by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Large Enterprise, Marketing Basics, Markets, Online Marketing, Sales, Technology
Bengaluru : In a mega deal in India’s e-commerce space, global retail giant Walmart Inc on Wednesday announced it was buying 77 per cent equity stake in the country’s largest e-tailer Flipkart for $16 billion.
“Subject to regulatory approval in India, Walmart will pay $16 billion (Rs 1,07,662 crore) for 77 per cent equity stake in Flipkart,” the Arkansas-based firm said in a statement.
The acquisition of the majority stake makes the $500-billion Walmart the largest shareholder of the city-based Flipkart group and will help accelerate its mission to transform e-commerce through digital technology.
“The investment underscores our commitment to sustained job creation and investment in India, one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies,” said Walmart.
As part of the agreement, 33 per cent of the equity will be with Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal and institutional investors Tencent Holdings Ltd, Tiger Global Management LLC and Microsoft Corporation.
“Though the focus will be on serving customers and growing the business, we will support Flipkart’s ambition to transition into a publicly-listed, majority-owned subsidiary in the future,” Walmart said.
The record deal will also give Walmart an opportunity to partner with the local leader in growing market, as the e-tailer’s leadership team will be supported by investment and technology partners.
In an investors’ call later, Walmart Chief Executive Doug McMillon said India was a priority market for the retail behemoth as the country was the largest and fastest growing economy.
“As a company, we are transforming globally to meet and exceed the needs of customers and we look forward to working with Flipkart to grow in this critical market,” he said.
The deal will benefit India in providing quality, affordable goods for customers and create skilled jobs and opportunities for small suppliers, farmers and women entrepreneurs.
“India is one of the most attractive retail markets, given its size and growth rate and our investment is an opportunity to partner with Flipkart that is leading transformation of e-commerce in the market,” McMillon said.
Observing that Walmart’s investment was significant and would help fuel the e-tailer’s ambition to deepen its connection with buyers and sellers, Bansal said though e-commerce was a small part of India’s retail sector, he saw a great potential to grow.
“Walmart is the ideal partner for the next phase of our journey and we look forward to working with it to bring our strengths and learnings in retail and e-commerce to the fore,” he said.
Founded in 2007, Flipkart has led the e-commerce revolution in the sub-continent, growing rapidly and earning customers’ trust with digital technology, including artificial intelligence to hard-sell a wide range of goods spanning electronics, appliances, mobile, fashion and apparel.
With platforms such as Myntra, Jabong and PhonePe, Flipkart is positioned to leverage its integrated ecosystem, which is defined by localized service, insights into customers and an efficient supply chain.
Its supply chain arm, eKart, serves 800 cities, making 5,00,000 deliveries daily.
In 2017-18, Flipkart recorded Gross Merchandise Value of $7.5 billion and net sales of $4.6 billion, representing 50 per cent year-on-year growth.
Flipkart will leverage Walmart’s omni-channel retail expertise, grocery and general merchandise supply-chain knowledge and financial strength, while its talent, technology, customer insights and innovative culture will benefit the US retail giant in India and elsewhere.
Post-acquisition, both the partners will leverage their strengths but will maintain their distinct brands and operating structures.
“We operate 21 best price cash-and-carry stores and one fulfilment centre in 19 cities across nine states, with 95 per cent of sourcing from the country, aiding suppliers, creating skilled jobs and contributing to local economies,” said Walmart India Chief Executive Krish Iyer.
Meanwhile, Walmart’s foray into India’s online retail space made industry expects say the deal would make India an attractive destination for global majors to invest in the e-tail segment.
“The deal indicates attractiveness of India’s consumption market for global majors… we expect greater thrust on the online grocery segment,” said rating agency Crisil Research director Ajay Srinivasan in a statement here.
Terming the buyout a Rs 1 lakh crore all cash deal, Paytm Founder Vijay Shekar Sharma tweeted that it was a perfect answer to those who were dismissive of Indian start-ups in an open-for-all market.
In another tweet, biotechnology major Biocon Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said the deal was an endorsement for India’s first e-tailing company.
“It’s capital intensive business that needs deep pockets which Walmart has,” she tweeted.
“We expect the status quo to remain within the year after the mega deal. It’s an extension of the $500-billion Walmart’s global expansion strategy,” noted advisory firm Gartner director Adrian Lee in a statement.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Branding, Business, Large Enterprise, Marketing Basics, Markets, Networking, Online Marketing, Technology
New Delhi : E-commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart will be able to make airborne delivery of products to customers in India using drones enabled by technology being developed by the country’s aviation sector, a minister announced on Thursday.
“E-commerce deliveries using drones are certainly going to be possible in India. Companies like Amamzon and Flipkart can deliver products with the tecnological developments we are seeing in the aviation eco system,” Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said at the Aero Expo 2017 here organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday invited public comments on the draft rules on use of drones, including for commercial purposes, which the aviation regulator hopes to finalise by the year-end. Drones have been classified under five categories based on their weight.
“Aviation is at the cutting edge of technology be it in avionics, software..throwing open the drone industry to experimentation and innovation will really benefit India,” Sinha said.
Noting the various uses of drone technology in areas like oil and gas prospecting, agriculture and in taking pictures, Sinha said use of drones as “air rickshaws” for travelling around a 100-km radius could be a viable proposition.
A few years ago, a drone had been used to deliver a packet to a location at a multi-storeyed building Mumbai. The local police, however, described it as an unauthorised flight in violation of rules.
Noting that this government had brought in the National Civil Aviation Policy, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said that the sector had notched up 20 crore passenger trips this year, which exceeded the Railways’ 13 crore passengers in their upper class coaches.
“Our journey, however, has only begun because only 3 per cent of Indians actually fly. With our efforts to increase connectivity, we are aiming at 30-40 per cent,” the minister added.
Vice President Venkaiah Naidu was among the chief guests at the event and released a knowledge paper on the sector.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Markets, Networking, Sales, SMEs, Technology
New Delhi : Global IT security firm Quick Heal’s Enterprise Security brand Seqrite has discovered an advertisement on DarkNet forum that claims to have access to data of over 6,000 Indian businesses that include Internet Service Providers (ISPs), some of the key government organisations, banks and enterprises.
Seqrite Cyber Intelligence Labs, along with its partner seQtree InfoServices, tracked the advertisement where the unknown hacker has priced the information at 15 Bitcoins (nearly Rs 42 lakh) and is offering network takedown of affected organisations for an unspecified amount, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
“This can be a major tool of mass disruption if a non-state actor gets hands on it,” Seqrite said on its website.
The organisations whose services may be at risk are: UIDAI (Aadhaar), Idea Telecom, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Flipkart, DRDO, Aircel, Reserve Bank of India, BSNL, SBI, TCS, ISRO, ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, VMWare, Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation and various Indian state government portals, among others.
“We have alerted the government authorities well within time. If someone gets control over this massive data that is currently up for sale on DarkNet, the above mentioned organisations and enterprises can get affected,” Rohit Srivastwa, Senior Director, Cyber Education and Services at Quick Heal, told IANS.
Following a detailed investigation, researchers identified the affected organisation as India’s national Internet registry IRINN (Indian Registry for Internet Names and Numbers) which comes under the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI).
As a precautionary measure, Seqrite reached out to the government authorities and Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), recommending to them to alert all potentially affected organisations and urge them to change passwords and get their servers and systems patched with latest updates.
According to the researchers, the seller claims to have the ability to tamper the IP allocation pool, which could result in a serious outage or Denial of Service (DoS) attack-like condition.
“This could impact various content delivery network (CDN) and hosting providers as well. If the hacker gets an interested buyer, then an attack on the system could disrupt Internet IP allocation and affect Internet services in India,” the company said.
“Along with the access, the hacker is also selling credentials and various contractual business documents and claims to have access to a large database of Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC),” it added.
The IRINN provides allocation and registration services of IP addresses and autonomous system numbers.
It comes under NIXI which “is the neutral meeting point of the ISPs in India with the primary objective being the facilitation of exchange of domestic Internet traffic between peering ISP members”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Investing, Marketing Basics, Markets, Online Marketing, Technology
Bengaluru : Leading e-tailer Flipkart on Tuesday announced acquiring F1 Info Solutions, a mobile and IT products repair services firm, for an unspecified amount.
“F1, which has pan-India presence of owned and franchisees, will be part of our third-party service provider Jeeves, which caters to home appliances and furniture,” said the city-based e-commerce major in a statement here.
The acquisition of F1 chain will expand the e-tailer’s offerings to mobiles, IT products and consumer electronics from sales to after-sales to repair services.
As part of the deal, F1’s co-founder and Chief Executive Shammi Moza will join Flipkart as a Senior Director and look after its expanded business. He will report to Jeeves Head Abhijit Upadhye.
Set up in 2012, the five-year-old F1 chain has 158 repair service centres in 135 cities across the country.
“With about 1,000 employees, including technicians, F1 chain takes about 50,000 service calls a month across the centres,” said the statement.
F1 is also a service partner for leading mobile and IT products such as Apple, Samsung, HP, Lenovo, Sony and Asus.
The acquisition will compliment Jeeves’ expertise in large appliances and furniture at F1’s service centres and benefit Flipkart’s customers in getting their devices repaired.
“The acquisition of F1 will enable us to give our customers a comprehensive service ecosystem, including repair of all their products,” said Flipkart Chief Executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy on the occasion.
Foraying into smartphones segment in 2014, Flipkart brought to customers mobiles from global makers and made them affordable with no cost EMI, product exchange and buyback guarantees.
“With F1 chain, our capabilities in mobile phones become a service differentiator vis-a-via competitors,” added the statement.
As the largest online retail portal with an estimated 100-million customer base, the decade-old Flipkart offers a whopping 80 million products across 80 categories through cash on delivery and no cost EMI across the country.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise, Markets, Online Marketing, Sales, SMEs, Social Media, Technology
New Delhi : It is time again to loosen your purse strings! With attractive deals and huge discounts across various categories on offer, almost all major e-commerce platforms are geared up to commence their sales for the festive season.
While e-commerce giant Flipkart and the online retail platforms it owns — Jabong and Myntra — will start with their five-day-long “Big Billion Days” sales from September 20, Amazon India’s “Great Indian Festival” will begin exclusively for its “Prime” customers on the same day at 12 p.m.
However, the festival sale for all customers of Amazon India will be from September 21 to 24.
“For the first time ever, the Great Indian Festival will start early at 12 noon on September 20 only for ‘Prime’ members,” Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Category Management, Amazon India, told IANS.
“We expect more customers to join the digital ecosystem and shop with us during this festive season. With expanded selection and a robust logistical support system, we are ready to handle the massive customer traffic that we are bound to receive this season,” Tiwary added.
Amazon India will offer deals across several categories, including smartphones, tablets, laptops, large appliances, baby products, clothing and accessories, beauty products, home and kitchen products, furniture and stationery products.
Swati Bhargava, co-founder of CashKaro, said: “What is interesting this time is that earlier, very often it used to be only Flipkart and Amazon trying to announce sales. This time, all the main six to seven e-commerce retailers, like Jabong, Shopclues and Myntra, Paytm Mall… are doing sales on the same day.”
CashKaro, partner to more than 1,500 e-commerce sites, provides its members with cashback offers on their online shopping at various sites like Flipkart, Amazon.in, Paytm, Shopclues and Jabong.
“Typically, we see about a 300 per cent increase in our GMV (gross merchandise volume) which goes through CashKaro during the festive season. Even in September, if we were to compare with the numbers of August, I am sure we will see at least a 300 per cent increment,” Bhargava told IANS.
She added: “We will probably be driving over Rs 100 crore of sales in this month alone to all our partner retailers.”
In online retailing, GMV indicates a total sales dollar value for merchandise sold through a particular marketplace over a certain time frame.
“Also, this time, it is not ‘start of the month’ sale, it is mid-month. There will be a little bit of cash crunch also, which is why this is a good time to bring in cards and EMI offers,” Bhargava added.
Online marketplace ShopClues’ “Maha Bharat Diwali Sale”, which will run from September 20 to 28, will offer a wide range of products with discounts ranging from 50-80 per cent off across the home and kitchen, electronics and accessories, and fashion and lifestyle categories.
“ShopClues aims to achieve 75 per cent plus growth in business over September-October,” said Radhika Aggarwal, Co-Founder and CBO, ShopClues.
“We have also ramped up our associations with top banks, portals and e-wallets, to enable a seamless and delightful shopping experience for our customers during this Diwali,” she added.
In line with the e-commerce giants, Paytm Mall, owned by Paytm Ecommerce, will also launch its first ever festive season sale — “Mera Cashback Sale” — from September 20 to 23.
“This is our first festive season sale and we are expecting 5-6 million new customers on our platform during the four-day sale,” said a Paytm Mall spokesperson.
While the full-on sales are slated to start from Wednesday, some other e-commerce sites such as LimeRoad have their festive sales ongoing.
“LimeRoad introduced ‘The Festive Love Affair’, a collection featuring an array of handpicked kurtas, sarees, suits, heritage jewellery, traditional home décor and a lot more… It is live from September 15 to 26 and caters to both budget buyers and luxury shoppers,” said Suchi Mukherjee, Founder and CEO of LimeRoad.
Mukherjee told IANS that approximately 30 per cent of the total revenue inflow is seen during the festive months.
Flipkart will also run its “Flipkart For India” campaign as part of the sales offer during which it will ship festive gift hampers to the families of army martyrs, and current personnel of the army, Border Security Force and the Central Reserve Police Force, posted in hostile locations away from home.
“The specially-packaged boxes, numbering a few hundred, will contain an assortment of dry fruits and a gift voucher worth Rs 10,000 that can be used to shop on Flipkart,” the company said in a statement.
—IANS
