Electronics focused e-commerce venture Timtara has shut down its operations, reports Nextbigwhat. Medianama had learnt the same from sources in February 2013, however when we had contacted Timtara Co-Founder and Director Arindam Bose on this, he had denied that Timtara was shutting down. We have contacted Timtara for a confirmation on this and will update the article once we get a response. However, its worth noting that the site is not working at the time of writing this article.
This development follows the arrests of Arindam Bose and Timtara.com CEO Harish Ahluwalia on allegations of fraud amounting to Rs 12 lakh in April 2013. The police had said that they’ve received complaints from around 200 buyers, and around three complaints have been registered with the Economic Offences Wing and Janakpuri Police Station.
In response to these arrests, Timtara had posted a notice on its website saying that false complaints have been filed against them by people hired by their competitors.It had also said that due to the above circumstances, they are withdrawing all discounts on the site. The current status of these cases is not clear right now, however the NextBigWhat cites a Facebook page – ‘Timtara Fraud‘ which suggests that Arindam Bose’s bail plea was rejected by the sessions court and the next hearing is on May 4, 2013. However, we are not sure of the veracity of this Facebook page.
Timtara had launched in 2010 and was run by M/s InfoSecure Consulting Pvt. Ltd. It offered products like Mobile phones, Computers, Camera, Kitchen Appliances, Gaming, Health & Personal Care and Home appliances among others. However, customers have reportedly faced several complaints with late and non-delivery of products. Timtara’s MouthShut review page indicates that there are customers who haven’t received goods ordered for two to five months.
E-commerce Website Woes
Several e-commerce companies have shut down during the year, thereby continuing the consolidation of the e-commerce industry in 2013. We believe that many of these companies had difficulties in breaking even with their existing models and raising investments due to India’s FDI In retail policy which prohibits foreign investments in e-commerce.
Children-focused e-commerce startup Wopshop.com shut down its operations within one year of its launch. Its founder Rohit Sharma however has now started up with an exclusive voucher site called Pokkt, which was a part of the inaugural batch of Rajesh Sawhney’s GSF Accelerator.
Seventymm, the online movie rental business which had pivoted into e-commerce, had also reportedly shut down its operations earlier in April 2013. The company had pivoted in 2010 owing to the lack of growth opportunities in DVD rental model. Naspers owned Tradus had acquired e-commerce portal BuyThePrice.com, a little over a year after Naspers had invested Rs 8.5 crore in the company.
In March 2013, online fashion retailer Urban Touch, which was acquired by FashionAndYou, had shut down owing to differences between both the teams. Abhishek Goyal, Founder, Urban Touch who had joined as CEO of FashionAndYou had also quit. In the same month, Info Edge, the company that runs Naukri, 99acres and Jeevansathi, had also informed that it will be writing off its entire Rs 29.3 crore investment in the boutique online shopping site 99Labels.
2012 also saw several e-commerce companies shut down after acquisition as a part of industry consolidation. In April 2012, Snapdeal.com had acquired Esportsbuy.com, an online retailer of sports and fitness equipment and shut it down two months after the acquisition. Similarly, Flipkart had also acquired one of its competitors Letsbuy.com in a cash-and-equity deal in February 2012 and had shut it down in May 2012. Lapis Marketing Pvt Ltd which operates a baby care product company Hushbabies.com had acquired MangoStreet.com in August 2012 and shut it down later.
