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<ul><li>American online retail firm <keyword id="6357395" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="eBay">eBay</keyword> has bought a 5.5% stake in <keyword id="4225623" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Paytm-Mall">Paytm Mall</keyword>. </li><li>Vijay Shekhar Sharma owned Paytm Mall hopes to turn profitable in the next two years. </li><li>However, this isn’t eBay first bet on Indian e-commerce, its previous two – <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> and <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> – failed to work out for the company.</li></ul>American e-commerce giant eBay has <a href="https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/ebay-logs-into-paytm-mall-with-5-5-stake-eyes-pie-of-online-retail-1563420493902.html">bought</a> a 5.5% stake in Paytm Mall, Vijay Shekhar Sharma’s new e-commerce vertical. While the details of the transaction remain undisclosed, <a href="https://yourstory.com/2019/07/paytm-mall-funding-ebay-ecommerce-india-vijay-shekhar-sharma">reports</a> say that the American firm is pumping in about $170 million into Paytm Mall at a valuation of $3 billion. Paytm Mall, the e-commerce subsidiary of One97 communications which owns Paytm, aims to turn profitable in the next two years. The company said that it reduced its monthly spends by ₹400 million, is targeting an EBITDA breakeven by 2021-22. EBIDTA is earnings before interest, depreciation, tax and amortization. The company ended the last financial year with a Gross Merchandising Value (GMV) of ₹130 billion and is now aiming for ₹170 billion GMV by 2022. However, what’s interesting is eBay’s India growth trajectory. It had entered the Indian market in 2004, much before e-commerce really took off in the country. However, it has struggled to gain ground. eBay’s first invested in Indian e-commerce was in <a href="https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/ebay-takes-61-million-hit-snapdeal-writes-investment-76169">Snapdeal</a> which resulted in a $61 million loss. After the disappointment, eBay moved to the Indian e-commerce success story Flipkart, where eBay sold its India operations to Flipkart in 2017. However, within a year, Flipkart shut down the operations of eBay. When the Indian retail unicorn was acquired by global giant Walmart, eBay sold its stake in Flipkart for $1.1 billion.

eBay is trying to get third-time lucky with Paytm Mall after burning hands with Flipkart and Snapdeal

<keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> has completed the process of acquiring the Indian arm of <keyword id="6357395" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="eBay">eBay</keyword> and now eBay.in will be a Flipkart Group company. Flipkart announced it will buy eBay.in in April this year when it raised $ 1.4 billion from global technology majors eBay, Tencent and Microsoft. In exchange of an equity stake in Flipkart, eBay had made a cash investment of $500 million and sold its eBay.in business to Flipkart. "Effective immediately, Flipkart will own and operate eBay.in, which will remain an independent entity as part of Flipkart," Flipkart said in a statement. "As a result, Flipkart customers will get expanded product choices with the wide array of global inventory available on eBay while eBay customers will have access to a more unique Indian inventory from Flipkart sellers," the statement said. "Our coming together directly benefits Indian customers and sellers for whom we want to provide the best possible e- commerce experience. This is a step in that direction," Flipkart CEO <keyword id="6379357" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kalyan-Krishnamurthy">Kalyan Krishnamurthy</keyword> said.

Flipkart acquires eBay India; all formalities completed

<ul><li><keyword id="6357395" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="eBay">eBay</keyword> was an early mover in India’s <keyword id="35621" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="e-commerce">e-commerce</keyword> space, investing $50 million in Baazee.com in 2004. </li><li>It was unable to make much of a dent in the market and its Indian operations were eventually sold to <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> last year. </li><li>As part of its second attempt, eBay will focus on <keyword id="6744826" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="cross-border-retail">cross-border retail</keyword>, and is reportedly considering a merger with ShopClues. </li></ul>Just when you thought India’s e-commerce sector couldn’t get any more crowded, eBay is said to be planning a <keyword id="6635306" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="relaunch">relaunch</keyword> in the country. The US-based e-commerce company, which is primarily known as a consumer-to-consumer service, will part ways with Flipkart next month. Flipkart will shut the eBay.in portal on 14 August, and replace it with a platform for the sale of used and refurbished goods through its local subsidiary, F1 Info Solutions and Services. As part of its second attempt to break into India, eBay will focus on cross-border retail - the purchase and sale of goods between businesses in countries that are close to one another. It will not make a solitary go of it, however. According to <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/ebay-in-talks-with-etailers-including-shopclues-for-a-fresh-bid-in-india/articleshow/65157378.cms">media reports</a>, the company is planning to merge with a local e-commerce platform. It has held talks with ShopClues, an online marketplace established in 2011, in this regard. The Gurugram-based ShopClues is reportedly in negotiations with a number of companies for a potential sale. Early mover, early failure eBay was an early mover in India’s e-commerce space, investing $50 million in Baazee.com, an auction site, in 2004 - a year in which the concept of online shopping was relatively new. The deal was a landmark one, but unfortunately, it didn’t pan out according to the eBay’s expectations. The concept of auctions didn’t catch on with the Indian public, who preferred their discounted prices upfront, which led to low volumes. In addition, the rapid turnover of senior managers and cumbersome regulation didn’t help either. Hence, it was unable to make much of a dent in the market and lost out to other players. In April 2017, eBay’s India operations were sold to Flipkart after the latter completed a $1.4 billion fundraising round from eBay along with Tencent and Microsoft. eBay took an equity stake in Flipkart in exchange for a $500 million investment and a 100% stake in its Indian operations. The company, remained an independent entity, eventually reaching a customer base of 4 million users. However, after the dissolution of the eBay-Flipkart partnership, its customers will likely migrate to Flipkart’s new portal. eBay will have its work cut out for it in the short term, which is why it’s keeping its ambitions modest. Cross-border trade is a small piece of the e-commerce market. eBay’s immediate priorities will be to find a local partner and get foreign and local businesses onboard.

Take two: eBay is taking another stab at the Indian market

The deal between <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> and <keyword id="6357395" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="eBay">eBay</keyword> India will be finalised by the latter half of the 2017. EBay invested $500 million in Flipkart. India is not the first market that eBay is exiting. Devin Wenig, CEO at eBay, said, "We-'re committed to winning in India through this partnership.” EBay will close the deal and upon deal close, it will no longer report active buyer GMV and related financials for eBay India. "We do not expect the GMV or financial impact to be material to our overall 2017 results. However, we do expect to remove approximately 4 million buyers from our active buyer reporting,” said Scott Schenkel, chief financial officer at eBay. Recently, eBay along with Microsoft and <keyword id="212412" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Tencent">Tencent</keyword> pumped in $1.4 billion into Flipkart. The deal included sale of eBay.in to Flipkart and an exclusive cross-border trade agreement. eBay had entered the Indian market in 2004 but failed to capitalise on its first-mover advantage and eventually lost out to Flipkart and Amazon. eBay had picked up a significant stake in Delhi-based online retailer <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> in 2013, a part of which it still holds.

Flipkart-eBay India deal to close in second half of the year

Online shoppers in India are catching up to the hype that is the highly-anticipated <keyword id="14520" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Black-Friday">Black Friday</keyword> sale. The sale, which is happening on the 24th of November is forcing online stores such as eBay, Flipkart, Jabong, Nykaa and <keyword id="6354743" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon-India">Amazon India</keyword> to offer crazy deals store-wide even though Thanksgiving is not widely celebrated in the Indian subcontinent. 
	
	
	
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 How popular are the online stores during Black Friday? ●The number of searches for the term ‘Black Friday’ increased by 31.56% between November 2014 and November 2015. The following year, the search volume went up another 29.97%. This means, during the month of November online shoppers are on the lookout for this event. ●Searches for Amazon India skyrocketed to a total of 103.02% since Black Friday 2014. The search for Books and electronics topped the list of most sought-after items on the site. ●Indians boosted searches for Paytm, the country’s largest e-commerce website, by 42.59% in the same duration (2015 to 2016). For the years before (2014 to 2015), the forage for Paytm on <keyword id="6355629" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword> also saw a spike of 70.96%. What to expect this year during Black Friday 2017 ●Popularity of Black Friday will go up to an 28.02% this year. Since there are more than 500 thousand search in the year 2016. With our data Google saw at least a 100 thousand more searches each year making it more likable to surge in search number this year. ●Paytm will have a boost of an extra 14.22 % this year. Black Friday is definitely becoming more popular in India year-on- year with more online retailers in India taking this as an opportunity to push more sales or must have items. The study focuses on the growth of Black Friday through Google search and interest in November 2014, 2015 and November 2016. All numbers were pulled using Google keyword planner and and SimilarWeb by combining searches related to Black Friday and retailers celebrating the event in India by black-friday.sale.

Black Friday is turning into a online festival for Indian customers

<keyword id="3749718" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="softbank-vision-fund">SoftBank Vision Fund</keyword> has become one of the largest shareholders in <keyword id="6354742" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> as it just raked in a significant amount of investment in the company. This investment in Flipkart is a mix of primary and secondary capital. The investment comes after <keyword id="541988" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Snapdeal">Snapdeal</keyword> cancelled the acquisition deal with Flipkart. Flipkart has also raised capital from three other companies - Tencent, eBay and Microsoft. Now, Flipkart will have in excess of $4 billion of cash on balance sheet. India has a thriving Internet market with close to 500 million Internet users and as per market research, the Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow at a five-year CAGR in excess of 30 percent. “This is a monumental deal for Flipkart and India. <keyword id="163404" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="SoftBank">SoftBank</keyword>’s proven track record of partnering with transformative technology leaders has earned it the reputation of being a visionary investor. We’re excited to welcome the Vision Fund as a long-term partner as we continue to build our business with a focus on serving the needs of all Indians, and driving the next phase of technology adoption in India,” said <keyword id="6364080" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="binny-bansal">Binny Bansal</keyword> and <keyword id="225032" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="sachin-bansal">Sachin Bansal</keyword>, co-founders, Flipkart.

Flipkart bags huge investment from SoftBank Vision Fund; it has over $4 billion in cash now

<ul><li>Flipkart's Kunal Dubey and Lucky Saini to lead Dentsu India's Slingshot. </li><li>Dentsu's new division will provide specialised marketing and digital solutions in the areas of digital strategy, brand playbook and media playbook.</li><li>Kunal and Lucky will be based in Bengaluru and will report into Dentsu India CEO, Simi Sabhaney. </li></ul> Dentsu India, from the house of <keyword id="6368370" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="dentsu-aegis-network">Dentsu Aegis Network</keyword>, has announced the launch of Dentsu India Slingshot. To be led by Kunal Dubey and Lucky Saini as country heads, this latest outfit from brand Dentsu India will provide specialised marketing and digital solutions in the areas of digital strategy, brand play book and media play book. It will also design and develop communications roadmap and advertising campaigns for clients across platforms. Dubey and Saini will be based out of Bengaluru and will report into Dentsu India CEO, Simi Sabhaney. In a career spanning over a decade each, Dubey and Saini bring extensive experience in brand strategy, media planning, digital media and marketing. Prior to launching Dentsu India Slingshot, both Kunal and Lucky were with Flipkart for over four years. Simi Sabahaney, CEO, Dentsu India said, “Yes, it was apparent that we at Dentsu India needed to go beyond our current expertise. We needed to enhance our offering to our clients by providing them with solutions that were geared for new-age platforms. When I met Lucky and Kunal, I could sniff their ambition, hunger, passion, knowledge and above all the two different skill sets they could bring to the table. The duo was too potent to be ignored! And thus, began the journey of Dentsu India Slingshot.” Kunal and Lucky have held various roles in the marketing team at Flipkart and have managed all its marketing efforts - from leading marketing campaigns for Flipkart’s Big Billion Days to managing the e-commerce giant’s large-scale brand campaigns. In fact, multiple campaigns that the duo worked on at Flipkart went on to win several awards nationally and internationally, including Cannes and Spikes Asia. In their last role, Kunal was Director – Marketing and Head of Media at Flipkart while Lucky was Associate Director, Brand Marketing. Lucky Saini, VP Digital &amp; Marketing Solutions, Dentsu India Slingshot, said, “This new venture represents the changing face of agency model in India. Brand building in today’s era needs a ‘solutions’ mindset. The need of the hour is to provide holistic thinking and capabilities across media, research, technology and advertising. I am very excited to play a role in shaping the future of the advertising industry in India.” Kunal Dubey, VP and Head of Business, Dentsu India Slingshot, said, “We aim to be a specialist that identifies opportunities that fundamentally change the way consumers interact with brands and feel about them; and in the process, lead to higher efficiency and impact in brand building efforts and spends. Our team will comprise experts from various disciplines like design, creative storytelling, media planning, digital marketing, martech and brand management.” Dubey and Saini come with a keen understanding of how brands are built on both digital and non-digital channels and together, they have played an important role in building brands such as Flipkart, Ebay, McDonalds, Reliance, Ogilvy and Manipal Education.

Flipkart's Kunal Dubey and Lucky Saini to lead Dentsu India's Slingshot – a specialised marketing and digital agency

You can only imagine how a work day for <keyword id="45395" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Google-India">Google India</keyword> head looks like but we can tell you that, he’s now making the most of his commute thanks to better connectivity, more than ever. 
 <keyword id="824043" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Business-Insider">Business Insider</keyword> caught up with <keyword id="249393" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rajan-Anandan">Rajan Anandan</keyword>, VP, <keyword id="4405979" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="google-se-asia-india">Google SE Asia &amp; India</keyword> to understand how the internet landscape has changed in the past few months. 
 “India is the biggest market for us and it has a very diverse user base. We are always going to have a clear distinction between India and the US for the next several years,” says <keyword id="198577" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Anandan">Anandan</keyword> on where India stands for <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>. 
 
India currently has around 400 million internet users, 300 million of them are coming online through their smartphone which makes it the second largest internet market in the world after China. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/flipkart-raises-its-biggest-round-at-a-lesser-valuation-and-acquires-ebay-but-is-it-enough-to-steer-off-amazon/articleshow/58128005.cms">ALSO READ: Flipkart raises its biggest round at a lesser valuation and acquires eBay but is it enough to steer off Amazon?</a> 
 In the past few months, a lot of things have changed in the internet landscape with low-cost carrier <keyword id="2003276" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jio">Jio</keyword> coming in. The Google chief thinks that this has changed things tremendously for the entire telecom sector, “There is now an enormous user base that’s spending its time online, with network providers also upgrading their services and not just giving more for less. Our mission in India is to make information accessible to everyone and that means reaching out to the massive 1.3 Billion population in the country. The Internet for everyone is the goal,” said Anandan. 
 
The first challenge for Google is Access and they’ve tackled that with providing high-speed public Wi-Fi at railway stations and after covering 110 stations, we now have 5 million Indians accessing it every day. With 500, 000 Indians accessing the internet with Google India for the first time, the company plans to extend it to 400 stations by the year 2018. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/exclusive-ace-angel-investor-sanjay-mehtas-true-life-experiences-that-makes-his-investments-in-startups-fool-proof/articleshow/58061818.cms">ALSO READ: Exclusive: Ace Angel Investor Sanjay Mehta’s true-life experiences that make his investments in startups fool-proof</a> 
 With revolutionary projects like Smart Cities, Google is partnering with the government at <keyword id="3025354" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Pune-Smart-City">Pune Smart City</keyword> to provide high-speed Wi-Fi. 
The other concerns are connectivity and affordability and while currently, there at 125 million 4G subscribers and 150 million 3G subscribers, there are still issues like patchy connectivity. 
 Google is trying to get a lot of its services like <keyword id="10879" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="YouTube">YouTube</keyword>, Maps and even Chrome offline to make the internet more accessible to most Indians. There’s Search Lite which detects how slow is your network and works accordingly. 
 
<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/read-what-rohit-bansal-and-kunal-bahl-mailed-snapdeal-employees-amidst-flipkart-acquisition-speculations/articleshow/58108189.cms">ALSO READ: Read what Rohit Bansal and Kunal Bahl mailed Snapdeal employees amidst Flipkart acquisition speculations</a> 
​ “Google is building new products like recently released YouTube Go which are specifically designed for Indians. With only 15 million women villagers online, we are working to bridge the gap with Google Sathi where women teach other how to use the internet for the betterment of their lives,” <keyword id="6355561" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rajan">Rajan</keyword> says proudly proclaiming that there are 80,000 Google Saathis across 60,000 villages that they’re working in. 
 The next milestone for this technology behemoth is reaching half of India's villages with <keyword id="4408602" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="google-saathi">Google Saathi</keyword> and making the internet accessible to the people who need it the most, not just for information but for opportunities to a better connected life.

Exclusive: Here’s what Google VP Rajan Anandan said about Jio’s Impact on the Telecom Sector

He may not have got his dream job yet, but <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/This-IIT-K-graduate-put-himself-up-on-sale-onFlipkart-to-land-a-job/articleshow/51222814.cms">IIT Kharagpur graduate Aakash Neeraj Mittal</a> is the talk of the town for his crazy idea to get hired by <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>. This guy must have been nuts, many would think. After all, who would really put himself up for sale on the internet to be taken seriously by any company! It may be surprising to you, but Aakash wasn’t the first human being in the world with this brilliant idea. A couple of people have shown the same courage and creativity in the past too. Here, check out their crazy posts and why they did it:

5 times human
beings were available online for sale

Is <keyword id="2364818" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="E-commerce-3-0">e-commerce 3.0</keyword> only about business tweaks? Almost all experts will tell you that the new format of <keyword id="35621" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="e-commerce">e-commerce</keyword> is on its way, but nobody is quite sure what it is like. Some pinpoint it as online shopping, largely influenced by social media parameters, while others are betting big on the mobile impact. No doubt these are crucial indicators, but they only provide you a partial glimpse into the business-to-consumer (B2C) part of it. However, we need to take a more incisive look at the fast-evolving strategic context of e-commerce, which is throwing up some surprising trends that may affect the industry in the long run. Let us take a look at the recent happenings in the Indian e-commerce space to identify the most prominent trends and what they signify. 
	 
	 
	 
	1. Calibrated aggression for survival: That’s exactly what the much-anticipated cash-and-stock deal between <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> and <keyword id="319719" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Myntra">Myntra</keyword> has taught us. Competition has been ironed out by strategic <keyword id="42411" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Merger">merger</keyword> in order to survive against global giants like <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword>. Flipkart is not new to the game but co-founders Sachin and <keyword id="6364080" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Binny-Bansal">Binny Bansal</keyword> have not gone the LetsBuy way this time, for pretty predictable reasons (for your recap, Letsbuy.com was the electronics e-tailer that was acquired by Flipkart in February 2012 and shut down in May that year). 
	 Before the acquisition, the Myntra brand was way ahead of Flipkart as the <keyword id="2364834" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Biggest-India-fashion-e-tailer">biggest India fashion e-tailer</keyword>. While Flipkart required size to survive against the likes of Amazon, the bigger margins enjoyed by fashion e-tailing was an added icing to the cake (after all, fashion is expected to be the largest category in e-commerce over the next five years). So this time around, it was a calibrated aggression on Flipkart’s part and the merger, along with the much-talked-about <keyword id="2364826" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Management-autonomy">management autonomy</keyword> enjoyed by <keyword id="705865" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mukesh-Bansal">Mukesh Bansal</keyword>’s Myntra, will continue to work for two specific reasons. 
	 One is local competition, not only from <keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword>, which is promoted by Berlin-based <keyword id="1965711" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rocket-Internet-GmbH">Rocket Internet GmbH</keyword> (a venture arm of the deep-pocketed Samwer brothers), but also from <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>.com, quite a veteran in the marketplace model. It is too early to assume that Jabong has missed the bus in stamping its dominance in the <keyword id="902070" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="e-com">e-com</keyword> space and the same applies to Snapdeal, which has recently raised $100 million and could be opting for an IPO in the next 18-24 months. Moreover, if India eases its <keyword id="44528" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="FDI">FDI</keyword> policy further and allows <keyword id="2364830" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Foreign-e-commerce-companies">foreign e-commerce companies</keyword> to sell their products directly to Indian consumers (as of now, only marketplaces are allowed to do this), <keyword id="2364831" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Home-grown-e-commerce-firms">home-grown e-commerce firms</keyword> will require maximum <keyword id="573045" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Customer-loyalty">customer loyalty</keyword> to stay in business and the likes of Myntra will play a key role in ensuring enhanced <keyword id="485911" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="brand-loyalty">brand loyalty</keyword>.
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	The way ahead: Similar mergers may happen soon and we may see some monopolistic polarisation in the e-commerce space. If branding and management autonomy can be retained in the same way it had been done in the <keyword id="2196490" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart-Myntra-deal">Flipkart-Myntra deal</keyword>, a Snapdeal-Jabong deal may very well be a possibility. On the other hand, Amazon may come up with a similar offer for Snapdeal (we don’t rule out <keyword id="161767" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="eBay-India">eBay India</keyword> either) and once again, we may witness the emergence of an e-commerce mega power in India. Also, in most of these deals, unequals could be gunning for merger-of-equals status, thus complicating the merger and acquisition operations. Ultimately, the <keyword id="2364839" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Entry-barrier">entry barrier</keyword> will be too high for small or niche e-commerce sites and staying profitable will become a tough proposition. 
	 
	 
	 
	2. SME focus for marketplace growth: A couple of days ago, Flipkart announced tie-ups with two SME (small and medium enterprise) promotion bodies and signed MoUs with the Federation of Indian Micro and <keyword id="6375845" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Small-and-medium-enterprises">Small and Medium Enterprises</keyword> (<keyword id="174192" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="FISME">FISME</keyword>) and the National Centre for Design and Product Development (<keyword id="2348217" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="NCDPD">NCDPD</keyword>). With this move, the Bangalore firm expects to create a powerful affiliation with 50,000 SMEs and artisans by helping them with data analytics, marketing and customer acquisition. The company is also holding talks with several <keyword id="533862" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Manufacturing-clusters">manufacturing clusters</keyword> in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat in a bid to attract more sellers on board and thus ensure strong growth for its marketplace model. 
	 
	As of now, Flipkart has about 3,000 sellers on board, mostly SMEs, and offers 15 million products across 70-plus categories. The company aims to grow the seller base to 12,000 by the end of the current fiscal, according to Economic Times. Myntra, too, has about 100 sellers on board and plans to increase this number to 1,000 by fiscal-end. However, this is too paltry a number, compared to the largest Chinese <keyword id="2049184" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="E-commerce-marketplace">e-commerce marketplace</keyword> <keyword id="302749" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Alibaba">Alibaba</keyword>.com that has about 20 lakh SMEs on board, but has less than 20,000 in India. 
	 As for other key players in India, here are some mindboggling numbers according to media reports. Snapdeal currently features about 500 categories, 100,000 sellers and more than 5 million products (excluding books and movies); eBay has 1.1 million product listings at any given point <keyword id="54921" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="spread">spread</keyword> across 2,000 categories and 45,000 sellers on board while Amazon has 15 million products from 5,000 sellers across 24 categories. Amazon has already opened two Fufillment Centers in India, enabling home-grown SMEs to get a scalable and robust national platform. Sellers opting for FBA (<keyword id="2023087" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Fulfillment-by-Amazon">Fulfillment By Amazon</keyword>) send their products to these ‘fulfillment centers’ and once an order is placed, Amazon packs and ships the order.
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	The way ahead: Right now, no one can possibly predict whether the death of the inventory-led e-commerce model is imminent. But one thing is pretty certain – e-commerce businesses need as many products and categories as possible to enhance customer engagement. However, that won’t be possible without growing their marketplaces and bringing on board a huge number of sellers. Hence, the <keyword id="2364811" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="SME-focus">SME focus</keyword> and <keyword id="6630005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="private-labels">private labels</keyword> are going to dominate e-commerce 3.0. 
	 
	 
	 
	3. VAS for better customer loyalty: In spite of a Mumbai firm delivering pizza on an experimental basis, civil/commercial drones à la <keyword id="2364850" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amazon-Prime-Air-drones">Amazon Prime Air drones</keyword> are still not a reality in India (neither they are commercially ready in the US). However, Amazon, eBay, Flipkart and Snapdeal are trying their best to ensure ‘fastest possible’ delivery in the country. While <keyword id="6354743" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amazon-India">Amazon India</keyword> offers same-day and guaranteed one-day delivery, eBay is testing a 9-hour delivery model in Mumbai. 
	 Only recently, Flipkart has launched its annual subscription service called <keyword id="2230132" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart-First">Flipkart First</keyword>, offering a number of benefits including <keyword id="1591575" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="free-shipping">free shipping</keyword> for any purchase, free in-a-day guaranteed delivery, <keyword id="2364858" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Discounted-same-day-delivery">discounted same-day delivery</keyword>, 24×7 <keyword id="2364859" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Priority-customer-service">priority customer service</keyword> and more. This is similar to the lucrative logistics part of Amazon’s Prime subscription (currently not available in India), but Amazon offers a bigger service bouquet for its Prime subscribers, including access to songs, movies, TV shows and books. Flipkart, or any other Indian e-tailer for that matter, is yet to launch such extensive customer engagement programme, but the bait has been thrown by Flipkart and to some extent, by Snapdeal, which also offers free same-day delivery in certain regions and hopes to expand this service next year. 
	 
	The way ahead: Some experts feel that e-com businesses will soon curtail services like <keyword id="1972252" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Express-delivery">express delivery</keyword> and free shipping in order to generate more cash. High transportation costs and other logistics issues have been cited as the main culprits. But keeping in mind that <keyword id="758541" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Amazon-Prime">Amazon Prime</keyword> works more as a <keyword id="1426078" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="loyalty-programme">loyalty programme</keyword> and less as a revenue-churner, fixing fickle customer loyalty may lie in developing these services. Now that Flipkart is going to market <keyword id="2364868" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Affordable-tablets">affordable tablets</keyword> under its <keyword id="2338688" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="DigiFlip">DigiFlip</keyword> label, the Indian e-commerce giant can very well experiment with some Prime-like services and craft user experience based on ‘All things Flipkart’ just as Amazon does with its affordable <keyword id="785825" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Kindle-Fire">Kindle Fire</keyword>. If that happens and other companies follow suit, e-commerce 3.0 in India will evolve into an inclusive and exciting user experience. For now, let us wait and watch. 
	 
	Images: Thinkstock/Getty Images

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