Amazon and Walmart's newest competitor in Indian e-commerce is a yoga guru turned entrepreneur with a mass appeal

• Global e-commerce giants Amazon and Walmart will have a new contender to face-off against in the Indian e-commerce market — OrderMe by Patanjali Ayurved.
  
• The ₹3,000 crore FMCG brand is owned by Indian yoga guru, Baba Ramdev and his disciple Acharya Balakrishna.
  
• The announcement to launch a ‘swadeshi’ e-commerce app comes three days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a clarion call of being ‘vocal for local’ in India.
  

After Mukesh Ambani’s tie-up with Facebook to give JioMart a push, US-based Amazon and Walmart have a new emerging contender in India’s e-commerce space — Patanjali Ayurved.

Led by the yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, the ‘swadeshi’ enterprise announced its plans for an online e-commerce platform — OrderMe, three days after Prime Minister Narendra gave the ‘vocal for local’ call. It’s set to go live within the next 15 days, as per a Times Now report.

Ramdev has thrown his hat into a ring where global e-commerce giants like Amazon and the Walmart-owned Flipkart are fighting the government’s equalisation levy ⁠— which is 2%⁠— and Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani has joined hands with Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, and a clutch of other investors with deep pockets, for the countrywide rollout of JioMart.

Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s push for ‘swadeshi’ products, it seems like the perfect time for India’s own yoga guru to step up and capitalise on the opportunity.


Patanjali Ayurved’s managing director and chief executive officer (CEO) Acharya Balkrishna has confirmed the plan. According to him, the platform is an effort to meet Modi’s “vocal for local,” call.

Ramdev has never made a secret of his feelings for international brands like Maggi and Nestle, that he believes Patanjali can easily replace.



Ramdev’s ₹3,000 crore FMCG brand has been aligned with the swadeshi narrative from the start. However, its toughest fight will be against another homegrown brand, JioMart, as both are targeting mom-n-pop stores.

“OrderMe will only supply and endorse swadeshi products. It is Patanjali’s effort to contribute to our long-standing swadeshi movement by connecting all the local retailers and small shop owners so that those selling swadeshi products can benefit from our platform. They can join the platform and the plan is to deliver their products free of cost,” Balkrishna said, according to the report.

He said the OrderMe app has been developed by Patanjali’s own IT team in conjunction with New Delhi-based Bharuwa Solutions and will be launched across Android and iOS. The Patanjali CEO is also doubling down on the swadeshi theme with in-house software being used to manage the countrywide distribution, sale and supply of products.

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