Global e-commerce firms look to buy domestic retailers to up India game

"The cost of running a single channel is very high. They need much more scale to justify the costs", says Raman Mangalorkar

Global retailers are looking to enter into joint ventures or acquire stakes in domestic businesses to achieve bigger scale through multi-channel operations, say consultants. 

US-based e-commerce giant Amazon is in talks to buy a stake in Aditya Birla Retail and Chinese online major Alibaba is discussing a joint venture with Reliance Retail (JV), according to reports on Monday.  “The retail players are realising that larger platforms and partnerships with large players are required to make a mark in this market given the complexities in logistics, demographics, seamless customer service and widespread distribution. We are also seeing the next round of consolidation