Tag: E-commerce

Amazon India enables neighbourhood stores for festive season

Bengaluru: This festive season, over 100,000 Amazon-enabled local shops, kiranas and neighbourhood stores from across India have geared up to serve customers. More than 20,000 offline retailers, kiranas and local shops from “Local Shops on Amazon” program are participating in their first “Great Indian Festival” to cater to customers in their cities and across India, selling everything from daily essentials to large appliances and from home décor items to gifts and fresh flowers.

The program has witnessed remarkable response from retailers from across India and has scaled rapidly in just five months; with more than 40 per cent of the sellers coming from outside the top 10 cities. The success of the “Local Shops on Amazon” program underlines Amazon India’s commitment to work closely with the vast network of neighborhood stores across India, integrating e-commerce into their operations through focused initiatives such as Amazon Easy, I Have Space, and Amazon Pay Smart Stores.

Amazon India VP Manish Tiwary said, “This festive season we are focused on helping our sellers and other MSME partners grow their business and bounce back from the recent challenges. In the last few months we have seen businesses of all sizes increasingly adopt technology into their business. The integration of Amazon’s programs with 100,000+ ubiquitous neighbourhood stores – for selling online, to help customers buy online, to make deliveries and enable contactless payments – is a testament of the adaptability and inventiveness of Indian entrepreneurs. We hope that this Great Indian Festival will bring them growth and success as they get ready to serve millions of customers across India”.

Local Shops on Amazon is a new program that was launched in April this year to help bring offline retailers, kiranas and local shops online. The program has scaled rapidly within 5 months of launch and now has more than 20,000 retailers in 400 cities. Today, thousands of offline retailers from Meerut to Ludhiana, Saharanpur to Surat, Indore to Ernakulum and Kanchipuram are part of this program. Local Shops on Amazon offer a wide range of products including fresh flowers, home and kitchen products, furniture, electronics, books and toys amongst others.

Amazon Easy enables assisted shopping experience for new to e-commerce customers. They can place an order on Amazon.in with guided assistance from the store staff and pick up the order from the store or get it delivered at their doorstep. An upgraded ‘Amazon Easy’ store format has recently been launched offering a touch & feel product experience and integrating multiple Amazon services through a single touchpoint. The first such store is now operational in Bengaluru. The upgraded format stores will soon be expanded to other parts of the country.

Amazon Pay Smart Store is currently enabling 15,000+ neighbourhood shops to provide a contactless shopping experience to their customers. With Amazon Pay Smart Store, customers can simply scan the store’s QR code using the Amazon app to explore the products available in the store. After selecting the products, they wish to buy they can check out with Amazon Pay, which gives them a choice of using UPI, balance, or credit or debit cards. Customers can on-the-spot convert a transaction into an EMI, and avail exciting rewards from their banks or through Amazon Pay.

Amazon I Have Space

Ahead of the festive season, Amazon has also strengthened its flagship ‘I Have Space’ (IHS) delivery program, now comprising of more than 28,000 neighborhood and kirana stores in close to 350 cities. Under the ‘I Have Space’ program, Amazon India partners with local store owners to deliver products to customers within a 2 to 4 kilometers radius of their store, allowing them to supplement their regular income and generate more footfalls.

October 5, 2020
Snapdeal establishes new logistics hubs

NEW DELHI: E-commerce platform Snapdeal has expanded its nationwide logistics network. It has by opened eight new centres at manufacturing hubs that are located across cities in India. The new centres are part of a pre-Diwali increase in capacity initiative to cater to the festive spike in volumes.

The new centres are located inside the manufacturing hubs at Bahadurgarh, Rajkot, Bhiwandi, Agra, Yamuna Nagar, Noida, Mathura, and Mumbai.

The expansion is part of a decentralised network designed by Snapdeal, where its centers are located within commercial hubs inside a city to ensure faster pickup of packets from the sellers. This has become all the more important due to Covid2019 related restrictions, which at times reduce the operating hours or prohibit weekend operations in some parts of the country.

These new centers will cater to manufacturers and sellers of decor and furnishing items like lights, curtains, bedsheets, kitchenware, and apparel including sarees and ethnic wear. All these items are expected to witness high festive sales volumes due to an increase in the number of Indians preferring to buy online for convenience and safety reasons.

Earlier this year, Snapdeal opened 15 logistics centres. With the new addition, the company now runs 23 logistics centres. Its logistics hubs offer dedicated facilities for the manufacturing units, including packaging of orders and online tracking for orders in transit and facilitate faster movement of packets.

According to a Snapdeal Spokesperson, “The additional logistics capacity comes ahead of the festive season sale when the volume of orders is higher. The new centres make the fulfillment process simpler for the manufacturer-sellers so that they can devote all their resources towards production.”

Snapdeal is aiming to add 5000 manufacturer-sellers on its platform this year. Most of these manufacturers produce and sell daily use products like steel and copper utensils, kitchen gadgets like food processors and fashion accessories like watches and wallets.

August 27, 2020
eBay signs MoU with Uttar Pradesh govt for ‘One District One Product’ program

NEW DELHI: eBay today signed an MoU with the government of Uttar Pradesh for its ‘One District One Product’ program. The MoU will enable MSMEs in Uttar Pradesh to leverage eBay’s cross border platform and sell internationally across 190 countries. As part of the MoU, eBay will not only promote local art and crafts but will also help in skill development and self-employment.

This association will enable ODOP sellers and traders to seamlessly undertake e-commerce retail exports to over 190 markets in the world through a globally established marketplace platform.

To empower indigenous crafts and goods and support them with a competitive edge, eBay will offer special schemes (pricing and other benefits) curated specifically for sellers and traders associated with the ODOP cell. In addition to this, eBay will train and provide sellers with requisite knowledge and skill-set about various aspects of online retail including listing products online, shipping policies, and product descriptions amongst others to undertake transactions with audiences across the globe.

Government of UP additional chief secretary (ACS), MSME & export promotion Navneet Sehgal said, “the government is working to catalyze entrepreneurship and creating an ecosystem that promotes better market for outputs, such as handicrafts, leather products, wood & metal craft. At the same time, the MSME sector needs a bridge to swiftly tap hitherto unexplored opportunities and sell indigenous products in the international market. This is where the role of companies like eBay becomes pivotal. By leveraging partnerships with rural MSMEs and artisans, eBay, like our other eCommerce partners can help ODOP aligned artisans explore endless opportunities across the spectrum of indigenous skills. In order to achieve ‘Make in India’ greater heights, partnerships like these will play an important role in amplifying the multi-sectoral role that MSMEs can play. I hope eBay will also help us to become a global hub for exports of handicrafts and other goods”.

eBay India country manager Vidmay Naini said, “We are delighted to partner with the Government of Uttar Pradesh’s One District One Product program. Being a true marketplace, eBay has always recognized the immense potential and scope of MSMEs and artisans from across Indian markets. Through this association, we are delighted to introduce the sellers and artisans from Uttar Pradesh to a world full of opportunities across the globe. We will work in conjunction with the state government to further bring about modifications in policies hereby boosting e-commerce retail trade from Uttar Pradesh.”

“We are strongly in favor of the Hon’ble Prime Minister’s appeal to be local for vocal and promote Indian entrepreneurs globally,” added Vidmay Naini.

eBay will work closely with Government of Uttar Pradesh ODOP team to onboard sellers and expand their business globally. The association will also allow eBay access to relevant government bodies, industry, and trade associations and initiate meaningful dialogue to ease the norms for e-commerce retail exports in India.

August 7, 2020
Vega aims to refresh cosmetic industry with SERY

NEW DELHI: Personal care appliances brand Vega has forayed into the cosmetic brand with the name SERY. The company launched its product through e-commerce channels including its own website. SERY has entered the market with an easy-to-use, stick format make-up range.

The brand has roped Bollywood actress Amyra Dastur as the brand ambassador. As part of the association, Dastur will be featured in the latest launch campaign video.

The company has expanded its footprints at a time when the cosmetic industry has been facing a steep decline due to the pandemic. Not only India but across the APAC region, many cosmetic brands have witnessed net sales decreased in the past few months.

SERY MD Sandeep Jain shared, “The Covid2019 pandemic has had a negative impact on the industry. But many indigenous brands have started creating stronger e-commerce presence since offline has taken a hit. Individuals, particularly millennials, continue to purchase items via e-commerce platforms besides buying products directly from their favourite brands’ websites. So, having a strong presence in leading e-commerce platforms will be of help. However, retail will continue to be a point of focus for us in the near future.”

VEGA has been a known brand in the personal care market. The company started its operation in 2006 as a makeup brush brand but transformed itself into a one-stop-shop brand for beauty care accessories and personal care appliances by 2013.

“Ever since we launched Vega in the Beauty Accessories and Personal Care Appliances category, our aim was to diversify into other segments. Although our initial plan was to bring everything together under one roof, we realised that launching a fresh brand would help in transforming the market without losing the intrinsic values of the respective brands,” he said.

The idea behind launching a new brand, in an already cluttered market, was to bring the consumers something different and unique as a concept. “Being unique in terms of the pricing model and the product itself is of huge importance to brands today. The advent of the digital age has exposed the younger generation to a whole new world of products that are better, cheaper and more easily accessible,” he added.

The brand mentioned that it’s not possible to have a retail presence right now, but a large population continues to shop from their favorite retail store instead of e-commerce.

Jain also added that the pricing is competitive and comparable to big brands. Instead of the regular OOH billboard style of campaigns, the brand will look at digital for now.

June 30, 2020
Amazon Prime Video users nearly doubled in March 2020

MUMBAI: It's a trend worldwide that over-the-top (OTT) platforms have seen huge uptake in consumption under shelter-in-place directives due to the Covid2019 crisis. Amazon Prime Video is no exception. The streaming service segment of the e-commerce giant is also experiencing a lot more usage from prime subscribers. Moreover, it's the first time that users also nearly doubled in March.

“In March, the first time, viewers nearly doubled, which is I think a good thing for people when they are looking to stay entertained and see our video collection. It's also beyond just Prime Video, our channels and video rentals also went up as I'm sure others in the entertainment business saw that as well,” Amazon senior vice president and chief financial officer Brian T Olsavsky said in an earnings call.

Olsavsky also mentioned that in the US, the UK and Germany movies are going direct to pay-per-view because of the lack of theatres and that was a good move by the team. It has been very well received and they have also made a lot of kids and family content available free to watch on Prime Video. He said that people are getting a better look at what's available with their Prime memberships other than shopping.

Additionally, users are finding more benefit from Alexa as they stay at home. They are listening to more music and asking many questions related to issues around Covid2019. Alexa is also being used for educational purposes for children. Moreover, it is being used a lot more on the communication side as people are using Alexa calling and drop in.

“So I think the Prime story is that shopping is really important for people now, especially when those people can't leave their houses. I think the digital benefits are scaling well. I think they are handling the additional demand and it gives people a good time and reason to use all of their Prime benefits that maybe they hadn't used as much in the past,” he added.

May 4, 2020
Is FB-Jio deal just a great Indian e-commerce story?

MUMBAI: What has been hogging the limelight lately? The Rs-43,574-crore Facebook-Jio deal. When the entire country continues to be bogged down by the Covid2019 pandemic, when marketing sentiments were at their nether, the deal came as a big surprise, a refreshing break from all the gloom and doom. Indeed, it is worth the tom-tom, for, the world’s largest social media group has just invested in India’s largest telecom operator, Jio, run by the country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani. Irrefutably, it's a multifaceted deal, but more skewed towards e-commerce play. Even though Jio’s parent company Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has a hold over the Indian media and entertainment ecosystem, there have been speculations about its impact on the sector but it's going to be a minor one for now.

Because the two giants have been known to disrupt the ecosystems over and again, it's not easy to predict the direction this new association might take. But the e-commerce ambition is unquestionable and has become more evident with JioMart going live on WhatsApp in some areas of Mumbai. Announcing the deal, Jio said: “Our focus will be India’s 60 million micro, small and medium businesses, 120 million farmers, 30 million small merchants and millions of small and medium enterprises in the informal sector.”

Will India get its own WeChat?

SBICap Securities institutional equity research head Rajiv Sharma says WhatsApp Payments is in the process of getting launched and it took five years for Paytm to get all the vendors and merchants signed up. While Jio is doing this kirana commerce, it will be significantly faster for WhatsApp Payments to go to market thanks to the partnership.

“For Facebook, it is ‘get set go’ on the WhatsApp Payments and WhatsApp Business and if it can make it work here then not only it will improve the value but also the investment it has made, and it will create a new revenue stream. And that model can be replicated in other countries,” he adds.

An analyst unwilling to be named says WhatsApp will turn out as WeChat of India as Facebook will use even Instagram and look at expanding the horizon by looking at other sectors like healthcare as well. According to him, Jio is going to create a market along with Facebook through this “thick partnership.” It will empower them to do multiple businesses.

“I'd always said India will be eventually a hybrid e-commerce market with neighbourhood kirana stores being an integral part of fulfilment strategy. JioMart and WhatsApp have the potential to significantly build on this model and change the rules of the e-commerce landscape in India. While on one side the ease of WhatsApp will make it convenient for consumers to transact, the reach and prowess of the JioMart engine will provide the necessary boost to WhatsApp to exponentially grow as a business platform. It will be interesting to see how Google Spot and Paytm Mall play out their strategies in this space,” PwC India media, entertainment and sports advisory, partner and leader Raman Kalra says.

What Jio gets out of it?

Ambani’s biggest bet for the future will also benefit from the deal. The first and foremost is Jio’s debt coming down as RIL may go soon with the former’s initial public offering (IPO). Moreover, the company had laid out a plan to become net debt-free. The deal also comes at a time when the market is significantly hit by the Covid2019 crisis, making business worse for many tycoons. And not to be forgotten, RIL’s oil business may face a huge headwind in the future, especially with the delay in its deal with Saudi Aramco too.

Sharma explains that while Jio is focusing a lot on commerce, WhatsApp is a great brand to make it very easy for the kirana guys to relate to, if you have payments linked to your chat. Elara Capital VP – research analyst (media) Karan Taurani says that access to Facebook’s large user base across apps will help Jio’s e-commerce ambition, making it a large entity after Amazon and Flipkart.

“Across various platforms (Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram), FB enjoys significant time wallet share of Indian consumers and with Jio's reach across content and commerce, it creates an attractive value proposition and stickiness for existing consumers as well as the incremental net new consumers. This boost can fuel the digital adoption across multiple untapped segments of society across end consumers and small businesses. With Facebook's focus around groups and communities, the extended reach can provide an exponential boost across healthcare and education segments,” Kalra adds.

Will the media and entertainment sector see an immediate impact?

Although e-commerce is the biggest narrative here, stakeholders and experts across the media and entertainment sector are also evaluating the deal. This is not unpredictable as RIL has built its own media empire by acquiring majority stakes in networks, content production studios, etc. While there is no short-term impact, the combined force can create another wave of disruption in the industry.

Sharma says that both could share insights around consumers and subscribers, based on data that could allow them to understand consumer behaviour around digital content in a much better way. If Facebook shares some of the consumer insights on Indian users and Jio shares that of all its users, both the parties can have a huge understanding of how the larger part of India is consuming content.

“From a media and entertainment perspective, the combined force will carry the potential. However, a lot would depend on the content creation and sharing strategies between the two. With extended reach into the hinterland and rural segments, Facebook will have the opportunity to provide extended services around short-form video creation like TikTok and end the monopoly in that segment. I do expect sports streaming to become a strategic focus for the combined force in times to come. All this leading to higher time share on FB platforms could also help them with a few incremental points gain in the digital advertising market share,” Kalra says.

Data sharing concerns?

With the massive extraordinary user base, both the parties have access to huge data which has created a concern in the ecosystem. One of the legal experts in the M&E sector says it's important to evaluate the conditions of data sharing, given Facebook’s tainted record, especially in the recent past with regard to data privacy and sharing. Considerably, India is yet to finalise a data protection law. He also adds that the unfair advantage of data sharing may throw more challenges to competitors. However, according to media reports, both the parties emphasised that there would be no data sharing.

April 29, 2020
ShopClues Announces 48-hour Delivery of Essentials in Delhi & Gurgaon

MUMBAI: E-commerce marketplace ShopClues announced a quick two-day delivery of orders of essential items for its customers in Delhi and Gurgaon. The service has gone live starting today i.e. April 7, 2020. India is currently under a 21-day lockdown order by the government to combat the spread of COVID-19.

The main aim of this initiative by ShopClues is to enable its customers to have access to their daily and medical needs without having to step out of their homes and further exposing themselves to the risk of the contagion. The firm has also recently introduced contactless delivery encouraging customers to pay online for their purchases. All ShopClues packages will be dropped at the doorstep to avoid human contact.

“In this current situation, what is important is that our customers have quick access to products that are essential for their daily living without having to step out of their homes to make these purchases and still have them delivered at home as early as possible. The essentials include items related to Personal hygiene and safety, Groceries, OTC Medicines, Medical Equipment, etc. Our two-day delivery initiative will fulfil all these requirements. To make this possible, we are very closely aligning our technology and logistic teams so that service to the customer is seamless and quick,” said Sanjay Sethi, Chief Executive Officer, ShopClues.

The online platform will begin with the two-day delivery in Delhi and Gurgaon and further expand this service across NCR very shortly.

April 7, 2020
Amazon Prime exceeds 150 mn subscribers

MUMBAI: E-commerce giant Amazon has revealed that its subscriber base has grown to over 150 million subscribers. More people signed up prime membership in the fourth quarter than ever before.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos boasted of its streaming services’ success as well. Bezos said that the Prime members watched double the hours of original movies and TV shows on Prime Video this quarter compared to last year and Amazon Originals received a record 88 nominations and 26 wins at major awards shows.

The e-commerce company reported its fourth quarter result on Thursday. Net sales increased 21 per cent to $87.4 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $72.4 billion in fourth quarter 2018. Excluding the $120 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales increased 21 per cent compared with fourth quarter 2018.

Operating income increased to $3.9 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with operating income of $3.8 billion in fourth quarter 2018. Net income increased to $3.3 billion in the fourth quarter, or $6.47 per diluted share, compared with net income of $3.0 billion, or $6.04 per diluted share, in the fourth quarter 2018.

February 1, 2020
Bombay Shaving Company appoints Chirag Taneja as chief revenue officer

MUMBAI: Men's skincare brand Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) has on-boarded Chirag Taneja as Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) in its bid to strengthen its online presence as it aims to cross the INR 100 crore revenue mark this year. Chirag Taneja will lead the entire online business including D2C technology, e-commerce, and brand for Bombay Shaving Company. Chirag’s astute business acumen and deep understanding of digital marketing and analytics will enable Bombay Shaving Company, an internet first brand to achieve its business goals at an accelerated rate.

Before joining BSC, Taneja was the founder CEO at Ketchupp – an online Metasearch engine for food discovery and successfully sold the business to Cartoq.

On joining BSC, Chirag Taneja said, “Digitally native vertical brands present an exciting business opportunity because of the potential scale backed by data and the ability to track user journey to the T. Technology has reached the personal care category and BSC is leading this change from the front. Solving consumer problems with technology at the core is key for me. I am looking forward to building one of India’s most loved men’s skincare brand and already seeing signs of scale in my early days.”

Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) CEO & founder Shantanu Deshpande said, “Chirag is an accomplished marketer and experienced leader. He has expertise in implementing metrics-driven online marketing strategies, managing a P&L, growing businesses and building out committed and high-performing teams. He brings a great balance of tech and consumer to BSC. With his knack of understanding the industry, I am confident that he will achieve greater milestones and further strengthen the brand.”

“We are in the process of hiring strategic partners across levels and recruiting Chirag is our first step towards the same.” He further added.

In December 2019, BSC had raised INR 45 crores in Series B led by Sixth Sense Venture Partners. Existing investor Colgate Palmolive Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of CPG giant Colgate-Palmolive had also participated in the round.

January 20, 2020
E-commerce industry to spend an estimated Rs 2000 cr on marketing festive season sales

MUMBAI: Festive season is the best part of the year for e-commerce companies and this year they have recorded 12 times growth in sales as compared to the past year despite the economic slowdown, industry insiders revealed to Indiantelevision.com. The e-commerce sector remained largely immune from the impact of the slowdown as the lucrative offers kept the purchase intent of the consumers intact.

Logicserve Digital co-founder and CEO Prasad Shejale explained, “Creative messaging coupled with enticing discounts has been successful in convincing the end-user to spend money on the preferred e-commerce platform. Post the purchase customers feel a sense of satisfaction that they were successful in saving some bucks after the festive season purchase. Hence, boosting consumer sentiments has helped e-commerce players in India to set new industry benchmarks and surpass their sales targets.”

He added, “Also, if you observe global e-commerce players have started tapping tier-2 and 3 cities of India which have contributed a significant share of growth during the latest sale season. For this, e-commerce companies have been implementing strategies to reach out to the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) customers. In emerging markets like India, the consumers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities may be less educated, especially at the bottom of the pyramid, and given the low purchasing experience may find difficulty in resisting offers, affordable and value-driven sale season themes, especially during the festive season.”

The platforms have been spending extensively to market their online sales during this festive season. As per estimates shared by Havas Media Group India managing director Mohit Joshi the spends by the industry will touch Rs 2000 crore.

Expectedly, Amazon and Flipkart are spending the most to drive their festive season sales. Shejale reveals that the two spent between Rs 700 – 850 crore, and Rs 400 – 550 crore respectively last year. The numbers are estimated to be the same this year as well.

Madison Media Plus CEO Rajul Kulshreshtha shares, “Within a span of two months (Aug – Sep), these players had spent considerate amount, especially Amazon. The total spends by this category so far is Rs 204 crore (as per reported spends) Amazon is spending more on print while Flipkart is following a completely opposite strategy. So is in the case of Paytm and Snapdeal where Paytm is not taking the TV route while Snapdeal’s approach is TV and radio.”

The strategic communication planning for e-commerce platforms is also very tactical during this period as all of them are targeting the same set of consumers with fairly similar offers. Brandintellé Services Pvt Ltd founder and CEO Biswajit Das says that each platform tracks real-time data offers made by its competitors, shared by third-party data providers, based on which they design specific offers and marketing communication.

October 16, 2019