Amazon may be testing drones to drop off packages but in India, the world's biggest ecommerce company is looking to try out something decidedly low-tech that could give it an unbeatable edge on deliveries.

Its secret weapon? The postman. Amazon already sends packages by India Post but now it wants to use the channel to collect payments from recipients as well, using the cash-on-delivery model. Amazon has started a pilot with India Post to test this system, which could help it reach deep into India's hinterland, according to two people familiar with the matter. 

A partnership between India Post and Amazon would intensify competition in the still-nascent but burgeoning ecommerce industry if the pilot proves to be a success. 

Amazon would gain reach while India Post would benefit from the company's aggressive growth plans. India Post has more than 150,000 post offices in India, out of which 89% are in rural areas. "We are trying to add capabilities like cash on delivery and reverse logistics. Consumers don't want to make an upfront payment. We are developing software to start the cash-on-delivery service with Amazon," said a senior India Post official who did not want to be identified. India's 150-year-old postal service, hurting from the country's telecom revolution and increasing adoption of email, has been seeking to reinvent itself, including bidding for banking services. It has applied to RBI for a banking licence, seeking to leverage its wide reach. 

India Post has applied to the Reserve Bank of India for a banking licence, seeking to leverage its wide reach. The central bank is expected to announce the grant of bank licences in January. The Amazon plan, if it goes through, will fit in nicely with the postal department's plans. India Post aims to spend about Rs 100 crore in the next few years to set up warehouses for ecommerce packages. 

Cash on delivery accounts for two-thirds of ecommerce transactions. The percentage is even higher in smaller towns. To be sure, cash on delivery is riddled with challenges in India. Customers sometimes refuse to accept delivery or aren't available at the address given to make payments. 

Theft and fraud risks are also higher. Amazon is testing the cashon-delivery model on India Post's Speed Post network, which is faster than the E-Express Parcel service it offers, according to the people cited above. The Amazon spokesperson didn't answer specific queries on the matter. "We continually look for opportunities that will enable us to reach our customers in the remotest parts of India and offer them a convenient, trustworthy and reliable shopping experience," the company spokesperson said in an emailed response. 

Amazon India functions as a market place for other vendors as existing foreign direct investment rules don't allow it to sell to Indian consumers directly. However, if and when the industry opens up, a wide distribution network would be an advantage over local rival Flipkart. "India Post by far has the largest distribution network and no private courier company can match it. 

Source: Economic Times

CEO Jeff Bezos says Amazon.com Inc is testing a new delivery service that could pick up items from Amazon's distribution centers and fly them to customer's homes. The drones can carry packages that weigh up to 2.3 kgs and Amazon is waiting to enter commercial operations as soon as the necessary regulations are in place.

"The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is actively working on rules for unmanned aerial vehicles," says Amazon's website. Called Prime Air vehicles, the goal of the new delivery system is to get packages into customers' hands in 30 minutes or less. Amazon says one day, seeing fleets of delivery drones in the sky will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today.

The drones are octocopters, 8-rotor helicopters, that carry the packages directly from the distribution center and will place them right outside people's doorsteps. The service will be ready for roll out in 2015, says Amazon.

"We hope the FAA's rules will be in place as early as sometime in 2015. We will be ready at that time". The rules priorities public safety.

"Safety will be our top priority, and our vehicles will be built with multiple redundancies and designed to commercial aviation standards," the website says.

Here's how customers will be able to select the high-speed, 30-minute delivery option that will use the octocopter to deliver packages.

ET: The details of two of the defining deals in Indian ecommerce this year are out with South African internet major Naspers publishing its interim results.

Flipkart, which raised $360 million (about Rs 2,250 crore) in two rounds this year, was valued at around $1.6 billion (over Rs 9,900 crore) in July. In its interim financial report Naspers has disclosed that the company acquired an additional 8.6% in Flipkart in July by investing over $135 million (over Rs 850 crore). Naspers now holds 16.7% in the online retail portal. 
In July, Flipkart's existing investors Naspers, Tiger Global, Iconiq Capital and Accel Partners had invested $200 million (about Rs 1,250 crore) in the company. Three months later new investors Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Sofina and Vulcan Capital, along with existing investor Tiger, put in an additional $160 million (about Rs 1,000 crore) in the company.

The results also show that Naspers acquired 80% stake in online bus ticketing venture redBus in June for around $100 million (about Rs 620 crore). This values redBus at over $120 million (about Rs 750 crore). The Bangalore-based venture had not disclosed its valuation or the deal size at the time of the buyout.

The acquisition provided an exit for the latter's early-stage investors-Seedfund, Inventus Capital and Helion Ventures. The three venture investors had provided about $10 million (over Rs 60 crore) in three rounds of funding. 

Source: Economic Times

Global retail giant Amazon.com on Sunday said it is ‘engaging’ with the government for relaxing of foreign direct investment (FDI) norms in e-commerce space, following which it will adopt a hybrid model to start product retailing.

“We believe FDI in e-commerce is good for the customers. Not only will they get more choices but it will also improve the level customer service for the industry,” Amazon director and general manager (seller services) Amit Deshpande told PTI.

“We are engaging with the government to relax FDI norms in e-commerce space,” he added.

Deshpande said that once the government relaxes FDI in e-commerce,Amazon.in will follow a hybrid model where apart from marketplace model, “we will begin retailing products”.

The company, which launched operations in India in June, currently operates with marketplace model. Under this model, Amazon.in will not sell products directly to customers but only provide a platform to sellers.

India’s FDI policy restricts e-commerce companies from offering services directly to retail consumers. At present, 100% FDI is allowed in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce but not in retail trading. The company, which began operations with just two product categories—books and movies, has now over 15 products categories and has over 1,400 sellers listed on its website.

“India is huge opportunity for us. We are here for long term. We believe Indian e-commerce space has got potential. We will continue to add categories such as sports and apparel,” Deshpande said.

Amazon entered the Indian online shopping space with its price aggregator and selection website Junglee.com in February 2012. PTI


#Amazon #Business #Ecommerce #FDI #FDI in retail e-commerce #Foreign direct investment #India #Marketplace model #NewsTracker #retail FDI #Technology

Petrol prices used to be stable in India whatever the prevailing international prices thanks to the Govt. oil companies absorbing any difference by the way of a subsidy. But from June 2010 the govt. ordered it's companies to reflect international prices to cut losses as the companies were not able to sustain themselves with all the accumlated losses. Since then prices have been fixed almost every two weeks and have only reflected international prices making consumers very unhappy.

Source: IOCL Website.

*    VAT as per Delhi.  It varies from 33 %  to 15 % from State to State
** Petrol Price is decontrolled with effect from 26th June, 2010. The price break up is as per IOC.


In the table above is the price a refinery pays at prevailing international rates to procure a liter of crude oil inclusive of shipping and other charges. This is calculated per Oil barrel (bbl) which equals about 159 liters of oil. Current market price is US $109. As you can see both the international crude price and the rupee value against the dollar affects the domestic price at which refineries acquire crude everyday which would reflect in your cost of petrol at road side.

From crude to petrol

• The crude oil from overseas suppliers is transported to refineries in India
• There are over 20 refineries across the country to which the crude is transported
• Crude oil is pumped into distillation towers, which separate the crude into various petroleum products like diesel, petrol, jet fuel, coal tar, etc
• Besides the cost of distilling and refining, other costs at this point include crude custom levy and freight from ports to the refinery. 
• From the refinery the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) like IOC, BPCL, HP etc., buy refinied crude oil. The refining process (cost of refining crude is around Rs.6/ltr) and transportation costs are added to OMC bills and comes to about Rs. 44.12 (C) with a margin to the refining companies. But the price charged to dealers is about 47.91 as of 16/11/13, with a profit margin of more than Rs.3 to the Oil Marketing Companies. This margin fluctuates according to govt. policy but not more than 10%. The oil marketing companies may also make a loss on other petroleum products like Kerosine and Diesel on which the govt. grants subsidies which means they may sell these products to dealers at a loss. But not petrol after June 2010.
  

Burger King, the fast-food chain has entered India through a joint venture with the Everstone Group. Everstone is a private equity and real estate firm.

As per the deal, Everstone has entered into a long-term master franchise and development agreement with Burger King Worldwide. The deal also includes sub-franchise rights for territories across India. The supply chain will be set up along with BK AsiaPac. They will also be executing a roll out plan for India operations. 

"India is a market with huge potential for us and we have the chance to offer the unique Burger King brand proposition to its consumers with our own local twist to the menu," said Elias Diaz Sese, President, BK Asia-Pac. 


AGENCIES

Tech czar Azim Premji is boarding India's rapidly expanding e-commerce story. His family office, PremjiInvest, is in discussions to lead a $50-million (or Rs 300-crore) fund-raise in fashion e-tailer Myntra.

PremjiInvest has a corpus of more than $1 billion for private equity-type investments in listed as well as privately-run growth companies. Premji's entry signals the trend of bulge bracket Indian investors beginning to place bets on the domestic e-commerce market, which has largely been riding on foreign investments so far.

PremjiInvest is likely to be a co-investor in the latest round of funding, which may also include British investor CDC, valuing Myntra at around $250 million (Rs 1,500 crore). Existing investors Accel Partners and Tiger Global, two US investors who are prolific backers of the Indian e-commerce play, will also participate in latest fund-raise.

IITians Mukesh Bansal, Ashutosh Lawania, and Vineet Saxena founded Myntra in 2007, which has since changed its business model from being a portal offering personalized gifting options to a fashion and lifestyle retailer. It sells multi-brand fashion merchandise online with annual gross revenues nearing Rs 800 crore, or $120 million. Myntra has so far raised $75 million in funds from its existing investors.

US investment bank Pacific Crest is advising Myntra on the transaction. The fresh funding comes at a time when the poster-boy of Indian e-commerce and Myntra's cross-town rival Flipkart has expanded its fashion business, piling up pressure on specialized online rivals.

Last month, Flipkart raised a record $360 million from investors, including Morgan Stanley, indicating that industry leaders were attracting big bucks even as laggards continued to drop off without any funding. Myntra has also been collaborating with brands to create its own fashion lines fetching it better margins. In-house private labels now account for 15 per cent of Myntra sales and its share would increase substantially in the coming months.

In the last three years, the Indian e-commerce industry has witnessed a 150 per cent growth rate, increasing from $3.8 billion in 2009 to $9.5 billion in 2012, a recent report jointly released by KPMG and IAMAI said.

Source: Economic Times; TOI

Online marketplace, Amazon India has recently launched a Children’s corner on its webstore, a curated section showcasing products for children between 0-12 years of age. The new section will allow people to conveniently find all children related products at one place.

There are around 355,000 products listed on this store including books, baby care products, toys, movies & TV shows, home furnishing, watches and more. These products were already available on the store but one had to switch from one category to another to shop for these, but now all can be purchased under one category.

“With such a large selection of children’s products across categories we have created the special Children’s Corner to provide a convenient one-stop shopping destination for our customers”, said Amit Agarwal, Vice President and Country Manager, Amazon India._

Further, the products are segregated under different sections, these include ‘For Your New Born’ – it lists baby care products, nursery furniture, parenting books and baby toys; ‘Role Play & Dress up’ – costumes and jewellery. ‘Hobbies, Games & Learning’ – for educational toys and games that and the ‘Bon Voyage’ section – car seats, travel games and a lot more.

Customers can even shop by age, this will list all the appropriate products relevant to the selected age group. Apart from this, customers can create their child’s very own ‘Wish List’ and share it with friends and family, for ease in gifting.

There are over 10,500 toys and games products listed on Amazon.in from over 80 leading brands such as Lego, Funskool, Hot Wheels, Barbie, Fisher-Price, and Melissa & Doug. The baby products selection on Amazon.in consists of over 3,000 products including diapers, health & baby care, prams nursing & feeding products from over 50 brands including Pampers, Huggies, Johnson & Johnson, Medela, and others.

After launching a marketplace in India in June, Amazon had recently made its Android app available in the country and soon it is also going to launch Amazon App for iPhone and iPad as well.

Visit Amazon Children Corner: http://goo.gl/aIu5KK

Source: iamwire

27th Nov, 2012: The commercial version of Aakash 2, UbiSlate 7Ci has gained tremendous popularity and demand owing to its amazing features and highly affordable price. To meet the outgrowing demand many online stores have made an entry in the market making the product easily available to customers. Shopllers is one such online destination stuffed with ready-to-ship UbiSlate 7Ci with a guarantee of dispatch within 48 hours of order placement.  

Aakash 2, launched by the president of India Pranab Mukherjee, is a low-cost tablet pc successor of Aakash tablet. While it is a cost effective option for students to own a tablet, its commercial version is available at a cost of Rs. 4,499. The device has a number of attractive features like 7 inch capacitive screen with 800x400 pixels resolution, 4GB internal storage, G-sensors, Wi-Fi, GPRS, front VGA camera, 3.5 mm jack, and microSD support. These collective features at this price make it the most sought after product of Aakash.

While earlier units of Aakash tablet pc needed a time span of three months after order placement for delivery, UbiSlate 7Ci will need just 48 hours for shipping once order is placed. This special lightening fast order and shipping offer runs only at Shopllers. The product comes with one year’s manufacturer warranty and is in stock ready-to-ship. Order can be placed online in few easy steps and the product can be received at home with easy monthly installments also. This lucrative offer to buy one of the most sought after product at the ease of home has resulted in overwhelming response from the customers of Shopllers.   

To view the product and place an order visit http://www.shopllers.com/Products/Shopllers-Consumer-Electronics-Tablet-Pcs/DATAWIND/Ubislate-7ci-(Aakash-2)/pid-2156075.aspx or dial +91+11+6464-4242.   

About Shopllers

Shopllers is a promising innovation in the world of online stores which is launched as a discounted and deals stores in India. Sensing the pulse of Indian customers, this store provides a one-stop destination to people looking for wide range of products from apparels, accessories, mobile phones, computers, gaming console, electronics, IT related products, and more. With quality products in stock, the company has many more customer friendly features like easy installment plan, cash on delivery option, return policy, manufacturer warranty on products, and fast and free shipping. Witnessing tremendous growth since its inception, Shopllers is all set to surprise you with diverse product collection and touch greater heights in coming days.     

Online shopping is getting popularity and so the ecommerce websites. The internet savvy customers keep on surfing various websites for quality products and reasonable prices. Now with smart phones in hand and tablet PCs, almost everyone wants to place orders online and get the products delivered at home. In such a scenario, online sellers or the ecommerce websites which really provide highest ROI to the customers are at a boom. Shopllers is one such web destination for people who are quality conscious and want to do smart shopping in terms of money. While all the products being equally rewarding, electronics at Shopllers are available at highly competitive prices with a guarantee of FREE home delivery.

Shopllers stands at customer’s side and believes in providing a pleasing shopping experience to them. That is why, its collection of electronics include everything from home appliances to bigger gadgets. No matter what the customers are looking for, it has everything from MP3 player to gaming console, tablet PCs to radio sets, or speakers to DVD players and that too at discounted prices. The running offers and discounts are such that the online visitors cannot control their temptation of buying at least one product. Added to this comes the FREE home delivery facility that is a point of attraction for all buyers. While most of the competing businesses impose shipping charges, Shopllers is providing free home delivery for the best interests of the shoppers.

Shoppers looking for electronics should definitely take a halt at Shopllers and check out its wide range of electronic collection. With 100% guarantee on the authenticity of products, all the items come with manufacturer’s warranty. The products are also available at EMI option with 0% interest. Irrespective of the customer’s location in India, the company guarantees a 7-day shipping and cash on delivery facility. Shopping was never so easy and pleasing experience. People really looking for true value of money and time, can have a glance at Shopllers.

For more information on products and prices login to www.shopllers.com and join for a live chat. Send your queries at info@shopllers.com or dial +91-11-6464-4242 to place an order.