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Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

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Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#131

Post by r_singh »

colmvp wrote: post #126
piyush_soni wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same here. I think the reason was the amazing customer service at Amazon, and mostly the effective price on Amazon was always lower.

I'm so jealous. In Canada, Amazon is pretty pathetic. So many things are out of stock, or not available for purchase. The few things that are available for purchase are sometimes only offered by third-parties, who jack up the price by an exorbitant amount.

I've read multiple times on HN that Amazon isn't doing very well in other countries (like US, Canada, Argentina, etc.) and that Prime is super expensive as well.

In India, Amazon is so good its hard to imagine how it will be sustainable. I paid $8/year for prime (yes a year) and they're now selling it at $16/year for free 24 hours delivery.

However, I can foresee how it may not be as good in the near future. Try buying a pair of Apple Airpods and one soon figures AMZN is not best place to make the purchase, it's so hard to tell which seller / product is genuine!

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#132

Post by devposter »

dlgeek wrote: post #122
blreng wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their GitHub page is also worth looking at: https://github.com/walmartlabs How many nice things have Amazon open sourced?

https://github.com/awslabs https://github.com/amzn

Are you serious about these links as examples of nice things that Amazon has open sourced? Most of the projects there are development kits to work with Amazon products only.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#133

Post by thisisit »

I don't know whether I should be sad or happy with this news. Flipkart has been the face of the Indian startup scene. So, it is sad to see it end like this.

But on the other hand they had tons of strategy related snafus like going mobile-only for sometime etc. So, this seems like a good thing to happen, at least Flipkart can't run out of money with Walmart behind it.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#134

Post by throwawayqdhd »

anilshanbhag wrote: post #31
bhouston wrote: post #10

Flipkart is losing to Amazon.in right now. I think that Softbank is smartly offloading a possible loser to Walmart/Google here at close to peak valuation. Maybe Google/Walmart can turn it around though. https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/flipkart.com https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/amazon.in

This the wrong metric to look at. If you look at number of app reviews per week on Appannie, Flipkart averages roughly twice the number of reviews as Amazon with better average rating (4.6 vs 3.9). ~85% of India only accesses internet via mobile.

That's a wrong metric as well because average order size and lifetime customer value will vary a lot in India.

From anecdotal evidence, Amazon seems to be more popular among younger crowds in big cities who are likely to spend more and often

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#135

Post by rakamotog »

dominotw wrote: post #7
throwaway6497 wrote: post #5

Walmart was forced to pay $15 Billion by Amazon, I think. Amazon-India is already a force to reckon with in India. They have a ton of customer love in India, and they are killing it. There is no reason for them to buy Flipkart. They did the required to hurt their competitor by feigning interest. Bezos is a master at deception. Well played, Bezos and Flipkart investors. Stingy Walmart has to cough up more money.

I agree with amazon killing it. I used to shop both on flipkart and amazon. Now I just shop on Amazon. At some point I just stopped checking flipkart.

From India, wish there was a way to separate, cheap products (yes, I can filter via price) and counterfeit products to get some high-quality products (albeit at a higher price point). So many of my recent decisions have been offline because I can't figure out which products are high quality. ex:- phone charger (the quick charge one, wire tears in days), infusion water bottle (breaks in months), Bluetooth earphones (This one was a nightmare) Wish there was a filter for this on Amazon!

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#136

Post by throwawayqdhd »

nocoder wrote: post #88

I have worked with e-commerce related companies so I can offer some perspective here. The battle in india is far from settled, it is important to look category wise. Moreover in context e-commerce one should not ignore alibaba backed paytm which seems to be working on a super app strategy and big basket which is into grocery. Website visits- Amazon seems to be ahead. From Jeff's shareholder letter - "Amazon.in is the…

As someone who has almost completely abandoned offline shopping, Amazon is my go to store because it usually has really obscure products.

Like today, I ordered a downrod for a ceiling fan. I don't even know if Flipkart stocks it.

Amazon has got the long tail of retail right at least

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#137

Post by bonesss »

beiller wrote: post #96
ekianjo wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

we keep hearing this yet there is hardly good evidence for this. And if if occurs then more opportiunities open for their competitors.

How about cable companies? Some argue Amazon is subsidized in the same way, by having USPS shipping cheaply to the outskirts.

USPS negotiates rates with companies that engage in bulk transactions at scale. The claim that Amazon is ripping off the USPS is... well that's "fake news":

> [Amazons] rates are kept under wraps. That said, we do know the Amazon deal is at least a break-even venture.

> That’s because the 2006 Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act made it illegal for USPS to price parcel delivery below its cost.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2018/apr/...

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#138

Post by dlgeek »

devposter wrote: post #132
dlgeek wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://github.com/awslabs https://github.com/amzn

Are you serious about these links as examples of nice things that Amazon has open sourced? Most of the projects there are development kits to work with Amazon products only.

Check out S2N, Ion, DSSTNE, Carbonado, Guzzle, git-secrets and others.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#139

Post by deafcalculus »

Flipkart made a huge mistake by trying to go mobile-only a while ago and is now mostly a smartphone shop. Hardly anyone I know buys anything other than smartphones (often Flipkart-exclusive) from them. Amazon now has a bigger catalog and better prices too.

Walmart could come along and directly compete in the market by themselves. Wonder why this acquisition is needed at all. There's hardly anything defensible in Flipkart's assets, and this acquisition isn't at a deep discount.

Re: Walmart Beats Amazon in $15B Flipkart Battle

#140

Post by enitihas »

gnufied wrote: post #99
mars4rp wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is crazy! As we all know, online retailers are killing local businesses, in US it might make sense because the profit goes to another sector of economy, Amazon is going to hire more developers and invest in other products that in long run might not be total lose for the whole economy! what a country like India is going to gain by letting American and Chinese companies destroy her local businesses and take the pr…

Amazon.in in India is a Marketplace. Unlike US, Amazon does not sell anything directly to consumers. You will see "Full-filled by Amazon". This in fact presents great opportunity to local and far flung businesses who did not had access to market. The foreign direct investment in retail sector is not all open in India. Also as far as I know, most companies can't move huge amount of money to mainland easily. Double tax…

AFAIK, Flipkart operates under the marketplace model too.
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