Old: B2C. Gold: B2B

Inventory-led B2C e-commerce is passe. Instead, young, VC-backed B2B startups like Meesho and Udaan are heralding a new dawn in Indian e-commerce

The Amazon-Flipkart war is history, and with it, so is B2C inventory-led e-commerce

B2B is the new black. Startups like Udaan and Meesho have raised millions of dollars from the likes of DST Global and Sequoia

Students, homemakers and working professionals are selling on their platforms, using social media to reach end customers

Do these startups herald a new wave of Indian e-commerce?

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.

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.

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