Cloudtail to shut down on Amazon from May 2022

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enthusiast29

Skilled
Many product prices are now lower than the "sale" prices.

BTW I know this might not be the place for this but did anyone hear about this?
entrackr.com

Amazon India’s top seller, Cloudtail to cease ops from May 2022

Cloudtail India, one of the largest sellers on Amazon India’s e-commerce platform, will shut down operations from May 2022. Cloudtail is a joint venture between Amazon and the N.R. Narayana Murthy-owned Catamaran Ventures, and the two companies announced on August 9 that they would not renew the...
entrackr.com entrackr.com
 
enthusiast29 said:
BTW I know this might not be the place for this but did anyone hear about this?
entrackr.com

Amazon India’s top seller, Cloudtail to cease ops from May 2022

Cloudtail India, one of the largest sellers on Amazon India’s e-commerce platform, will shut down operations from May 2022. Cloudtail is a joint venture between Amazon and the N.R. Narayana Murthy-owned Catamaran Ventures, and the two companies announced on August 9 that they would not renew the...
entrackr.com entrackr.com
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Yeah, someone influential must be really pissed/jealous with Amazon.
 
Prashant Verma said:
Cloudtail = N. Murthy
Appario = Patni group
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i wasnt talking about ownership, was talking of term whose close with amazon, earlier days Cloudtail was major seller whenever amazon sales were there now it is Appario, all of my last 6 months electronic purchases were from appario. Just wondering if appario is gone too, who is going to give a deals on sales. hehe
 
scarface_ml said:
i wasnt talking about ownership, was talking of term whose close with amazon, earlier days Cloudtail was major seller whenever amazon sales were there now it is Appario, all of my last 6 months electronic purchases were from appario. Just wondering if appario is gone too, who is going to give a deals on sales. hehe
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It will continue but not for long. The new CEO of Appario; an Amazon veteran, was appointed couple of days ago, But, Im sure this was out of desperation to keep the Patni's convinced.

Also, I dont think Cloudtail can be replaced by Appario just yet. The former has a catalogue that hosts products all across the spectrum unlike the tech focussed Appario.
 
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Why does it matter? Can't they just choose a different name for the seller, wipe old ratings and start afresh with the same catalogue and practices.

Government happy check
Crying shopkeepers happy check
Customer still benefit from prices check
Amazon gets to wipe 50-100k negative seller reviews check
Nothing changes check

I think these small shopkeepers crying is going to be a constant now and it won't really change everything in reality. Customers don't want it to change, Amazon and Walmart are too big and experienced to let the billions slip which they have invested in the market. Its survival of the fittest as always.
 
mcfly said:
Any idea how it may affect the end users?
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Not much. Amazon needs a front to sell directly as regulations don’t allow it to become a seller themselves. Appario or cloudtail, but will work in the same manner, buying from something that is exactly the same as buying from Amazon directly.
 
Personally, I hope nothing much changes on the consumer facing side. Rules be damned, I'll start siding with SMBs when consumer protection laws are actually enforced and consumers aren't rolling the dice with their money when buying from SMB sellers on online platforms.
 
Looks like the govt. is just trying to make the shopkeepers happy.
The shopkeepers need to change themselves with time instead of whinnying and crying.
There's a lot of scope of innovation that can give FK or AZ a run for their money...
 
This is just to make news. Cloudtail was becoming too much of a household name, while originally it was only supposed to carry inventory for Amazon.

Simple solution is to float such headlines that they are killing this model and quietly split their inventory into 10-15 different "cloudtail/apparios". Marginal increase in inventory accounting costs, rest everything remains the same. Regulators = Happy , Customer = Happy , Marketplace sellers = Screwed (as before)
 
This is a welcome change for this industry. It stops amazon and flipkart from becoming a monopoly.

mcfly said:
Any idea how it may affect the end users?
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End user may not able to buy low priced branded items like soaps, shampoos, biscuits etc. Or at least it won't be cheap like before.

Amazon/fk charges exorbitant shipping charges to sellers. These shipping charges are double of standard industry rates. Amazon asks nearly Rs. 100 minimum to ship something across the country. But if I have to send same item through bluedart/fedex then they won't charge me more than Rs. 50. These exorbitant shipping fees are what subsidize soaps, shampoos etc. Amazon sells these items by penalizing the normal sellers.

Secondly, if you are very established seller in some niche, amazon is known to kill such sellers. They already have the data on what sells, they don't need to do any research. Sellers provide amazon with this invaluable data. Amazon will procure these same items and they will start competing you directly. They will indeed sale the products at loss so that you go out of business, then they have monopoly on that niche.
 
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lockhrt999 said:
This is a welcome change for this industry. It stops amazon and flipkart from becoming a monopoly.


End user may not able to buy low priced branded items like soaps, shampoos, biscuits etc. Or at least it won't be cheap like before.

Amazon/fk charges exorbitant shipping charges to sellers. These shipping charges are double of standard industry rates. Amazon asks nearly Rs. 100 minimum to ship something across the country. But if I have to send same item through bluedart/fedex then they won't charge me more than Rs. 50. These exorbitant shipping fees are what subsidize soaps, shampoos etc. Amazon sells these items by penalizing the normal sellers.

Secondly, if you are very established seller in some niche, amazon is known to kill such sellers. They already have the data on what sells, they don't need to do any research. Sellers provide amazon with this invaluable data. They will procure these same items and they will start competing you directly. They will indeed sale the products at loss so that you go out of business, then they have monopoly on that niche.
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AKA Amazon basics
 
deezcnuts said:
AKA Amazon basics
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You are right but brand Amazonbasics is really a fractional part of this process.

For example, see who's selling Jockey undies. A jockey showroom owner who has sunk a crore in this very business can't realistically compete to Amazon.


Screenshot_2.jpg


See, amazon sells at 179 where as other real sellers have kept their prices near 400. In this deal seller has to pay amazon Rs. 150 - 200 in fees alone per piece, your wholesale cost & margin accounting comes after that. Here, Amazon can afford to sell this chaddi for 179 because it's subsidizing its own business. RIP Kaku & uski dukan.
 
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Most people fail to see the big picture. They are happy (I include myself in this category) because they are getting discounts today. But such a model is not sustainable and once they have established a monopoly, they will start increasing their charges and the discounts will be gone. And then, when one will want to go out and buy from a local store, there won't be many left. See how it has already happened with Zomato and Swiggy, where almost every restaurant these days have 2 different rates, one for direct customer and one for these aggregators, which has their 30% commission added to the normal price.
Similarly, even the food you and we eat is so cheap because of subsidies and tax benefits available to the farmers and govt controlling prices. And all the high prices you see for vegetables are because of the middle-men where the farmer is paid pennies.
 
Govt should and must make a fair place for business. It is not about keeping shopkeepers happy. It is about a brand (Amazon) buying everything at cheap; and selling it even at a loss to get the market share and kill the competition. This is some serious anticompetitive shit. Same happened in USA with diapers dot com when they refused to sell their business to Amazon. Amazon started selling diapers at a loss, killed the website, bought it for much less and finally shut it down. Not only Amazon treats its seller poorly but Amazon kills its own sellers by selling popular products under 'Amazon basic' brand. This is something which needs to be banned ( ban janta party, are you listening?). Amazon basics is overpriced a lot of time and even inferior in quality while the real product sits somewhere in the dark. @lockhrt999 has given a great example how Amazon is involved in anticompetitive behaviour by subsidising its own products. Such practices must be stopped. I have no problem in getting zero discounts if this the condition for a fair and sustainable business. Even as a buyer sometimes we feel cheated when someone else buys the same product for far less. I believe that discounts should be an exception, nothing is free and we must learn to pay a fair price.
 
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