K Raheja Corp Group owned retail chain Shoppers Stop Limited has entered an Investment Agreement with Amazon.com NV Investment Holdings LLC to sell 43,95,925 equity shares or about 5% stake in the company for Rs 407.78 per equity share or Rs 179.25 crore. Shoppers Stop's Board of Directors have approved this stake sale, and on October 18 the matter will be brought up in front of shareholders for their approval. Shoppers Stop will be using the funds raised through this minority stake sale to further expand its physical and online retail biz, plus it has tied-up with Amazon Seller Services Pvt. Ltd. (Amazon's India unit) to sell its in-house brands on the e-commerce marketplace through a dedicated microsite, according to this Livemint report. It's worth noting that some of the in-house brands such as Haute Curry and Kashish are already selling on Amazon. It's not clear when this microsite will go live. "We are seeing a big jump in online growth during the quarter. It has gone up by 70% and all our steps for omni channel including OMS, WMS, MTM, ESB, are in place now and we believe by September-October, we should be able to start omni channel across India. We already done some trials across the few stores already," said Shoppers Stop's Managing Director Govind Shrikhande, during the company's earnings call. Shoppers Stop business highlights (from earnings call and annual report) - As of now 80 stores in the Department Store business; 50 in the Crossword business which is directly…
