Thursday, March 28

Tag: e-commerce

Smartphone Repair Platform JustLikeNew Raises USD 500K From Angel Investors
FUNDING

Smartphone Repair Platform JustLikeNew Raises USD 500K From Angel Investors

Smartphone repair e-commerce platform JustLikeNew.In today said it has raised funds worth USD 500,000 (about Rs 3.3 crore) through LetsVenture, from angel investors Mindtree executive chairman Krishnakumar Natarajan and former Oracle India MD, Sandeep Mathur. Existing investors Aneesh Reddy and Vikas Tandon have also reinvested in the company, it said in a statement here. The start-up is productizing over 10,000 smartphone repair services on its platform. Incepted in mid-2014 and formally launched next year, the start-up currently provides free pickup and drop services for smartphones and tablets with a service turnaround time of 48 hours, bringing high-quality repair at customers' doorstep. JustLikeNew.In has also established a dominant presence in the B2B segment through partner...
Walmart Completes Jet.com Acquisition
ACQUISITION

Walmart Completes Jet.com Acquisition

Wal-Mart Stores on Monday said it has completed the acquisition of Internet retailer Jet.com after agreeing to pay about $3 billion for the e-commerce startup last month. Wal-Mart Chief Executive Doug McMillon announced the closing of the deal, which was pending regulatory approval, in a blog post on the retailer's website. The deal, which was the largest for an online startup, will give Walmart access to Jet.com's innovative pricing software and will help the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer to better compete with online rival Amazon.com. "A lot of folks ask me 'Why Jet.com?," McMillon said in a blog post. The answer he said was in the savings both Walmart and Jet can together offer shoppers. Jet, with its ability to lower prices as customers add more items to their shoppi...
Weblistr- Where There is a Need, There is a Website!
Story

Weblistr- Where There is a Need, There is a Website!

Online businesses and Startups in India are growing at an astronomical speed. Today where everything is available online, any product or service need can be resolved in mere clicks. Where there is a need, there is a website/app to fulfill it, unfortunately, the visibility of these websites is quite limited to the general internet users. Knowing where to get what online is the problem. Weblistr, India’s No. #1 online shopping guide aims at solving this problem. Weblistr is a one of a kind startup that accumulates useful information from e-commerce websites and apps across 20+ categories such as fashion, home décor, travel, food delivery, jobs, healthcare, education etc. It also has user generated ratings and reviews for online startups on their platform. The platform hosts over 500 websit...
Rivigo Will Add 100 More Cities For Faster Delivery of E-commerce
News

Rivigo Will Add 100 More Cities For Faster Delivery of E-commerce

Logistics solutions provider Rivigo today announced adding 100 more cities for faster delivery of cargo using truck drivers relay mechanism. "Rivigo today announced a significant expansion of its part-truck load capability Rivigo Zoom by adding more than 100 cities to its pan India coverage. With the expansion, Rivigo services can now be availed of in most state capitals, major cities and industrial centres," the company said in a statement. It said combining technology and a unique driver?s relay mechanism, Rivigo provides precision deliveries at 50-70 per cent lesser transit times compared to conventional trucking companies. The expansion coincides with the company acquiring 1,200 trucks from Ashok Leyland to take its fleet size to 2,700 by the year end. "We are confi...
Alibaba Collaborate With Australian Govt To Exapnd Operation in Australian Market
CHINA

Alibaba Collaborate With Australian Govt To Exapnd Operation in Australian Market

Successful Aussie brands with a local following have the greatest potential on China's e-commerce platforms as businesses leverage the Asian consumer market, a business breakfast heard as the two countries further trade links. Australia on Tuesday signed a strategic collaboration agreement with e-commerce giant Alibaba to expand the variety of fresh products available for purchase while leveraging digital content to build "brand Australia." The partnership is designed to allow more small- and medium- sized businesses to leverage the convergence of e-commerce and social media that have so far enabled Chinese consumers to spend almost 500 billion Australian dollars (381.98 billion U.S. dollars) per annum through online shopping. "Australia is a key market for Alibaba Group and w...
Myntra Introduces Try and Buy New Feature
News

Myntra Introduces Try and Buy New Feature

Myntra announces the introduction of 'Try and Buy' (T&B), a new service option aimed at breaking the final barrier to shopping fashion online. Considered to be the Holy Grail for fashion E-commerce, T&B allows for the 'touch and feel' factor to seep into the world of online shopping, especially fashion, where it is expected to bring about a huge change in the way traditional buyers look at buying apparel online. Ashutosh Lawania, Co-founder, Myntra, said, "Try and Buy is an important step towards offering consumers a hassle-free online shopping experience and encouraging more offline buyers to shop online. This new concept will open up online fashion to a whole new section of buyers." Offline shoppers have expressed apprehension over the lack of touch and feel in the case of onli...
Online Vendors Meet Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on AskMe Payment Issue
INDIA, News

Online Vendors Meet Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on AskMe Payment Issue

Corporate Affairs Ministry has assured Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman of taking up the pending payment issue of cash-strapped e-commerce firm AskMe on priority basis. Representatives of All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) today met Sitharaman on the issue of pending payment from askmebazaar.com. Since the issue raised by AIOVA pertained to Ministry of Corporate affairs, Sitharaman spoke to Corporate Affairs Secretary. "Corporate Affairs (Secretary) assured Sitharaman that he shall take up the issues raised by AIOVA on a priority basis," the commerce and industry ministry said in a tweet. Hit by a cash crunch, e-commerce company AskMe has decided to shut shop, leaving 4,000 staffers jobless.
One97 Communication Which Runs Paytm Raises 400 Crore From Mediatek, Valuation Upto $5 Billion
FUNDING

One97 Communication Which Runs Paytm Raises 400 Crore From Mediatek, Valuation Upto $5 Billion

Taiwanese chip designer MediaTekis investing USD 60 million (about Rs 400 crore) in One97 Communications, which runs Paytm. The transaction values the digital payment services and e-commerce firm at about USD 5 billion. When contacted, a Paytm spokesperson confirmed the development. The funds will be used for expanding payments and commerce businesses and for building and launching the payments bank, she added. Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has earlier said its payments bank will become operational later this year. Interestingly, Mediatek is also an investor in Paytm's rival, Mobikwik in India. In May this year, Mediatek had participated in an estimated USD 50 million fund raising by Mobikwik. Alibaba-backed Paytm is looking at raising about USD 300 million (over Rs 2...
Indian E-commerce Companies Demand Exemption From GST
INDIA, News

Indian E-commerce Companies Demand Exemption From GST

The rapidly expanding e-commerce companies today made a strong case for keeping them out of the proposed GST net but the state finance ministers appeared in no mood to oblige. At the first meeting of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers held after the Parliament approved the GST Bill, online retailers said they only provide a platform to vendors and customers and do not make money out of sales made. According to representation made at the meeting, companies like Flipkart, Amazon India and Snapdeal are only service providers to the vendors and as such are liable to pay GST only on service income. When panel chairman and West Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra questioned the billion dollar valuations some of the so-called online platforms command, the e-retailers s...
Flipkart Will Provide Rs 75 Cr Loans to Sellers
News

Flipkart Will Provide Rs 75 Cr Loans to Sellers

E-commerce major Flipkart, after facilitating loans worth Rs 125 crore for sellers on its platform in last one year, is looking to help merchants avail credit facility of over Rs 75 crore in the next few months. The Bengaluru-based firm, which has partnered eight financial institutions including Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, NeoGrowth, Lendingkart and Capital First to offer collateral-free loans to sellers on its platform, has already disbursed Rs 125 crore worth of loans in the last one year. Under the Flipkart Growth Capital programme, launched in July last year, Flipkart sellers can avail loans with interest rates starting at 11.40 per cent, Flipkart said in a statement. The programme had received over 3,000 applications in the initial months of the launch and over 800 loans have b...
Retailers Earn More From Online Than Offline Sales: Study
ANALYSIS

Retailers Earn More From Online Than Offline Sales: Study

Retailers offering customers an option to buy products online earn more revenue than those who only sell their goods offline, according to a new study. The study suggests that customers spend more online because it is easier to locate items through the search function. Junzhao Ma, a lecturer at Monash University in Australia studied how a larger selection of products available online affects consumer spending, using data from a large US retailer that specialises in apparel and offers both printed catalogue and internet shopping. In particular, he examined the effect on the retailer's main products, offered in the catalogues and for which there was high demand and the less-popular niche items that were available on the retailer's website but hard to find in its catalogues. Ma found ...
Markdowns Of Flipkart Doesn’t Matter: Sachin Bansal
Entrepreneurs Talk

Markdowns Of Flipkart Doesn’t Matter: Sachin Bansal

Recently Flipkart was marked down in it's valuation by a couple of investors and third- parties! Sachin Bansal, the founder of the e-commerce giant Flipkart considers them as their " opinions" and cited the case of Uber to illustrate that it will not impact fundraising plans of the e-commerce major. "That does not matter. If you look... they did it to Uber as well. Uber raised (money) at a higher valuation. They did it to one more company, they also raised money at higher valuation," Bansal said on the sidelines of an event. "I think it does not matter, people have their own opinions and it is their own opinion," he added. He was also confident about the fact that these statements will not have any impact on the company's future fund raising. For now, Flipkart is pretty well capita...