Two international ecommerce leaders – Amazon and Alibaba. The American marketplace just completed 3 years in India. And the imminent entry of Chinese etailer Alibaba in 2016 has created a lot of buzz already. Both are vying for the biggest share of India’s online industry.
Bets are being placed on who’s going to be the winner – Jeff Bezos’ Amazon or Jack Ma’s Alibaba.
The rivalry dates back to 2004 when Amazon stepped in China unprepared and lost to Alibaba. Bezos’ company still has presence in the most populated country in the world but no point denying the fact that Jack Ma rules its ecommerce industry.
With India as their next battleground, we have been preparing for an epic settle since 2014.
The company has been operating independently as an online marketplace since 2013 and in these 3 years, they have steadily worked towards building a self-sustainable ecommerce model.
Bezos recently invested a whopping $3 billion into its Indian arm, which may be utilized for sprucing up logistics and supply chain. From localization, seller initiatives, customer-centric approach, massive warehouses, logistics, Amazon India has invested its funds in all corners. This enabled them to scale up faster than expected and shake up the Indian ecommerce industry.
While Amazon has been flying solo, Alibaba has followed an indirect market entry strategy so far.
The Chinese etailer is the strongest supporter of Paytm. It has invested in Snapdeal too. And there were reports about Alibaba backing Flipkart and partnering with Tata Group as well. Now they are all set to enter directly.
The company got 100,000 Chinese sellers, is in talks with logistics companies and setting up core team for its India business. Needless to say, Jack Ma’s strategy is difficult to decode.
With all eyes on Amazon and Alibaba, we can’t help but wonder that how does the future look like for homegrown etailers Flipkart and Snapdeal. Can the local players defeat international titans? Or will India’s ecommerce industry be run by these two global giants in the years to come?
There is one more possibility. Looking at Alibaba’s investments in Snapdeal & Paytm and interest in Flipkart (rumoured), it’s quite possible that the four players may form an alliance against Amazon.
After all, Amazon is already way ahead of Alibaba in India and other etailers Flipkart and Snapdeal are going through a funding crunch. What can stop them from coming together even if it is a temporary arrangement? It sounds plausible, isn’t it?
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
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