Page 4 - E-commerce Market

Amazon India plans to set up rest-points across cities where it operates

Amazon India plans to set up rest points for its delivery associates across cities over the next couple of years under Project Ashray, a senior company official said on Friday. The Ashray centres will provide clean drinking water, phone charging stations, washrooms, and rest areas for delivery associates. As a pilot, five rest points will be set up in collaboration with Udyasa Foundation in Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, and Mumbai. "Our plan is to be able to go to every city we operate in. We have 1,800 delivery stations across the length and breadth of the country. In the next couple of years, you will find this in pretty much every city in India," Amazon India, Vice President Operations, Abhinav Singh said. He said that the project will be launched initially in cities where the company has a high number of drivers. "As we find a scalable model we will scale it to the rest of the country," Singh said. The Ashray centres will also cater to the larger community, providing access to deliv

Govt seeks proposals from industry for setting up e-commerce export hubs

The government has sought proposals from the industry to set up e-commerce export hubs (ECEH) in the country for examination, support, and hand-holding. Based on the proposal, further details, including software requirements for ECEH, to facilitate seamless and expeditious export clearances, will be firmed up, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has said in a trade notice. In this regard, it said, draft modalities for operation of these hubs have been formulated. Based on draft modalities proposed, the government would like to initiate a pilot launch of ECEH. "In this regard, detailed proposal(s) for setting up ECEH may be submitted to this directorate, for examination, support and hand-holding," the DGFT said. In the Budget, the government announced setting up of these hubs to promote exports through e-commerce medium in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode. Initially there are plans to set up 10-15 hubs in the country. These hubs would be designated areas, which wo

Online vs offline retail: Industry divided over Piyush Goyal's comments

Raises debate over large e-commerce players eating into share of smaller offline retailers

Amazon's home, kitchen segment witnesses 25% growth in FY24 in Odisha

E-commerce major Amazon India on Wednesday said its home, kitchen and outdoors segment has grown by nearly 25 per cent in Odisha in the 2023-24 fiscal as compared to the previous year. The company also registered a 15 per cent growth in new customers in Odisha which is one of the fastest-growing states, Amazon India's Home, Kitchen and Outdoors segment Director K N Srikanth said. There is growing demand for sports and sporting equipment in the region with the cricket gears experiencing more than 80 per cent year-on-year growth, he said. Similarly, demand for equipment for racquet sports, including badminton, tennis and table tennis, surged nearly 150 per cent during the last financial year, indicating a strong focus on outdoor sports, he said. The online marketplace has 51 service partners, 52 delivery stations and nearly 16,000 sellers in the state. The company will continue to work with local stores and MSMEs across the state, he added. Catering to evolving customers' needs, Am

Temu owner's billionaire founder Colin Huang becomes China's richest person

Huang has mainly stayed out of the limelight after he stepped down as PDD's chief executive in 2020

India's e-lifestyle market to triple by 2028, reach $45 billion in value

The penetration of e-commerce within the lifestyle sector is expected to rise from the current 13 per cent to 18-22 per cent by 2028, according to a report

GST dept developing registration system for shared warehouse for e-commerce

GST authorities are working out a mechanism to deal with the taxation and registration issues related to shared warehouses maintained by e-commerce companies, where multiple suppliers store their goods for the last mile delivery, an official said. The issue of taxation for warehouses has cropped up after multiple suppliers have geo-tagged the same warehouse as their 'additional place of business' under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rules. "We are working to see whether a 'shared workplace' or 'coworking space' concept can be implemented for the warehouses maintained by e-commerce companies to store goods of multiple suppliers," the official told PTI. Under Goods and Services Tax (GST) law, suppliers to an e-commerce platform can store their goods at a common warehouse. However, the suppliers in their GST registration are required to show the warehouse as an additional place of business. The official said that when multiple taxpayers register at a single warehouse, the geo-tag ..

10-min delivery: Blinkit partners with Sony to sell PS5 Slim on launch day

Customers in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Bengaluru can now get the all new PlayStation 5 Slim editions and controllers delivered in 10 minutes, said Blinkit in a press note

Swiggy records $200 million loss in nine months to December 2023: Report

The document showed that losses stood at 17.3 billion rupees $207 million during April to December 2023 - the first nine months of fiscal year 2023-24

Amazon invested $1.2 bn, hired 15,000 people in 2023 to tackle counterfeit

Online marketplace Amazon invested more than USD 1.2 billion and hired about 15,000 experts in 2023 to protect the brand, its sellers, and customers from fraud and counterfeit, according to the Amazon 2023 Brand Protection Report. Amazon said when a customer purchases from the store, they trust they will receive an authentic product, and when businesses choose to sell in the store, they trust Amazon to provide a great selling experience free from competition with bad actors. "In 2023, Amazon invested more than USD 1.2 billion and employed more than 15,000 people, including machine learning scientists, software developers, and expert investigators, who were dedicated to protecting customers, brands, selling partners, and our store from counterfeit, fraud, and other forms of abuse," it said. Amazon said it uses document forgery detection, advanced image and video verification, and other technologies to confirm the authenticity of government-issued identity documents quickly and whethe

India bright on global players's radar, optimistic on future: Falguni Nayar

India is beeping on the radar of global players with strong drivers like young, aspiring population, rising income levels, and resilient infrastructure and digital networks, Nykaa founder and CEO Falguni Nayar said on Monday, adding she is extremely "optimistic" and "confident" about the future. In an exclusive interview with PTI, the self-made billionaire also said the recent instances of corporate governance lapses in some well-known startups will lead to greater scrutiny by investors (in the ecosystem), and asserted that governance agenda has to be set out very early in an entrepreneurial journey. Any compromise on governance just because a company is growing or chasing size and scale cannot be justified, she emphasised. Nykaa, she added, has been very strong on governance. Nayar - the top boss at omnichannel beauty and fashion retailer Nykaa - said her entrepreneurial journey - which started at the age of almost 50 - has been "amazing" and advised aspiring entrepreneurs to be .

Delhi govt develops portal for licensing cab aggregators, e-commerce cos

The Delhi government has developed a portal to facilitate licensing, payment of fees and regulate cab aggregators, delivery service providers and e-commerce entities. The Delhi Motor Vehicle Aggregator and Delivery Service Provider Scheme - 2023 was notified by the government last year. Service providers and e-commerce entities with more than 25 vehicles in their fleet will have to register on the portal to obtain a licence. "All licence holders are requested to register their existing fleets operating in the NCT of Delhi. All existing aggregator and delivery service providers operating within the NCT of Delhi shall obtain a licence within a period of 90 days," according to a public notice issued by the Transport department. The notice was uploaded on the department's website on Friday. The department's dashboard to monitor the progress of the scheme can be accessed at myfleet.delhi.gov.in. The licences will be valid for five years. The scheme mandates service providers to ensur

Alibaba discloses Chinese govt ownership in over 12 of its business units

The filings come as China's ruling Communist Party said this month that it will play a bigger role in steering the country's technology and science development

Logistics' cost structure biggest challenge for e-commerce: Flipkart CEO

E-commerce in India is at a nascent stage and cost structure of logistics is the biggest challenge for the segment, a top official of Flipkart said on Tuesday. Speaking at Walmart Growth Summit, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said the government has simplified taxation and adopted ease of doing business as a strategy, which is one of the factors driving growth of the e-commerce segment. "One of the biggest challenges for e-commerce alone to solve is the cost structure of logistics. India, in general is a low ticket price market. Whenever we are able to get to further (lower logistics) cost structure, is when we will be able to further increase the penetration in commerce," Krishnamurthy said. The e-commerce company has plans to transition its delivery fleet to electric vehicles by 2030. Krishnamurthy said the e-commerce penetration in India is around 7-8 per cent compared to retail but in some product categories like electronics, it is high. "Tax simplification used to be one o

EESL launches Beta version of e-commerce platform for affordable solutions

State-owned EESL on Monday announced the launch of the Beta version of its e-commerce platform that will offer affordable energy-efficient appliances and solutions to customers. The platform, eeslmart.in, lists energy-efficient appliances such as LED bulbs, inverter LED lamps and fans, at present. "EESL plans to expand its offerings to include 5-star bulbs and other luminaires, super-efficient ACs, energy-efficient motors, e-bicycles, and induction cookstoves etc," Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL) said in a statement. EESL Chief Executive Officer Vishal Kapoor said the objective is to enable the people to make sustainable choices and bridging the information gap on energy-efficient products and services. EESL is a joint venture of public sector undertakings under the Ministry of Power.

Not hiked fee, no plans for significant increase in near term: Swiggy

On-demand convenience platform Swiggy on Wednesday said it has not hiked its platform fee and no plans for a significant increase in the near term. The company, which currently charges Rs 5 as a platform fee to customers, clarified it had 'teased' to a "very small set of users" of Rs 10 as an experiment but was never implemented. "Swiggy has not changed its platform fee, and has no plans for a significant increase in the near term," a Swiggy Spokesperson said in a response to a query on the report of the company hiking its platform fee. Further, the spokesperson said, "We're always running small experiments to better understand the consumer's choices. This was one such experiment, and we may or may not scale it up in the future if it doesn't meet our goal of serving our users in the best way possible." Swiggy is always looking for ways to make its platform more affordable, and the latest offering, Pockethero, is another example of that, according to the company. "Pockethero is ...

DMart Q3 results: Net profit rises 17% to Rs 690.6 cr, revenue up 17.31%

Avenue Supermarts Ltd, which owns and operates retail chain D-Mart, on Saturday, reported a 17 per cent rise in its consolidated net profit to Rs 690.41 crore for the third quarter ended December 31. The company had posted a net profit of Rs 589.64 crore in the October-December quarter a year ago, according to a regulatory filing by Avenue Supermarts. Its revenue from operations grew 17.31 per cent to Rs 13,572.47 crore during the quarter under review against Rs 11,569.05 crore in the corresponding quarter of the last fiscal. Avenue Supermarts' total expenses rose 17.31 per cent to Rs 12,656.46 crore in the third quarter of this fiscal. Its total income in the December quarter increased 17.28 per cent to Rs 13,605.39 crore. The total number of stores stood at 341 as of December 31, 2023. Meanwhile, in a separate filing, Avenue Supermarts said its board has appointed Harishchandra M Bharuka as an Independent Director of the company. Promoted by Radhakishan Damani and his family,

DealShare elevates Kamaldeep Singh as CEO, third cofounder Medda quits

DealShare emphasized that it remains sufficiently well-capitalized and enjoys strong support from its board and investors

E-commerce firm Meesho recruits 150 during campus hiring, to take in more

Recruitments reflect 'robust road map for 2024', says Meesho, which is an e-commerce firm backed by SoftBank

DMart's standalone revenue rises 17.2% to Rs 13,247 cr in Oct-Dec quarter

Avenue Supermarts Ltd, which owns and operates retail chain DMart, on Tuesday reported a 17.18 per cent increase in its standalone revenue from operations to Rs 13,247.33 crore in the third quarter ended on December 31, 2023. The company had revenue from operations of Rs 11,304.58 crore in the October-December quarter a year ago, according to a quarterly update by Avenue Supermarts. "Standalone Revenue from operations for the quarter ended (QE) December 31, 2023 stood at Rs 13,247.33 crores," said Avenue Supermarts in a regulatory filing. The total number of stores as of September 30, 2023 stood at 341. Promoted by Radhakishan Damani and his family, DMart retails basic home and personal products across markets which include Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, NCR, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Rajasthan.