Tata Sons-promoted Infiniti Retail, which owns consumer durables and electronics chain Croma, has tied up with the country's leading online marketplace, Snapdeal.com, to launch itself on the portal.
Both the companies have called a joint press conference tomorrow to announce the same.
This is the second such tie-up from the house of India's largest diversified conglomerate with the New Delhi-based eCommerce major after its Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata picked up a stake in the portal. Last month, Tata Value Homes, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Housing, entered into a first-of-its-kind, strategic and exclusive partnership with Snapdeal.com to sell residential properties.
Ecommerce experts and industry watchers said there could be more such partnerships between the two in apparel and other lifestyle products.
However, more than Ratan Tata's investment in Snapdeal, they feel that as ecommerce is gaining ground and online marketplaces have been able to establish their model, many more brick and mortar retailers are taking the omni-channel route, an initiative by retailers to better integrate their stores and e-commerce channels.
Arvind Singhal, Chairman of retail consultancy Technopak Advisory, said such tie-ups will help offline retailers to scale up fast and reach out consumers in a cost effective way. The presence of well established brands such as Croma on portals would also push up traffic on the site.
"So now consumers can buy online and pick up at a nearby store, or order online and get it delivered to home. This will help offline retailers cut the inventory size at the store and list all the products online," he said, adding that retailers can also use their stores as fulfilment centres.
Croma is already doing that through its own online store and through a similar tie-up with online marketplace Ebay India. Of late several regional retailers such as Viveks of Chennai and Sangeetha Mobiles have listed their shops on Ebay to scale up faster and reach out to consumers in other parts of the country.
Similarly, e-commerce chain Amazon has tied up with Bharat Petroleum’s retail store brand In & Out for a store pick-up service in Mumbai and Delhi to reach a wider audience.
Correction
Infiniti Retail's name was misspelled as Infinity Retail in the headline and text. This copy has been modified to correct the error.