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  • Amazon to start a wholesale portal in India?

    Amazon to start a wholesale portal in India?

    MUMBAI: After launching an e-retailer Amazon India and a product-comparison site Junglee.com, the US online retail giant is all set to launch a new portal in India.

     

    According to a report by economic times, the Seattle-based company is preparing to launch a portal for wholesale merchants in India, the first country outside the US where such an initiative is being planned.

     

    The report also said that the wholesale portal could be launched as early as next year and the team has been working on this secret project for the past few months. Talks with potential suppliers and the hiring process have also begun. The initiative could be led by Samir Kumar, who is currently director of category management and the team will report to Amazon India head Amit Agarwal.

     

    “It will be similar to what Walmart is doing online in India and what Alibaba does in China,” sources said to economic times.

     

    Amazon refused to comment to the report. An Amazon India spokeswoman said, “As a policy, we do not comment on anything that we may or may not do in the future.”

     

    Amazon’s online retail business has grown rapidly since its debut in India. It is already the biggest competition to the home-grown e-commerce site Flipkart. Just a day after Flipkart raised $1 billion, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced that Amazon is going to invest $2 billion in its Indian arm.

     

    The India wholesale portal is said to be similar to AmazonSupply, its online site in the US focused on business consumers. The India platform will target small and medium enterprises. However, it is not clear what categories of products will the company sell under its wholesale platform. For instance, AmazonSupply does not sell apparel and other soft lines such as furnishings.

     

    Launched in 2012, AmazonSupply sells products ranging from office supplies to electrical equipment.

     

    Since June last year, Amazon in India has set up a network of seven warehouses across the country and has over 8,500 merchants selling products in over 28 categories on its platform.

     

    Recently, US retail giant Walmart also estimated that India’s wholesale market will grow to $700 billion by 2020 from the current $300 billion. Earlier this year, it launched a business-focused site bestpricewholesale.co.in for its wholesale club members in Lucknow and Hyderabad.

     

    It is estimated that the retail market in India currently at $525 billion will double in size by 2020.

  • InMobi makes two senior appointments

    MUMBAI: As part of its strategy to aggressively tap the mobile advertising space in India, Bangalore-based mobile advertising network InMobi has embarked upon its expansion plans. For this, the firm has appointed Sandeep Deshpande as the country general manager India and Vishal Nongbet as business head of brands.

    InMobi has also opened up offices at New Delhi and Mumbai.

    In his new role at InMobi Deshpande will be responsible for InMobi‘s business operations and growth in India.

    InMobi is banking high on the opportunities available in the Indian market. With an increased penetration of smartphones across age groups and social strata, the mobile ad impressions too are witnessing an upsurge and the advertiser community is accepting this innovation. With the current mobile advertising market in India touching $25 million, it is expected to hit $60-80 million by 2014.

    Deshpande has over two decades of experience in launching and growing new businesses. Prior to joining InMobi, he spent nearly a decade in the Internet industry, working for organisations like Yahoo, Alibaba.com and Rediff.com. He was instrumental in launching and growing Yahoo! search marketing, its small business and local search during his stint as general manager.

    Deshpande also played a role in setting up Alibaba’s fully owned subsidiary in India during 2010-11 and building the Alibaba brand among SMEs in the local market.

    Nongbet brings 13 years of varied experience in lifestyle and youth product marketing, largely in the fields of consumer goods and media and entertainment. A graduate from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, he started his career with Pepsi, followed by Times Music. He then moved to Kodak where he was instrumental in growing their digital businesses into a $30 million business after which he served as head of marketing and alliances at Mumbai Mantra, the filmproduction and distribution start-up of the Mahindra group. He then took on the role of marketing head at SMSGupshup, the mobile marketing start-up.

    InMobi founder and CEO Naveen Tewari said, “With their unique blend of experience in technology, expertise in e-commerce and brand marketing capabilities, we are confident that both Sandeep and Vishal will play an important role in identifying new business opportunities and further expanding our operations in India.”

    Deshpande said, “I do hope that my experience in setting up new business and in online marketing will help me take InMobi to new heights.”