which is going to shut down in about a month’s time, four industry executives said.
Amazon will not hold any equity in Cocoblu Retail, the way it has stayed away from another new seller, Dawntech Electronics, which has taken over Cloudtail’s electronics business since last November. Dawntech is owned by South’s leading real estate company, Salarpuria-Sattva Group.
Cocoblu Retail is a newly-floated ecommerce seller incorporated last October, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Delhi-based RattanIndia Enterprises, which in January received Rs 350 crore fund infusion by the promoters. RattanIndia Enterprises is the flagship company of RattanIndia Group for new age businesses such as electric motorcycles, drone solutions and fintech.
The executives said Cloudtail has communicated that Cocoblu Retail will handle the fashion business from April, the business agreements are currently getting signed with the brands, and thereafter billing will begin. Cloudtail will transfer its complete fashion inventory to Cocoblu.
The company is also creating its team from Cloudtail such as CEO Chandramouli Venkataraman, who joined in February from Cloudtail where he was the category leader.
RattanIndia Enterprises chairperson Anjali Rattan Nashier said Cocoblu will lead the digital ecommerce foray of the group by partnering with large national and international brands as well as MSMEs across multiple categories to tap the ecommerce opportunity. “We have currently commenced our operations and will be scaling up in the weeks to come,” she said.
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Nashier did not comment specifically on Cloudtail and Amazon, but said the company is bringing onboard some of the best talent in the industry from across sectors including ecommerce. Emails sent to Amazon and Cloudtail remained unanswered till Thursday press time.
The Competition Commission of India
had earlier this month approved Amazon’s bid to acquire Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy’s 76% stake through his investment office Catamaran Ventures in Cloudtail’s parent, Prione Business Services.
Both Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart have been accused by opponents, including small traders, of operating front companies to sidestep India’s regulations that bar foreign-owned marketplaces from selling anything of their own. In fact, the allegations and the possibility of regulatory actions might have been among the reasons why Cloudtail is being wound up, as per industry executives. Both the marketplaces have always said they comply with the rules.
The CEO of a global fashion house that sells a host of brands on Amazon said since there is a restriction of 25% of total sales on large vendors, Amazon is getting multiple vendors to replace Cloudtail. “Cocoblu would be for fashion and lifestyle,” he said.
Another CEO of a company that sells a host of brands through Cloudtail said the company will be switching to sell through Cocoblu from the second week of April.
