Get full access to one story every week, and to summaries of all other stories. Just create a free account

For many years now, the predominant model for e-commerce in India was “inventory-led”— customers order a product which ships instantly from warehouses run by online marketplaces like Flipkart or Amazon. In days gone by, the inventory belonged to Flipkart and Amazon, but later on, after pressure from India’s government, the inventory could belong to any of the third-party sellers that sell through these platforms.

But after three important deals in the last one year, we may perhaps be looking at a premature saturation of the inventory model.

In September 2017, Amazon, through its investment arm, picked up a 5% equity stake in department store chain Shoppers Stop. A year on from that, in September 2018, the company purchased a controlling stake in grocery hypermarket chain More.

Then, in August 2018, Walmart spent $16 billion to buy Flipkart.

To a casual observer, e-commerce seems to be changing in India, but the fact is that inventory-led e-commerce has reached its tipping point, and online sellers are getting impatient.

Between the two, Flipkart and Amazon control 60% of the e-commerce market. But there’s increasing evidence that the market, as the two saw it—inventory-led e-commerce—may not be growing as fast as expected. E-commerce is estimated to add up to less than 3% of Indian retail.

As entrepreneur action and investor interest moved beyond inventory-led e-commerce, the new paradigm is that it is actually more about enabling businesses between sellers and the end customers. In short, B2B commerce.

According to a report by trade association body NASSCOM, 43% of India’s new tech startups in 2018 focussed on the B2B space. In 2018, B2B marketplace Udaan, co-founded by ex Flipkart CTO Amod Malviya, became the fastest startup to reach a $1 billion valuation after it raised $225 million in a round led by Yuri Milner’s VC firm, DST Global. Udaan was founded in 2017.

An interesting sub-segment of the B2B explosion is B2B2C. Bengaluru-based Meesho, a platform for enabling social media-based sellers, which just closed a $50 million round of funding in November, is a good example of this.

Both Meesho and Udaan have raised money from VCs such as DST, SAIF, Sequoia, Lightspeed, and Matrix. These are investors who shied away from making new bets in B2C-focused e-commerce until the B2B phenomenon took off. Is this a new dawn in Indian e-commerce?

Meesho’s ‘Robin Hood’ pitch

Meesho’s model revolves around moving stock owned by wholesalers to end consumers, without the actual sellers ever taking ownership of the stock.

AUTHOR

Salman SH

Salman has around four years of experience reporting primarily on consumer internet, startups, and the telecom sector. Previously, he worked with the financial newspaper Mint, reporting on startups and consumer internet trends. Prior to this, he worked with MediaNama and NextBigWhat. At The Ken, Salman will look at startups, technology trends, and the government policies shaping up around them. Loud metal, moshpits, and local gigs are he what he lives for.

View Full Profile

Subscribe to read this story

The Ken is the only business subscription you need. Questions?

 

Premium

  • 5 original and reported longform business stories every week
  • Access to ONLY India edition
  • Close to 250 exclusive stories every year
  • Full access to over 6 years of paywalled stories
  • Pick up to 5 premium subscriber newsletters
  • 4 original and reported longform business stories each week
  • Access to ONLY Southeast Asia edition
  • Close to 200 exclusive stories every year
  • Full access to all paywalled stories since March 2020
  • Pick up to 5 premium subscriber newsletters

Rs. 2,750 /year

$ 120 /year

India Edition
Subscribe Subscribe
Most Asked For

Borderless

  • 8 original and reported longform business stories each week
  • Access to both India and Southeast Asia editions
  • Close to 400 exclusive stories every year
  • Full access to over 6 years of paywalled stories across India and Southeast Asia
  • Unlimited access to all premium subscriber newsletters
  • Visual Stories

Rs. 4,200 /year

Subscribe
 

Echelon

  • 8 original and reported longform business stories each week
  • Access to both India and Southeast Asia editions
  • Close to 400 exclusive stories every year
  • Full access to over 6 years of paywalled stories across India and Southeast Asia
  • Unlimited access to all premium subscriber newsletters
  • Visual Stories
  • Bonus annual gift subscription
  • Priority access to all new products and features

Rs. 8,474 /year

Subscribe
Or

Questions?

What kind of subscription plans do you offer?

We have three types of subscriptions
- Premium which gives you access to either the India or the Southeast Asia edition.
- Borderless which gives you complete access to The Ken across both editions
- Echelon which gives you complete access to The Ken across both editions along with a bonus gift subscription

What do I get if I subscribe?

The Premium edition gives you access to stories in that edition along with any five subscriber-only newsletters of your choice.

The Borderless and Echelon subscription gives you complete access to The Ken across editions and unlimited access to as many newsletters as you like.

What topics do you usually write about?

We publish sharp, original and reported stories on technology, business and healthcare. Our stories are forward-looking, analytical and directional — supported by data, visualisations and infographics. We use language and narrative that is accessible to even lay readers. And we optimise for quality over quantity, every single time.

Our specialised subscriber-only newsletters are written by our expert, award-winning journalists and cover a range of topics across finance, retail, clean energy, cryptocurrency, ed-tech and many more.

How many newsletters do you have?

We are constantly adding specialised subscriber-only newsletters all the time. All of these are written by our team of award-winning journalists on a specialised topic.

You can see the list of newsletters that we publish over here.

Does a Premium subscription to your Indian edition get me access to the Southeast Asia edition? Or vice-versa?

Afraid not. Each edition is separate with its own subscription plan. The India edition publishes stories focused on India. The Southeast Asia edition is focused on Southeast Asia. We may occasionally cross-publish stories from one edition to the other.

We recommend the Borderless or the Echelon Plan which will give you access to stories across both editions.

Do you have a mobile app?

Yes! We have a top-rated mobile app on both iOS and Android which allows you to read on-the-go and has some amazing features like the ability to bookmark stories, save on your device, dark mode, and much more. It’s really the best way to read The Ken.

Is there a free trial?

You can sign up for a free account to experience The Ken and understand our products better. We’ll send you some free stories and newsletters occasionally, and you can access our archive of previously published free stories. You can stay on the free account as long as you’d like.

The vast majority of our stories, articles and newsletters can be accessed only by a paid subscription.

Do you offer any discounts?

Sorry, no. Our journalism is funded completely by our subscribers. We believe that quality journalism comes at a price, and readers trust and pay us so that we can remain independent.

Do you offer refunds?

No. We allow you to sample our journalism for free before signing up, and after you do, we stand by its quality. But we do not offer refunds.

I am facing some trouble purchasing a subscription. What can I do?

Just write to us at [email protected] with details. We’ll help you out.

I have a few more questions. How can I reach out to you?

Sure. Just email us at [email protected] or follow us on Twitter.