Happy Monday! The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way consumers think about essentials. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak, essentials were mostly grocery items and consumables. But with everyone spending most of their time at home, people have moved to a new definition of essentials. That’s according to Kalyan Krishnamurthy, group chief executive at Flipkart. In […]

By Olivia Carville Antsy city dwellers seeking to escape their Covid-19 refuges are road-tripping to nearby vacation rentals in surprisingly strong numbers, showing the first signs of life for an industry that essentially ground to a halt in March. “People, after having been stuck in their homes for a few months, do want to get […]

After dominating the conversations for weeks, coronavirus seems to be falling off the popularity charts as netizens in the country went back to searching for topics like films and weather on Google in May. According to Google search trends, the search volume for coronavirus in May was half of that in April even though the […]

Didi Chuxing, China’s biggest ride-hailing company which counts SoftBank as a backer, saw its ride sharing orders in China this month recover to levels seen over the same period a year earlier, its founder and Chief Executive Cheng Wei said. Didi’s peak daily ride sharing orders surpassed 30 million, Cheng said in a statement on […]

With the economy opening up after lockdown, consumer-focused large online platforms are lining up new loans or credit lines to tap into the growing demand for credit among consumers, even when lending-focused startups are being cautious before issuing new loans. Digital payments platform Paytm has reworked its lending product Postpaid with an enhanced credit limit […]

Indian consumer companies are tailoring marketing and output plans that will suit the thrift-focused buyer, with the lockdown-induced disruptions triggering health and income-loss concerns across the country. As foods and groceries are the only categories reporting stable sales, companies are focusing on the value end of the spectrum for most product lines, assuming that cuts […]

India’s most valued fintech, Paytm, is set to harness increased credit demand through the lockdown to extend its foray into micro-credit services for users paying bills and making purchases online. The SoftBank- and Alipay-backed digital payments giant said that it has tied up with non-bank lenders Clix Capital and Arthimpact Digital Loans to tap into […]

Walmart-owned Flipkart will continue to focus on pure-play ecommerce instead of ecosystem building with bundled services despite rising competition from new entrants like Reliance Jio and existing rival Amazon, a top executive told ET. Flipkart Group chief executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy said the Bengaluru-based company will deploy most of its investments and resources into winning commerce […]

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Walmart-owned Flipkart will continue to focus on pure-play e-commerce instead of ecosystem building with bundled services amid rising competition from new entrants like Reliance Jio and existing rival Amazon, a top executive told ET. Flipkart group CEO, Kalyan Krishnamurthy, said the Bengaluru-based company will deploy most of its investments and resources into […]

Swiggy plans to shut its premium food delivery platform in Mumbai, Scootsy, and integrate the operations within the Swiggy app. The move to combine the operations is expected to help Swiggy tap into Scootsy’s high-end customer and restaurant base, as it seeks to set up a premium category within the app at a time when […]