Amazon becomes the first foreign firm to start a food retail venture Amazon Retail Pvt., Ltd., in India. Amazon Retail will start with its pilot services in Pune. The development comes at a time when the global retail giant Walmart is in plans to acquire a 40% stake in homegrown ecommerce giant Flipkart.
With this venture, Amazon India can stock and sell food items including sell locally made and packaged food directly to consumers. The Economic Times reported a person close to the development said, “Amazon is now a vendor on Amazon.in and is currently operating in Pune.” However, according to another source, it will take another quarter for the ecommerce major to roll out the food retailing business nationwide.
Amazon received the government’s approval to invest $ 500 million in Indian food retail industry in July last year. At present, Amazon is the only international company to have applied for the food only retailing business with 100% overseas investment. As mandated by the Indian government, Amazon will be keeping this venture separate from its online marketplace. This includes maintaining separate management and offices for the venture as the ecommerce firm does not have the permission to sell products directly to consumers. Without giving any details, an Amazon India spokesperson confirmed the news saying, “We continue to be on track to launch our food retail business in India.”
Other foreign funded retail outlets such as BigBasket, Grofers and Supr Daily have also received similar approvals from the government for food retailing. India’s food retailing sector seems to be the next big milestone in the ecommerce industry. Recently, China’s ecommerce giant Alibaba invested close to $300 million in BigBasket, while Walmart is also looking to buy a substantial stake in Flipkart. Till date, Amazon has invested $ 4.74 billion in India, almost reaching Jeff Bezos commitment to invest $ 5 billion in the country.
