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Amazon India Signs Long-Term Deals With Future Retail For Online Sales

Future Retail and Future Consumer have signed deals with Amazon India for online retail of their groceries and fashion brands.

Employees prepare a cart stacked with packages at Amazon’s fulfillment centre in Hyderabad, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)
Employees prepare a cart stacked with packages at Amazon’s fulfillment centre in Hyderabad, India. (Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg)

Amazon India has become the authorised online sales channel for Future Retail Ltd., including Big Bazaar and FoodHall, as the Jeff Bezos-led e-commerce platform aims to take on the emerging challenge from Reliance’s JioMart and Walmart-backed Flipkart in one of the world’s fastest growing retail markets.

Customers will be able to order a wide range of food, groceries, fashion, footwear and homeware online from Amazon, the Kishore Biyani-founded retail entity said in an exchange filing. Future Retail will list on the Amazon Prime Now programme, allowing customers to get food, grocery and general merchandise delivery within two hours in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.

Future Retail’s national footprint of stores offering thousands of products across fashion, appliances, home, kitchen and grocery will now be available to millions of customers shopping on Amazon.in across more than 25 cities, Amit Agarwal, Amazon India’s country head, said in the statement. The companies have already launched the service across 22 centres in the country.

In a separate statement, Future Consumer Ltd. said it also entered into a long-term agreement with Amazon.in for distribution of its brands, including Tasty Treat for snacks, Voom for fabric care, Dreamery for dairy, Karmiq for dry fruits, Mother Earth for organic staples, Kara for personal care, CleanMate for household cleaning, among others.

The partnership, which according to an Amazon executive is exclusive, comes nearly five months after the U.S.-based online retailer picked up an indirect stake in Future Retail as it looks to tap into India’s rising demand for household products and home-delivered fresh produce and vegetables. It had earlier purchased an equity stake in Aditya Birla Group’s chain of retail stores More in September, and in Shoppers Stop in 2017.

India’s retail market, according to a report by Assocham and MRRSIndia.com, is estimated to grow from $672 billion to $1.1 trillion by 2020.