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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Parking the headline “GMV” numbers for now, we analyse what the Diwali sales so far portend for Indian retail.
Editor's note: For Indian e-commerce, the October-November festive sales period is akin to the finals of a tournament. Walmart-owned Flipkart and Amazon’s Indian arm spend months prepping every year for the Diwali extravaganza. Year after year, each boasts ever greater numbers of customers, sellers, shipments, and near-magical sales figures, which should be taken with a pinch of salt; at the same time, though, what happens during these sales gives us a valuable peek into the state of online retail. As always, we talk to brands, sellers, analysts and executives, and pull together the most interesting observations and (realistic) numbers over a series of articles as the sales progress. This year, it goes without saying, has been particularly important. With e-commerce taking all of the second quarter of the year to shut down and then restart itself in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the preparations for Diwali season were stymied. There were also government-imposed import restrictions that led to a severe shortage and scramble to secure brands and stocks in some categories, particularly televisions. Despite all the initial headwinds, though, 2020 may …
The relatively new online marketplace seems to be doubling on its UAE momentum. We take a look at what is at stake.
Who’s going to lead the IPO party, what’s going to drive the market, where are some of the leading businesses headed, and more.
The ecommerce platform will be hard-pressed to justify its estimated $7-8 billion valuation—up nearly 2x from just 10 months ago—at a time of ho-hum growth and flagging profitability.
