Seattle, Washington: Amazon has acquired a 5 percent stake in Mumbai-headquartered fashion retailer Shoppers Stop, the e-commerce giant confirmed on Saturday.
Shoppers Stop said on Saturday that its board of directors has approved an arrangement with Amazon.com NV Investments Holdings LLC, as part of which the fashion retail company will raise Rs. 179.26 crore ($27.6 million) from Amazon.com’s subsidiary and issue a five percent equity share to Amazon’s subsidiary in exchange, reported Gadgets 360.
Amazon spokesperson said the fashion retail market in the country is “underpenetrated and highly unorganised. We see a big potential in Shoppers Stop to disrupt this segment and want to be part of their growth story.”
It’s the first time that Amazon has invested in an offline fashion retail in India. Whereas, the rival Flipkart owns fashion e-commerce companies Myntra and Jabong. The company said it will be selling its entire portfolio of over 400 products across apparel, footwear, and other categories on Amazon.in website.
Shoppers Stop has 80 retail stores across the country. The company has an online store of its own, but it is struggling to make a dent in the online space. Shoppers Stop also owns HyperCity grocery chain and CrossWord Bookstores. As of earlier this month, there were 19 HyperCity stores in India.