As per various analysts, Indian ecommerce battle is slowing turning out into a fight between American and Chinese ecommerce superpowers: On one hand there is Amazon and on the other hand, Alibaba. Flipkart is the only major Indian ecommerce firm right now which can tilt the power balance either way -and it seems it’s the Chinese side which is influencing them right now.
Inspired by Paytm’s Chinese products push, Flipkart too has partnered with several big Chinese suppliers for procuring bulk Chinese products in dirt cheap price. This partnership will enable sellers from Flipkart to directly contact bulk Chinese suppliers, and procure goods en masse, at reduced rates.
As per incoming reports, three main categories are witnessing this Chinese push on Flipkart’s platform: Apparels, Electronics and Household items.
Anil Goteti, who is the head of marketplace at Flipkart, said, “We have always focused on providing the most affordable rates to sellers and buyers.While we have already launched several seller-friendly services, the aim of the latest project is to make sure they can import large numbers of products at one go and at attractive prices,”. Earlier, Anil had played a key role in launching Flipkart’s Home and Furnishing category and in transforming their mobile phones category by forging exclusive partnerships.
Details of Chinese suppliers who are part of this partnership was not furnished. This special provision has been extended to select Flipkart sellers as of now.
Paytm & Flipkart’s Chinese Inclination
Last year, Paytm initiated massive Chinese push on their platform by first listing more than one lakh AliExpress sellers on their platform; and then launching a special ‘Virtual Chinese Bazaar’ on their portal wherein 10 crore Chinese products were listed for as low as Rs 3.
$600 million investment has already been allocated by Paytm to integrate more Chinese vendors and suppliers into their platform.
Alibaba, which commands most of the Chinese vendors has 25% stake in Paytm, and these initiatives were expected.
However, ever since Flipkart started delivering Paytm’s orders pan-India, inclination towards Chinese products from FLipkart’s side has actually increased; this recent partnership with bulk Chinese suppliers a perfect example of the same.
Note here, that 40% of products sold online in China are fake; and Alibaba sold $45 billion worth of products in 2014, which speaks volume about the quality.
Is Flipkart inching towards a possible acquisition/merger with Alibaba?