Flipkart eyes doubling revenue from exclusive brands during BBD sale

As it gears up for the Big Billion Days (BBD) sale next month, Flipkart Fashion is lining up over 25 exclusive brands and collections.

The firm expects exclusive brands to account for around 20 per cent of its total fashion sales during the BBD against 11 per cent now, said Rishi Vasudev, head of Flipkart Fashion.

Flipkart Fashion holds 35 per cent of the total online fashion market in India and is growing at 60 per cent month-on-month. The firm expects the festive season over the next two months to drive the share to 50 per cent.

“The spike in festive sales will help increase our share in online fashion space to 40 per cent for the full year,” said Vasudev.

The e-tailer is launching a new label in women's wear next month. During Diwali season, online marketplaces are seen getting into neck and neck competition offering discounts, special offers, and fast deliveries to capture a bigger slice of the market.

Flipkart bets on MarQ to push large appliances this festival season

d of Flipkart’s flagship BigBillionDays sales, customers could start seeing advertisements of a new consumer durable brand in India. MarQ, Flipkart’s private label for large appliances, aspires to become India’s youngest consumer durables brand.

Launched ahead of last year’s Diwali festive sales, MarQ has grown to become one of the best performers in the large appliances categories on Flipkart’s platform. The company claims it is on target to grow sales through the label by over 100 per cent during this BigBillionDays, compared to the last.

While the private label was initially rolled out in a few categories such as refrigerators and televisions, the company has slowly been entering several other categories, including water purifiers and air conditioners, with products under the MarQ brand.

Walmart-Flipkart deal: NCLAT seeks to know the firms' business model

The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has asked US retail major WalMart and e-commerce major Flipkart to explain their way of doing business in India.

NCLAT, which is also an appellate authority over the Competition Commission of India (CCI), has asked Wal-Mart International Holdings Inc to file its reply before it by September 20, 2018.
It has also asked trader's body CAIT, which has filed an appeal before NCLAT challenging the go ahead by fair trade regulator CCI on Walmart's $16 billion acquisition of home-grown Flipkart, to file its understanding over the Walmart's business model in India.
"Before going into the merit of the appeal, we intend to know the manner in which Wal-Mart International Holdings, Inc. and Flipkart Private Ltd do their business in the relevant market in India," said an NCLAT bench headed by Chairman Justice S J Mukhopadhaya.

Flipkart unveils dedicated portal for refurbished goods, names it '2gud'

Retail giant Walmart-owned leading e-tailer Flipkart on Wednesday unveiled a dedicated portal '2Gud' for refurbished goods, including mobile phones, laptops and tablets, a week after shutting its eBay India operations.

"The independent platform '2Gud' aims to bring affordability, accessibility and availability to the refurbished market, while also addressing the problem of trust and convenience," the company said.

The platform offers refurbished mobile phones, tablets, laptops and other electronic accessories along with a 3-12 month warranty.

"Through 2Gud, we aim to remove the trust deficit that exists in the refurbished goods market," the city-based company's Chief Executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy told reporters here.

The platform has been launched on mobile browsers initially through the site 2gud.com, and it will soon be accessible through desktop browsers and a mobile application.

Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm mall freedom sale: Discounts, cashback and more

It is raining offers, again! Some of the country's biggest e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Flipkart and Paytm are holding Independence Day sales and offering huge discounts on products ranging from electronics to home furnishing,

Amazon India is holding 'Freedom Sale' (August 9 to 12); Paytm Mall is running 'Freedom Cashback' sale (August 8 to 15), and Flipkart will hold 'The Big Freedom' sale from August 10 to 12. Flipkart's exclusive fashion arm Myntra will commence ‘Right to Fashion Sale’ from August 9-12. Here's a list of all the offers on Flipkart, Amazon and Paytm Mall:

Flipkart

The Flipkart 'The Big Freedom' Sale will commence tomorrow (August 10) and will last till August 12. A sneak peek into the offers show great deals on top smartphone brands such as Apple, Samsung, Xiaomi and more. There is up to 70 per cent off on TVs and home appliances and up to 80 per cent off on electronics. Books, toys and beauty products are available at a starting price of Rs 99.

Apart from that, the e-commerce giant is offering new deals and discounts every 8 hours. It has also partnered with Citi Bank credit card to offer an extra 10 per cent discount.
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Myntra plans to open 15 offline stores for private label in FY19

As part of its strategy to push its omni-channel presence, Flikart-owned online fashion firm Myntra on Thursday launched its second offline store for private brand, Roadster, in Bengaluru. The company plans to open 15 such stores in the current financial year. 

The fashion retailer also said it was likely to be operationally profitable within two years. Even though the Bengaluru-headquartered company already had opened a brick and mortar store for its private label almost a year ago, the new store provides a hi-tech experience to customers. Buyers will be able to pick up their favourite products without assistance, discover their real-time online price and do a self-checkout in 30 seconds.

Samsung Carnival on Flipkart: Deals on Galaxy S8, S8+, On Nxt, On5 and more

Flipkart is currently running Samsung Carnival in which the home-grown e-commerce platform is offering discounts, cashbacks and exchange offers on several Samsung products, including the smartphones such as last year flagship the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+. The three-day carnival started on June 12 and would end on June 14. Here are some of the deals to look out for: Samsung Galaxy S8+ (64GB/4GB) The premium edition of the yesteryear flagship is currently available at Rs 43,990, down from the actual maximum retail price of Rs 53,990. 

The e-commerce portal is also offering exchange discount of up to Rs 14,700, which can be availed by exchanging select old smartphone for the Galaxy S8+. Flipkart is also offering 10 per cent instant discount to HDFC bank customers and 5 per cent (maximum Rs 100) instant discount on other select Visa cards customers. Samsung Galaxy S8 (64GB/4GB) The phone is currently available at Rs 37,990, down from the actual maximum retail price of Rs 49,990. The e-commerce portal is also offering exchange discount of up to Rs 14,700, which can be availed by exchanging select old smartphone for the Galaxy S8. Flipkart is also offering 10 per cent instant discount to HDFC bank customers and 5 per cent (maximum Rs 100) instant discount on other select Visa cards customers.

Paytm receives final tranche from $445 mn funding from SoftBank, Alibaba

Paytm Mall has received the final tranche of its $445 million (about Rs 3,000 crore) funding from SoftBank and Alibaba, a move that will give the online shopping venture of Paytm more financial muscle to take on giants like Flipkart and Amazon. In April, Paytm Mall had closed $445 million funding round from SoftBank Investment Holdings and Alibaba.com Singapore E-commerce. According to the latest documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), Paytm E-commerce -- which runs Paytm Mall -- has issued a total of 237,705 shares to SB Investment Holdings (UK) and Alibaba.com Singapore E-commerce as part of the fourth tranche. The issuance of 211,293 shares to SB Investment Holdings and 26,412 shares to the Alibaba entity was approved by the Board of Paytm E-commerce on June 6, 2018, the documents added.

Why Walmart's Flipkart acquisition is its admission of defeat in India

Walmart Inc. might want to portray its $16 billion purchase of India's largest e-commerce firm, Flipkart Group, as a brilliant strategic move, long-planned in secret, that would allow the U.S. retail giant to manage the transition away from big-box stores globally. Yet, the truth is that the deal represents a second-best outcome -- if that -- for Walmart as well as for Indian consumers and farmers.

In the 11 years that Walmart has operated in India, it’s signally failed to build up its own business. That’s not entirely the company’s fault. In fact, it’s a reminder that India remains, in some ways, as inhospitable to foreign businesses as the People's Republic of China.

For over a decade, successive Indian governments have denied permission to Walmart -- and peers such as Carrefour SA -- to open up their own stores. Foreign investors can enter into partnerships with local retailers -- Walmart had one with Bharti Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. -- but they can't control the consumer-facing end of the business, and their supply chains are subject to fearsome additional regulations. When foreign investment in supermarkets was finally permitted in 2012, for example, the previous government required any major, foreign-backed outlets to source 30 percent of the processed or manufactured goods they sold -- by value -- from tiny Indian enterprises worth less than $1 million apiece. The government also blocked companies such as Walmart from expanding into small-town India, restricting them to cities with populations over 1 million people.

Walmart's Flipkart deal gets rude welcome from market, shares plunge 4%

Walmart Inc.’s deal to buy a controlling stake in India’s biggest online seller is meeting skepticism on Wall Street.

The world’s largest retailer will acquire a 77 percent holding in Flipkart Group for $16 billion, the companies said earlier Wednesday. Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and other shareholders will hold the remainder. The tie-up values the Indian e-commerce giant at about $20.8 billion and marks a blow against rival Amazon.com Inc. as the battle for e-commerce supremacy goes global.

The deal -- Walmart’s biggest ever -- gives it greater access to India’s e-commerce market, which Morgan Stanley has estimated will grow to $200 billion in about a decade. But it will take some time for the business to turn profitable, and analysts on a Wednesday morning call about the deal adopted a cautious tone. S&P Global Ratings changed its outlook on Walmart to negative.

“As Flipkart is expected to generate meaningful losses for at least the next few years, this is clearly an investment for the future,” Moody’s analyst Charlie O’Shea wrote in a note.

Walmart shares dropped as much as 4.2 percent to $82.12 as of 10:28 a.m. in New York -- the lowest intraday price since October. The company’s stock was already down 13 percent this year through Tuesday’s close.

Amazon infuses Rs 26 bn in India, Jeff Bezos shows he still means business

After losing out to Walmart in acquiring online marketplace Flipkart, Amazon’s Chief Executive Jeff Bezos is keen to show that he still means business in India and has charged up the company’s local e-commerce unit with fresh funds.

Amazon Seller Services, the marketplace unit of the US online retail giant in India, saw a cash infusion of Rs 26 billion (approximately $390 million) late last month, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies (RoC) that was sourced from business intelligence platform Paper.vc on Tuesday.

The Seattle-headquartered company, earlier this month, is learnt to have made a bid to acquire a controlling stake in Flipkart with an investment of around $12 billion along with a $2 billion break-away fee. However, Flipkart board preferred to go with Walmart as the investors and founders were afraid that a deal with Amazon would run into regulatory hurdles.

Honor 10 India launch by May-end; sale exclusively on Flipkart: Know more

Honor, the online subsidiary brand of Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei, is set to unveil the Honor 10 on May 15 in London. In India, the smartphone will launch by the end of May, exclusively on home-grown e-commerce platform Flipkart, according to an official statement issued by the company.

The midrange smartphone is believed to take inspiration from the Huawei P20, unveiled last month along with the P20 Pro and P20 Lite but not yet launched in India. In terms of pricing, according to an industry source, the Honor 10 would be launched at Rs 35,000 and would rival the OnePlus 6, which is also due for a launch on May 16.

"We are delighted to announce that Flipkart will be our exclusive online sale partner for Honor 10. At Honor, we have always believed in making our products easily accessible for our consumers by opting for strategic partnerships. We are confident that this association with Flipkart, who shares our vision to deliver superb value to consumers will help strengthen our position in the Indian smartphone market." said P Sanjeev, Vice-President Sales, Huawei India-Consumer Business Group.

Paytm's claim of leadership in UPI payments misleading, says PhonePe

A week after Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm staked claim to being the country’s largest Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platform, Flipkart’s digital payments arm PhonePe has hit back saying that Paytm’s claim of being the leader is "uni-dimensional and misleading".

In a blog post published on Thursday, PhonePe said that while Paytm had a larger volume of transactions on UPI, the average value per transaction on Paytm was paltry in comparison to its own. Moreover, PhonePe says the total value of UPI transactions it did in February was far higher than Paytm’s.

“We believe that the recent media narrative has been narrowly focussed only on UPI transaction volumes , which only tells half the story,” read the blogpost. “We believe that Paytm’s claim that they are the largest on UPI is both uni-dimensional and misleading.”

Paytm cornered 68 million out of 171 million total UPI transactions in February which translates to 40 per cent of the total transactions. PhonePe on the other hand managed 28 million transactions. However, the company said, the total value of transactions done on its platform at Rs 51.2 billion accounted for over a fourth of the total Rs 191.26 billion that was transacted through UPI in the same month.

Once sold to Flipkart, Snapdeal staff could be richer by Rs 193 cr

Sale of a company often leaves employees high and dry, but not in the case of Snapdeal that may offer a Rs 193 crore bonanza to its staff if the homegrown e-commerce firm is taken over by larger rival Flipkart.

According to sources, if the deal goes through, the founders will give half of their payout ($30 million) for the proposed scheme which would cover all current employees of Snapdeal.

Snapdeal has about 1,500-2,000 staffers.

"The founders have asked the Board to carve out $30 million (about Rs 193 crore) from their settlement for payouts to the Snapdeal team. They want to ensure that the team does not get sidelined in any manner," they added.

Some former senior executives of Snapdeal, who have left the firm in the past 12 months, could also benefit from the process.

E-mails sent to Snapdeal did not elicit any response.

The intent is also to compensate for the ESOPs that were issued to senior employees.

The value of their shares and options have eroded and would be worthless once the deal is signed, one of them said.

Interestingly, the deal-linked payment would also be extended to employees who do not own ESOPs to reward those staying on with Snapdeal till the proposed transaction with Flipkart is complete.

If the deal goes through, Snapdeal founders will get $60 million (cumulative), of which half will be given to employees.

Japanese conglomerate and Snapdeal's largest investor SoftBank has initiated the process to sell the beleaguered online marketplace to bigger rival Flipkart.

It has managed to get Board members, which also includes the founders (Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal) and early investors Kalaari and Nexus Venture Partners, to agree to the potential deal.
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Snapdeal sale to Flipkart: Softbank inches closer to bring Nexus on board

Japan's SoftBank is believed to have moved a step closer to securing the consent of co- investor Nexus Venture Partners (NVP) for selling Snapdeal to India's largest e-commerce firm Flipkart.

A meeting was held on Tuesday and the impasse over the sale could end soon, people familiar with the matter said.

SoftBank - the largest shareholder in Snapdeal - has been making all efforts to get NVP on board for the sale of Snapdeal, and a breakthrough could come as early as this week.

They added that while attempts have been going on for the past few weeks, NVP finally seems to be warming up to the idea.

A board meeting is expected to take place tomorrow to deliberate upon the issue.

E-mails sent to Snapdeal, SoftBank and NVP did not elicit any response.

An 'yes' from NVP is crucial for the deal to go through.

The seven-member board of Jasper Infotech (which operates Snapdeal) includes representation from investors SoftBank, Kalaari Capital and NVP, as well as co-founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.

NVP and Kalaari were early stage investors in Snapdeal.

The deal between Snapdeal and Flipkart, if completed, would mark the biggest acquisition in the Indian e-commerce space and change the landscape of the sector that is witnessing intense competition among players.

Sources had highlighted that valuation has been one of the hurdles in the deal, as Kalaari Capital and Nexus were not in agreement with the valuation given by SoftBank.

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Amazon Fashion claims top spot, ahead of Flipkart, Jabong & Myntra combined

Staking claims on the top spot in the fashion marketplace ecosystem with triple digit growth month-on-month, Amazon Fashion on Wednesday said that it is far ahead of its main competitors in India Flipkart and its two subsidiaries Myntra and Jabong.

Capitalising on its more than a million strong 'Amazon Prime' membership base, its fashion vertical has increased the assortments of products eligible for 'Prime' deliveries and service. According to the company, the move has helped in making more Prime members shop for fashion on the portal and is even helping it in increase its membership base as more people are looking for exclusive services.

"We are the biggest brand with the largest selection of products in the country. We continue to grow the traffic on the site and are the largest visited e-commerce destination. One out of three people who come to the site check out a fashion product. If you look at 'Prime' already a fourth of fashion deliveries are on it," Arun Sirdeshmukh, Head, Amazon Fashion India.

Amazon Fashion has an assortment of overall 15,000 brands and around 1,000 exclusive international brands the latest entrants being Marks and Spencer's and sports activities brand Under Armour. (READ MORE)

Flipkart unveils buyback programme ahead of Moto G5 Plus launch

BREAKING NEWS - The upcoming Moto G5 Plus smartphone, which is to be launched on Wednesday, will come with a buyback guarantee by e-commerce marketplace Flipkart. 

 Flipkart said the Moto G5 Plus will be launched with a BuyBack Guarantee, which implies that if customers choose to exchange the smartphone for another smartphone six to eight months after the purchase, they will get a fixed exchange discount To be eligible for the offer, the new smartphone has to be priced higher than the Moto G5 Plus’ BuyBack Guarantee price.

'Buyback programme' is a first of its kind in the Indian retail ecosystem, under which Flipkart guarantees to buy back smartphones that have been sold to consumers at a reasonable price. This move could help buyers get huge value for the smartphone and also enable them to upgrade/ buy the next smartphone of their choice. The buyback amount doesn’t change based on market fluctuations and will be applicable for six to eight months after purchasing the Moto G5 Plus.

“Flipkart been innovating on creating the right connects between brands and buyers, and making high-quality products affordable and accessible to customers. Our deep understanding of the local market and customer dynamics, along with industry-first innovations like easy product exchange and No-cost EMI, have helped us to expand the smartphone category", Ayyappan R, Director – Mobiles, Flipkart said.

For now, the BuyBack guarantee programme will be exclusive to Moto G5 Plus. The prices for the smartphone haven’t been confirmed yet, hence cost of the BuyBack Guarantee and the BuyBack Guarantee price will be revealed later today along with Moto G5's launch.

However, the regular rules about the phone being in good working conditions, with an intact display, also apply to the buyback offer.(READ MORE)

Flipkart looking to raise $1 billion in latest funding round: Source

Latest News - India's top e-commerce company Flipkart is holding talks with investors to raise up to $1 billion in one of its biggest funding rounds so far, a source familiar with developments said on Wednesday.

The source declined to name the potential investors and the exact valuation Flipkart was looking for, but said it hoped the valuation would be in the "double digits", referring to a valuation of $10 billion or more.

Earlier on Wednesday, Financial Express newspaper, citing unidentified sources, said (Read More)

Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl says profits 2 years away, road ahead is clear

Latest News - Indian e-commerce firm Snapdeal expects to turn profitable in the next two years, its CEO said, as the company cuts costs and boosts efficiency in a market currently dominated by homegrown Flipkart and US internet giant Amazon.

Kunal Bahl, who co-founded Snapdeal in 2010, also told Reuters in an interview that the online marketplace provider backed by Japan's SoftBank Group did not immediately need to raise capital unless it makes an acquisition.

A burgeoning Indian middle class' rapid uptake of wireless high-speed internet has prompted buyers to shop online, boosting sales at e-tailers and making the country's internet services market one of the (Read More)

Amazon hires record level of office property in 2016

Latest News - US-based e-commerce giant Amazon took about a million of office spaces on lease last year, making it equal to what it took between 2008 and 2015 in the country.

Founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos’ said last year that it would invest another $3 billion in India, amid intense competition in the e-commerce space.

Much of the leased space could be used for seller and development services, besides a 30,000-sq ft building in Bandra Kurla Complex for its India headquarters.

According to Propstack, a data analytics firm for commercial property transactions, various Amazon entities have (Read More)