Amazon India’s e-commerce & price comparison portal Junglee has launched a pilot project to let individuals sell second-hand goods on the platform, reports Economic Times. The service is currently available for users in Bangalore, and is expected is expand to other cities depending on the success of the pilot.
For starters, users can sell second hand goods in categories like mobile phones, tablets, watches, books and other such items. Amazon will provide the pick-up, packing services as well as delivery of the product. The company will charge a commission on completion of transactions, and currently lets users list ads for free. Note that the company states it does not hold any responsibility in case of grievances over used goods.
With this move, Amazon will compete with companies like Olx, Ebay and Quikr, which enable users to auction and sell used or new goods. In March this year, Quikr had launched a service called Doorstep which let lets sellers bargain with their buyers for a used product in the middle of an order, as well as act as an arbiter to the transaction.
Junglee-Quikr tie-up: In 2014, Junglee had tied up with Quikr to let shoppers view and compare prices of second hand products listed on the latter. Later, it also integrated product listings (new and old) from Quikr on individual product pages and category pages. The same year, Junglee also introduced a ‘Post Your Ad’ feature on its site, that enabled users to post free advertisements to sell their goods, making it a competitor to Quikr. With the current move, Junglee will also deliver, pickup and package goods, in direct competition with Quikr Doorstep.
Amazon India investment: Note that earlier this month, Amazon further invested Rs 1,350 (~$200 million) crore in its India unit, registrar of companies data accessed by Medianama showed. Amazon Seller Services, allotted 150 crore shares of face value of Rs 10 to Amazon Asia-Pacific Resources Private Limited and Amazon Eurasia Holdings. Amazon had previously added funds worth Rs 1,980 crore (~ $290 million) into its Indian business unit in February. In 2014, Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, pledged $2 billion in India, to support its growth and improve the customer & seller experience in the country.
Other developments:
– Last year, Junglee started selling unboxed & refurbished electronics products from Overcart and GreenDust. Junglee first started enabling direct purchases via its website in May2014.
– The same year, Junglee introduced gift cards on its platform, claiming to offer over 1400 physical and 400 e-gift cards on its platform, for sellers and retailers like Amazon, Shoppers Stop, BookMyShow, Makemytrip, and Mainland China among others.
– Note that Junglee, though initially just a price comparison portal, was positioned as an advertising service for online merchants in India. The service that was called Product Ads was later rebranded to ‘Sell on Junglee’ ads.
