Indian Merchants Enter The 'Amazon'

Tuesday evening, Amazon AMZN entered India with the launch of an e-commerce marketplace. The site, Amazon.in, will initially retail print books and movies/TV shows (on both DVDs and Blu-ray), with plans to offer mobile phones and cameras in the Amazon India will be distinct from the site familiar to US consumers, as Amazon will refrain from selling any of its own inventory through the site. Instead, Amazon India will act strictly as a marketplace where third parties can list their products to sell, additionally offering fulfillment services (such as giving sellers the option to have Amazon handle packing, delivery, returns and customer service from its fulfillment center) to its marketplace merchants, according to AllThingsD. “Our vision is to become a trusted and meaningful sales channel for retailers of all sizes across India, enabling them to succeed and efficiently grow their business online,” Amit Agarwal, Amazon India's vice president and country manager, said in a statement. In a separate statement, Greg Greeley, Amazon.com's vice president of International Expansion, said, "...we endeavor to build that same destination in India by giving customers more of what they want - vast selection, low prices, fast and reliable delivery, and a trusted and convenient experience." At launch, Amazon India was noted as featuring a diverse collection of Indian and American titles. Although Amazon has not previously run a e-commerce marketplace in India, it has not entirely been devoid of a presence in the billion-person country, due to the fact that In 2012, it relaunched Junglee.com (a shopping comparison site that aggregates both online and offline products in India). As noted by AllThingsD's Jason Del Rey, Amazon India's launch, the 10th country-specific Amazon marketplace, is occurring amid growing interest from American companies in India's e-commerce market; for example, eBay EBAY just led an investment round into the Indian online marketplace Snapdeal. Amazon closed on Tuesday at $265.70.