Alibaba set to venture into online groceries to face off against Amazon in India
To keep up with rival Amazon, Alibaba and Paytm Mall are set to venture into online grocery by investing an estimated $200m in online grocery store, Big Basket according to Economic Times.
Alibaba all set to venture into online grocery to step up to rival Amazon in India
Amazon which recently snapped up Whole Foods in fresh deal estimated at $13.7bn, is too eyeing online grocery store Grofers which is backed by Japan's SoftBank group. Meanwhile, Paytm which raised $1.4 bn from Softbank earlier this year is aiming to continue its expansion after introducing cashback recently in a bid to dominate the Indian digital payments market.
According to Forrester, online spending in India grew by 11% in the first half of 2017. Despite a decline in average online spend per buyer in 2016 due to demonetization and less discounting, latest data from Forrester shows that online spending in India grew in the first half of 2017.
The report also stated that Amazon has strengthened its position as metro Indian consumers’ preferred online retail destination, with Flipkart, Jabong and Snapdeal all seeing a decline in 2017.
Alibaba will aim to step up their online retail game by allying with Big Basket as it continues to grow with 56% revenue increase, buoyed by ongoing e-commerce growth in China.