Indian e-commerce firms are on the prowl to acquire small technology companies, mainly start-ups, to enable their customers buy or sell products faster and without a hassle.
For the e-tailers, it would also mean an increase in business and customer loyalty, apart from consolidating their market presence.
“We are looking at two companies right now and both are technology companies. They are start-ups, one is running a technology that helps buyers discover products easily, and the other provides technology to sellers, enabling them to sell better, sell more,” Snapdeal.com co-founder Kunal Bahl told
“I think in the next three months we will do something,” Bhal said, hinting at an acquisition, but declining to name the targets.
Paytm, a New Delhi-based e-tailer, is scouting for acquisitions with a ₹150-crore corpus. It is actively pursuing two deals in mobile payment and discovery (of products) space and expects to close them by this year-end, Vijay Shekar, founder of One97 Communications that runs Paytm, said.
According to industry analysts, there are about 1,000 start-ups working on payment gateways such as Zaakpay, EBS, Direcpay, CCAvenue, Transecute and Billdesk.
Mobile space The e-commerce firms are in talks with payment gateway companies and mobile technology providers, analysts said, stopping short of naming the potential targets.
Flipkart is another company looking at acquisitions in the e-commerce space. The Bangalore-based firm is eyeing supply chain and technology firms, especially in the mobile space. “We are actively pursuing a couple of deals,” is all that Flipkart.com co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Sachin Bansal is willing to reveal.
As the $3.2-billion e-commerce market gets bigger and bigger, companies will vie with each other for loyal customers.
Improving consumer experience (making payments easier, comparing prices faster and creating mobile wallets), said Gautam Mandewalkar, Director at enterprise mobile application development company Adeptpros.
According to sources, New Delhi-based e-tailer Healthkart is in talks to acquire Bangalore-based Practo, a medical website with listings of more than 90,000 doctors across India. Practo has meanwhile denied the rumours.
For the e-commerce firms, the next couple of months would be crucial as they close in on their acquisition targets and for customers, e-shopping is here to stay.