Amazon makes India debut with Junglee.com

US-based online retail titan Amazon.com Inc. announced its entry into India through its 100 per cent subsidiary Junglee.com in a bid to tap the growing electronic commerce market in India. Junglee.com will run on Amazon's platform that will have the search and recommendation options similar to that of Amazon's parent website, the company said in a statement.

Since India bars foreign multi-brand retailers from selling products directly to the consumers, Junglee.com will merely act as a facilitator by leading consumers to various other online and offline retailers. "Amazon will provide the platform, technology and the interface and Junglee will showcase the sellers," says Purnendu Kumar, senior VP for retail and consumers goods and Technopak Advisors. "Their primary aim is to attract traffic to their site by showcasing other retailers so that when India opens for FDI they are ready," Kumar adds.

India's current $6.8 billion electronic commerce market is expected to grow by at least 30 per cent to 40 per cent annually for the next five years as more and more Indians shop online, according to Technopak. Currently the lion's share or $4 billion of the total market is restricted to buying train and airline tickets online.

To begin with the website will offer 1.2 crore products and would also provide buying options from various local retailers including Homeshop 18, Hidesign, Bata, FabIndia, Dabur among others and various global brands including Microsoft and Reebok. As Amazon.com is famed for selling books online, the category will form the bedrock of the company's merchadise in India as well with more than 90 lakh books available and the remaining 30 lakh items will cover about 14,000 local and global brands in more than 25 categories including electronic products, toys, apparels, jewelery among others, the company statement said. "We are excited to give customers in India a single online starting point where they can shop a wide selection of products," said Amit Agarwal, VP, Amazon.com. FE

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