Flipkart and Amazon are in race to deal with Government for its e-marketplace

Flipkart and Amazon, two of India's leading e-commerce companies, are in a race to grab the opportunity to handle online purchases for the Indian Government.



The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal, government’s e-commerce portal to manage procurement for state and central ministries and departments for items like laptops, air conditioners, furniture, and stationery etc, was launched in August last year. Other than these products, it would also offer services like taxis and florists.

Put together, these goods and services to be procured by the Centre and state governments could be worth Rs 5-7 lakh crore each year. The reason why both Flipkart and Amazon want to grab the contract for managed service provider (MSP) for GeM is the commission of around 0.5% of the total transaction value that they could get from the government.

Since the government’s request for proposal (RFP) allows IT and ecommerce companies to form a consortium and bid for the contract, Flipkart may be joining hands with Microsoft for technology.

The five-year contract is extendable by two years, and is seeing software and services giants like Tata Consultancy Services, Accenture and Wipro in the race.