Homeshop18 keen to tap RJio’s 4G services to grow biz

E-tailer Homeshop18 is betting big on the 4G roll-out by Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), the telecom subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries.

The company, largely a home shopping channel, is now a part of RIL after the latter acquired its parent company Network18 this year.

Network18 owns a 54.5 per cent stake in Homeshop18, and has invested $53.8 million (around ₹330 crore today) in the business.

Sundeep Malhotra, CEO of Homeshop18, told

BusinessLine that 4G will be a great opportunity for the entire e-commerce sector and that Homeshop18 will benefit from it. “We are assessing the entire relationship with RJio and it is a great partner for us,” he added.

According to industry experts, RJio, which is likely to roll out the 4G services by March next year, will be able to tap into Homeshop18’s large customer base, who will in turn use the 4G services to shop online without facing any connectivity issues.

Homeshop18, which sells on all three channels — online, television and mobile—is planning to create a model where its consumers, who mostly buy products over the television, will be able to continue doing that over a 4G-enabled smartphone. “Consumers are driving that change where website, television and mobile come together to provide a better and convenient shopping experience. We are catching them everywhere,” Malhotra said, adding that TV has a greater potential to attract customers as it is more interactive and also a source of entertainment. For Homeshop18, which competes with pure-play online retailers such as Snapdeal and Flipkart, about 80 per cent of the revenues come through television as a shopping channel. However, mobile is also fast catching up with over 100 per cent annual growth. He added Homeshop18 will be the first virtual company to turn profitable by 2015.

Fund raising plan On the company’s fund-raising plans post the Reliance takeover, Malhotra said Homeshop18 is internally discussing and evaluating it. The company had earlier this year filed a prospectus for a $75-million IPO with the New York Stock Exchange.

He added the company is looking at adding more categories such as packaged foods and home improvement products. It has over 21 different categories with digital and lifestyle contributing over 50 per cent to the total sales.