LATEST UPDATES ON ECOMMERCE AND LICENSING – 20TH AUGUST TO 27TH AUGUST, 2021

Various e-commerce platforms use I-Day to multiply their sales by providing heavy discounts. This year saw a change in this pattern. Amazon and Flipkart, the two e-commerce giants chose not to aggressively campaign their I-Day sale. The Competition Commission of India (CCI)’s current investigation on the allegations of deep discounting by e-markets had resulted in a low-key Independence Day sale. The Government also plans on proposing changes like banning flash sales, mandating platforms to list local sellers/alternatives for imported goods and services, etc. Amazon and Flipkart were careful not to draw unwarranted attention to their heavy discounts, as stated by the company executives.

The Government may propose not to include logistics supplier to e-commerce companies within the definition of ‘related parties’. “Recently, the CEO of a major e-commerce player met senior commerce ministry officials. He said he does not have major problems with the e-commerce rules and suggested a few small changes like logistics suppliers shouldn’t be considered related parties of e-commerce companies. This can be easily accommodated,” a senior commerce and industry ministry official said on condition of anonymity. The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), in a letter addressed to the Government has stated- “Merely being a related party of an e-commerce entity cannot automatically be construed that such entity be also classified as ‘e-commerce entity’, especially since such a related party may not have any online business at all”.

Euler Motors, an automotive technology start-up manufacturer of light e-commercial vehicles has received a request for nearly 2,500 units from various e-commerce companies including Flipkart, BigBasket and Udaan. The orders placed also include hyperlocal and B2B (business to business) delivery players for intra-city deliveries. “The companies will deploy Euler Motors” EV (electric vehicles) across Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai to transform and strengthen their first, mid and last mile operations,” the EV maker said in a statement. Euler Motors Founder and CEO Saurav Kumar said, “We are delighted to see the strong pre-launch order booking, which is testimony to the customer confidence in and the strong performance and value proposition of our product.”

BigBuy, a leading drop shipping wholesaler in Europe has now connected with Amazon Poland and Amazon Sweden. Retailers can now sell BigBuy products on the marketplace of Amazon Sweden and Amazon Poland. With this move, BigBuy has covered all European Amazon marketplaces. BigBuy also has connecters for eBay, Aliexpress, Rakuten etc. in England.

TikTok, the famous video app that provides entertainment and memes has joined hands with Shopify, the e-commerce platform to work together and provide an in-app shopping experience to its customers. Previously, the TikTok app users could only purchase through the ads on the app. But after this development, the users will be able to directly purchase various products. “Social commerce is important because it’s the new town square” where consumers go to find and buy new products, Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s president, said in an interview. Users will now be able to add a shopping tab to their profiles and link to the products within TikTok posts.

DelSiTech Ltd., the leading company with headquarters in Finland, is a silica based ophthalmic drug delivery technologies has entered into an Exclusive licensing and collaboration agreement with Visus Therapeutics to develop a range of novel long-acting ocular therapeutics. Visus Therapeutics Inc. is a Seattle based clinical stage company that develops innovative eye care solutions.  “By expanding our portfolio to include investigational drugs for glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration and leveraging this innovative drug delivery technology, Visus is well positioned to develop a new generation of therapies that could potentially change the standard of care for these sight-threatening conditions,” said Ben Bergo, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer at Visus Therapeutics. “This represents a significant step forward in our strategy as we evolve into an innovation-driven ophthalmic platform company armed with differentiated, patent-protected assets driven by a world-class leadership team.”

Reliance Industries Ltd’s retail chain, Reliance Retail in an attempt to tap in the festive sale has reportedly increased its festive order volume by 400 per cent. This is an attempt to compete with the e-commerce gurus like Amazon and Flipkart.  Reliance Retail owns various online retail marketplaces- Ajio, Jiomart and web page of Reliance Digital . With the third wave of COVID-19 to hit soon, experts believe that consumers are likely to continue with the trend of online shopping. According to RedSeer, a research firm, the online festive sale from October 15 to November 15 last year delivered $8.3 billion (approximately Rs 58,000 crore) worth of gross sales for brands and sellers.