Amazon seeks tie-up with local retailers like Future Group, Shoppers Stop to boost sales

KOLKATA/MUMBAI: Amazon may be fighting tooth and nail with its brick-and-mortar counterparts such as Walmart and Tesco in the West, but in India it has laid the green carpet for Indian retail chains for its just-launched online marketplace.

The world’s largest online retailer plans to enter into selling partnership with many leading retail chains, including Future Group, Shoppers Stop, Crossword, Viveks, UniverCell, Spencer’s Retail and Woodland, to sell their wares through the Amazon India marketplace. Several retailers confirmed to ET that they are keen to enter into a selling agreement with Amazon. “There is no significant or sizable online marketplace in India which Amazon will create and can become a significant sales channel for us,” says Spencer’s Retail CEO Mohit Kampani.

Future Group’s Kishore Biyani said the Amazon marketplace constituted a good opportunity. “We will consider it. After all, we are merchants. We have to sell,’’ said its founder. A person familiar with the development said Reliance Retail has been approached by Amazon but added he wasn’t aware of the details.

Amazon on Wednesday launched its global marketplace model in India as amazon.in, but the company has stayed away from directly selling any products to customers since Indian FDI regulations in multi-brand retail prohibits e-commerce trading in any form by foreign firms. Hence, Amazon wants to rope in top retailers by providing its platform as a sales channel for them.