E-Commerce Company Archives

Popular e-Commerce Platform Shopee Shuts Down Its Operations In India.

Shopee, a Singapore-based e-commerce site that only launched in India in December 2021, has opted to leave the nation. Shopee’s official rationale, which is controlled by NYSE-listed Sea Ltd, is causing worldwide sentiment to shift.

“In light of global market uncertainty, we have chosen to close risks of our early-stage Shopee India endeavour,” the company stated in a statement. Trade organisations led by Praveen Khandelwal, as well as domestic social commerce start-ups, have been vocal in their opposition to the e-commerce platform.
Source: www.business-standard.com

They claimed it was a back-door infiltration by Tencent, a Chinese corporation, in blatant contravention of FDI guidelines. Shopee recently received relief from the Competition Commission of India (CCI), which dismissed a complaint filed against the company for exploitative pricing.

To add to the troubles, Sea Ltd has been in the middle of a tempest because it also controls the popular gaming software ‘Free Fire,’ which was recently banned by the Centre, along with numerous other Chinese apps.

Shopee, on the other hand, scored a huge victory when the CCI dismissed a petition brought by Khandelwal citing “predatory pricing with the intent of destroying conventional and small-scale businesses in the country.”
Khandelwal, who is also the secretary-general of the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), said he intends to appeal the CCI verdict to the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).

Shopee had allegedly broken FDI restrictions since Tencent owned a significant stake in the Sea Group, according to the trade body. It further stated that the e-commerce platform entered the country through a complicated backdoor.
In its March 3 judgment, the CCI stated that it does not detect any prima facie evidence of Shopee’s violation of provisions 3 and 4 of the Competition Act. It was suggested that Shopee was a newcomer to a market that already had a plethora of e-commerce firms.

According to insiders, Shopee, which employs over 300 people, would provide them three months’ pay as a separation package and will also try to place them in other companies.

It would also provide assistance to sellers until the end of May to remedy any concerns, particularly with transactions.

They also mentioned that the company has shut down operations in France and would now concentrate solely on becoming profitable by 2025, rather than expanding into new areas.

Sea Group has made repeated attempts to reaffirm its status as a Singaporean firm. It has made it plain that Tencent does not have a claim to a board seat. Tencent now owns an 18% stock stake in Sea Ltd.

Sea Ltd founder Forrest Li would possess 57 percent of voting power, up from 52 percent previously, according to the company’s articles of association, which were approved during an annual general meeting (AGM) last month.
Despite having only an 8% stock stake, this is the case. As a result, he effectively has complete influence over the management and the Sea Board. Li was born in Singapore and is a Singaporean citizen.

Tencent’s stake in Sea Ltd has gradually dwindled since it originally invested in the company in 2010. According to Sea’s AGM meeting notice, it now has less than a 10% voting share.

The government’s crackdown on Chinese apps included the abrupt ban on Free Fire. Singapore’s ministry of trade and industry reacted quickly, saying this week that it hoped the restriction will be lifted “as soon as possible.”
According to media sources, the ministry had addressed the Centre a week before to inquire whether the ban was “deliberate” and why it had been imposed, considering that Sea is based in Singapore.
According to sources, the Singapore government is still in talks with the Indian government, but no solution to the disputed ban has been reached.

Team YTS

Wayfair – The Journey of American E-Commerce Company.

Leave a Comment / Founder, Story, Tech Story / By Team YTS

Wayfair is a furniture and home goods retailer based in the United States. The company was founded in 2002 and was previously known as CSN Stores. Wayfair grew into the behemoth it is today as a result of the dot-com crash in the early 2000s, the evolving nature of internet shopping, and an increasingly global supply chain. It has emerged as a pioneer of its peers.

The online marketplace features 14 million products from over 11,000 international suppliers. It also has 80 “house brands,” which aren’t actually brands but are used to categorize and merchandise products based on certain decorating aesthetics. The company does not manufacture any of the products it sells and instead operates on a drop-ship basis. When a customer places an order, Wayfair purchases the item from one of its suppliers, who then ships it to the customer in a variety of ways. Wayfair has 12 fulfillment centers and over 12 million square feet of warehouse space in Europe and North America.

The Wayfair Brand And Its “Lifestyle Brands”

Wayfair is more than just Wayfair.com, Joss & Main, AllModern, Perigold, and Birch Lane are also owned by the company. Wayfair.com is the company’s main hub, where you can find everything from furniture to appliances that went viral. AllModern constitutes modern and chic furniture, whereas Joss & Main and Birch Lane are nearly identical and lean towards traditional furniture.

Perigold, the newest site, is high-end, but it appears to be designed specifically for someone who owns a mansion or a villa. The company refers to these sites as “lifestyle brands.” Beyond the “lifestyle brands,” the products are further subdivided into one of Wayfair’s 80 “house brands”, which are only available on Wayfair.com.

The Establishment of Wayfair

Wayfair, formerly known as CSN Stores, began with the website racksandstands.com, selling media stands and warehouse furniture. In 2003, Wayfair expanded to include patio and garden goods suppliers, three online stores, and more than a dozen employees and relocated its headquarters to Newbury Street in Boston. Over the next two years, the company expanded its offering to include home décor, institutional, office, kitchen and dining furniture and materials, as well as home improvement goods, luggage, and lighting, as well as bed and bath materials. The company made $100 million in sales in 2006. Within the next four years, the company expanded in both domestic and international markets.

Image Source: digital.hbs.edu

CSN Stores opened an office in London in 2008 and began exporting to Canada and selling in the United Kingdom. The company relocated its headquarters to 177 Huntington Avenue in 2010. The company launched Joss & Main, a members-only private sales online store, at the end of that year. CSN Stores had over 200 online stores by 2011. Battery Ventures, Great Hill Partners, HarbourVest Partners, and Spark Capital provided $165 million in funding to the company in June 2011. Wayfair.com went live on September 1, 2011. Wayfair had incorporated all of its niche websites, with the exception of Joss & Main and AllModern, into Wayfair.com as of July 2012.

Wayfair’s Response to an Emergency

Wayfair responds to crisis situations in the broader community where they have the resources and ability to assist on an emergency basis. The company worked with Habitat for Humanity International in February 2013 to directly assist the communities affected by Hurricane Sandy. Wayfair delivered over $50,000 in home furnishings to Habitat ReStore resale stores in Coastal New Jersey. Product sales funds directly supported disaster response efforts and home rebuilding in the region.

Wayfair responded to the terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon in April 2013 by donating $50,000 to Technology Underwriting Greater Good (TUGG) in collaboration with the company’s founders to directly assist victims of the bombing. Wayfair employees also raised $8,000 for One Fund Boston, which will be used to assist those most affected by the tragedy.

Stepping into the Future

Wayfair recently opened its first permanent store in Natick, Massachusetts, following a series of pop-ups over the years. The company provides hundreds of smaller items that customers can take home with them, as well as an in-person taste of what its digital services are like. Customers can collaborate with designers to design rooms and touch fabrics used in a furniture customization program.

The Founders

Niraj Shah co-founded Wayfair with Steve Conine in 2002, and the pair quickly expanded the company to become the largest online retailer of home furnishings, housewares, and home improvement products in the United States, with $15.3 billion in net sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2021. Wayfair employs over 16,200 employees and has large operations in the United States and Europe.

Niraj worked as the CEO and co-founder of Simplify Mobile, the Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Greylock Partners, the COO and a member of the board of iXL, and the CEO and co-founder of Spinners, which was sold to iXL in 1998. Niraj is a member of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce boards of directors. Niraj graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in engineering and currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts, with his wife and two children.