Mind

This week we Re-Learnt…E-tailing

The ‘euphoria’ over the government allowing 100 per cent FDI in e-commerce with a marketplace model in India is a bit of old wine, new bottle. There’s one condition that companies cannot have more than 25 per cent of their sales from one vendor. This will affect both Amazon and Flipkart, in particular, as both have a majority of business from a single vendor that is controlled by them. What would also affect them is the new provision that bars e-commerce companies from deep discounting of products that made them more attractive than brick-and-mortar retailers. The real loser in all this is Walmart, which has stuck to its inven­tory model.