Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

Online fashion retailer <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/No-more-low-margin-products-on-Jabong-as-it-switches-focus-from-portfolio-to-profits/articleshow/52399169.cms">Jabong</a> could finally be acquired either by Snapdeal or Kishore Biryani's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Future-Groups-Kishore-Biyani-trains-guns-on-an-online-grocer-now-wants-it-shut/articleshow/51630072.cms">Future Group</a>. However, the final price at which it would be acquired is way less than what its asking price was. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Jabong-has-no-buyers/articleshow/51839070.cms">Jabong has no buyers, not even at the unbelievably low price of Rs 663 crore</a> 
 
Reportedly, Snapdeal has offered for a cash-cum-stock transaction, while the Future Group has offered an all-cash deal. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Alibaba-Future-Group-Myntra-in-race-to-buy-Jabong-deal-size-expected-to-be-250-million/articleshow/53041529.cms">Alibaba, Future Group, Myntra in race to buy Jabong, deal size expected to be $250 million</a> 
 Even though Global Fashion Group, the owners of <keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword>, had valued the company at around $200 million, the offers made by Snapdeal and Jabong were much lesser, and as per sources, they could be as less as $50 million. 
 
Jabong, founded under German incubator <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Rocket-Internet-invests-300-million-Euros-in-Jabongs-parent-company-GFG/articleshow/52075838.cms">Rocket Internet</a> in 2012, has been up for sale for quite some time now. 
 
<a href="https://jabongreviews.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/img_4134.jpg">Image source</a>

Jabong could be acquired by Snapdeal or Future Group, but at much less price

<keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword>, which used to lead India’s online fashion portal, has been on the block for over a year, trying hard find a buyer even as its investors have drastically dropped the asking price. 
 
The firm, which was backed by Rocket Internet, saw a major drop in sales and cut losses in 2015. The investors have now settled for an estimated price of $100 million, which is unbelievably low from around $1 billion, the amount that it had sought during talks with Amazon India in 2014, a deal that didn’t see the light of the day. 
 
Even though Jabong was founded under Rocket Internet in 2012, it’s the Swedish investor Kinnevik that is asking for a sale. Kinnevik owns a big stake in Jabong's parent company Global Fashion Group. 
 
"They (Rocket Internet and Kinnevik) just want to park the company somewhere, find a home for it," said one person aware of the matter. "But there are no buyers yet." 
 It was earlier this month that Rocket Internet sold another of its India portfolio companies, the furniture portal Fabfurnish, to <keyword id="44950" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Kishore-Biyani">Kishore Biyani</keyword>'s Future Retail for around Rs 11 crore. 
 
Jabong was not only in with Amazon India for a possible buyout, but also with several other Indian online marketplaces. In fact, in 2015, an offer to buy Jabong at around $200 million in 2015 was rejected, a source told ET. 
 
 
<a href="http://www.suitsbysuits.com/assets/htmlimages/iStock_No_Hand_Shake_000020725761Small.jpg">Image source</a>

Jabong has no buyers, not even at the unbelievably low price of Rs 663 crore

Berlin-headquartered company <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Rocket-Internets-selling-2-really-big-online-brands-to-the-Future-Group/articleshow/51120395.cms">Rocket Internet</a> has invested a funding of 300 million euros (about Rs 2,282 crore) in Global Fashion Group (GFG), the parent company of online fashion portal Jabong. 
 
The German start-up investor will underwrite around 100 million euros (about Rs 760.7 crore), and will invest around 85 million euros (about Rs 646.7 crore), which would include the conversion of an existing investment at the terms of the financing. 
 For this transaction, GFG was valued at 1 billion euros post the transactions, said a <keyword id="834871" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rocket-Internet">Rocket Internet</keyword> statement. 
 
"The financing will provide GFG with the necessary capital to continue to execute its strategy of building out its leading position in the online fashion sector in emerging markets," GFG Chief Executive Officer Romain Voog said. 
 
In the first quarter of 2016, GFG has meaningfully reduced losses from operations as compared to period a year ago, which has very well resulted in it seeing an improvement of the adjusted EBITDA margin by over 10 percentage points. 
 
"This is in line with GFG's plan to deliver an accelerated path to profitability across its regional businesses while continuing to capture the significant market opportunity available," Voog said. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Investors-unwilling-to-buy-Jabong-for-500mn-say-its-worth-only-half-as-much/articleshow/49465326.cms">Investors unwilling to buy Jabong for $500mn, say it's worth only half as much!</a> 
 
GFG, which was founded in 2014, combines six regional brands all across the world, viz. Dafiti in Latin America, Lamoda in Russia and CIS, Namshi in the Middle East, The Iconic in Australia, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Jabong-has-no-buyers-not-even-at-the-unbelievably-low-price-of-Rs-663-crore/articleshow/51839070.cms">Jabong in India</a> and Zalora in South-East Asia. 
 
"We continue to be very excited about the prospects of GFG, which has successfully built out leading market positions in key emerging markets. We are looking forward to continuing to work with the GFG team as well as Kinnevik and the other GFG shareholders to support GFG," Rocket Internet CEO Oliver Samwer said. 
 <keyword id="209933" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sanjeev-Mohanty">Sanjeev Mohanty</keyword>, MD and CEO of Jabong, said that the funding will help the firm enhance its business operations. 
 
"We have had success over the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Jabong-gets-20-million-in-fresh-funding-round/articleshow/51223168.cms">past few months</a>, with Jabong recently recording its best month in terms of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Say-goodbye-to-huge-discounts-as-Myntra-Jabong-wants-to-make-profits-now/articleshow/50768977.cms">revenue</a>... GFG sees good progress with Jabong in India and this trust will help us strengthen our operations in the country," he added. 
 
<a href="http://coefficiency.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/shutterstock_98277620.jpg">Image source</a>

Rocket Internet invests 300 million Euros in Jabong’s parent company GFG

Fashion ecommerce company <keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword>, which is running in losses, has been given additional funds by <keyword id="2504271" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Global-Fashion-Group">Global Fashion Group</keyword> (<keyword id="47053" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="gfg">GFG</keyword>), so that it can stay afloat for one more year. 
 
"The board has agreed to put more than $20 million in Jabong," a person who participated in the meeting held in Luxembourg told ET. GFG was founded in 2011 by Swedish Investment <keyword id="3106793" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="AB-Kinnevik">AB Kinnevik</keyword> and German <keyword id="834871" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rocket-Internet">Rocket Internet</keyword> SE, and operates ecommerce ventures Dafiti in Latin America, Lamoda in Russia and the CIS, Namshi in the Middle East, Zalora in Southeast Asia and Australia while operating Jabong in India. 
 
It is reported that Oliver Samwer, CEO of Rocket Internet and deputy chairman at GFG, was not in favour of continuing the India venture, it was Kinnevik that insisted on staying put, leading to which the board eventually agreed to back Jabong. 
 
Jabong receives funds on a regular basis, similar to the financing structure of other multinational corporations, the company said in an email, adding that there are no pre-agreed funding commitments. 
 
"GFG has raised over $1.5 billion in capital in its history and its Board remains unanimously committed to all regions it operates in, including India. Jabong has made a number of recent senior management hires and has also recently witnessed record operating performance. These facts, which are supported by public filings on our current investment rate, are clearly evident of GFG's commitment to growing Jabong," GFG said in an email. 
 
Jabong further added that it denies "any other rumours or speculations that are to the contrary." 
 
<a href="http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/thumb/msid-51218105,width-310,resizemode-4/jabong-gets-20-million-to-stay-afloat-for-one-more-year.jpg">Image source</a>

Jabong gets $20 million in fresh funding round

World famous incubator <keyword id="834871" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Rocket-Internet">Rocket Internet</keyword>, based in Berlin, Germany, runs a string of consumer internet companies in India. However, in a first of its kind sale of property, it is likely to sell the online furniture retailer FabFurnish to the <keyword id="44949" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Future-group">Future Group</keyword>, led by <keyword id="44950" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Kishore-Biyani">Kishore Biyani</keyword>. 
 
Not only this, it also wants its fashion online retailer Jabong to be offloaded to the Future Group in a bid to reduce losses; however, Biyani has not shown much interest in the business. 
 
"The two are in definite talks to close the FabFurnish deal. Sale of Jabong is still at the proposal stage and no talks have started on it yet," said one of the persons cited above. Jabong, however, has denied the news of being up for sale. 
 
The company has "seen strong operating performance in recent months and has strengthened its management team with a number of hires," a Jabong spokesperson told ET. "Jabong is not in discussions, at any stage, with anyone, regarding a sale of the company. The company's largest see-through investor reiterated earlier this month its commitment to the business and the Indian market." 
 
The sources also cited that Fab-Furnish could be sold for $5-10 million, however the figure was not independently verified. 
 
If things go as per Rocket Internet’s plans, it will be the first time that Biyani would acquire an online retail business. He has, in the past, been a strongly outspoken critic of the country's ecommerce industry. 
 
<a href="http://businessbrokersaustin.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/business-for-sale.jpg">Image source</a>

Rocket Internet’s selling 2 really big online brands to the Future Group

<keyword id="1489410" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="e-commerce-in-India">E-commerce in India</keyword> is once again grabbing the headlines and this time, for all the right reasons. Bangalore-based <keyword id="319719" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Myntra">Myntra</keyword>, arguably India’s largest standalone <keyword id="1127700" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="fashion-e-tailer">fashion e-tailer</keyword>, has recently closed a <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> round worth $50 million from an investor consortium led by <keyword id="1430452" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="PremjiInvest">PremjiInvest</keyword>, the family office of the <keyword id="10862" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Wipro">Wipro</keyword> chairman <keyword id="6419840" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Azim-Premji">Azim Premji</keyword>. Myntra is also in talks with a clutch of investors to raise an additional $40 million at a higher <keyword id="51393" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="valuation">valuation</keyword>, according to an Economic Times report. So far, the <keyword id="2049121" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="E-commerce-firm">e-commerce firm</keyword> has raised $125 million in risk capital funding. Another fashion e-tailer that is also raising <keyword id="57924" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="big-money">big money</keyword> is Gurgaon-based <keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword>.com, which is backed by Berlin-based <keyword id="1965711" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rocket-Internet-GmbH">Rocket Internet GmbH</keyword> – a venture arm of the Samwer brothers. The e-commerce firm is reportedly raising a fresh round of equity funding worth $100 million, of which it has already received $27.5 million from the British <keyword id="2049123" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Development-finance-institution">development finance institution</keyword> <keyword id="1613067" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="CDC-Group-Plc">CDC Group Plc</keyword>. 
 All this is good news for the cash-strapped Indian e-commerce segment. So we have taken a close look at the recent fundraising by the <keyword id="2049116" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indian-e-commerce-players">Indian e-commerce players</keyword> and identified five key trends that seem to be prevailing. Will they rule the <keyword id="2049126" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Fundraising-scenario">fundraising scenario</keyword> and determine the parameters of growth throughout 2014? Let us have a quick look. 
 
Growing big is the key priority E-commerce start-ups in India are finally coming of age and looking beyond the quickest possible exits. When Myntra closed $50 million in funding a couple of days ago, the company was immediately approached by its bigger rival <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> who had reportedly come up with an acquisition offer worth $200 million. According to a TechCrunch report, e-commerce giant <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword> had also approached Myntra but the details of the proposed deal are not yet available. 
 Although rumours were rife that Myntra could be considering either of the deals as part of a bigger strategy, the e-tailer has decided to stay off the <keyword id="1949341" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Exit-route">exit route</keyword>. In fact, its ongoing talks for an additional round of funding worth $40 million clearly indicate that the company has in place some well-thought-out <keyword id="414633" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="growth-plans">growth plans</keyword> and big ones at that. The only other reason for back-to-back funding is to raise the valuation but at this point, Myntra doesn’t look like it is on the block. Neither has it decided to quit in a hurry like <keyword id="6359128" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Redbus">redBus</keyword>.in did last year. <keyword id="2049136" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indias-largest-bus-ticketing-firm">India’s largest bus ticketing firm</keyword> was acquired by the <keyword id="1643008" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ibibo-Group">ibibo Group</keyword> for around $125 million but the sale cut short a successful <keyword id="530125" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="entrepreneurial-journey">entrepreneurial journey</keyword> that could have become a $500 million business in terms of revenue and could have achieved a $1 billion valuation. 
 As for Jabong, the very fact that it is backed by Rocket Internet may tell the industry insiders a different story. Rocket is known in the market for its fast and furious build-and-sell business module, and the start-ups are essentially replicas of successful US businesses. But the kind of funding Jabong is raising right now shows that the company is in no hurry to down the shutters in India even though two of its four co-founders have recently left the company. Jabong started its India operations in 2012 and competes with key e-com players such as Flipkart, Myntra, <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> and <keyword id="6354743" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Amazon-India">Amazon India</keyword>, among others. 
 
Only <keyword id="2049143" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Core-expertise">core expertise</keyword> matters Internet giant <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword> has already given us a case in point when it sold <keyword id="487941" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Motorola-Mobility">Motorola Mobility</keyword> to Lenovo for $2.91 billion, less than two years after paying $12.5 billion to acquire it. The deal is not a total financial loss as Google has managed to keep patents worth billions of dollars and expects to turn Lenovo into a manufacturing unit for its <keyword id="6355645" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="android">Android</keyword> OS. But selling <keyword id="11148" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Motorola">Motorola</keyword> is a sure indication that Google should have focused more on its <keyword id="1430489" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Core-Competencies">core competencies</keyword> – search, software and selling ads – instead of developing hardware. 
 You will find a similar case here as Jabong has reportedly sold its <keyword id="2049146" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="logistics-arm">logistics arm</keyword> <keyword id="2049145" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="JaVAS">JaVAS</keyword> (Jabong Value Added Services) to Gurgaon-based QuickDel Logistics as part of its business restructuring and funding exercise. Jabong <keyword id="170488" type="POSITION" weightage="40" keywordseo="co-founder">co-founder</keyword> <keyword id="536011" type="PERSON" weightage="40" keywordseo="Praveen-Sinha">Praveen Sinha</keyword> has also confirmed to the media that JaVAS is now an independent entity. 
 However, that brings us back to the basic question. Should companies try and provide end-to-end solutions to ensure a complete customer experience or should they focus on core competencies and leave the rest to the experts in those fields? We particularly raise this question as many Indian e-commerce firms are currently focusing on <keyword id="2049154" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Proprietary-payment-gateways">proprietary payment gateways</keyword> and customised logistics services in a bid to propel their services to the next level. However, such services can actually make you lose money unless a company is catering to a customer base as vast as <keyword id="6357395" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="eBay">eBay</keyword> or Amazon. 
 After JaVAS, the writing is definitely on the wall. The bells and whistles can always come in later, but the key focus must be core competencies. Of late, even <keyword id="6354427" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Apple">Apple</keyword> seems to be falling in this trap – its newest hardware products have ‘n’ number of <keyword id="2049161" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Incremental-features">incremental features</keyword> but real innovations seem to be eluding the iconic company. 
 
Investors showing better <keyword id="170907" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="risk-appetite">risk appetite</keyword> India’s e-commerce market is projected to grow sevenfold to $22 billion in the next five years, and investors, both national and global, want to have a piece of the pie. According to <keyword id="1981" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Rahul-Khanna">Rahul Khanna</keyword>, managing director of the <keyword id="6357097" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="venture-capital">venture capital</keyword> firm <keyword id="218905" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Canaan-Partners">Canaan Partners</keyword> (India), e-commerce players in India (and everywhere else for that matter) require very deep pockets to scale up to the level of breaking even and hitting profitability. In this space, sales margins are typically low; volume is high, and logistics &amp; back office <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="investments">investments</keyword> only become viable when companies are catering to a very <keyword id="2049169" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Large-customer-base">large customer base</keyword>. Consequently, <keyword id="2049171" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Follow-on-rounds">follow-on rounds</keyword> are extremely crucial for sustainable growth. Now that big institutional investors like PremjiInvest and UK-based development <keyword id="25455" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="finance">finance</keyword> institution CDC Group are entering the arena, the much-needed <keyword id="2000080" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Cash-burning">cash burning</keyword> is sure to propel growth to the desired level. 
 “E-commerce is fast maturing in India and that’s the main reason <keyword id="363248" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Global-Investments">global investments</keyword> are flowing in,” says another analyst. “When big players like Amazon show interest (the e-commerce giant has reportedly approached Myntra), investors are quick to sense the tremendous <keyword id="452394" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="growth-potential">growth potential</keyword> lying here,” she adds. 
 
Forget the buzz you are creating; it’s result time now Analysts, who have followed the course of events over the past few weeks, also point out another interesting trend. Be it Myntra or Jabong or other up-and-coming e-commerce businesses, it’s their <keyword id="2049173" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Growth-quotient">growth quotient</keyword> that has attracted <keyword id="2049174" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Big-funding">big funding</keyword>. In other words, start-ups who are delivering in a big way will get the valuable <keyword id="2049175" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Growth-dollars">growth dollars</keyword> as investors are now looking beyond the buzz and focusing on <keyword id="1730239" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="business-fundamentals">business fundamentals</keyword> and results. 
 Companies must have the numbers – in terms of customer base, <keyword id="169826" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="growth-figures">growth figures</keyword> and brand leadership – to justify the big money they are raising. For instance, Myntra expects to more than double its <keyword id="657194" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="gross-sales">gross sales</keyword> to over $250 million by March 2015 and the fashion e-tailer’s <keyword id="2049176" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Monthly-gross-sales">monthly gross sales</keyword> could touch $20-25 million by April this year. Myntra is expected to end the current fiscal with more than $100 million in gross sales and it is targeting $1 billion in <keyword id="6399113" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="GMV">GMV</keyword> by 2016-2017. Flipkart, which raised $360 million last year at a valuation of about $1.6 billion, is also projecting a GMV of $1 billion by 2015. 
 Jabong, too, has aggressive growth plans and the latest round will be used to strengthen its <keyword id="2049177" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Supply-chain-infrastructure">supply chain infrastructure</keyword> and enhance its <keyword id="2049178" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Technology-platform">technology platform</keyword>. According to industry sources, Jabong might have generated <keyword id="2049180" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Gross-merchandise-sales">gross merchandise sales</keyword> of $100-150 million for the fiscal 2012-13. Other key investments in the Indian e-commerce space since 2013 included online marketplace Snapdeal raising about Rs 300 crore and baby care portal <keyword id="1615917" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="FirstCry">Firstcry</keyword> bagging Rs 92 crore. 
 
Inventory, <keyword id="6630005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="private-labels">private labels</keyword> are adding value 
With the lone exception of Snapdeal that runs a 100% marketplace, most of the big e-commerce entities in India are flourishing on a hybrid model – a strategic mix of inventory, private label and marketplace. In fact, Jabong has been doing all three for some time now, although a bit discreetly, and it could be now pushing hard to extract every penny from each of these categories. 
 
Myntra, on the other hand, focuses on both inventory and private label, with the share of private labels rising rapidly. A couple of years ago, the e-tailer acquired Exclusively.in Inc., the company behind the private label brand Shersingh.com and the fashion site Exclusively.in, in a cash-cum-equity deal. Myntra is reportedly eyeing more private labels to add to its portfolio as the margins are pretty high in this segment and add substantially to the profits. 
 
Bottom line: Is it a <keyword id="2049185" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Volatile-situation">volatile situation</keyword>? In one of her latest blogs in <keyword id="6359301" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Entrepreneur">Entrepreneur</keyword>.com, entrepreneur-writer Erika Trautman has nicely summed it up. “No matter how great the idea, if your start-up doesn’t create hard and fast results with analytics, targeted business solutions and mobile integration, it won’t survive in 2014. Launching a start-up can’t just be about how cool your product is. No business can subsist off just buzz and Press. This year, start-ups must focus on business fundamentals and start emphasising partnerships that generate results.” 
 
Can the Indian e-commerce players innovate, scale up and deliver (as the takeaways so amply illustrate) to justify the trust investors are now putting in them? Will there be new ventures to take up the gauntlet? Let us wait and watch. 
 
Image: Thinkstock Photos/Getty Images

Indian E-com Players
Are Raising Big Money; These 5 Takeaways Can Help You Understand What’s
Changing

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>.
<div style="page-break-after: always;">
	&#xa0;</div>

	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.
<div style="page-break-after: always;">
	&#xa0;</div>

	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

Life After
Flipkart-Myntra Deal: Will These 3 Trends Rule E-commerce In India?

Negotiations to acquire <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=jabong&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Jabong</a> are underway and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=alibaba&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Alibaba</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=future+group&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Future Group</a>, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=myntra&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Myntra</a> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=aditya+birla+group&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Aditya Birla's</a> ecommerce venture <keyword id="3103299" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Abof">Abof</keyword> are among the top contenders to seal the deal, which is expected to be at $250-$300 million. 
 <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>, reportedly, is also said to be in the race but won’t bid that aggressively. Even though <keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword> has asked for $250-300 million, the deal size could be lower. 
 
German incubator Rocket Internet, who founded Jabong in 2012, and Swedish investment firm Kinnevik, which owns a large stake in Jabong's parent Global Fashion Group, are keen to exit. 
 
"Jabong has held talks with these four companies over the past few weeks. While none of the negotiations has reached an advanced stage, the deal size could be around two times its annual sales and is expected to close within the next six months," a executive told ET. 
 
Executives from Rocket Internet and Kinnevik are currently camping in India to oversee a sale, ET quoted sources as saying. 
 
ET reported that Jabong's revenues dropped 7% to Rs 869.1 crore in 2015 from the year earlier but it trimmed losses to Rs 46.7 crore from Rs 159.5 crore after a clampdown on discounts, much as other ecommerce companies have done. 
 
The Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) rose 14% to Rs 1,503 crore from almost 5.4 million orders. 
 
Jabong's net sales grew 14% to 32.6 million in the March quarter with a gross profit of 0.2 million as it derisked business by moving more toward the consignment and marketplace model and away from discounting. 
 
Apart from this, another attractive deal with Jabong could be its top management. Jabong hired former Benetton India managing director Sanjeev Mohanty as chief executive in 2015 and former eBay executive Muralikrishnan B as chief operating officer in February. 
 
Harminder Sahni, founder of retail consultancy Wazir Advisors, told ET, “I see merit in somebody acquiring and rebuilding brand because it is not easy to build brand awareness of that level in today's time as nobody is going to fund that kind of money in brand building anymore.” 
 
(Image: Thinkstock)

Alibaba, Future Group, Myntra in race to buy Jabong, deal size expected to be $250 million

In a bid to seal its position as market leader, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=flipkart&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Flipkart </a>has acquired online fashion portal<a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=jabong&amp;sortorder=effectivedate"> Jabong</a> through its unit <keyword id="319719" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Myntra">Myntra</keyword>. The e-commerce player has pipped rival <keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword> and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=aditya+birla+group&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Aditya Birla Group</a> to seal the deal at an estimated $70 million.
 <keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword>, which was at par with <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword>'s <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/searchresult.cms?query=myntra&amp;sortorder=effectivedate">Myntra</a> in sales until early 2014, has seen a steep decline in market share since then. This is mainly because of the crores Myntra’s parent Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon have been spending on advertisements and discounts.

	By the end of May, Jabong was down. While it reported a 14% hike, it's loss only narrowed from €11.9 million from €16.3 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

	Not to mention, the company has seen an exit of senior management, slowdown in funding and overbearing competition from Amazon India.

	Earlier this month, Jabong fastened up its exit process as the firm’s owners, AB Kinnevik and Rocket Internet didn't want to pump more money into a losing race horse.

	The valuation of GFG (owner of Jabong) slid almost a third to $1.13 billion in a mere 10 months. In May, the company last raised $339 million from Kinnevik and Rocket Internet, but that was a much lower valuation.

	The current deal is estimated to be around $50-75 million, allowing existing investors Rocket Internet and Kinnevik AB to quit.

	Jabong’s investors have managed to find a buyer for their struggling business, but does this mean any good for Flipkart? We'll have to wait and watch. 
	 
	<a href="http://ateen.in/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/jabong-21.jpg">Image Source</a>

The Story of Jabong's exit: From $500Mn to $70Mn

If you’re a fan of buying fashion stuff online, here’s something of your interest. We hope you have upgraded to a smartphone by now. Because fashion ecommerce company <keyword id="319719" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Myntra">Myntra</keyword> will be shutting down its website from 15th of this month and become an “app only” platform. With mobile-based commerce emerging as the next biggest opportunity, Myntra is taking the lead in marking the end of desktop and browser based shopping. 
 
The rapid expansion of smartphones from 120-140 million in 2014 to 600-700 million in 2020 will provide the base for creation of an inclusive market unprecedented in the history of fashion shopping. Mobile apps are taking utilitarian role in users’ life by being the default mode of accessing and consuming internet services. According to a recent study, 90% of smartphone users in India use apps, which is close to 158 million as of today. The country ranks second only to the US in the usage of shopping apps. 
 However, if you dislike shopping from mobile, blaming it to the smaller screen size, know here, <keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword> will keep websites open for apparel shopping. 
 “We strongly believe customers should have <keyword id="819468" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-choice">the choice</keyword> to buy either on his smartphone or on the computer," Jabong <keyword id="217739" type="POSITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="cofounder">Cofounder</keyword> <keyword id="536011" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Praveen-Sinha">Praveen Sinha</keyword> told The Economic Times, adding that the <keyword id="174155" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Gurgaon-based">Gurgaon-based</keyword> company generates half its sales from mobile devices and will continue to host its website. "It's still 50-50 for us." 
 
Sinha said an app-only operation may limit price comparison and product visibility for consumers, who could find it easier to quickly open other sites on a laptop or desktop. "Getting a price discovery from an app will be very difficult.” 
 
Jabong won’t raise funds independently: In an interview with The Economic Times, Jabong Cofounder Praveen Sinha has said, “Funds will be raised at a global level and allocated to the various country-specific businesses as the need arises. Jabong is now part of the <keyword id="2504271" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Global-Fashion-Group">Global Fashion Group</keyword> (GFG). 
 Sinha said Jabong will no longer raise funds independently. It received $100 million from British development finance institution CDC and other investors last year. Jabong is now part of the Global Fashion Group, which will provide the finances. GFG will now become the central group where, if required, further <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> will be raised." 
 As per the financial daily, last year, Rocket Internet and AB Kinnevik created a global alliance of five large ecommerce companies in which both have sizeable investment -- Jabong, Dafiti in <keyword id="48890" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Latin-America">Latin America</keyword>, Lamoda in <keyword id="6358826" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Russia">Russia</keyword> &amp; CIS, Namshi in <keyword id="1009187" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="the-middle">the Middle</keyword> East and Zalora in <keyword id="53564" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Southeast-Asia">Southeast Asia</keyword> and <keyword id="6355478" type="COUNTRY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Australia">Australia</keyword>. Sinha told the ET that, as part of the global alliance, Jabong will be able to secure exclusive rights to sell foreign brands in India, to list brands in other countries and meet its technological requirements. 
 Sinha was dismissive of the buzz that US-based <keyword id="18635" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amazon">Amazon</keyword>.com was in talks to acquire Jabong in a bid to gain a strong foothold in fashion, one of the fastest-growing segments of online retailing. 
 
“Talks with Amazon were never serious," he said. Germanybased Rocket Internet's ambition is to become the largest online platform outside China and the US and Jabong is an important cog in its global scheme of things.

Myntra now an App-only brand, Jabong not keen on shutting down website for app-only approach

Jabong, the online fashion portal, has decided to discontinue several low-margin brands from its online platform, which includes three-fourth of its private labels. This is being done so that it can trim losses while positioning itself as a platform only for premium lifestyle products. 
 
A unit of German e-commerce incubator <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Rocket-Internet-invests-300-million-Euros-in-Jabongs-parent-company-GFG/articleshow/52075838.cms">Rocket Internet</a>, Jabong will now focus only on top 200-300 brands, as per a top company executive. 
 
"We had spread ourselves too thin and now we are shrinking our portfolio," Sanjeev Mohanty was quoted saying. Mohanty, who was earlier associated with Italian fashion brand Benetton, had joined Jabong as its MD six months ago. "We are sharpening our positioning and opting out of lower price point brands and labels," he added. 
 
Jabong had managed to reduce its losses to about a third in 2015, and brought it down to Rs 46.7 crore from a year ago, however, sales growth were slowed down to 7% at Rs 869 crore. 
 
Also read: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Jabong-has-no-buyers/articleshow/51839070.cms">Jabong has no buyers, not even at the unbelievably low price of Rs 663 crore</a> 
 
The lifestyle portal is also said to be expanding its ethnic and sports portfolio, Mohanty added. 
 
Even though this move could mean an initial loss of customers, this would also mean that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Jabong-gets-20-million-in-fresh-funding-round/articleshow/51223168.cms">Jabong </a>creates for itself a unique identity, like its <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Say-goodbye-to-huge-discounts-as-Myntra-Jabong-wants-to-make-profits-now/articleshow/50768977.cms">competitors </a>have done or are trying to do. 
 
"It is good to consolidate the brand portfolio using analytics and understanding of customer preferences. This could even help in a clear value proposition to the customers. Brands need to provide either revenues or margins or variety to the platform" said Sreedhar Prasad, partner - e-commerce, at KPMG. 
 
<a href="https://jabongreviews.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/img_4129.jpg">Image source</a>

No more low-margin products on Jabong as it switches focus from portfolio to profits

Is e-commerce 2.0 over in India? Going by the recent ripple of mergers and closures, impacted by an overall volatile economy, we often assume the worse. Investors’ loss of trust in the Indian ecosystem has become a litany for some time now but in spite of the downtime, a handful of Indian e-commerce firms have hit the headlines in 2013 for fast-paced growth and the big bucks they have managed to raise. Their operations vary widely – it can be as simple as business listing, as predictable as selling books and lifestyle items online or as unique as creating a whole new platform for a consumer requirement. But routine or innovative, these six Indian companies have gained both investors’ support and consumer trust that keep them going. Find out what’s making them tick while we bring you a tongue-in-cheek account of possible mergers &amp; acquisitions that may happen on their way. 
 
 
<keyword id="430602" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="JustDial">JustDial</keyword>: What’s next after a roaring listing business? 
Forget MakeMyTrip and its iconic NASDAQ listing – here is one success story just as good. Fresh from a mind-blowing IPO that was oversubscribed 12 times, this India-focused local business listing site has already entered online food ordering space and has some more projects in the pipeline. Of course, the Rs 950 crore IPO – a pure offer for sale in which founder VSS Mani and investors, including Tiger Global, Sequoia Capital and SAP Ventures, sold some 1.75 crore shares – is the largest on the Indian bourses this year and one of the biggest by an Indian Internet firm. 
 
However, the start-up had done its fair share of tight-rope walking earlier in the day. Since his first-ever business directory service AskMe failed in the early 90s, Mani made sure to make the next initiative failure-proof – taking one cautious step at a time (initially answering consumer queries over phone, then graduating to web queries and next moving on to mobile apps). Finally, India got its biggest business listings company, built from a paltry seed capital of Rs 50,000. And here is another interesting bit of information. Since 1999, Mani had taken six shots at the bourses and the last one has gone right home. 
 
Road ahead: What feels good about this start-up is that, JustDial is already up and about, looking at new businesses. In a recent media interview, Mani confirmed that the company would soon expand its online service range – diversifying into cab, movie ticket and doctor appointment booking. 
 
If consolidation happens: What if... search giant Google wants to focus more on India and requires a local partner that has scale and reach across multiple businesses? In fact, <keyword id="45395" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Google-India">Google India</keyword> has already introduced Product Listing ads that will display features like product images, pricing and more, to highlight merchant offerings. Will it thrive more if JustDial comes on board? 
 
<keyword id="541988" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="SnapDeal">Snapdeal</keyword>: All about pivots, deals &amp; marketplace, but can it do a TaoBao? Talk about pivots and you have Kunal Bahl who has done it as many times as Robert Bruce and courted success. His business pivoted seven times as Bahl started by selling restaurant deal vouchers (and printed ones at that); came up with a daily deal site and finally pivoted to a zero-inventory, e-commerce marketplace just like Amazon, with a B2C (business to consumer) focus. That definitely makes it different from <keyword id="161767" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="eBay-India">eBay India</keyword> where the focus is C2C. Snapdeal claims to be doing it big – with 20 million registered users and around 14-15 million visitors each month, according to his recent interaction with AllThingsD. And a total funding of $114 million or so (eBay is an existing investor in the company as well) definitely speaks a lot in terms of investor confidence. Snapdeal is not profitable yet, but it is eyeing an annual GMV of $400 million this fiscal and wants to do a billion dollar in GMV by 2015. 
 
Road ahead: Media reports say Bahl is all set to do a TaoBao Mall (a dedicated B2C e-commerce marketplace run by China’s Alibaba Group) right here in India. The seasoned entrepreneur prefers to call the marketplace a vast product discovery platform with fast and furious growth and has recently introduced a customer protection service called TrustPay – a service that ensures 100% money-back guarantee in case of any issue with product quality, size or delivery. It also serves as a seller protection service against any kind of consumer fraud. Snapdeal’s agility to move ahead of the market could be its USP, especially now that it has started working on ad revenues, but can it really achieve the momentum and the scale in the Indian context? 
 
If consolidation happens: That eBay is one of the investors in Snapdeal is an interesting fact. If the company ever considers a readymade marketplace with a B2B focus, this will be a good deal. Then there is <keyword id="6354743" type="COMPANY" weightage="40" keywordseo="Amazon-India">Amazon India</keyword> who could be buying out all competition. But given a choice, would it buy <keyword id="6354742" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Flipkart">Flipkart</keyword> or Snapdeal? Well, your guess is as good as ours. 
 
Flipkart: Big bucks are rolling in, but is the business booming? 
Don’t shop, Flipkart it – that’s the new mantra of this prolific e-com player, founded by Sachin and Binny Bansal (they are not related). They started as a book e-tailer, but soon expanded into all possible categories – from fashion to fitness and accessories, gadgets &amp; electronics to home &amp; lifestyle products, baby care items, toys and more. The success mantra is simple – best pricing and speedy delivery, backed by a dedicated logistics team. Understandably, the traction is awesome – the company claims to have 10 million registered users and over 1 million unique visitors a day. 
 
Flipkart has recently raised a fifth round of funding worth $200 million from its existing investors – Tiger Global, Accel Partners, ICONIQ Capital and South African Internet company Naspers – taking the total funding to more than $380 million. But that doesn’t mean all is well in paradise. It has recently shut down some digital businesses like Flyte (a much-hyped MP3 store launched only a year ago) and cut down on a number of electronics categories. On the plus side, it has launched its own payment gateway called PayZippy, introduced a voice-based search on the site, started selling e-books and has come up with a marketplace where third party vendors can sell directly to consumers. Flipkart has also entered a deal with the US-based indie e-book distributor Smashwords, Inc., which gives it access to Smashwords’ eBook store – a catalogue of 2 lakh-plus vetted and formatted e-books from more than 60,000 authors and publishers. 
 
Road ahead: Ambitious, to say the least, especially after the Series E booster. Just like Snapdeal, this e-com biggie wants to reach an annual GMV of $1 billion by 2015 besides doubling up the number of sellers on the marketplace to 1,000 by the end of this year. Although Flipkart is constantly harping on global level hiring, the biggest chunk of the funds raised is bound to be spent on technology, supply chain and (don’t be shocked) product development. PayZippy could be just the beginning and going ahead, Flipkart may evolve into a technology enabler for offline businesses keen to have an online presence. Infibeam’s Build A Bazaar, SmartStore from BigFoot Retail and PayU India’s PayUPaisa are doing just the same, but Flipkart can actually do a PayUPaisa by integrating the proprietary payment gateway with the Web stores for additional revenues (just like PayUPaisa does). 
 
But it is the Smashwords deal that intrigues us most. According to Nielsen BookScan Retail Panel data, in 2013, Flipkart holds an average of 40-45% in terms of value when it comes to the organised books market in India and the company has plans to grow it substantially. If that happens, it will become the undisputed market leader in the books category – both online and offline. And before we forget, Flipkart may focus even more on private labels – it already markets a private label brand called Digiflip for digital accessories such as laptop bags and camera pouches. But the biggest challenge is to get over the few setbacks, bring back the positive drive and get ready for a much-anticipated IPO. 
 
If consolidation happens: A head-on between Snapdeal and Flipkart or Amazon and Flipkart will be extremely interesting. However, the company is not losing much sleep over the competition from existing marketplaces. Another possibility is Flipkart acquiring Tradus since they have a common investor in Naspers and such deals have taken place before. 
 
<keyword id="6388367" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jabong">Jabong</keyword>: Fashion e-tailing on a roll, but for how long? 
Shun the incremental and go for the leap, said Jack Welch of GE. And if there’s one online retailer in the fashion and lifestyle segment that has literally fallen for this mandate, it’s Jabong.com, the dark horse in the fiercely competitive Indian e-commerce space. In less than 20 months, the Rocket Internet-backed venture has banged into the top rung – the third most-visited online shopping site after Myntra.com and Flipkart.com, according to a recent report by comScore. Reasons for such eyeballs? Huge inventory, aggressive marketing, speedy delivery and best-in-class customer care (including third-party logistics services). The deep pockets of the Samwer brothers help it burn the cash left, right and centre, and around 50-60% of its sales are coming from small towns, its founder, Arun Chandra Mohan, said in a recent media interaction. 
 
Road ahead: Could be bleak, going by Rocket’s reputation of creating hype and disposing its assets at the earliest. Jabong claims to do around 14,000 orders a day (average ticket size not disclosed), but it is yet to hit profitability. The company is said to be experimenting with private labels, but does not seem to be pushing it big time in spite of potential big margins. Moreover, just like Flipkart, Jabong has also handed out the pink slips. At the end of the day, it has to find a viable business model and we hope that the third-party logistics can bring in some hard cash as e-tailing spreads across the country. 
 
If consolidation happens: A takeover bid, either by Myntra or by Flipkart, will definitely put the bidder on the top. However, Flipkart is an unlikely candidate as its late initiative to enter fashion and lifestyle space is yet to gain traction and scale. Of course, it is not lacking in funds, but considering that the firm has already launched a marketplace in April this year and facing some stiff competition from Amazon India and other desi e-com marketplaces, will it really invest in an inventory-led model? Myntra, on the other hand, could be game if it is seriously considering a No. 1 slot. Interestingly, Bangalore-based Myntra is one of the heaviest funded players in the e-commerce space and has raised around $64 million till date. It has also made some interesting acquisitions and a shot at a competitor might not be unlikely. 
 
Just Zomato it: You can’t find a spicier chunk of food business 
Is this online restaurant guide doing a Jabong in terms of fast and furious growth? Well, apparently, going by the latest report card. Just five years into the business, this Gurgaon-based firm has expanded to 28 cities across 8 countries (India, the UAE, Qatar, Sri Lanka, the UK, the Philippines, South Africa and New Zealand) – with listings of over 1,18,000 restaurants and 15 million monthly users (web and mobile). And it all happened because founder Deepinder Goyal, while working for Bain &amp; Co. in Delhi, decided to do something about easy access to food joints, rather than stomaching an overcrowded office cafeteria or flying blind to find nearby eateries. 
 
Zomato’s USP is its user-generated reviews (pretty stringent, going by the new parameters set up not too long ago). Moneywise, it is pretty well-funded. Info Edge (India) Ltd, which runs a string of consumer internet portals including the coveted job listing site Naukri.com, is the majority stakeholder in Zomato and invested around Rs 86.06 crore in the company. 
 
Road ahead: Next destinations are Brazil and Turkey, to say nothing of the recent tie-up it had with UK-based toptables for restaurant booking in London, Manchester and Birmingham. And for a change, this start-up has reached break-even in India and Dubai could be next on the cards. As of now, revenues roll in via ads, event ticketing and restaurant booking. 
 
If consolidation happens: If you are not on Zomato, you are not really there – that’s how the saying goes for restaurants. So the next logical step is to expand into restaurant booking (it has already done it in the UK) and online food ordering. Zomato has reportedly declined such expansion plans in India, but going by JustDial’s latest foray into the online food ordering space, a look at Foodpanda (India), a food ordering platform backed by Rocket Internet, or other homegrown restaurant reservation sites like TableGrabber.com, Dineout.co.in, PoshVine.com and Tablewalla.com may just work out well for Zomato.

Watch Out! These 5 Indian
E-com Players Can’t Stop Growing

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">ReutersJeff Bezos during a visit to India</div></div></div>Amazon beat Q2 earnings expectations Thursday afternoon, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-q2-earnings-2015-7">sending the stock sky-rocketing.</a>Growth in Amazon Web Services, the company's <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-cloud-grows-even-bigger-2015-7">profitable cloud computing business</a>, soaked up much of the spotlight on the company's subsequent earnings call, but there was one other topic that investors and analysts kept bringing up: India. Amazon only officially launched in the country in June 2013, but it's now the company's fastest growing geography in terms of sales.Amazon also says that it's the biggest online store in India with more than 25 million products for sale. That's about 5 million more than the <a href="http://www.flipkart.com/about-us">most recent numbers</a> from one of its biggest local competitors, Flipkart. Interestingly, Flipkart's founders actually both worked at Amazon before leaving in 2007 to build their own company. Exactly one day after Flipkart <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/former-amazon-executives-flipkart-2014-7" target="_blank">raised a mammoth $1 billion</a> funding round in June 2014, Amazon said it planned to pour <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-amazon-to-invest-2-billion-more-in-india-as-e-commerce-race-heats-up-2014-30">$2 billion into its own Indian operations</a>. On Amazon's earnings call, CFO Brian Olsavsky hinted that that investment continues to grow. When one analyst asked about India, he said the company was "super excited" about opportunities in the region. "When we see a positive surprise we double-down on it - that's kind of our policy - and India is that kind of surprise," Olsavsky said. "We're very happy, very encouraged early on about what we've seen so far with the ramping up of the business, the level of innovation going on for both customers and sellers."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Abhishek N. ChinnappaAnother shot of Bezos in India</div></div></div>Besides Flipkart, eBay and Softbank-backed Snapdeal and Jabong are also significant local competitors, but one of the reasons India's ecommerce market is so attractive to Amazon is because it's growing like crazy.Right now, India has the <a href="http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users/">third greatest number of internet users</a> in the world, after China and the United States, and is <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/alibaba-foxconn-in-talks-to-invest-500-million-in-indias-snapdeal-1434444149">similarly ranked in smartphone penetration</a>. Researchers expect the online shopping market in <a href="https://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/indian-ecommerce-market-reach-15-billion-2016-report">India to reach $15 billion by 2016</a> up from only $35 million in 2014. Amazon sees India has a much more accessible market than China, a source <a href="http://recode.net/2015/03/10/as-amazon-stumbles-in-china-india-rises-as-its-biggest-overseas-opportunity/">told Re/code's Jason Del Rey</a> earlier this year. That mindset makes sense because Amazon struggled to become a big player in China, seeing <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2015/03/06/amazon-opens-store-inside-alibabas-tmall-in-china/">declining marketshare since 2008</a>, in part because Alibaba is such a local favorite. Amazon even opened up its own store on Alibaba's site Tmall earlier this year. Another investor threw some subtle-shade at Amazon's growth in China, asking whether Amazon expected a similar trajectory in India. "I would say that India and China are totally different," investor relations investor Phil Hardin replied. "I think as Brian mentioned, India is a country that we're doubling-down on based on the success we've seen so far. And we're excited to be investing and have the opportunities we do at this point."Overall, Amazon only saw tepid 3% international sales growth this quarter, though the company said that would have been 12% if it weren't for the unfavorable foreign exchange impact. Still, even 12% is down from <a href="file:///Users/jdonfro/Downloads/Q2%202014%20Financial%20Results%20(1).pdf">14% quarterly growth</a> in Q2 2014, and <a href="file:///Users/jdonfro/Downloads/Q2%202013%20Financial%20Results.pdf">20% in 2013</a> (those figures also exclude the effect of exchange rates). By double-down on its India operations, Amazon is clearly trying to make that region a more significant driver of growth. And not just on the ecommerce side: Amazon said it planned to bring its AWS cloud service to India in the future as well. CEO Jeff Bezos recruited a particularly trusted executive, Amit Agarwal, to lead Amazon's India efforts. Agarwal has worked at Amazon for more than 16 years, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pub/amit-agarwal/0/33/86b">including two years</a> in the coveted position of <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/jeff-bezos-technical-advisors-2013-10">Bezos' "shadow."</a>In India, he faces a set of challenges unique to the country. For example, it's incredibly mobile-first - the <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/tech-news/Mobile-commerce-comes-of-age-in-India/articleshow/44898756.cms">director of Google India predicts</a> that by 2017, 70%-80% online transactions will happen via smartphone. Plus, <a href="http://profit.ndtv.com/news/corporates/article-how-flipkart-amazon-are-shaking-up-retailing-in-india-644102">The AP reported in August 2014</a> that fewer than 12% of Indians had credit or debit cards, so Amazon has had to adapt to a "Cash on Delivery" model, which <a href="http://www.amazon.in/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201438030">isn't yet available in all areas</a>."Everything is nascent in India-the seller ecosystem, the logistics, the payments," Agarwal told <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2015/06/04/primed-for-battle/">Saritha Rai for Forbes in January</a>. "We have to connect the dots on a massive scale that involves hundreds of cities, thousands of sellers and millions of products."But it's worth it:"Is it big? Check. Can we add significant customer value? Check. Can we generate significant cash flow? Check," he added. "India ticks all the boxes for Amazon."Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through hispersonal investment company Bezos Expeditions. <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-last-guardian-2015-6">Sony has been working on this Playstation game for 8 years - and the trailer is absolutely beautiful</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="NnbHdvdTo4gdTuPMoFuIYK4ITAATfORt" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

You Searched For "rocket internet jabong" and got 13 results

Jabong could be acquired by Snapdeal or Future Group, but at much less price

BI India Bureau

Jabong has no buyers, not even at the unbelievably low price of Rs 663 crore

BI India Bureau

Rocket Internet invests 300 million Euros in Jabong’s parent company GFG

BI India Bureau

Jabong gets $20 million in fresh funding round

BI India Bureau

Rocket Internet’s selling 2 really big online brands to the Future Group

BI India Bureau

Indian E-com Players Are Raising Big Money; These 5 Takeaways Can Help You Understand What’s Changing

Sanghamitra Mandal

Life After Flipkart-Myntra Deal: Will These 3 Trends Rule E-commerce In India?

Sanghamitra Mandal

Alibaba, Future Group, Myntra in race to buy Jabong, deal size expected to be $250 million

BI India Bureau

The Story of Jabong's exit: From $500Mn to $70Mn

Saikat Pyne

Myntra now an App-only brand, Jabong not keen on shutting down website for app-only approach

BI India Bureau

No more low-margin products on Jabong as it switches focus from portfolio to profits

BI India Bureau

Watch Out! These 5 Indian E-com Players Can’t Stop Growing

SANGHAMITRA MANDAL

Amazon's next big challenge: Winning India

JILLIAN D'ONFRO

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides