New Delhi, Mar 18 () The national e-commerce policy is under consideration but there is no timeline as to when it will be released, the government said on Wednesday. The draft policy seeks to create a facilitative regulatory environment for growth of the e-commerce sector, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. "A series of meetings have been held at the level of Secretary, DPIIT with different stakeholders, including major e-commerce companies, startups, industry associations, think-tanks, academicians etc as well as data centre providers, logistics companies, export promotion councils to discuss the issues facing the sector and the provisions contained in the draft policy," he said. Since e-commerce is a new issue, it has necessitated detailed consultations over the last few months to ensure that the policy is crafted in a manner that interests of all stakeholders are taken into account. "Therefore, no timeline has been fixed for release of the same," he said. Goyal also said formulation of the new industrial policy is under consideration of the government. He said with regard to the new industrial policy, a Working Group has been constituted with representation from central ministries/departments, state governments, and industry associations. The first meeting of the group was held on October 24, 2019 and an inter-ministerial consultation is going on for framing the policy. In a separate reply, he said representations have been received in the ministry alleging that some e-commerce platforms are engaged in predatory pricing and are providing excessive discounts. "If any violation is reported, necessary action may be taken by the competent authority," he said. "Further, Competition Commission of India in one case filed against Flipkart Internet Pvt Ltd And Amazon Seller Services Private Ltd., vide order dated January 13...has directed the DG to conduct an investigation and submit its investigation report," he added. RR ANUANU

National e-commerce policy under consideration: Goyal

<ul><li>One year old quick commerce player <keyword id="12437554" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="zepto" source="Orion">Zepto</keyword> is making <keyword id="18635" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon" source="Orion">Amazon</keyword> and Flipkart look like legacy companies with delivery times of more than a day.</li><li>Analysts believe that Amazon in India has a weaker value proposition in 'New' commerce, where Zepto &amp; Meesho dominate.</li><li>Zepto is looking to grab market share from Amazon in multiple categories it dominates.</li></ul>When Steve Jobs delivered his commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005, never would he have imagined that 15 years later two 17-year old boys would follow his footsteps and opt out of the coveted computer science programme at the same college to pursue their entrepreneurial dream. Aadit <keyword id="12442400" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="palicha" source="Orion">Palicha</keyword> and Kaivalya Vohra were crazy enough to believe in 2020 they could transform the online grocery delivery market in 2020 and they actually did it with Zepto, a quick commerce player that has created a new paradigm in online commerce. Valued at $900 mn, newbie Zepto is now challenging the Big Tech players on delivery time and formats. Despite building a soonicorn in less than a year, Palicha is almost always expecting to be dissed for being that “idiot kid.” He starts the interview by saying: “I have come to a point where I like it when people say something is bonkers, then I take particular interest in it. I was laughed at during interviews when I wanted to hire senior people. I used to care because I was young, but I got hammered so many times that I stopped caring.” <div type="image" title="Aadit Palicha CEO and Co founder, Zepto" msid="94400605" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Aadit Palicha CEO and Co founder, Zepto&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The story of Vohra and Palicha is as crazy it sounds – a couple of kids who started out to solve the problem of grocery delivery at the peak of the pandemic and ended up convincing angel investors and venture capital firms to bet $360 mn on their “crazy” idea. Welcome to the fantasy world of startups, where ideas rule the roost and age is just a number. In less than a year, Zepto is making Amazon and Flipkart look like legacy companies with delivery times of a day or more. Online commerce was born in the desktop era and while it has evolved in the last few years, it continues to deliver at the same pace as it did years ago, giving an opportunity to new commerce players like Zepto to solve problems with better formats and faster fulfillment. On-demand commerce is the latest to disrupt the online cart in India, dominated largely by the big players. A report by global investment bank Bernstein says that even though India is Amazon’s biggest and fastest growing overseas market: “It also faces immense competitive pressure in fast growing categories, a weaker value proposition in 'New' commerce, limited traction in tier 2/3 cities, and an unfavorable regulatory environment for outsiders.” The pandemic has helped germinate disruptive ideas and newbies are taking the game several notches higher by doing what nobody ever imagined – taking e-commerce beyond the big cities and delivery of fresh and groceries within minutes. Zepto is not content being a soonicorn, with an eye on profitability the Q-commerce player is already experimenting with private labels in food, high-margin categories like personal care and 24/7 deliveries of hot snacks and hot beverages. Confident of where the company is going, Palicha, who is the CEO, says the company is on track to clock one million orders a day with annualised sales of $1 bn by October 2023. Refusing to call it the next Amazon, Suvir Sujan, Co-founder and Managing Director of Nexus Venture Partners, says, “On demand commerce is a new paradigm in online delivery. I would love to say it is the next Amazon, but let’s first add more categories and get customers to come back for more. But what is more than groceries, time will tell.” <div type="image" title="Suvir Sujan, Co-founder and Managing Director of Nexus Venture Partners" msid="94400640" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Suvir Sujan, Co-founder and Managing Director of Nexus Venture Partners&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Early Days of Zepto At the headquarters of Zepto in suburban Mumbai, Palicha warmly greets his guests with a smile and Diet Coke from his mini refrigerator. There’s no nervous stammering, as one would expect from a high school graduate. Clearly two years is long enough time for a teenager to “grow up” and Palicha has come a long way from the days when he wore a green tee with Kirana Kart splayed all over it to deliver groceries to families in Mumbai’s suburban neighbourhood called Sher-e-Punjab. The journey of these two college dropouts began at the start of the pandemic when they decided to take a year out of Stanford and give their entrepreneurial dream a chance. <div type="image" title="Kaivalya Vohra, Co founder and CIO, Zepto" msid="94400684" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Kaivalya Vohra, Co founder and CIO, Zepto&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The first battle was to come back to India from Dubai, where they both did their schooling at Gems World Academy. Jumping on to the Vande Bharat programme rolled out by the government to bring Indians back home during the pandemic, Vohra and Palicha boarded their flight back to Mumbai with a suitcase full of start-up ideas. Upon landing they decided to shack-up at Vohra’s family-run bed and breakfast in Andheri East as nobody wanted to rent an apartment to two teenage boys. In the early days, they picked up groceries from kirana stores and delivered them to their customers’ doorstep, which helped them understand route planning, time taken to deliver and order fulfillment issues. The biggest lesson, however, was that they could not make money by running errands. It was at this time that they realised that they had to own the entire fulfillment process, if they wanted to build a profitable business. Picking up groceries from kirana stores and delivering them would not yield them the requisite margins. Those were the early days and they started clocking 2000 orders a day through WhatsApp groups and the early rendition of their app called KiranaKart. <div type="image" title="Burn rate has come down 5X on a per-order basis" msid="94400735" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Burn rate has come down 5X on a per-order basis&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Birth of Zepto The model of quick commerce soon started taking shape in their heads, as their retention metrics showed that deliveries within a 1.8 km radius reached within minutes and that helped them retain customers. The other pain point that customers had was incorrect items in the cart. Vohra and Palicha started applying their minds on solving these problems to improve retention. Explains Palicha, “We had a model where we were experimenting with hyper local delivery and that got us 2000 orders a week. Kaivalya and I were delivering ourselves in the beginning. There was confusion over orders and erratic delivery timelines was an issue. Our first learning was if we had a lot of SKUs then it would help.” The second issue the duo encountered was around quality. “We looked at cohorts and found delivery time of over an hour was an issue,” adds Palicha. By this time, they were encouraged by friends to apply to YCombinator and once they got through the programme, they had the confidence they needed to take the plunge. Two years ago YCom gave the two boys $125,000 and some other angel investors put in the rest. They hit the sweet spot when they cut delivery time to below 20 minutes. “Customers started interacting frequently when we delivered in less time,” explains Palicha. That’s when they decided to scale. Nexus Partners Boards The Bus Having worked on the early iterations of the app and having learned from their mistakes, Palicha and Vohra set out to attract the bigger investors for their startup. Armed with their learnings and coaching from YCombinator, the duo were ready to face a proper venture capital firm with their own unique quick commerce proposition. Recalling their early days, Kaivalya Vohra, who is the CTO of Zepto, says: “We decided to drop out of Stanford and work on a startup that would solve a consumer problem. We decided to build an app in 2020 called KiranaKart to deliver groceries from local stores to consumers. That’s where we got our early learning from.” Globally, quick commerce is an established business but the focus is largely consumer categories like ice, cigarettes and alcohol that typically people tend to order from Q-Commerce players. The need for fresh produce is met by organized retail players in developed markets with a store being present in every block almost. In India, however, both these markets are fragmented and quality is an issue. So when Suvir Sujan of Nexus Venture Partners told Palicha that their model of kirana store deliveries would not work, Palicha agreed. Recalls Sujan, “He recognised what was not working and was assessing it to change the model. When I talked about building different layers of the business, he was able to articulate it very well. They had the technology chops and also had the maturity to know that they would need a senior team to build the business.” Within days of receiving funding from Nexus, Palicha started interviewing senior professionals to build the team. Few wanted to work for a company that did not even have a name and was led by a 19-year old. Eventually, the team that Palicha has built is like him, people who are driven by the passion to solve problems and disrupt existing models. Says Amritanshu Nanda, the chief marketing officer of Zepto, “What excited me was the vision and passion of the two founders and the massive disruption we were aiming to create in the fresh and grocery segment by reducing delivery to under 30 minutes from one day. My first conversation with them ended at 11 pm at night and soon after i walked out and called family and discussed with them.” It helped that Nanda has always worked for start-ups and quirky founders since 2008. <div type="image" title="Amritanshu Nanda, the chief marketing officer of Zepto" msid="94400818" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Amritanshu Nanda, the chief marketing officer of Zepto&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Business Of Quick Commerce Quick commerce is more about using technology to solve problems rather than just cutting time to deliver the goods. A visit to Zepto’s dark store in Andheri East helps understand the business model better. Palicha says that the early days taught them how to delight customers. He explains: “We embodied this product and we felt it would be great. When we saw customers getting delighted, we felt it would be big. We became the product in a sense.” Zepto’s dark store in Andheri East resembles the trading floors of stock exchanges of yester years, where the outcry system was prevalent for buying and selling shares. At the entrance, packers awaiting their orders to be assigned to them stand, while at the other end are delivery partners who are waiting to pick up the deliveries assigned to them. Each time an order is assigned, a bell tolls and during peak demand it tolls endlessly. A big screen shows order numbers and time taken by each packer to finish packing the orders. As soon as an order is placed, packers are assigned on their handheld devices, which they pack in 76 seconds. Placing of products is an important factor, and since bread, eggs and poultry products are high demand categories they are placed right at the entrance. The handheld device reads the inventory each time a product flies off the shelf, so that the warehouse knows what needs to be replenished. Clearly, there’s a science behind delivering in 20 minutes and it only begins with route planning. In order to stock products that customers typically order, it is important to stock just enough products for which it is necessary to be able to predict demand. Sujan explains, “A lot of data analysis is required to predict demand in a hyperlocal environment. This data has to be fed back to the inventory management systems to ensure a high inventory turn. The whole value chain is important and for that demand prediction is important.” The dark stores are compact as the inventory velocity is high. Palicha and his team refuse to spell out the exact number of dark stores they have across India at the moment. Once Nexus was on board, putting the plan in place was easier and both Palicha and Vohra got down to hiring key talent, which entailed getting the best minds on board. Since delivering groceries was not profitable, they had to put in place the best supply chain experts to begin with. But hiring wasn’t easy as few senior professionals wanted to work for an 18 year old kid. Recalls Palicha, “When we told people what we wanted to build, people told us we had lost it. You can never deliver between 10- 20 minutes. If it was possible then why had nobody done it.” The first couple of months in early to mid 2021 was spent hiring the right talent. Zepto sources its entire fresh category from farmers and consumer products from companies. It is experimenting with high value food items like dry fruits and private labels. <div type="image" title="800% QoQ revenue growth" msid="94400980" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;800% QoQ revenue growth&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> The Road Ahead Having cracked the delivery of groceries and fresh produce in the on-demand commerce space, Zepto will look at applying the model to multiple other categories that have traditionally been dominated by the likes of Amazon, which include pharmacy, fashion accessories, cafe, electronics and personal care. The company is looking to take market share from Amazon in multiple categories it dominates. All these categories can be delivered in much less time with assurance of quality with easy returns. Can the newbie build the same experience in multiple categories? Answers Palicha: “KV and I have the ambition to create the next generation of e-commerce in urban India.” Clearly, this story is far from over. SEE ALSO <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/ecommerce/news/online-e-commerce-player-meesho-is-the-new-crorepati-factory/articleshow/94399429.cms">Online e-commerce player Meesho is the new crorepati factory</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/news/moonlighting-right-or-wrong/articleshow/94400817.cms">Moonlighting – Right or Wrong?</a>

The Zepto Boys: Competition that Amazon never saw coming

New Delhi, Mar 26 () Delivery of essential items via e-commerce continued to face challenges on the second day of the 21-day lockdown, with the industry urging government for uniform classification of essential items across various states. While the government has allowed delivery of all essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment through e-commerce, online platforms like Amazon India, Grofers, bigbasket and Milkbasket have been facing disruptions in delivery to their customers. According to a senior industry executive, who did not wish to be named, e-commerce companies are finding it difficult to procure passes for their logistics and delivery staff separately for each state. The person said the process is time-consuming and instead the government can look at alternate mechanisms like digital identity checks. Another industry expert pointed out that there is an urgent need for uniform classification of essential items across various states, and that instructions need to flow down clearly to the last mile, where the delivery agents are facing issues. E-commerce platforms have seen a spike in orders on their platforms in India over the past few weeks as people logged online to stock up on food and household products as well as office items like routers and cables (to work from home) on concerns around spread of COVID-19 infection and restrictions in public movement that have now been enforced. "We have seen high demand on the platform, and working towards making deliveries at the earliest in collaboration with our sellers. We're also expecting that following government intervention, inter-state transport movement will also stabilise in the next couple of days," Flipkart said in an e-mailed statement. On Wednesday, after temporarily suspending operations earlier in the day, Walmart-owned Flipkart resumed its grocery and essential services delivery after assurance of safe passage of its supply chain and delivery executives by local law enforcement authorities. Amazon had said it was working with government authorities to enable it to deliver essential items. Grofers, which initially saw some of its delivery staff getting arrested and over 60,000 deliveries affected, said it has resumed operations in Delhi, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Ghaziabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Kanpur with the help of local authorities. "For the remaining cities, we are working closely with the respective authorities and shall resume operations as soon as we get the necessary permissions. Our team members are working around the clock to ensure support towards our customers, who are counting on us for essential supplies at their homes," he added. Snapdeal said it has been keeping an eye on the developments, and has extended the timelines available to its sellers for shipping the orders received by them. "Snapdeal has extended the timelines available to its sellers for shipping the orders received by them. It has also communicated to its sellers that no cancellation charges or penalties will be levied if they are not able to ship in time or ship at all," Snapdeal said. Grocery delivery platform bigbasket said it is operational in cities like Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhopal, Mumbai, Noida and Vadodara even though its services were affected by "severe restrictions imposed on the movement of our staff and vehicles". "...due to high demand, we are booked for the next 4-5 days, and this situation could continue if the demand continues to remain high," it said. It said for locations like Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kolkata, bigbasket is hopeful of being operational in a day or two, while for cities like Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi, Ludhiana, Pune and Vizag, it is not sure when it will resume operations. "In each of these cities, our operations are completely shut down due to severe restrictions imposed on our staff and the movement of vehicles. We have been trying to work with the local government authorities to get necessary permissions/permits to start our operations, but unfortunately, we have not been able to get the necessary help so far," it added. Another player, Milkbasket said it has been able to resume partial operations across Gurgaon, Noida and Bangalore. "Our Hyderabad operations are still shut," it said but added that it is hopeful of resuming services to all customers by Saturday or Sunday. SR MBI MKJ

E-tailers still facing delivery challenges amid coronavirus lockdown

<ul><li><keyword id="761157" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Infibeam">Infibeam</keyword> is betting on its relationship with <keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword>’s <keyword id="8506093" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jiomart">JioMart</keyword> to get the contract to handle the grocery outlet’s online payment transactions</li><li>Right now, JioMart is the only private company that is using Infibeam’s Government e-Marketplace (GeM) platform.</li><li>In an interview with Business Insider, Infibeam president of corporate finance — R Srikanth — explains how the company plans to meet its target of $100 billion in transactions over the next three to five years.</li><li>Scoring JioMart’s payments transaction business is one of the pillars the fintech firm is banking on to get there.</li></ul> The Ahmedabad-based fintech company, Infibeam Avenues, is looking to expand its relationship with Mukesh Ambani’s JioMart and ride that wave to $100 billion in transactions over the next three to five years. <div type="image" title="infibeam share price" msid="83111973" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Infibeam&amp;#39;s share price over the last one year&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> Infibeam, which started out as an ecommerce company around the same time as Flipkart, is also looking to improve its operating margins as a percentage of its revenue from 61% to 65%. That’s a jump of 400 basis points (bps) in the amount of profit it plans to generate from its earnings. <div type="ExtQuote" text="“We’ve seen a 60% growth, and considering that the same trend will continue, we will surpass $100 billion.”" auname="R Srikanth, president of corporate finance and investor relations at Infibeam"></div> Infibeam actually started out around the same time as Flipkart, in 2007, as an ecommerce platform. While Flipkart chose to go into the customer facing business, Infibeam decided to dive into digital payments between businesses. Right now, there are two main ways that the company makes money— payments and platforms. And, payment transactions are where Infibeam earns most of its revenue. Whenever a transaction occurs on one of its platforms — whether that’s CCAvenue, Bill Avenue or its flagship ResAvenue platform for the hospitality sector— Infibeam makes a cut. How much that share will be, depends on the value of the transaction. This means, the more money it processes, the more money it’s making. For this reason, JioMart, with its wide network of merchants and over 2.3 million active customers — according to a December 2020 JPMorgan report — is an opportunity that’s just around the corner. In an interview with Business Insider India, the president of corporate finance at Infibeam, R Srikanth, explains why the company has set its eyes on the $100 billion prize and how it plans to get there. <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Here’s how Infibeam plans to grow manifold in the next 3-5 years" comment="subhead" text="Here’s how Infibeam plans to grow manifold in the next 3-5 years">Here’s how Infibeam plans to grow manifold in the next 3-5 years</cmsannotation> <table style="border-width: initial; border-style: none; table-layout: fixed; width: 468pt;"></colgroup></colgroup></colgroup></colgroup><tbody><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Segment </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Payments </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Government e- Marketplace </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Neo Banking </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Acquirer Processor (CPGS) </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">New umbrella entity (NUE) </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Rationale </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Acquire payments processing for JioMart and expand in the international market </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Expand business with Jio and GoI </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Expand secured lending, bring in unsecured lending </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Replicate success from Oman in India </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Already applied for licence to create NUE with Reliance using the So Hum Bharat Digital Payments </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Partner </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">HDFC Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank and others </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Jio Platforms, the Government of India </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;"> </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Bank Muscat and Bank Dhofar </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Reliance Industries </td></tr><tr><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Goal </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$100 billion </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Not disclosed </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">$200 million </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Not disclosed </td><td style="border-left:solid #000000 1pt;border-right:solid #000000 1pt;border-bottom:solid #000000 1pt;border-top:solid #000000 1pt;vertical-align:top;padding:5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt;overflow:hidden;overflow-wrap:break-word;">Not disclosed </td></tr></tbody></table> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Mukesh Ambani and Infibeam are already friends" comment="subhead" text="Mukesh Ambani and Infibeam are already friends">Mukesh Ambani and Infibeam are already friends</cmsannotation> The two companies already have a relationship with JioMart being the first private company to use Infibeam’s Government e-Marketplace (GeM) — an enterprise ecommerce software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that was only available to the Indian government before Ambani. GeM crossed a cumulative transaction payments value of $13.5 billion in the last week of March 2021 and, according to Infibeam, the government plans to double that in the ongoing financial year. In October last year, Reliance <keyword id="2003276" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jio">Jio</keyword> entered into an agreement with Infibeam Avenues to use its platform for JioMart. Not only is Jio running its systems and services on Infibeam’s platform, the maintenance and upkeep also fall with the fintech company. But, for Infibeam, GeM is only a stepping stone. It's is looking to capture JioMart’s payment gateway business to fuel its already growing transaction values even further. <div type="image" title="Copy of fake notes in circulation(1)" msid="83112453" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Infibeam&amp;#39;s quarterly transaction values over the last five quarters&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> <div type="ExtQuote" text="The fundamental point is that we’ve entered JioMart and the objective is that we would like to do the payments processing for JioMart." auname="R Srikanth, president of corporate finance and investor relations at Infibeam"></div> <cmsannotation type="cmsannotation" annotationid="Here are edited excerpts from the conversation:" comment="subhead" text="Here are edited excerpts from the conversation:">Here are edited excerpts from the conversation:</cmsannotation> You’ve set a target for $100 billion in the next three to five years. What makes you confident of achieving that goal? Right now, the good thing is that the government e-marketplace (GeM) is tracking around ₹1 lakh crore. Payments business is also in excess of ₹1.2 lakh crore . This is despite the fact that some sectors aren’t fully open like aviation, travel, rail bookings, hotel bookings. These sectors haven’t been fully opened, which is a major constraint as of now. That is our high margin-centric sector. The moment that gets opened, then you will have different results in terms of value of transactions. Highest volume right now is from the education sector, utilities, bill payments — these are fully opened. For all practical purposes, we’re at a run rate of $28 billion. On an average, ₹50,000 crore for the quarter, means we can hit above ₹2 lakh crore at an annualised growth rate, which is $28 billion. That is what gave us the confidence that in a 3-5 years time frame we can touch upon $100 billion in terms of transaction value purposes. $100 billion in 3-5 years is not such a big task given that the digital push is going to be there. Because, our current digital market is around 15-16%, and there’s headroom for higher digital push in the system. We factored all this in, when we guided 65% net revenue margin for FY22 from the current 61% in FY21. <div type="image" title="Infibeam rev + Profit" msid="83112534" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Infibeam&amp;#39;s net profits and revenue over the last two years&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> What role does your partnership with Jio play in reaching this target? The GeM [Government e-Marketplace] platform has only been given to Jio [in the private sector]. And using their customisations and so on, JioMart has now gone live with our platform. The fundamental point is that we’ve entered JioMart and the objective is that we would like to do the payments processing for JioMart. If that happens, we will have cornered the payments processing business of JioMart using our platform entry. In fact, platform entry only strengthened our relationship with Jio to a large extent. And, what does this have to do with the new umbrella entity (NUE) you’re trying to set up with Reliance? NUE is a different animal altogether. We applied for the licence with our subsidiary So Hum [Bharat Digital Payments] along with Reliance, but I think we will only know the outcome by around October or November. That is the timeframe. Beyond that I will not be able to comment. There is a lot of potential for NUE, the minute we get the licence. But, until such time that we get the licence, we’ll simply have to keep our fingers crossed. How much do you see gaining from Reliance’s payment business? All of this has been factored into our guidance. When we say $100 billion in 3-5 years, that includes payments transactions from main accounts and also from the [sic] Jio’s, existing merchants and so on and so forth. Obviously, due to confidentiality reasons, the main transaction accounts I will not be able to reveal. But, it is all factored into that figure. Can you shed a little light on what you’re expecting from the neo banking aspect of your business? In FY20, we announced neo banking to the public market. Under the neo banking umbrella, lending is an important portfolio and credit card issuance is another portfolio. For credit card issuance we’ve already acquired Cardpay Technologies in March 2020. They’re a card issuance platform that deals with artificial intelligence (AI). Today, we’re able to issue a credit card provided there is a corresponding bank and a non-banking financial company (NBFC). We are able to ensure credit cards to corporations in less than 15 minutes on a virtual basis. And, in less than four days depending on the logistics, on a physical basis. The technology platform and everything is in place, rigged with AI. Now, under regulation, we cannot take the credit extension. So, we have to partner with NBFCs, to take the credit exposure. Lending is not a science, it’s an art. Therefore, while one side the partner discussions with the NBFC banks are all in progress, they don’t want to limit the options of the neobanking umbrella. Therefore, we started a secured lending framework. Under the secured lending framework, we have done express settlement for our merchants. We want to take this to $200 million. Are you planning on investing in any new startups to bring in new technologies and new capabilities? We were not strong in card issuance. In order to do neo banking and unsecured lending, you need to have a card instance platform on your watch. And we did not have one. So, we acquired Cardpay Technologies and built AI over there, and today, we have the ability to do card issuance. The same way, global remittances is not our cup of tea. So that is being handled by our investee company, RemitGuru. Having said that, on the credit algorithm, there could be a possibility. As and when we’re ready for real lending through NBFCs and so on, we’ll actively sync in our credit algorithm on the tech platform and then, at that time, we also actively look for acquiring companies in that space. But, not right now. What kind of a timeline do you see for this? For partnership discussion in terms of the road map and also the credit algorithms and the corresponding banking relationships and so on, it will take a few quarters. Not right now. If you see our growth map, we’re very strong in our conventional payment gateway business. Same way, we’re very strong in the B2B payments business. Now, we have brought about two new business offerings — one is our CPGS [CCAvenue Payment Gateway Service] for banks. And, the second business offering that we’ve instituted is neo banking. We are settling CPGS, we have to accelerate on express settlement and parallelly, we have to start unsecured lending. How important is the global market for you? Our road map for growth includes market expansion. Right now, we’re in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman. And we also have a physical presence in the US. Our next cup of tea is building up our overseas business. Not the European market and UK, but in the US, we’ve already started our operation. Like, on the CPGS and PG [payment gateway] side, we’ve white labeled our solution to JPMC India for their India payments — we would like to replace that success in the US. The COVID-19 situation has created a little bit of a break on that front. But the US is a low hanging fruit. And, some of the Asian countries — like Indonesia and the Philippines — they’re all low hanging fruits.

INTERVIEW: With a partner like Mukesh Ambani's Jio, Infibeam expects to hit $100 billion in online transactions in the next 5 years

New Delhi, May 4 () From laptops to apparels, people logged on to e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Paytm Mall and Snapdeal on Monday to place orders for non-essential items but lack of adequate manpower amid the lockdown could delay deliveries, according to industry executives. E-commerce companies have been permitted to sell all items in Orange and Green Zones starting from Monday, the first day of the third phase of the nationwide lockdown that began on March 25. Depending on the number of cases of coronavirus infections, areas have been divided into Red, Orange and Green Zones. In the Red Zones, which include Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad, the companies can ship only essential items like grocery, medicines and healthcare products. However, shortage of staff at warehouses and for logistics could result in delays in deliveries of items, as per the executives. An Amazon India spokesperson said the company saw demand for various kinds of smart devices, products related to electrical appliances, clothes and work from home enablers, among others. "Our consumers in Orange/ Green zones are buying other priority products that they needed the most. Thousands of sellers have received orders for the first time since the lockdown began in March and we are hopeful that this will help jumpstart the livelihood of many small sellers and their workforce," the spokesperson said. The company reiterated its demand that the list of priority products be expanded for customers in the Red Zone as well in order to revive economic activity while serving urgent needs and ensuring citizen safety in a high-risk area. Under the first and second phase of the nationwide lockdown between March 25 and May 3, the government only allowed delivery of essential goods, including grocery, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, through e-commerce platforms. A Snapdeal spokesperson said the company expects 80-90 per cent of its sellers in the Orange and Green Zones to become active over the course of this week. On an average, deliveries are being promised within 6-10 days and actual deliveries are likely to be completed in lesser number of days, the spokesperson added. "Thousands of our sellers received orders for non-essential products on Day 1... we have started picking up orders from sellers in Salem, Amritsar, Gurugram and Guwahati, amongst many other locations. "Some of the products supplied by our sellers today include steel utensils, apparel, footwear, notebooks and pens, and electronics like power banks, phone and laptop chargers," the spokesperson said. Paytm Mall Vice President Srinivas Mothey said consumer electronics, laptops, mobile phones, home, and fashion products are among the few categories that are doing extremely well on its platform. "... we believe this trend would continue for the next couple of days. As we have noticed earlier people are ordering the most for work and study from home essentials. Depending on the type of product we are offering delivery timelines between two to five days," he added. However, e-commerce companies are also facing challenges on a few fronts. An industry executive, who did not wish to be named, said lesser manpower at warehouses and those available as delivery staff could result in delivery timelines getting delayed. E-commerce companies could look at sharing delivery resources from other digital business like online food delivery to shorten delays, the executive noted. A senior industry executive said that apart from the guidelines issued by the Centre, there are rules specified by states and even districts. Given that the classification of Red, Orange and Green Zones is in a dynamic state, it could make operations difficult for online commerce platforms, the executive said. The classification of zone changes depending on the number of coronavirus cases in a particular area. Also, standalone retail shops -- irrespective of whether they sell essential or non-essential items -- have been allowed to operate in Red Zones while e-commerce platforms are not allowed to ship non-essential items to such areas. There is no level-playing field between the two modes, the executive quoted above said. Another challenge for e-commerce companies that follow the marketplace model like Amazon India, Flipkart and Snapdeal is that many of their sellers are either located or have their warehouses in Red Zones. The home ministry guidelines, issued a few days ago, remain unclear on operations of these marketplace sellers of non-essential products, who are in Red Zones. So, they are dependent on how local authorities issue their guidelines, the executive said. SR RAM

Lockdown 3.0: People place orders online for non-essential items; staff crunch may delay deliveries

(Eds: Recasting overnight story) New Delhi, May 5 () From laptops to apparels, people are logging on to e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Paytm Mall and Snapdeal to place orders for non-essential items, but lack of adequate manpower amid the lockdown could delay deliveries, as per industry executives. E-commerce companies have been permitted to sell all items in orange and green zones starting from Monday, the first day of the third phase of the nationwide lockdown that began on March 25. Depending on the number of cases of coronavirus infections, areas have been divided into red, orange and green zones. In the red zones, which include Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad, the companies can ship only essential items like grocery, medicines and healthcare products. However, shortage of staff at warehouses and logistics hubs could result in delays in deliveries of items, as per the executives. An Amazon India spokesperson said the company saw demand for various kinds of smart devices, products related to electrical appliances, clothes and work from home enablers, among others on the first day after delivery of non-essentials resumed in orange and green zones. "Our consumers in orange/ green zones are buying other priority products that they needed the most. Thousands of sellers have received orders for the first time since the lockdown began in March and we are hopeful that this will help jumpstart the livelihood of many small sellers and their workforce," the spokesperson said. The company reiterated its demand that the list of priority products be expanded for customers in the red zone as well in order to revive economic activity while serving urgent needs and ensuring citizen safety in a high-risk area. Under the first and second phase of the nationwide lockdown between March 25 and May 3, the government only allowed delivery of essential goods, including grocery, pharmaceuticals and healthcare products, through e-commerce platforms. A Snapdeal spokesperson said the company expects 80-90 per cent of its sellers in the orange and green zones to become active over the course of this week. On an average, deliveries are being promised within 6-10 days and actual deliveries are likely to be completed in lesser number of days, the spokesperson added. "Thousands of our sellers received orders for non-essential products on Day 1... We have started picking up orders from sellers in Salem, Amritsar, Gurugram and Guwahati, amongst many other locations. "Some of the products supplied by our sellers today include steel utensils, apparel, footwear, notebooks and pens, and electronics like power banks, phone and laptop chargers," the spokesperson said. Paytm Mall Vice President Srinivas Mothey noted that consumer electronics, laptops, mobile phones, home, and fashion products were among the few categories that were doing extremely well on its platform. "...We believe this trend would continue for the next couple of days. As we have noticed earlier people are ordering the most for work and study from home essentials. Depending on the type of product we are offering delivery timelines between two to five days," he added. However, industry executive also pointed out that companies are facing challenges on a few fronts. An executive, who did not wish to be named, said lesser manpower at warehouses and those available as delivery staff could result in delivery timelines getting delayed. The companies could look at sharing delivery resources from other digital business like online food delivery to shorten delays, the executive noted. A senior industry executive said apart from the guidelines issued by the centre, there are rules specified by states and even districts. Given that the classification of red, orange and green zones is in a dynamic state, it could make operations difficult for online commerce platforms, the executive said. The classification of zone changes, depending on the number of coronavirus cases in a particular area. Also, standalone retail shops -- irrespective of whether they sell essential or non-essential items -- have been allowed to operate in red zones while e-commerce platforms are not allowed to ship non-essential items to such areas. There is no level-playing field between the two modes, the executive quoted above said. "Another challenge for e-commerce companies that follow the marketplace model like Amazon India, Flipkart and Snapdeal is that many of their sellers are either located or have their warehouses in red zones. "The home ministry guidelines, issued a few days ago, remain unclear on operations of these marketplace sellers of non-essential products, who are in red zones. So, they are dependent on how local authorities issue their guidelines," the executive said. SR RAM ANSANS

Lockdown 3.0: People turn to e-commerce for non-essential items; staff crunch may delay deliveries

By Stuti Roy &amp; Moumita Bakshi Chatterjee New Delhi, Feb 23 () Digitial payment giant Paytm expects to turn profitable after two years as it is monetising the existing customer base and eyes financial services as its next major frontier for growth, its founder CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said.Noida-based firm, which had an astonishing rise after infamous demonetisation in 2016, is betting on financial services, commerce and payments as three key focus areas.In an interview with , Sharma said Paytm's growth is divided into three phases - first three years of finding the right product-market fit; the next was revenue and monetisation; and the last phase will be about profitability and free cash flows."We are in the second phase of that journey," he said.In 2015, Paytm started deploying QR codes and by 2018-19 completed its product-market fit. From 2019-20 onwards, it is monetising."I would say at least 2 years because we are also a large dominant market share company and we wouldn't want to lose market share while becoming profitable next quarter," Sharma said when asked about the timelines for hitting profits.In the last 12 months, Paytm has seen pre-tax losses cut - thanks to monetisation, and not reckless cost-cutting, he said, adding business like Paytm Payments Bank, commerce and cloud were already profitable, while Paytm FirstGames and Paytm Mall is "close to profitability".Paytm - which competes with Google Pay, Flipkart-owned PhonePe and others in the digital payments space - had late last year raised USD 1 billion (over Rs 7,000 crore) in funding from US-based asset management firm T Rowe Price and existing investors, including SoftBank and Alibaba, to fund expansion plans.Paytm had also said it plans to invest around Rs 10,000 crore (USD 1.4 billion) over the next three years to expand financial services. The last round of fund raising had valued the company at about USD 16 billion.Asked about the businesses under OCL that were draining profitability, Sharma said that investments were focused on expanding offline merchant base."Overall, offline merchant expansion and technology is where the investment is happening," he said.Earlier this month, the company said it aims to add close to 10 million merchants to its platform over the next 12-18 months as it brings new features to its payments platform.The company, which has introduced a new all-in-one payment gateway and business solutions as well as an Android-based point of sale (POS) machine, currently has over 16 million merchants across unorganised and organised sectors. SR MBI ANZ BAL

Paytm founder reveals road to profitability; may take 2 yrs to come out of red

New Delhi, Feb 17 () The mandate for e-commerce platforms to deduct 1 per cent TDS from sellers will add an undue burden on them, which "worsens the regulatory bias" against online platforms, industry body IAMAI said on Monday. The government, in the Budget, announced a new levy of 1 per cent TDS (tax deducted at source) on e-commerce transactions, which is to be collected from the sellers by the e-commerce companies. "Deduction of TDS, over and above TCS deduction under GST, is yet another compliance on digital platforms that are not applicable to their offline counterparts, which worsens the regulatory bias against online platforms," the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) said in a statement. Previously, Amazon India and Flipkart had said they were studying the proposal on levy of 1 per cent TDS, and could reach out to the government for clarifications. IAMAI said the present FDI norms only encourage online marketplaces in the B2C (business-to-consumer) sector that are well recognised as digital intermediaries by law. These platforms only facilitate sellers and buyers to interact, and are not actually engaged in the act of buying or selling goods, it noted. "Such platforms are neither the payee nor the recipients of the payment, therefore asking them to collect and deposit taxes is akin to imposing liabilities of inventory based model on digital platforms," IAMAI said, adding that such a levy undermines their intermediary roles. "Furthermore, any form of withholding taxation only creates cash flow irregularities for businesses, and that in turn locks in precious working capital for the small-scale sellers," it said. E-commerce companies are already collecting 1 per cent TCS (tax collected at source) under GST (goods and services tax) from sellers. IAMAI pointed out that reconciliation of TCS has proved to be a major challenge under GST, and imposing TDS for direct taxes risks replicating that challenge. "All such complications raise compliance burden for small sellers and make digital platforms unattractive to conduct business for them. Further, the lack of parity between offline and online sellers could potentially act as an entry barrier for smaller sellers in tier III and IV cities from joining the digital economy," IAMAI said. The association said it is a dichotomy that on one hand, the government recognises e-commerce as a tool for empowerment and is exploring options to promote onboarding of MSMEs, while on the other hand, imposition like TCS and TDS are making it difficult for such MSMEs to conduct their business via online platforms. IAMAI said it has, in its submission to the Finance Ministry, also sought clarity on certain areas in this matter. These include the implication of 'gross amount' or the amount on which TDS is to be deducted, the implication of the term 'deemed payer' as to which agency is actually supposed to deduct the said TDS, clarification on the role and liability of third-party digital payment facilitators, implications for cases involving overseas service providers, among others, it said. IAMAI has suggested that a consultation be held with the industry on this matter, and said the timeline of April 1, 2020 for the implementation of the provision as mandated is "clearly not feasible for e-commerce services to abide by". The industry body said the levy would pose a challenge to small businesses, including small scale sellers, onboarding digital platforms as well as new emerging tech start-ups looking to set up operations in India. "Such impediments do not augur well for the Startup India and Digital India vision that seeks to develop a robust USD 1 trillion digital economy in India by 2025," it said. SR KPM RVKRVK

TDS adds undue compliance burden for e-commerce platforms: IAMAI

New Delhi, Apr 30 () Days after selling a stake in its digital arm to <keyword id="6354576" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="facebook">Facebook</keyword> for USD 5.7 billion, <keyword id="10926" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Reliance">Reliance</keyword> Industries on Thursday said it is in talks with other strategic and financial investors for a similar-sized deal that will help cut debt at the unit that houses India's youngest but biggest mobile operator. Without revealing the identity of the companies, RIL in its fourth-quarter earnings statement said the investment would be announced in the coming months. "In addition to the FB investment, the board was informed that RIL has received strong interest from other strategic and financial investors and is in good shape to announce a similar-sized investment in the coming months," it said. Ahead of last week's announcement of Facebook buying a 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms Ltd, there were unconfirmed reports of the company being in parallel discussions with Google. The potential interest, the company said, establishes "the attractiveness of Jio Platforms to the world and is a strong validation of RIL's capability to conceive large-scale disruptive greenfield businesses". "With strong visibility to these equity infusions, the board was informed that RIL is set to achieve net-zero debt status ahead of its own aggressive timeline," the statement said. Billionaire <keyword id="3820" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Mukesh-Ambani">Mukesh Ambani</keyword> is looking to replicate the success of WeChat and Alipay in China as multipurpose superapps -- platforms with integrated chat functions, payment and financial services and online shopping -- to take on Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart in an e-commerce market that KPMG says is likely to grow to USD 200 billion by 2027. The tie-up brings together WhatsApp, India's most popular app with about 400 million users, and Jio's mobile services with 388 million subscribers. WhatsApp would be integrating a 'Jio Shopping bot' on the API (application programming interface), and allow users to add the bot to their contacts. Once added, users can search for a local business, see available products in a catalogue, and purchase the product in the thread or in the shop. Earlier this week, JioMart, an e-commerce venture of Reliance Retail, opened a business account on Facebook's WhatsApp. It connects WhatsApp users to JioMart through automated text messaging and complete order delivery through local grocery or Kirana stores. Although the service is only available in three cities, the experiment offers an example of how the WhatsApp-JioMart combination will function as a multipurpose mobile service connecting hundreds of millions of consumers with local Kirana stores. The Facebook deal as also the one indicated by the company on Thursday along with a potential sale of 20 per cent stake in Reliance's oil-to-chemical business to Saudi Aramco for an asking of USD 15 billion would help Ambani bring down overall net debt at his group and help to move towards his target of achieving zero net debt by March 2021. The acquisition of a 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms Ltd for USD 5.7 billion represents the second-largest investment of Facebook to date (the largest was USD 19 billion WhatsApp acquisition in February 2014). The largest foreign direct investment in the technology sector in India is also expected to give the US social-networking firm a broader foothold in its biggest global market. Facebook will be issued fresh equity shares and will get a board position on Jio Platforms. Ambani had, in August last year, told Reliance Industries shareholders about plans to sell stake in some of the businesses with the goal of making the firm free of net debt by 2021. "In the very near future, JioMart and WhatsApp will empower nearly 3 crore small Indian Kirana shops to digitally transact with every customer in their neighbourhood," Ambani, 63, had said in a video message after the mega-deal announcement on April 22. "This means all of you can order and get faster delivery of day-to-day items, from nearby local shops. At the same time, small kiranas can grow their businesses and create new employment opportunities using digital technologies," he had said. MBI ANZ MKJ

After Facebook, Reliance in talks with other investors to offload more stake

<ul><li>Ahead of World Emoji Day which falls on July 17, we take a look at how emojis have become a very important part of our everyday digital conversations.</li><li>Brands have realised the emoji connect and many have been upping their emoji game on digital platforms to build a stronger connect with its target audience.</li><li>We speak to <keyword id="1680920" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Rishabh-Sharma">Rishabh Sharma</keyword>, Head - <keyword id="10538938" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="twitter-next">Twitter Next</keyword>, India who tells us how <keyword id="6354616" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Twitter">Twitter</keyword> is innovating and offering more emoji fuel to brands to help them build more engaging campaigns for the platform.</li></ul>Over the years, emojis have become an important part of the language we use on digital platforms. Emojis are universal, they transcend languages and cultures, and bind us all together through the emotions that they often symbolise. If some studies are to be believed, around 92% of all people online use emojis to communicate. And why not, they help add color, emotions and at times even suspense to our conversations. Over the years, brands too have realised the power of emojis and many have experimented in different ways with emojis to build a stronger connect with their consumers. Platforms have also launched custom emojis to further drive personalization and strengthen connect with their audiences. Twitter is a platform that has, over the years, experimented with emojis. Many brands that have innovatively used emojis have found success on the platform too. Ahead of World Emoji Day, we caught up with Rishabh Sharma, Head - Twitter Next, India, to understand how the use of emojis on the platform has evolved over the years, and to take a look at the campaigns of a few brands that have got it right. He also shares a few tips to help brands get their emoji game right on Twitter. Excerpts: Q) Emojis have become an important part of how we communicate in the digital world today. How have brands been using emojis to build a connect with consumers? In order for brands to create thumb-stopping messages, visual expression is a key ingredient in the mix. How we communicate socially and express our emotions has drastically changed in the digital world and people using the Internet are driving the rise of this visual language. Emojis on Twitter are a big part of this. Today, brands across categories and markets are leveraging Twitter’s branded emoji to add visual personality to their campaigns, becoming part of the conversation. Our internal studies show that brands leveraging custom emojis garner higher receptivity and engagement on the campaign hashtag. Brands are investing in creating a fun, appealing creative element that is unique to their campaign, product or message, and in return receiving organic endorsement when the people on Twitter use the branded hashtags in the Tweets. Q) How have you as a platform been customizing emojis to help brands communicate better? Our focus remains on partnering with brands to understand the theme of their marketing campaign, the message they are aiming to communicate and then advise them on the use of a custom branded emoji. The creative canvas is wide open for all brands to create something unique and personal for their audience. Some of the ideas we’ve experimented with include launching custom emojis that are designed through crowdsourcing, creating intrigue by exploring dark mode emojis or even asking the people on Twitter to unlock content by pairing emojis together. Q) What are some of the most effective brand campaigns on Twitter that have been heavily driven by emojis and have seen success in the past few years? Through the years, we have seen varied usage of emojis as the format has now become staple for brands in the country. Whether you’re launching a new brand, product, app, message or promotion, adding a visual identity makes the hashtag come alive. <a href="https://twitter.com/OPPOIndia/status/1412684605468012548">Oppo India</a> is live with a custom branded emoji for their upcoming launch of Reno6, and the design highlights the core feature of glow in the model. Last month, we saw <keyword id="3194526" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Netflix-India">Netflix India</keyword> (<a href="https://twitter.com/NetflixIndia">@NetflixIndia</a>) creating a swell conversation on the timeline as they <a href="https://twitter.com/NetflixIndia/status/1400343251329163264">went live with an emoji</a> for the movie ‘<keyword id="8920548" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="jagame-thandhiram">Jagame Thandhiram</keyword>’ and created a connection with the audience in the south celebrating Dhanush. Amazon Prime Video (<a href="https://twitter.com/PrimeVideoIN">@PrimeVideoIN</a>) India recently launched <a href="https://twitter.com/PrimeVideoIN/status/1410848332084252675">‘The Tomorrow War’</a> campaign on Twitter, where our teams collaborated to delight the streaming fans with a <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WhiteSpikesHunt?src=hashtag_click">#WhiteSpikesHunt</a> emoji. An emoji that will only appear once you switch off the lights on Twitter a.k.a dark mode. Spotify India (<a href="https://twitter.com/spotifyindia">@spotifyindia</a>) continues to lead with a language of expression, as they activated the much loved branded emoji for two successive <a href="https://twitter.com/spotifyindia/status/1273971294875160576">World Music Day</a> campaigns across the year. Q) How are you as a platform also making your emojis more diverse and inclusive? Emojis are embedded in the conversational culture on Twitter - their usage has grown with conversations on the service. Over the years, we’ve introduced several customised emojis to support diverse conversations. For entertainment enthusiasts, we’ve released custom emojis for movies like <a href="https://twitter.com/twitterindia/status/898465872024444928?lang=en">#Mersal</a>, the<a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/1318437648663339010?s=20"> 25th anniversary of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge</a>, and shows like <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/787602771000168448">Bigg Boss</a>. Sports conversations are massive on Twitter, and we’ve encouraged these with emojis for the <a href="https://twitter.com/cricketworldcup/status/1133846210622709762">Cricket World Cup</a> and for the <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/1378378919858950146">IPL</a>. We’ve also introduced several emojis for festivals like Diwali, <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/926657299145400320?s=20">Guru Nanak Jayanti</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/1135753458764591109">Eid</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/984705774738796544">Vishu and Puthandu</a> to cater to diverse audiences pan-India, and also for occasions of national importance like <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/1353704564931715072">Republic Day</a>. We even <a href="https://blog.twitter.com/en_in/a/2016/we-launched-our-first-crowd-sourced-diwali-emoji-in.html">crowdsourced an emoji for Diwali in 2016</a>. Like many others, our recent <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/1366698471638507520">#AssemblyElections2021</a> emoji could be activated with hashtags in multiple languages. Earlier this year, we released the <a href="https://twitter.com/TwitterIndia/status/1367758348083335173">#WeAreWomen emoji</a> on Women’s Day, to support conversations from the women community across the globe. When we look at branded emojis, we’re catering to and partnering with a dynamic set of brands across categories, ranging from <keyword id="1245953" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="OTT">OTT</keyword> and media &amp; entertainment category, BFSI, Auto, E-commerce, Fintech and more. For Uber India’s (<a href="https://twitter.com/Uber_India">@Uber_India</a>) Valentine’s Day 2019 campaign, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/LoveMovesForward?src=hashtag_click">#LoveMovesForward</a>, we partnered with the brand to introduce a <a href="https://twitter.com/Uber_India/status/1095367504543633408?s=20">Pride Heart emoji</a> to spearhead love and acceptance, and build on their broader mission of ‘Move Forward’. The conversations on Twitter are evolving, and we make sure that reflects in how we’re contributing to these conversations. Q) What are some of the most effective emoji-driven formats that brands have been using on Twitter? We’ve been experimenting with formats to help brands engage more meaningfully. We have partnered with a number of brands to create what we call an <keyword id="11653792" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="emoji-engine">Emoji Engine</keyword> - and it has worked really well from an audience engagement lens. With the help of third party partners, we create a customised bank of emojis that serves people a personalised experience. When someone engages with an Emoji Engine campaign by Tweeting with an emoji, they’re rewarded with customised content that is tied to that specific emoji. Several brands have used the Emoji Engine to drive entire campaigns. <a href="https://twitter.com/bmwindia/status/1319284825140817923?s=19">BMW India</a> also gave people an exclusive peek into <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/The2?src=hashtag_click">#The2</a> through an Emoji Engine. <a href="https://twitter.com/NetflixIndia/status/1309482939101503488">Netflix India’s</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NetflixMatchmaker?src=hashtag_click">#NetflixMatchmaker</a>, which was based on the insight that customers actively seek content recommendations on Twitter, shared binge-worthy recommendations that match the mood of the emoji Tweeted with the campaign hashtag. <a href="https://twitter.com/Flipkart/status/1315653182429618178?s=19">Flipkart’s </a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BigBillionDays?src=hashtag_click">#BigBillionDays</a> campaign also used an Emoji Engine - wherein each emoji Tweeted was rewarded with suitable discounts and offers available in the flagship e-sale. Q) How can brands further up their emoji game on Twitter? As we continue to innovate with upcoming formats, and experiment with the existing creative canvas on Twitter, few guiding principles below can always enable the brand marketing teams to amplify the usage of emojis on Twitter. <ul><li>Think Upstream. Emojis aren’t just symbols that add receptivity to a brand’s hashtag but have the potential to kick-start an idea, and integrate multiple media touchpoints for a brand to connect with the audience on and beyond Twitter.</li><li>Shareable Message. When a brand invests in activating an emoji, it's equally important to focus on launching this with a shareable Tweet copy or CTA formats to establish an organic connection with the audience.</li><li>Beyond Products. With the increasing usage of emojis across all campaigns, the opportunity always exists to go beyond product-specific designs and push the creative envelope to design for cues that are core to the theme, and how your audience might connect with the message.</li></ul>

Brands leveraging custom emojis garner higher receptivity and engagement on campaign hashtags: Rishabh Sharma, Twitter Next

New Delhi, May 26 () Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries has launched an online extension of its grocery business under JioMart brand across 200 cities. The service is being offered in all leading metros (Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata), and even in smaller towns like Mysuru, Bhatinda and Dehradun. JioMart is now delivering in more than 200 cities, Damodar Mall, the chief executive officer of Reliance Retail's grocery business said in a tweet. JioMart last month started a pilot project serving users in three neighbourhoods surrounding Mumbai. Credit Suisse said, "The national roll-out provides customers with a useful alternative to existing players (BigBasket, Grofers) as online grocery orders have spiked, given the fewer store visits". D-Mart, it said, mentioned that April revenues are down 45 per cent year-on-year as nearly 50 per cent of the stores are shut or have very restricted hours of operation. Therefore, online orders should help offset some of the lower sales in physical stores. CLSA said as of now, the website will only use Reliance's offline grocery supply chain as its backbone and deliver to homes. "Success at its ongoing beta tests in Navi Mumbai, which also encompasses mom and pop stores and uses WhatsApp as a platform to order, will be later extended to pan-India," it said. Users can order from a full suite of grocery items by visiting the JioMart website. Products include fruits and vegetables, dairy and baked goods, staples, snacks and branded foods, beverages, and personal and home care. Reliance's private labels also featured prominently. "While it does not commit on a delivery timeline when ordering (due to the lockdown), it aims to deliver orders within a two-day timeframe," CLSA said. Eventually, like other online retailers, it is possible that Reliance integrates its entire retail offerings, including fashion, lifestyle and consumer electronics, onto one super e-commerce platform and mobile app. "This, along with a pan-India extension of partnerships with mom &amp; pop stores after a successful beta test and ramp-up of this new commerce venture is crucial in Reliance's grand plan of converting Jio's 400 million-plus subscribers into customers for its eCommerce and other offerings," CLSA said. Recent partnerships with Facebook-owned WhatsApp for JioMart will only help in increasing monetisation opportunities by increasing the convenience and reach of consumers. The grocery platform was previously piloting deliveries only in select areas of Mumbai. "JioMart has seen a 4x rise in online orders from a low base. With its pan India presence JioMart now directly competes with Amazon and Flipkart in eCommerce," Bernstein said in a separate report. Grocery is 70 per cent of the Indian retail market, 90 per cent-plus unorganised, driven by Kirana stores/small retailers. "Organised penetration is less than 10 per cent while online penetration for grocery is less than 1 per cent," it said. Facebook has made a bigger push into e-commerce with the launch of Shops. "The idea is to bring millions of small businesses online. This will allow free online storefronts for small businesses and retailers and expand Facebook presence across Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger," Bernstein said. "Facebook shops will be complimentary to WhatsApp business use to sign and onboard Kirana stores for JioMart (grocery app of Reliance Retail)." Credit Suisse said JioMart currently fulfills the order by own entity and kiranas likely to be on-boarded subsequently. "The platform lists all the major grocery categories like fruits and vegetables, staples, dairy and bakery, snacks, beverages, personal care, home care and baby care. "In terms of pricing, Reliance has extended the Smart promise of 'minimum 5 per cent off on MRP' to all products on JioMart. The discount is higher on its private label brands, and is competitive to branded products," it said. Reliance Retail had been piloting the initiative in Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan among select population group. It was serving these customers through both Kirana stores and their own warehouses. It also set up Smart Points, which were acting as delivery points in neighbourhood. However, orders post the national launch are being serviced by Reliance Smart and Fresh stores, Sahakari Bhandar stores (owned by Reliance retail), and is not yet fully leveraging kirana network (as on-boarding of Kirana stores is still ongoing), Credit Suisse said. "Just prior to the national launch, Reliance Retail tapped the WhatsApp customer base in the three pilot regions to source orders. In our view, it was just a test phase of integration. The orders were available only for pick-up from nearby Kirana store, whose details were sent to the customer via WhatsApp. However, the national launch, so far, does not have integration with WhatsApp," it said. The brokerage said it placed an order on JioMart but the delivered order value was 55 per cent of the booked order value, due to inventory limitation in the nearby Sahakari Bhandar store. ANZ BAL

Reliance launches JioMart across 200 cities; analysts say co eyeing spike in online grocery orders

Vivo V25 Pro Review - A camera champ with minor stumbling blocks

Diwali? Well, even if it’s more than 120 days, preparations have already begun. At least for the Indian ecommmerce companies, Diwali isn’t something too far. 
 
Diwali wasn’t a satisfactory experience for most of the e-tailers who failed to deliver products within stipulated timeline. Blame it on the demand-supply gap or logistics, the companies as well as its customers were equally disappointed. 
 
lakh per day," K Satyanarayana, cofounder and director of Ecom Express told the ET.Neeraj Aggarwal, senior director, delivery operations, at Flipkart, told the financial daily that every festive season there is a three to four times increase in the volume of shipments. "We expect this year to be the same. The capacity of air cargo has not increased since last year and we have invested a considerable amount in linehaul for surface since last year. 
 
"Flipkart clocked Rs 600 crore in sales in 10 hours last Diwali. While the company partners with third-party logistics players for linehaul services (transport of cargo between two major cities around 1,500 km apart), it has increased the share of shipments by surface transport through road.Ekart and 50% of the national load is shipped using surface transport. During festive season, 70 to 75% of our shipments will be routed through Ekart," Aggarwal added. Amazon India is also extending the network covered by its logistics arm, Amazon Transportation Services (ATS).

Diwali is coming: E-tailers are gearing up to avoid any logistics glitch

<ul><li>One of India's biggest conglomerates is changing character adapting to the compulsions of the digital age.</li><li>Satya Nadella's appearance was the big surprise at the AGM as Microsoft and Mukesh Ambani joined hands to take on Jeff Bezos' Amazon in areas like cloud computing and targeting small businesses for digital transformation.</li><li>RIL was already shifting focus to its consumer businesses like retail and telecom, but now it is aiming for large scale integration of interests wherever possible.</li><li>Money coming in from Aramco and BP will give RIL more muscle to aggressively take on incumbent telecom players like Airtel and Vodafone-Idea in not just mobile telephony but also in fixed line broadband, Jio Fibre, that will be launched on September 5.</li></ul>All eyes were on Mukesh Ambani today (August 12) who delivered his speech at Reliance Industries' 42nd Annual General Meeting (AGM). Here are the top ten takeaways from a historic speech that laid out the path for the transformation of one of India's biggest and fairly old conglomerate: 1. A $15 billion cash-out Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil producer, Aramco, will buy 20% stake in the Indian behemoth's oil-to-chemicals business, valuing the unit at $75 billion. This would make the investment from Aramco in RIL at about $15 billion. This partnership will be across refining and petrochemical assets. The Saudi government owned oil major will also supply 500 barrels of day crude oil to RIL’s Jamnagar refinery. “This signifies perfect synergy and world’ largest integrated refinery and petchem complex,” Ambani said. 2. More money, less debt Reliance Industries has a huge debt of about $21 billion. This has been a huge concern for investors lately which led to a fall in the stock price in the last few months. However, Ambani declared that the net debt will be zero by March 2021. The company has cash and cash equivalents of about $19.5 billion and another $15 billion from Aramco will help the company retire its massive debt. RIL will also get another $1 billion from its joint venture with BP. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <div type="javascript" title="Custom" contenttype="Image"><cdata><![CDATA[
<div class="flourish-embed" data-src="visualisation/586778"></div>
]]></cdata></div>

















































 3. Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail will be spun out Reliance Jio and Reliance Retail will be listed in the next five years, Mukesh Ambani told his investors. "There has to be an 18-month gap between the two listings, and therefore the five-year timeline may be crunched to 3 years," an analyst, SP Tulsian, explained on CNBC-TV18. 4. Satya Nadella comes for a cameo, but is here to stay The surprise guest at the AGM today was global tech icon Satya Nadella, the Chairman of Microsoft, who joined the RIL AGM. Microsoft and Reliance Industries have joined hands to take Jeff Bezos' Amazon head on. 
	
 
 
 
 
 
 
 <div type="image" title="Satya Nadella" msid="70641252" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella speaks during an event to launch the Samsung Galaxy Note 10, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019, in New York.Photo/Mary Altaffer)&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>















 "It is imperative to develop a nation-wide cloud infrastructure which is at the same time cutting-edge and affordable," he said. Microsoft will bring Azure into Jio data centres. Small businesses can get the voice/data services, marketing and sales solutions and all Microsoft tools package at a starting price of ₹1,500 a month. 5. The threat to Jeff Bezos Microsoft's tie-up with Jio will, probably, be the biggest challenge for Jeff Bezos in one of the world's biggest markets, India. Reliance will offer end-to-end digital stack to "enable and empower" small merchants currently at the mercy of other online retail platforms like Amazon and Flipkart (now owned by Walmart). This stack will include a point-of-sale payment device, which could be a $900 billion market, according to Jal Irani, analyst at Edelweiss Financial Services. 6. Once an oil giant, now immersed in technology Ambani's plan for digital transformation is that of convergence with the physical world. Reliance Industries plans to take long strides in spaces like 'Internet of Things' (IoT), cloud computing and a broadband ecosystem. So far, Jio had only one revenue stream, and now there will be four more streams of revenue that will kick in from the current financial year itself. "Within another 2 years, there will be over 2 billion connected devices in India, and Jio aims to have half of those on its IoT platform. This will be a ₹20,000 crore revenue opportunity and the commercial ops will begin from January 2020," Ambani said. 7. <keyword id="7975366" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="jio-fibre-launch-date">Jio Fibre launch date</keyword> and tariff plan Jio Fibre will be availabe starting September 5, the third anniversary of Jio's launch, across India. The full network roll-out for Jio Fibre in the next year. After disrupting mobile telephony, Ambani is targeting the fixed line broadband. Of the total 240 million households in India, the broadband penetration in India is only about 10% right now. That leaves Ambani to fight a large under-served market without having to offer deep discounts. Jio will come bundled with most-premium OTT applications. Jio will also release movies on its platforms on the same day as the theatres. Jio Fibre users subscribing for 'forever annual plans' will get an 4K LED television and a 4K set-top box. 8. The difference between Jio mobile and Jio Fibre However, this time Jio does not seem to burn cash offering discounts to win over customers but is betting more on offering more value for a reasonable price. The plans will cost anywhere between ₹700 and ₹10,000 per month. Any voice call on Jio will be free forever. The fixed line international calls will be cheaper by up to 90% of the existing industry tariffs. Calls to US and Canada from India on Jio will cost only ₹500 a month. 
 
 
 
 
 
 <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="70639942" title="Jio Fibre's new tariff plans--free television, unlimited international calling and 100 mbps speed" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div>













 9. From content creator to content aggregator Jio seems to have changed focus from creating fresh content for its platform to building alliances with other OTT platforms. Ambani also revealed that Jio will be able to offer traditional TV channels to its customers. Earlier this year, RIL acquired controlling stakes in Hathway, Den and GTPL. Together, they give RIL access to 30,000 local cable operators. "We have designed a Jio set top box that will broadcast TV channels, for which the local cable operators will get a steady revenue. This set top box will be sold to all Jio Fibre customers," the RIL chairman said. Premium subscribers of Jio Fibre will also be able to watch newly-released movies at the comfort of their home on the day of their release in the theaters. This will be a huge setback for companies like Inox and PVR as Jio's offering may affect footfalls at multiplexes and box office collections too. 10. More bad news for Vodafone Idea and Airtel Jio's mobile phone services has about 340 million subscribers as of now. Ambani is targeting to take this number to over 500 million over the next few months. That would mean Jio will remain an aggressive player in the market and that's bad news for other players like Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Given that RIL is getting additional cash from Aramco and BP, and if it becomes a zero net debt company by March 2021, the company of its size and scale will only have more money to muscle out other players with its aggressive pricing. Other telcos are already in deep trouble after having fought Jio in the market for nearly three years with higher discounts, funded by higher debt. "Reliance Industries' stock may hit a new high, beating its previous high of about ₹1,400, in 2019 itself," SP Tulsian said. Expect a rally when the market reopens for trade on Tuesday (August 13). SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/what-to-expect-from-mukesh-ambani-at-reliance-industries-agm/articleshow/70637794.cms" data-type="tilCustomLink" target="_blank"></a>

You Searched For "Flipkart Timeline" and got 14 results

National e-commerce policy under consideration: Goyal

PTI

The Zepto Boys: Competition that Amazon never saw coming

Malini Bhupta

E-tailers still facing delivery challenges amid coronavirus lockdown

PTI

INTERVIEW: With a partner like Mukesh Ambani's Jio, Infibeam expects to hit $100 billion in online transactions in the next 5 years

Prabhjote Gill

Lockdown 3.0: People place orders online for non-essential items; staff crunch may delay deliveries

PTI

Lockdown 3.0: People turn to e-commerce for non-essential items; staff crunch may delay deliveries

PTI

Paytm founder reveals road to profitability; may take 2 yrs to come out of red

PTI

TDS adds undue compliance burden for e-commerce platforms: IAMAI

PTI

After Facebook, Reliance in talks with other investors to offload more stake

PTI

Brands leveraging custom emojis garner higher receptivity and engagement on campaign hashtags: Rishabh Sharma, Twitter Next

Samarpita Banerjee

Reliance launches JioMart across 200 cities; analysts say co eyeing spike in online grocery orders

PTI

Vivo V25 Pro Review - A camera champ with minor stumbling blocks

Dhruv Mohan

Diwali is coming: E-tailers are gearing up to avoid any logistics glitch

BI India Bureau

Mukesh Ambani's speech at the Reliance Industries AGM had ten big takeaways

Sriram Iyer