Online Shopping – FutureBazaar and Hypercity’s Big Plans

Online Shopping IndiaRetailers in India don’t want to miss any channel to woo customers. FutureBazaar.Com which has got big money from Sherpalo and KPCB VC funds has struck yet another deal with Dubai based Aramex for Logistics handling. Aramex is one of the top-3 courier companies in Middle East will provide end-to-end solutions for FutureBazaar.Com including setting up a 66,000 sft logistics center near Bhayander. Revamped portal will be launched in Sept-08.

FutureBazaar.com CEO, Mr. Banerjee said,

We expect to increase our customer size to 3 million in 3 years and are taking necessary steps that could help us reach there.

Aramex is known for delivering two way product solutions. To and From customer [if the customer doesn’t like the product] They plan to launch the service on PAN India basis.

In Mumbia, Rahejas promoted Hypercity has also unveiled its e-commerce strategy with the relaunch of HyperCityIndia.com [Online retailing except fruits and vegetables]. This is the second alternate shopping channel in addition to Catalogue shopping.

Mr. Rajeev Nair, Business Head, Hypercity Argos said,

As we concentrate on the big box format of retail, we will look to increase our sales from the multi channel routes of catalogue as well as online retailing of our products.

Company sources have said online shopping have been rolled out to customers in Mumbai / Thane and will cover Jaipur, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. In the first week of launch, their portal did 13-14 transactions every day and the company seems to be satisfied with the number.

Going by Hypercity’s track record, one can be skeptical about their expansion plans which is probably the slowest in Indian retail industry.