E-commerce in India: Stack and deliver

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UK Only Article: 
standard article

Issue: 

Exodus

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E-commerce in India

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Urban Ladder’s rise shows the potential for online selling in India

Location: 

BANGALORE

ASHISH GOEL, a founder of Urban Ladder, an online furniture retailer, is fond of the story of Rose Blumkin, who in 1983 sold a big stake in her furniture store to Warren Buffett, a fellow resident of Omaha, Nebraska. Mr Buffett’s deal with “Mrs B” was set out on a single piece of paper, notes Mr Goel with admiration. The term-sheets of the four rounds of capital-raising Urban Ladder has been through in its short life were probably not so simple. Mr Goel is struck by another contrast. The Omaha Furniture Mart that Mrs B started has more floorspace than all of India’s registered furniture retailers combined.
Retailing of the bricks-and-mortar sort is a highly fragmented business in India. Only around 2% of the grocery trade, for instance, is carried out in supermarkets with wide aisles and tiled floors. Grocery shopping is …
Source: Retailing
E-commerce in India: Stack and deliver