FINANCIAL EXPRESS: Flushed with funds, these companies will drive sales online by offering attractive offers and discounts. While Flipkart recently raised $1.4 billion from Tencent, eBay and Microsoft, it raised another $2.5 billion from Softbank. Amazon has already committed $5 billion and recently pumped in Rs 1,620 crore in Amazon Sellers Services. Smartphones and laptops will be the key areas of focus for these online retailers as they look to outperform each other. To tap into the unmet potential and reach the rest of the population, internet retailers will look to further streamline their logistics and improve turnaround time to effectively cater to the growing demand for smartphones from tier-III and tier-IV cities, stated the report.

According to market estimates, the e-tailing industry will see sales worth $2.8 billion in this festive season, compared with $2 billion last year. Even a recent RedSeer analysis said the September e-tailing sales days generated gross GMV of about $1.7 billion. The Euromonitor report also said while Flipkart’s performance is profoundly dependent on the sale of consumer electronics, especially smartphones through exclusive deals, Amazon India is looking to augment the penetration of consumer electronics to smaller cities and towns through the launch of offline shopping initiative in Udaan.

 

 

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