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Tag: Flipkart

  • Walmart to focus on small startup acquihires in India

    Walmart to focus on small startup acquihires in India

    MUMBAI: Walmart is looking for tech acquisitions in India. The retailer, which agreed to acquire home-grown e-commerce platform Flipkart in May, is now looking for tech acquisition to strengthen its technology unit Walmart Labs.

    Unlike other overseas internet companies such as Amazon and Google, the Arkansas-based company will eye acqui-hire/acquisitions involving small amounts. Acqui-hiring refers to the practice of buying a company in a cut-price deal primarily for the purpose of ‘hiring’ the company’s founders and key employees.

    “We got close to doing a couple of (acquisitions)… nothing that was a perfect fit. There were a couple that would have been interesting additions to our competitive intelligence platform. I’m looking at (acquisition candidates) in merchandising, machine learning right now,” said Walmart chief technology officer Jeremy King as quoted by publication Mint.

    King also said that Walmart Labs will hire 2,000 engineers across the world, including India. Last year, Walmart Labs hired Hari Vasudev from Flipkart to head its Bengaluru office. Vasudev is also now acting head of data science for Walmart globally. Walmart Labs will hire more senior tech talent in Bengaluru.

    “The initial team in Bengaluru was only 30 people and now we have several hundreds. We’re hiring machine learning experts, anyone who’s got merchandising and supply chain experience, data science and cloud experts… just high-quality engineers. We also have some product openings,” the report quoted him as stating.

    Having set up its centre in Bengaluru, Walmart completes the acquisition of Flipkart, which is expected to be wrapped up this quarter; Walmart Labs will work closely with the tech team of the Indian online retailer. Other American retail and tech firms such as Amazon, Uber, Target and others have tech centres in Bengaluru as hiring engineers here is far cheaper than in the US.

    The acquisitions will, however, be of a much smaller size in comparison to the investment of $16 billion to buy 77 per cent stake in Flipkart.

  • Flipkart engulfs Sachin Bansal’s Billion into private label business

    Flipkart engulfs Sachin Bansal’s Billion into private label business

    MUMBAI: Flipkart has moved Billion, a private label brand founded by Sachin Bansal, into its overall private label business. Billion is a made in India project and is positioned as a reasonably priced brand tailored specifically with the Indian customers in mind.

    Billion was formed as a private label selling electronics, appliances and accessories by Sachin Bansal after he resigned from the post of Flipkart CEO in 2016. Before leaving Flipkart, Sachin was operating Billion as a brand separate from Flipkart’s private businesses.

    The brand is now a part of a portfolio of eight brands which are being managed by Flipkart vice president of private labels Adarsh Menon. The 50-member team of Billion will work in conjunction with the private labels team of the e-tailer, while Sachin Bansal remains at its helm.

    “The space that Billion has very successfully created and occupied for Indian consumers is the space of make in India and made in India. And that’s an extremely rich asset that the brand has. That can enable it to travel across multiple categories, which speaks volumes about how strong the brand is. What Billion will continue to do is identifying very India-specific customer requirements, and then working with our ecosystem partners to deliver that to Indian consumers?” said Menon as quoted by Livemint.

    Billion was Bansal’s big project after he left Flipkart. Sachin co-founded Flipkart with Binny Bansal. Sadly, he had to bid adieu to the company after he demanded stronger shareholder rights and better role in the operations of the resultant entity, which was opposed by Lee Fixel of Tiger Global Management, one of the major backers of Flipkart, and the company’s board. Following this, Sachin had to sell his entire stake in Flipkart, signing a non-compete clause with the company and had to leave the company. A year later, Binny Bansal himself was replaced by former Tiger Global Management executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

  • Walmart sells $16 billion worth of bonds for Flipkart acquisition

    Walmart sells $16 billion worth of bonds for Flipkart acquisition

    MUMBAI: American multinational retail corporation, Walmart, has decided to sell $16 billion worth of bonds to help finance its investment in Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart. 

    Walmart offered fixed- and floating-rate notes in nine parts to Flipkart. The longest bond, a 30-year security, yields 1.05 per cent points above Treasuries, less than the initial 1.2 per cent points that was being pitched earlier in the day. According to a report by Bloomberg, the deal edged out an offering Bayer AG completed two days ago.

    The American giant announced in June that it will acquire 77 per cent stake in the Flipkart Group for $16 billion. This will leave Binny Bansal and other shareholders with 33 per cent of the stake in the company.

    India is the most active and favourite playing field for most e-commerce giants today. With Walmart and Flipkart coming together as one, it will directly compete with Amazon in India. The international e-commerce website has the biggest market share in India which is the fastest growing e-commerce market today.

    Walmart and Flipkart’s deal was led by JPMorgan, Barclays and Citigroup.

  • Fevi kwik & Swiggy win big at Star Re.Imagine awards for best IPL campaigns

    Fevi kwik & Swiggy win big at Star Re.Imagine awards for best IPL campaigns

    MUMBAI: Fevi kwik’s Khushiyon ke chand pal and Swiggy’s No order to small won the top honours at the Star Re.imagine Awards, yesterday, for the excellence in creativity (Best Creative Campaign) along with the use of integrated media (Best Integrated Creative Campaign) respectively in campaigns during the recently concluded Vivo IPL 2018 on Star India. Fevi kwik’s Khushiyon ke chand pal was conceptualized by Ogilvy & Mather and Swiggy’s No order too small, conceptualised by Lowe Lintas, Bengaluru.

    “We instituted the Star Re.Imagine Awards 2018 as a platform to enthuse the incredible marketing and advertising talent of India to create magic and disruption this IPL. We heartily congratulate all the winners for having created extremely engaging and inspiring narratives. These campaigns seized the imagination of the biggest ever audiences in an IPL across TV and Digital screens combined and contributed immensely to making the Vivo IPL 2018 a truly delightful experience for all. A very special thank you to all the members of the elite jury who helped immensely in creating a brand for the future – the Star Re.imagine awards” says Star India Managing Director Sanjay Gupta.

    Additionally, eleven campaigns across nine brands have received special mentions. Star India Managing Director Sanjay Gupta, and Guest of Honour, M S Dhoni, under whose leadership CSK lifted the trophy felicitated the two winners with spectacular bespoke glass trophies designed by the grandmaster of British Glass studio, Peter Layton.

    The winners and other meritorious campaigns were selected by jury members comprising Sir John Hegarty, Piyush Pandey, Raju Hirani, Vibha Rishi, Rahul Welde and V Sunil. They assessed over 300 campaigns from 125 brands that had played during the Vivo IPL 2018 till May 25 on Star TV Network and Hotstar. The judges selected campaigns that excelled in both in creativity and in leveraging the power of multi-platform TV and Hotstar.  

    There were brands across television and digital from various sectors like Telecom, Consumer Durables (Handset), Retail and Lifestyle, Food Delivery and Restaurant (Hospitality), E-commerce, Online services, Automotive, Gaming, Online Payment Wallets, Paints and Adhesives FMCG.

    Partnering with Star India in this initiative are Sideways and Kyoorius.  The brands that received special mention from the juries were Amazon, Coca Cola, Flipkart, Future Group- Brand Factory, Pidilite, Peter England, VIVO, Vodafone and Tata Sky

    Also Read :

    Swiggy, AIB target India’s love for food and movies

    Pidilite celebrates ‘Khushiyon ke chand pal’ in new TVCs 

    Winning awards doesn’t get you clients: Piyush Pandey 

  • India fastest-growing market in first year for Amazon: Jeff Bezos

    India fastest-growing market in first year for Amazon: Jeff Bezos

    MUMBAI: Amazon’s unstoppable march continues worldwide, including India. Putting an end to the speculation around the number of Amazon Prime subscribers, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has finally revealed the data in a letter to shareholders. The e-commerce giant has crossed 100 million subscribers for its Prime service globally. In the letter, Bezos specifically talks about its India feat to shareholders: “Prime added more members in India in its first year than any previous geography in Amazon’s history.”

    The letter includes an entire mention to India, not given to any other country, including the US. He said, “Amazon.in is the fastest-growing marketplace in India and the most visited site on both desktop and mobile, according to comScore and SimilarWeb. The Amazon.in mobile shopping app was also the most downloaded shopping app in India in 2017, according to App Annie.”

    He went on to state that Prime selection in India now included more than 40 million local products from third-party sellers and that Prime Video was investing in India original video content in a big way, including two recent premiers and more than a dozen new shows in production.

    For the first time, after 13 long years of the service’s launch, the company has shared such a figure publicly. The reason could also be to counter Netflix’s revelation earlier in the week when it said that its subscriber numbers were up from 117.6 million a year ago to 125 million globally. Bezos started off the letter by congratulating its people for making Amazon rank first on the American Customer Satisfaction Index for the eighth year in a row.

    In the letter, Bezos said that Prime Video continued to drive Prime member adoption and retention, countering analysts who said that Prime Video acts as a catalyst to boost its e-commerce business.

    Since its entry in the Indian market, it has left Netflix behind in the race, its prime competitor in the international market. To strengthen its foothold in the Indian market, it launched original shows for Indian audiences last year. It recently announced a new Prime Original reality show Hear Me. Love Me. It also announced the second season of Inside Edge after the show created a stir after its first season.

    Bezos lauded his customers in his letter. He said, “One thing I love about customers is that they are divinely discontent. Their expectations are never static–they go up. It’s human nature. We didn’t ascend from our hunter-gatherer days by being satisfied. People have a voracious appetite for a better way and yesterday’s ‘wow’ quickly becomes today’s ‘ordinary’. I see that cycle of improvement happening at a faster rate than ever before. It may be because customers have such easy access to more information than ever before.”

    He went on to state that the only way to stay ahead of rising customer expectation is by giving them high standards. He didn’t shy away from admitting that Amazon had seen ‘billions of dollars worth of failures’ on its way to meet this target.

    Amazon Music is also doing well globally. “Amazon Music continues to grow fast and now has tens of millions of paid customers. Amazon Music Unlimited, our on-demand, ad-free offering, expanded to more than 30 new countries in 2017, and membership has more than doubled over the past six months,” the letter read.

    Moreover, Amazon has managed to reduce the amount of time required to teach Alexa new languages using machine translation and transfer learning techniques that has helped it to serve countries such as India and Japan.

    In India, other than competing with local and global OTT players, it is also fighting its domestic e-commerce rival Flipkart. According to a Mint report, Amazon India nearly doubled its authorised capital to Rs 31,000 crore ($4.74 billion) last year. As India is a large market, the company is trying to explore every opportunity to woo more subscribers with better infrastructure and technology.

    “We continue to aspire to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, and we recognise this to be no small or easy challenge. We know there is much we can do better, and we find tremendous energy in the many challenges and opportunities that lie ahead,” Bezos said concluding the letter.

    Also Read :

    Amazon India to launch 10 originals in 2018

    Amazon Prime Music ties up with Saregama

  • Dads are uploading pictures with kids on LinkedIn

    Dads are uploading pictures with kids on LinkedIn

    MUMBAI: If you’ve got any father as a connection on LinkedIn, you may have noticed that they might have changed their display picture in the last few days from the typical LinkedIn corporate mugshot to adorable pictures of them with their kids. 

    It’s no coincidence. Hundreds of fathers across the world’s largest professional platform are doing the same. Reason? To show their professional circles that their life goes way beyond their profession. We’re talking about high-level professionals across some of India’s biggest companies in telecommunication, OEMs, online fashion retail, automobiles, technology, news and media, food delivery, financial services – to name just a few.

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    The notion that a successful professional man is usually not as devoted a family man, has become a belief of the past. Today’s young dads manage to toggle between work and dad-mode with ease and have even branded themselves: as #PenguinDads-as an ode to the male emperor penguin, which is considered the most devoted father in the animal kingdom. And our own #PenguinDads on LinkedIn haven’t missed out on the opportunity to let their connections know that their most important job is the one at home, with their little ones. A refreshing, much-needed point to be made, indeed!

    Dentsu Webchutney Bangalore senior creative director PG Aditya says, “Often, being successful at your profession is the biggest defence mechanism used by men to bail out of being involved and available at home. We wanted to show that it’s entirely possible for both sides to co-exist, through stories of those who do it already.”

    The initiative, in fact, was started by Flipkart, as a follow-up to its ‘Penguin Dad’ campaign, whose heartwarming lead film has become a major internet sensation. Now, its changing the face of LinkedIn India.

  • Flipkart launches digital campaign on new-age #PenguinDad

    Flipkart launches digital campaign on new-age #PenguinDad

    MUMBAI: According to a report from Psychology Today ‘Fathers and Their Impact on Children’s Well-Being’, children who have an involved father right from their birth are more likely to be emotionally secure, confident about exploring their surroundings, and, as they grow older, better social connections.

    Indian society, since centuries, has had stringent gender roles when it comes to parenting – keeping the mother as the nurturer, the caretaker and the time-spender while the father has been the provider and the bread-winner. While patriarchs may simply state the ‘time is money’ adage to develop the rhetoric of “since I make the money, why do I need to give the time?”, this isn’t how a child sees it. What’s also unfortunate is that generations of fathers have subliminally considered it unnecessary, and themselves incapable, of having an involved, intimate everyday relationship with their children.

    It has been proven beyond doubt that an everyday, involved relationship between the father and the child goes a long way in everything – from character building and social connections to emotional resilience for the child. Millions of young, new-born Indian fathers today are making this come alive by supporting their spouses and making that ‘idealistic’ parenting equation a reality. Through this, they are discovering a side to themselves that they never knew existed and ushering a change in the Indian social fabric.

    For such a relationship to flourish, these dads choose to do it all for their children – right from braiding their hair and changing their diapers to singing them lullabies and finding a work-life balance to spend more time with them, every day. And it’s this cause of Progressive Dads that Flipkart has chosen to celebrate in its latest 360-degree brand campaign: #PenguinDad.

    Flipkart vice president of marketing Shoumyan Biswas says, “Indians today are breaking old moulds, challenging stereotypes and breaking limiting beliefs to move forward as a nation. In the last 10 years, we at Flipkart have also been part of the movement to build a progressive India. In this journey, walking alongside progressive moms are today’s dads and our recent campaign is a celebration of these new age #PenguinDads.”

    The male emperor penguin, interestingly, is considered one of the ‘best dads’ in the animal kingdom. The penguin child, actually is one of the few species on earth, that is raised equally by both mother and father, who take turns going into the sea to catch fish so that one is always with the child. Flipkart’s campaign takes a leaf out of the habits to recognise fathers in their own little human world, who’ve kick-started their journey as a #PenguinDad. 

    The campaign, conceptualised by Dentsu Webchutney, was launched with a musical directed by national award-winning director Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari. It is set to be followed up by multiple digital first initiatives to champion the community of ‘Penguin Dads’ even further.

    Dentsu Webchutney senior creative director PG Aditiya adds, “As society evolves and becomes more progressive, dads will play a more crucial role. This, to me, is a film that celebrates those who choose to label themselves as a ‘parent’ before labelling themselves as a ‘dad’ and the power of that change in mindset can change society and nation at large.”

  • Amazon India to launch in-house beauty products

    Amazon India to launch in-house beauty products

    MUMBAI: Online e-commerce giant Amazon India will soon launch its own line of in-house beauty and personal care products. Amazon India is talking to contract manufacturers and will be launching private labels (in-house brands) in a few categories within skincare and makeup.

    While Flipkart-owned Myntra has invested heavily in growing its personal care segment, Amazon is set to follow suit. With this, the race between India’s two top e-commerce majors to acquire customers will be further fuelled. 

    The cosmetics and personal care category is fast growing in India and dominated by smaller startups like Nykaa, Purple, etc. The category also has major international brands such as Loreal, Maybelline, Bobbi Brown, MAC among others that are well present offline and via online vendors.

    Amazon came to India in mid-2013 with a massive investment of $2 billion and launched its first in-house brand AmazonBasic in 2015. AmazonBasic had products like consumer electronic products like USB cord, backpacks, tripods, Alkaline batteries, etc. The brand also forayed into fashion segment with its Myx and Solimo a year later.

    According to Red-Seer consulting, the online beauty and personal care market in India is worth $300 million which is expected to cross $3.5 billion in 2 years. 

    Amazon declined to comment on the issue when a call was made from Indiantelevision.com seeking their confirmation on the same.

    If Amazon adds beauty and personal care segment to its category, the move would challenge its direct rival e-commerce platform Myntra that recently announced its plan to open beauty and offline stores. 

    Also Read :

    Amazon India to launch 10 originals in 2018

    Dairy Milk innovates Silk for Valentine’s Day 

  • Flipkart re-launches fashionable ads with kids

    Flipkart re-launches fashionable ads with kids

    MUMBAI: Online fashion portal Flipkart has released its latest all-rounder campaign on making trendy fashion accessible and affordable. It will last for 10 weeks and connect with customers on all touch points like television, YouTube and social media.  

    The ad series reiterates Flipkart as the preferred destination for any kind of shopper, from celebrity fashion lovers or brand enthusiasts or exclusive fashion lovers or the fashionistas who hate repeating their clothes or even the divas who love especially curated looks.

    As an extension to the campaign, ‘Be trendy. Always’ launched earlier this year, the latest campaign also features the Flipkart kids. The kids have made a memorable impact on the shoppers’ minds and have always succeeded in convincing consumers that shopping with Flipkart is always worthwhile.  

    Flipkart head of marketing Shoumyan Biswas says, “On the back of deep consumer research, we understood that every fashion shopper has a different method to get what they want from fashion. Being relevant to every kind of fashion shopper, Flipkart can be the best place for everyone to look their best. Our new campaign is centred around this insight and brings alive different fashion shopper archetypes in a fun and interesting manner.”

    The campaign that went live on 26 December also includes a video series with Rohan Joshi (leading stand-up comedian) that will help fashion forward men discover what’s best for specific looks and tips on how to style and dress themselves. The campaign will also feature a game on YouTube where celebrities will be challenged to put together certain looks under themes by shopping on Flipkart. The series will be followed by Weekly Hues where fashion shoppers will be given tips on how to shop a look based on a theme like size, or trend or colour or occasion very much in line with the shopping experience offered on the platform itself.

    Additionally, Flipkart has partnered with fashion magazine GQ, to showcase how to get trendy like your favourite celebrity by shopping on Flipkart.

  • Patanjali to partner e-tailers to boost sales

    Patanjali to partner e-tailers to boost sales

    MUMBAI: In its most recent move to provide a fillip to sales, Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurved is likely to partner with eight leading e-tailers and aggregators to give a big push to online sales of its swadeshi range of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) products. Some of Patanjali’s products are already available on several online platforms through various other sellers but this would allow the Haridwar-based firm to systematically place its range of products, said a company official.

    The Haridwar-based company is expected to enter into agreements this month with major online retailers such as Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm Mall, 1MG, Big Basket, Grofers, Shopclues and Snapdeal, a step through which its range of products will be available on various online platforms.

    Patanjali will be organising a function on 16 January where representatives of all the online companies are expected to attend it along with Ramdev and the company’s MD Acharya Balkrishna.

    Patanjali spokesperson S K Tijarawala said, “We are now going into it in a massive way. Now, we would have an organised and systematic agreement with the players to place our all product online, so that it could reach to customers to the end point.”

    These partnerships with e-tailers will be in addition to its own portal patanjaliayurved.net, wherein the company is already selling its products online. “This would change the scenario of whole FMCG trade through online. Through this arrangement, Patanjali’s product could be served across the globe,” he added. 

    However, he refused to share further details and arrangements with the online retailers.

    Recently, Patanjali had forayed into kids and adult diapers and affordable sanitary napkins segments. Last month, it had also announced venturing into solar equipment manufacturing. Besides the FMCG segment, Patanjali is present in other sectors such as education and healthcare. In 2016-17, it had crossed a turnover of Rs 10,500 crore and aims a two-fold growth this fiscal.