Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Buoyed by the success of e-commerce sites like Amazon, Alibaba, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Tata Group might take the big leap soon, as per a newspaper report.
Citing two sources, the paper has said that Tata Group's entry into the e-commerce space will be through it Tata Sons fully owned subsidiary Tata Industries Ltd "and not by its existing retail units".
Quoting the sources it further said that the group "will share more information at the appropriate moment". The marketplace is expected to be be launched next year, the paper said.
This new venture will be like any other online marketplace that facilitates transactions between third party suppliers and customers.
However the new marketplace will initially showcase Westside, Croma and Star Bazaar, which are Tata's existing retail chain brands.
Last month, Ratan Tata, the former chairman of salt-to-steel Tata conglomerate, bought a stake in Indian online retailer Snapdeal, joining a list of funds who have invested in the country's growing e-commerce industry.
Indian online firms have been raising funds to compete with bigger rival Amazon.com Inc and expand as more Indians shop online.
Snapdeal raised $100 million earlier this year from five investors including Singapore's Temasek Holdings.
Flipkart, the country's largest online retailer, raised $1 billion in July to scale up and counter increasing competition, while Amazon.com has said it would invest more than $2 billion in the country.
With Agency Inputs
