e-commerce
Future Group to now tie up with an e-commerce site
MUMBAI: A day after lashing out at e-commerce sites such as Flipkart for undercutting prices, Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani said that he would announce his ‘exclusive e-commerce partner’ soon, according to media reports.
As per the reports, Biyani agreed that he met Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in Delhi last week, hinting that he might partner with Amazon to sell its private labels.
“We discussed many things like the macro environment, the prime minister and so on,” Biyani told a leading business newspaper talking about his meeting with Bezos.
“We can learn a lot of things from e-commerce players regarding their supply chain and logistics, sourcing and so on,” Biyani added.
The buzz is also that Biyani is expected to meet other e-commerce players for a tie-up.
The group would first take its fashion products online, followed by FMCG, general merchandise, food and others, he further said.
The reports also add, “While tying up with e-commerce portal is a ‘brand strategy’ Biyani said, the group’s own omni channel strategy, set to go live after Diwali, is a retail strategy or extension of his physical stores. He said the group’s omni channel strategy will work simultaneously along with retailing on e-commerce partner.”
As part of the omni strategy, the group’s electronics format, Ezone, is expected to go online first, followed by premium food chain Foodhall and hypermarket chain Big Bazaar, a group executive further revealed.
Biyani recently came out strongly against the strategy of e-com firms, accusing them of predatory pricing backed with foreign funding.
Media reports quoted him saying, “Laws in this country do not allow sales below cost price. This is anti-competitive. We (at Big Bazaar and other retail brands) never sell below cost price.”
The future group also launched ad blitz, lashing out at the e-commerce portals with taglines like, “No deal can win the trust of a billion people, you have to earn it.”
His comments came after Flipkart announced that it clocked record sales of $100 million (Rs 610 crore) in just 10 hours of its Big Billion Day sale on 6 October. Rival Snapdeal also claimed to have matched it with its chief saying the portal saw sales of over Rs 1 crore per minute.
But the Flipkart Big Billion Day was far from perfect, the e-commerce portal later apologised for the glitches encountered admitting its ‘failure’ in living upto the expectations of its customers. Acknowledging that it was not adequately prepared for the sheer scale of the event, Flipkart promised to come better prepared next time.
Targeting the e-retailer after it released the apology letter, Future group released another ad with the tagline ‘You can’t take a nation for granted even for a day.’
Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) too has expressed concerns over huge discounts being offered by e-commerce firms. It has asked the Commerce and Industry Ministry to take steps to monitor and regulate online businesses.
e-commerce
Flipkart cuts around 300 jobs in annual performance review
E-commerce giant trims ~1.5 per cent of workforce as IPO preparations continue.
MUMBAI: Flipkart just gave performance the pink slip because when the annual review bell rings, even the biggest cart sometimes needs to lighten its load. Flipkart has let go of approximately 300 employees as part of its annual performance management cycle, Moneycontrol reported on 7 March 2026, citing people familiar with the matter. The exits represent roughly 1.5 per cent of the company’s total workforce of around 20,000 people across its businesses.
The move follows Flipkart’s standard practice of asking employees placed in lower performance bands to leave during yearly reviews, a process the company has carried out periodically in recent years. A similar exercise in early 2024 saw around 1,000 employees (nearly 5 per cent of the workforce) exit.
The latest round comes amid Flipkart’s continued push for operational efficiency and cost discipline, mirroring broader trends across the Indian startup ecosystem where funding slowdowns have shifted focus toward profitability.
The development also arrives as Flipkart advances preparations for a potential domestic IPO. The company has held early discussions with investment banks including Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Kotak Mahindra Capital to explore feasibility. Industry sources indicate a possible listing timeline of late 2026 or early 2027, though the final size and schedule remain undecided.
In December 2025, Flipkart received National Company Law Tribunal approval to shift its holding company domicile from Singapore back to India. a key regulatory step that simplifies the group structure ahead of a public market debut.
Controlled by Walmart, Flipkart remains one of India’s largest e-commerce platforms, locked in fierce competition with Amazon. In a market where every rupee counts and every headcount is scrutinised, the latest cuts aren’t just housekeeping, they’re part of a bigger balancing act between growth ambitions and the road to listing.
