, Marks & Spencer and Bosch.

    Members loved Prime Now’s ultra-fast delivery in major metros, with all same-day delivery slots selling out in record time.

    Comicstaan broke the record for being the most watched Amazon Prime Original series in its first week on Prime Video in India.

    Prime members in India joined members in 16 other countries to celebrate Prime Day, Amazon’s exclusive shopping event for Prime members. The 36 hours during Prime Day saw members in India shop and stream as never before, taking advantage of 200+ exclusive new product launches, thousands of deals, and video & music selections specially curated for Prime Day. More new Prime members joined the program in the one week leading up to Prime Day than any week since the launch of Prime in India. Additionally, more members than ever enjoyed Prime Video and Amazon Prime Music content, with the week leading up to Prime Day having the highest number of streamers ever.

    “Prime Day offers us a unique opportunity to thank Prime members with a celebration of our best deals, exclusive selection as well as new Prime Video and Prime Music content,” said Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President and Country Head, Amazon India. “Extending Prime Day to 36 hours this year allowed us to further reward members with unbeatable deals, access to exclusive new products and unforgettable experiences that highlight the many benefits of a Prime membership. We also want to thank our sellers, brands and our content partners who helped to make Prime Day bigger and better.”

    Amazon Prime Day 2018 Shopping Highlights (Compared to normal business days in June 2018)

    ·   Prime members shopped for deals and streamed content across hundreds of cities in India, including Lucknow, Ludhiana, Jamshedpur, Ahmedabad, Noida, Thane, Kochi, Ernakulam, amongst others.

    · Customers in India purchased over 5X as many Fire TV devices this Prime Day than last Prime Day. July 17 was the best day ever for Echo devices on Amazon.in.

    · Wireless grew over 5X, offering members brands like OnePlus, Redmi, Huawei and Honor.

    · Large Appliance grew 9X and included selection from Bosch dishwashers and washing machines. 

    ·  Everyday essentials saw 3X overall growth with Amazon Pantry finding strong customer favour. Members enjoyed brands like Nestle’s new breakfast cereal NesPlus, Saffola Oats, Dettol Liquid Handwash and Nivea Fresh Active Deodarant.

    Fashion saw an over 2X growth with new brand launches including brands like Marks & Spencer and New Balance.

    Consumer Electronics grew over 4X, with a Buy One Get One deal from TCL TVs and new launch of Sennheiser Wireless Noise Cancellation headphones

    Prime members topped up their Amazon Pay balance 7X more than on a regular day.

    Prime Video & Prime Music Highlights

    · The week leading up to Prime Day was Prime Video’s best ever, with the highest number of streamers in India ever.

    Comicstaan, launched in the run-up to Prime Day, broke the record to become the most watched Amazon Prime Original series in its first week on Prime Video in India.

    With the recently launched Vodafone Youth Offer on Amazon Prime, we saw young consumers bingeing on comedy – Comicstaan, Zakir Khan: Haq Se Single, Chacha Vidhayak Hain Humare, and hit Bollywood movies  – Padmaavat and Sonu ke Titu Ki Sweety

    Members streamed music in 18 Indian and international languages on Prime Music in the week leading upto Prime Day.

    Top three songs streamed on Prime day were Dilbar from Satyamev Jayate, Tareefan from Veere Di Wedding and Dhadak title track from Dhadak.

    Small and Medium-Sized Business Spotlight

    Prime Day 2018 was a success for small and medium-sized businesses who put their passion and unique skill sets on display. Prime members around India purchased thousands of products from these entrepreneurs, startups, artisans and mom-and-pop shops. Over 50,000 participating small and medium-sized businesses saw an average growth of 240% this Prime Day over an average day in June. Amazon Launchpad start-ups saw an average of 6X growth . In the new Prime exclusive launches, RoadGods (Xator backpack), Leaf Wearables (Beast headphones), Spruce Shave Club (beard oil & beard wash), Fego (motor bike air suspension seat) and Smartivity (DIY educational toys) were among the most popular products.

    “We are extremely happy with how Prime Day turned out for us. Our brand saw a spike of over 2X in sales and units sold over business as usual! This is very encouraging for us and the artisans working with us.”- Ravi and Gunjeet Singh, Two Moustaches

    “Prime Day 2018 has been phenomenal for RoadGods. The response to our new products ‘Xator’ and ‘Blue Ghost’ have been extremely encouraging. We saw a 2X growth in our overall business in just 36 hours! ” – Apoorv Mangalam RoadGods

    “Being a new start-up on Amazon Launchpad, this was our first Prime Day experience and we couldn’t have asked for more. Our brand saw more than 10X sales growth over business as usual in less than two days. And the cherry on the cake was to get mattress orders from all across the country, from Faridabad to Mysore.” – Ankit Garg, Wakefit

    Brand Spotlight

    “Red as a colour emotes a sense of self-confidence and positivity, and with the OnePlus 6 Red Edition, we aim to deliver a vivid sensory experience that will last for years. Amazon’s Prime Day is a great opportunity for our community to get their hands on this special edition in India. Last year, we received record sales for OnePlus 5 during Prime Day and this year, OnePlus 6 Red has crossed that mark by miles.” said Vikas Agarwal, General Manager – India, OnePlus

    “The launch of NesPlus through a digital-first approach marks an important milestone in the brand’s journey. We are extremely overwhelmed by the response that NesPlus has received for Prime Day across the towns and cities of India. NesPlus became no. 1 in the gourmet section of grocery and sold 1 unit every 3 seconds within hours of being on sale. With consumers increasingly opting for solutions online, it has become vital for all brands to move towards an integrated plan of action. Over a million customers have already interacted with the brand so far through the various online initiatives, specially the Virtual Reality integration. We are very excited to partner with Amazon for the NesPlus journey in India.” said Aparna Chopra, Business Executive Officer, Nestlé Breakfast Cereals

    Unique Prime experiences Across India

    In the weeks leading up to Prime Day 2018, Prime members saw Amazon unbox real-world experiences across the country. Amazon India had featured a virtual reality (VR) experience for customers in India’s top metros. Tens of thousands of customers in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Kolkata visited top malls before July 17 to experience hundreds of new products launching exclusively on Prime Day. Additionally, pop-up installations and augmented reality experiences fueled customer excitement in the run-up to Prime Day 2018.

    Every Day Made Better with Prime

    Prime is designed to make your life better every single day. Over 100 million Prime members around the world enjoy the many benefits of Prime. In India, this includes unlimited free & fast shipping, unlimited access to award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime Video, unlimited access to millions of songs ad-free with Prime Music, early access to Lightning Deals and more. Members in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai can enjoy ultra-fast 2-hour delivery on Amazon devices, consumer electronics and everyday essentials on the Prime Now app. Log on to www.amazon.in/prime and become a Prime member today.

  • Paytm appoints Ex- RBI deputy governor as advisor

    Paytm appoints Ex- RBI deputy governor as advisor

    MUMBAI: Indian e-commerce payment system and digital wallet company, Paytm has appointed former RBI deputy governor Rama Subramaniam Gandhi as an advisor to the company.

    In a blog post, the company said it would benefit from Gandhi’s knowledge and experience on payment systems, regulations, compliance and corporate governance. 

    Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma is excited about having Gandhi on board. He says, “Since the beginning of our journey, we have focused on building an organisation that has the culture and the resources of serving our customers responsibly. Mr. Gandhi joins our family, which now includes some of the most distinguished Indian and global leaders in the fields of finance, law, technology and business, all working together to help us achieve this goal.”

    Gandhi adds, “I am delighted to join Paytm as an advisor in its journey to bring digital and financial inclusion to half a billion Indians. I have dedicated my whole life to formulate policy and strengthen institutions in the financial services space. I will be happy to share my insights and guide Paytm in the creation of innovative financial services.”

    Before holding the position of the deputy governor, Gandhi worked with the central bank and was a member of the first Monetary Policy Committee. 

    He had a three-year secondment to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and has also been the head of two regional offices of the Reserve Bank. 

    Besides holding strategic roles in RBI, he had also piloted several innovative projects on IT, payment systems, financial literacy, financial inclusion and other developmental initiatives.