G Seetharaman, The Economic Times New Delhi, 10 August 2014 It turns my stomach. It's a bad customer experience," says Michael Adnani, vice-president of retail at Flipkart, about its website crashing on August 5. The third batch of 15,000 Xiaomi Mi3 phones, of which Flipkart is an exclusive seller, had been lapped up in all of two seconds. The site had also gone down on July 22, when the first bunch of Xiaomi Mi3 phones were sold in under 40 minutes, and on May 14 when Moto E went on sale on the site. Flipkart has sold over a million…
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Nikita Garia, Mint Bangalore, 25 July 2014 Meru Cabs, India’s largest taxi fleet operator, plans to start services outside India by the next financial year and is evaluating entering countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. “There are many countries around India which face similar problems related to taxi service—a huge consumer need and gaps in services,” chief executive officer Siddhartha Pahwa said on Thursday. “We have the capability to address these.” Meru Cabs is not the only one planning an overseas foray. Rival TaxiForSure is also firming up plans to start operations abroad. “We are…
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Rashmi Pratap, The Hindu Businessline Mumbai, 18 July 2014 Amit Sarda is just beginning to discover India. After selling organic handmade bath salts, essential oils and soaps in the cities for over 13 years, he has suddenly realised that a whole other world exists beyond them. Orders for his company Soulflower’s products have started coming in from Tinsukia, Dibiyapur, Bidar, Sundargarh, Mansa and many more small towns, throwing open markets Sarda hitherto had no inkling of. And his ally in conquering the many nooks and corners of the country is the $75-billion American giant Amazon, which entered India last year.…
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Ashish K. Tiwari, DNA (Daily News & Analysis) Mumbai, 18 July 2014 The retail real estate segment saw a significant rise in vacancies in April-June quarter of 2014 over the January-March levels as supply increased and tenants exited under performing centres. According to a report by property research firm DTZ, the Delhi-NCR market witnessed highest increase in shopping mall vacancy at 3.5% followed by Pune at 2.6% and Mumbai at 2.3%, respectively. "In the case of Delhi-NCR, the vacancy level stood at 19.5%, up from 16% during the previous quarter due to the addition of new space. Occupiers continue to…
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Mihir Dalal, Nikita Garia, MINT Bangalore, 17 July 2014 Online fashion retailer Fashionara.com has raised $7-8 million (around Rs.42-48 crore) from its existing investors Helion Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners and plans to increase its sales by three times to Rs.100 crore this fiscal year by expanding into new cities and increasing its product range. Fashionara, a specialist online apparel retailer founded by former Madura Garments and Reliance Trends executive Arun Sirdeshmukh and e-commerce specialist Darpan Munjal, raised the money earlier this year, two people aware of the matter said. The company has now received roughly $15 million since…
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