As Cloudtail ceases operations and Appario's future hangs in the balance, experts weigh in on the ramifications that will be felt by consumers and predict Amazon's next steps. Following the surprise announcement on Monday that Amazon and Catamaran are ending their joint venture partnership in Prione Business Services, which owns Cloudtail, from May next year, two important questions emerged: 1) who will fill the void left by Amazon's largest seller and 2) will Appario, the second-largest seller on the platform, face a similar fate. Why it matters? According to a Reuters report, Cloudtail and Appario account for nearly 35 percent of the sales on Amazon. These two companies are the dominant sellers across popular categories like smartphones, electronics, daily necessities, and fashion. Without answers to these two questions, consumer welfare will inevitably take a hit as product availability and variety will reduce on the platform. Who will fill the void left by Cloudtail? Several smaller sellers: "Amazon has already been creating multiple smaller sellers, and the volume of Cloudtail will simply shift to them now", Nikhil Varma, Managing Partner, Miglani Varma and Co, told MediaNama. Several industry executives confirmed the same with the Economic Times saying that Amazon will appoint several independent sellers to take over the business from Cloudtail. Amazon is not expected to have any stake, directly or indirectly, in these sellers, and Amazon will only provide assistance to these sellers, the executives stated. This is being done to ensure that no single seller has a dominant position in the marketplace, the executives…
