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Flipkart  has launched a new payment method that lets customers pay some amount for a product and the balance on delivery, aiming to reduce returns and cancellations. The Walmart-owned e-commerce giant, in an email to sellers, said ‘Part-Payment’ would encourage pre-paid transactions. Customers can pay the remaining amount in cash when a product is delivered or either by online transaction. The rate card will remain the same for 'part payment' orders. E-commerce websites allow customers pre-paid, post-paid (cash on delivery) or EMI (equated monthly instalment) as options to purchase products. Most customers choose cash on delivery (CoD), which results in higher units or GMV (gross merchandise value) but risks  companies  a higher risk of cancellations. Flipkart  told sellers ‘Part-Payment’ would help them get higher GMV growth and reduce cancellations. The company, which this week received a $1.2-billion investment from Walmart, works with over 200,00...

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has called e-commerce majors, including Amazon, Flipkart,  Snapdeal  and Paytm, for a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the ‘displaying origin of the product’ on these platforms, as anti-China sentiment picks up in the country. This follows the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) platform making it mandatory for its listed sellers to specify the country of origin while registering all new products on the portal. The border stand-off between India and China has sparked a campaign here that is gaining momentum to boycott  Chinese products. The meeting is being organised on a video conferencing platform, according to people in the know. Ministry officials said that this issue has come up earlier and implementation issues for e-marketplaces would be discussed at the meeting on Wednesday. Among other invitees to the discussion are  Pepperfry  and The E-commerce Council of India. Read Co...

E-commerce giant  Amazon  is reportedly testing a wearable device that will alert warehouse workers if they come too close to each other so that they can maintain social distance and cover themselves against Covid-19. According to a report in CNBC on Tuesday, the device comprises a clear plastic sleeve and a clip which has an LED light and audio system embedded in it. The device sounds an alarm with a loud beeping noise and the light flashes when workers do not maintain safe distance. The device will first be used by workers at Amazon's facility in Kent, Washington, starting Wednesday, said the report, citing a private online group for warehouse workers. The report comes amid fierce criticism that  Amazon  has faced from its former and current  employees  regarding its safety measures for workers. Amazon  is even being sued for allegedly failing to protect  employees  from Covid-19. Read Complete Article

Refreshing the wireless earbuds series in India, Denmark-based Jabra, a subsidiary of GN Netcom that makes in-ear and on-ear audio wearables, on Wednesday launched ' Elite Active 75t ' in the country for Rs 16,999. The device will be available at Amazon starting March 11. It will be available at Croma, Flipkart and Jabra-authorised resellers from the third week of April. The earbuds will be available in six colours: Navy, Copper Black (Amazon exclusive), Titanium Black, Grey, Sienna and Mint. According to the firm, like the original Elite 75t earbud, the Active version brings the same great calls and music that is now expected from Jabra but is optimised for work-out and fitness use. "Jabra Elite Active 75t is our most optimal true wireless earbuds yet and we are proud to be launching it in the India market. Specifically designed for an active lifestyle, the Elite Active 75t is a testament to Jabra's engineering expertise, with its enhanced comfort, first-...

With the penetration of mobile phones, the reliance on the device has increased many folds. Be it shopping, gaming or banking, there has been an immense growth in the hours people spend on their mobile phones. According to App Annie's latest report, TikTok and PUBG Mobile continued to dominate the mobile space in India. TikTok was the breakout social app of 2019 in the Indian market, while PUBG Mobile saw the highest consumer spend in games in the country. PUBG Mobile remained a distant third in breakout games of 2019 in terms of downloads as Carrom Pool clinched the top spot, followed by Free Fire. However, it bagged the top spot in the same category from consumer spend point of view. Read Complete Article

Podcast News : Well, the website of JioMart with the tagline "India ki nayi dukaan" is a a new grocery shopping experience from Reliance Industries Limited, the country's most valued firm. This in turn is expected to take on online grocery specialists- Bigbasket and Grofers, as well as global e-commerce giants Amazon and Walmart. The JioMart app can be soon soon downloaded on apple and android platforms. Currently web services of JioMart are available in the outskirts of Mumbai, in suburbs such as Navi Mumbai, Thane and Kalyan. And this will be scaled up nationally soon. The app will not only connect consumers, but also enable kiranas to order at wholesale rates from Reliance’s cash-and-carry stores, Reliance Market, to refill their stocks. At present, the web portal is offering pre- registration discounts of Rs 3000, claims to have 50,000 plus grocery products with free home delivery and no minimum order value, no-questions-asked return policy and an express...

Amazon added a new device to its Echo lineup today in India. Called Echo Flex, the plug-in device is a multi-functional smart speaker. The Amazon Echo Flex plugs directly into a standard electrical outlet and comes with built-in Alexa voice support that lets you control other smart home devices, the official release notes. The smart speaker also comes with a USB-A port that allows you to charge a phone or other devices. The Amazon Echo Flex is available for pre-order starting today and will ship next month. It is priced at INR 2,999. Read Complete Article

Alexa and Fire TV devices are constantly improving over time and now on Monday the company announced that a user can connect their Echo devices with their Fire TV. This allows a user to build a variety of immersive, wireless speaker configurations for living room set-up, including 1.0 and 2.0 configurations and, for owners of Echo Sub, 1.1 and 2.1 configurations as well, the company said in a statement. To use the new update a user need to tap on the devices icon in the Alexa app on the lower right-hand side and then tap the "+" icon on the upper right hand side. Tap "Set Up Audio System" from the popup and then tap "Home Theatre" on the next screen. Select Fire TV device and then "Next" to name your new Home Theatre system. Select the Echo devices like to use as speakers - one can set-up two speakers, plus an optional Echo Sub. Read Complete Article

Amazon’s Black Friday can be a bit like going to the grocery store while hungry and without a list: You end up with a full shopping cart of things you don’t really want or need. So lest you end up regretting overpaying for that bubblegum-pink ice cream maker, create a list beforehand and log on with a game plan. To help you prep, I consulted my colleague, Wirecutter Deals editor Nathan Burrow. Based on his years of experience scouring sites for the lowest prices in November for the Wirecutter Deals page, he’s found that you can’t go wrong in these categories. Small kitchen appliances Kitchen appliancesKitchen Appliances, Microwave oven, oven, gadgets, appliances Great news for home cooks: There is likely no better time of year to buy kitchen appliances than on Black Friday and during Cyber Week, with the best deals curated in Wirecutter’s guide to the Best Kitchen and Household Deals. No matter the appliance, it would be rare to find it at a lower price than you will in N...

Yamaha on Friday launched in India two new soundbars , Yamaha YAS 109 and Yamaha YAS 209, in India that come with built-in Alexa support. The YAS 109 features built-in subwoofers while the YAS 209 includes a separate wireless subwoofer. Both soundbars come with Wi-Fi connectivity to allow music playback from Spotify Connect, Amazon Music, and Alexa-supported music services, the official release notes. The new soundbars will be available exclusively at authorised Yamaha AV dealers. The YAS 109 is priced at INR 23,990 while the YAS 209 is priced at INR 35,490.

Dispelling the fear that a slowing economy may affect consumer behaviour, e-commerce majors Flipkart and Amazon India have said they witnessed record transactions on their platforms on the first day of their annual festive sale, which started early on Sunday. While home-grown Flipkart, which is now owned by American retail major Walmart, said it registered two times more sales on Day One of its flagship sale event Big Billion Days (BBD) over last year, rival Amazon claimed it witnessed the biggest opening day sale ever with a huge surge in participation in smaller towns. According to Amit Agarwal, senior vice-president and country head, Amazon India, the company also saw the single-largest day of Prime sign-ups, with 66 per cent of Prime members shopping in 24 hours coming from tier II and tier III towns. The company added that 91 per cent of new customers were from smaller cities. “ Whether it is the Diwali festival season or any other shopping event, the primary objectiv...

US based search giant Google on Thursday announced a major update for Assistant users in India where one can now make Assistant talk in Hindi by just asking "Ok Google, Hindi bolo or "Talk to me in Hindi. Besides Hindi and English, users will also be able to find content in Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati and Malayalam. The new update comes to the Google Assistant a day after Amazon announced that Alexa will support Hindi and Hinglish conversations. "For many Indians, voice is increasingly becoming their preferred way to search, and today Hindi has become the second-most used Assistant language globally -- after English," Manuel Bronstein, Vice President, Product Management, Google said in a statement. The feature will be accessible on all Android, Android Go and KaiOs devices. Google also introduced a refreshed design for Google Search in India that will highlight queries in local languages. Read Complete Article

Realme has been on a launching spree, especially in the budget and midrange smartphone category. Last month, it launched Realme 5 and Realme 5 Pro with quad cameras. It's new product is called Realme XT , which has has the first 64MP camera in smartphones. Here is our review of the device : Design : Realme has shed polycarbonate back for a glass body (Corning Gorilla Glass 5) to improve its looks and avoid fingerprints, too. The quad camera setup sits on the left and a metal frame around it highlights it well. The phone features a 6.4-inch full-screen AMOLED display with 16-megapixel camera housed under dew-drop notch. The bezels on the sides are minimal but the bottom bezel is slightly thick. There is an in-display optical fingerprint scanner. The speaker grille, USB-C port, microphone and headphone jack sits on the bottom. The SIM tray and the volume buttons are on the left while the right of the phone has the power button. The buttons are accessible to fingers and m...

Leading smartphone brands such as Xiaomi , Micromax, Redmi (a sub-brand Xiaomi) and OnePlus are set to disrupt the smart television space, which has so far been dominated by electronics giants Sony, LG, Samsung and Panasonic. Internet-enabled smart TVs, which are a relatively new segment in India, are expected to see a major boost on the back of lower data tariffs, which have resulted in a massive uptick in online video consumption. While Xiaomi is already present in this space, its sub-brand Redmi, whose smartphones are quite popular in India, is expected to launch smart TVs soon. Given the value it offers for its price point in the smartphone space, Mi TVs are also likely to be available at competitive prices. This week, OnePlus, the maker of the hugely popular OnePlus 6 and OnePlus 6T handsets, too announced that it would come out with smart TVs in September. The Chinese phone-maker is expected to woo consumers with smart TVs that are as aggressively priced as its fea...

Taiwanese fabless semiconductor company MediaTek on Tuesday launched Helio G90 and G90T -- its first dedicated gaming chipsets. Both system-on-chips (SoCs) are paired with MediaTek's HyperEngine game technology that is touted to deliver an enhanced gaming experience on smartphones. The new platforms utilize an octa-core combination of two Arm Cortex-A76 cores and six Cortex-A55s alongside the Mali-G76 GPU. Both the G90 and G90T are built on TSMC’s 12 nm FinFET process and can be clocked up to 2.05GHz. In addition, the new SoCs support up to 10GB LPDDR4X RAM. The chipsets are designed through involvement of the MediaTek India team, though both will be available for smartphones globally. The Helio G90 series also have octa-core CPU, paired with ARM Mali-G76 3EEMC4 GPU. The Taiwanese company claimed that the combination delivers up to 1TMACs (TeraMAC) performance. Read Complete Article

Taiwan-based TPV Technology is eyeing a slot amongst the top five television producers in India after it relaunched the Philips brand towards the end of last year. Sony, along with Samsung and LG , make up 75 per cent of the market with Panasonic and other brands comprise the remaining market share. TPV, which will have its first year of full operations after relaunching the Philips brand, is aiming for a 8-10 per cent market share by the end of 2020. Under an agreement, TPV has global licensing rights to manufacture and sell Philips branded TV and audio, while Philips receives royalty. Back in 2012, Philips and TPV Technology formed TP Vision where Philips had a 30 per cent stake and the rest was owned by TPV. It had licensing rights to develop, manufacture and market Philips branded TV sets in Europe, Russia, Middle East, Latin America and selected countries in Asia-Pacific. Later, in 2014, Philips sold its stake to TPV. However, in India, the agreement was inked last year. R...

The divisive final season of " Game of Thrones " smashed the record for most Primetime Emmy nominations by a drama series in a single year, earning a whopping 32 nods Tuesday. HBO's fantasy epic enraged fans with its bumpy conclusion but still trounced the competition to strengthen its iron grip on the small-screen equivalent of the Oscars. "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" -- Amazon's story of a 1950s housewife-turned-stand up comic -- was a distant second on 20 nominations. "Thrones" is the most decorated fictional show in the awards' seven-decade history, and now has 161 nominations overall -- including 47 wins. ALSO READ: The science of Game of Thrones "For those who will be adding 2019 to their long list of nominations and or wins from other years -- it never gets old!" said Television Academy chairman and CEO Frank Scherma. Readmore

Write caption… Amazon.com faced a social media backlash in India on Thursday after toilet seat covers and other items with images of Hindu gods were spotted on the US retailer's website, making #BoycottAmazon the country's top trending topic on Twitter. Thousands of Twitter users backed the call for the boycott, with some tagging Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and urging her to take action against the world's biggest online retailer. Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The episode is reminiscent of an incident in 2017 when New Delhi took the Seattle, Washington-based company to task after its Canadian website was spotted selling doormats resembling India's flag. Swaraj at the time threatened to rescind visas of Amazon employees if the doormats were not removed from its site.Reuters found several listings of toil...

At least two Pentagon employees were offered jobs at Amazon.com Inc. while working on the Defense Department’s $10 billion cloud contract, a lawsuit filed by Oracle Corp. alleges. The amended complaint, made public on Tuesday, claims Deap Ubhi, a former employee at a high-level Defense Department technology unit, helped design the cloud contract in a way that was favorable to Amazon even after receiving “significant” job and bonus offers from the e-commerce giant. Oracle’s latest court action comes weeks after the Pentagon announced it had eliminated Oracle and International Business Machines Corp. from the bidding because they didn’t meet the minimum criteria, leaving Amazon and Microsoft Corp. as the last remaining competitors. The Pentagon, which announced the Jedi competition in March of last year, doesn’t expect to award the contract before July 19. Ubhi, who had worked at Ama zon before joining the government, helped craft the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure, or...

Indo Count Industries, a lesser known textiles manufacturer in India, is one of the fastest growing suppliers of home textiles in the US and Europea. The company has entered 49 foreign markets and aims to be a global leader. For Mumbai-based Indo Count, global retail monolith Walmart offered the gateway. A partnership with Walmart’s home brand ‘Canopy’ over a decade ago helped the Indian textiles maker expand globally. Being a Walmart supplier has elavated its position to a trusted supplier in the marketplace and has also allowed the company to invest smartly to increase its market share globally. Indo Count Industries is not a case study in isolation. Hordes of home-grown Indian manufacturers and sellers are profiting incessantly from the business models and facilitation offered by India focused multinationals like Walmart and Amazon . Walmart with its sourcing model and Amazon by offering a ‘Global Selling Programme’, are raising the aspirational bar for small Indian ...