India Internet News

26 July 2011

The biggest online retailer in the world, Amazon.com, is set to reach India to travel through the second wave of e-commerce boom in India.

Amazon is conversations with India's major e-commerce players such as Flipkart.com, LetsBuy.com and Exclusively.in, etc and might get in the market as soon as the first quarter of next year.

Buying Indian players is an important concern for foreign companies thinking to enter Indian market, such as eBay acquiring Baazee.com and Groupon acquiring SoSasta.com to get into the market. However, sources states Amazon seems to make operations on its own as its conversations with many leaders on acquisition front didn't seemed to work out. According to another source, "Indian players see the huge potential in the e-commerce segment here and so have so far been resistant to being bought out easily." Amazon is probably to build up through inorganic techniques afterwards, as per market growth and their performance compared to competition.

The source said the recruiting process for various positions in this team is under process right now in cities like Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Another one said, "A team of over 200 people is being built, though all of them might not end up in the core retail arm."

The newest sign came after the recruiting of Madhu M, who was a senior executive at Landmark (retail chain), by Amazon to lead its India operations. The former student of IIM Ahmedabad, Madhu is at present holding the position of SVM at Amazon. He is located outside Chennai, a place in which Amazon's Kindle development team is also located.

Amazon is even building up a warehouse in Mumbai, a normal basic step before penetrating the e-commerce space in the same way as Amazon has been doing worldwide. Another important expansion includes the purchase of 80,000 sq ft by Amazon at SP Infocity, promoted by Shapoorji Pallonji Co Ltd, in Perungudi in Chennai. Amazon already has a development center in Chennai.