Nobody hates Indian eCommerce like Ebay does!
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If As per a news report in The Economic Times, brick-and-mortar retailers questioning the modalities of foreign funded ecommerce marketplaces in India are finding an unlikely backer - American ecommerce firm
"There is confusion and the government needs to look at it. Companies that have their own logistics and warehouses, can they be classified as marketplaces?"
Over the weeks, India's brick-and-mortar retailers have stepped up their campaign against the country's nascent but aggressive breed of online retailers that are accused of hurting traditional retailers with their heavy discounting strategies.
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Although India bars
Brick-and-mortar players argue that online rivals such as Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal are holding inventories through warehousing and logistics operations, and that amounts to retailing.
"Virtual retailers, like real retailers, store most of their merchandise or inventories in their own warehouses," Kishore Biyani,
eBay's Nathani supports the argument. "I completely understand and agree with Mr Biyani as there needs to be more clarity on what a marketplace is and define it," he said. "Mr Biyani's concern is that marketplaces are having warehouses and courier companies and supplies of sellers are staying in their warehouses. Is that a proper definition of a marketplace or is that a stretched definition?"
Without naming any company, Nathani said there is a foreign-funded marketplace operator whose subsidiary accounts for 80% of the products sold on its platform. Snapdeal declined to comment while Amazon and Flipkart did not respond to e-mails seeking comments as of press time Thursday.
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Coincidentally, eBay owns a minority stake in Snapdeal. "Look at Uber. Now, that is a marketplace as they don't own cars and they don't have the drivers as their employees," Nathani said, referring to the appbased taxi hailing US company. "Now, for example, if they were to start owning some of
Since many months, the online retailers have been blamed from many quarters. But this time, when the blame game is hit from
(Image: Reuters)
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