Ankita Rai, Business Standard New Delhi, June 2, 2014 Gurgaon-based online home furnishing and furniture retailer FabFurnish, which operates both online and offline stores, has found its niche in smart expandable and collapsible furniture. Translated, this means it creates flat-pack products that are assembled at the customer's home. Why is this insistence on flat-pack and in-home assembly? Simple: Cost reduction. DIY (do it yourself) products reduce logistics cost, damages and storage costs, ensuring phenomenal efficiencies at the backend. But hold the applause. The whole idea is borrowed: the e-retailer has been inspired by global furniture behemoth IKEA. "Flat-pack furniture can…
Raghavendra Kamath, Business Standard Mumbai, May 31, 2014 Almost eight years after its launch, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Retail is ready to launch a multi-channel retail operation, which would integrate its physical stores with an e-commerce portal. The Reliance Retail team is working on the model and the company is looking to launch it this year, said sources in the know. While Reliance has e-commerce portals in some of its international fashion brands and a website for its consumer electronics, it is for the first time that the company is exploring e-commerce in value business, digital and fashion, which accounted for…
Dhruv Changoiwala, Daily News & Analysis (DNA) Mumbai, May 23, 2014 Flipkart, India's largest e-retailer, has acquired online fashion retailer Myntra in a move that is likely to help the two domestic e-retailers face international competition better. The deal, announced on Thursday, is the biggest e-commerce transaction so far in the country. While the deal amount was not disclosed, industry officials said the speculated deal size is about $300 million. Sachin Bansal, CEO, Flipkart, said, "It's a historic moment for e-commerce business. This first-of-its-kind deal would help us dominate the online fashion segment." The current $50 million online fashion market…
Purivita Chatterjee, The Hindu Mumbai, May 20, 2014 Indian retailers are hopeful that the new BJP-led Government will do a volte face on its decision to oppose foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. Once the new Government is formed, it might re-think its strategy as bringing down inflation is going to be of prime concern. FDI is expected to help improve supply chain efficiencies for retailers, thereby bringing down the cost of goods. Last year, UK-based retailer Tesco became the first foreign player to apply for entering India’s multi-brand retail sector through a proposed equal JV with Trent Hypermarket,…
(If you're in a hurry, go to the Slideshare presentation, and bookmark this post for a complete read later.) These pages usually focus on the consumer and retail sector, its constituents, its problems and the opportunities therein. The consumer and retail sector is all about choice, and it is worth noting that we’ve just concluded what was possibly the most massive consumer event in the world. I’m referring, of course, to the Indian elections, where more than 500 “consumers” were bombarded with above-the-line and below-the-line marketing by various organisations pushing their brand, product (candidate) and services (ideology and manifesto). The sum…
Geopolitical friction has again sparked renewed concerns over inflation and rising input costs for FMCG companies as @itmeansjustice @whysnavi write. @devangshu commented.
