Amazon Launches Junglee.com in India

Amazon has just expanded into the Indian market with its launch of Junglee. Offering more than 12 million products — both locally produced and internationally sourced — the service is aimed toward boosting Amazon’s presence in the international markets, particularly in India.

Junglee‘s 12 million products will be sourced from 14,000 India-based and international brands, Amazon Vice President Amit Agrawal says.

We are excited to give customers in India a single online starting point where they can shop a wide selection of products sold by local and global retailers, and make informed purchasing decisions.

The Junglee brand was actually acquired by Amazon in 2000 from Indian entrepreneurs Rakesh Mathur and Ashish Gupta.

Amazon won’t be a pioneer in this market, though, given existing online retail sites Flipkart and travel resource site Makemytrip. Amazon actually made an offer to acquire Flipkart in 2011, although plans fell through due to Flipkart’s high asking price. Now, Flipkart may find itself losing customers to the bigger international player, although Junglee’s success would have to bank on how well Amazon markets its subsidiary.

It may be noted that Internet penetration in this country of 1.2 billion people is below 10%. Of this, only 40% have shopped online, which means there is potential for e-commerce activity to grow. However, better access to the Web will be a pre-requisite. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India, though, the online industry is expected to grow 47% this year to upwards of 460 billion rupees (US$ 9.34 billion), which makes for an optimistic outlook for Amazon and Junglee.

Via Reuters, The Next Web

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