E-commerce platform Shopclues denies reports of merger talks with Flipkart

E-commerce firm ShopClues recently refuted reports that it is in talks with rival Flipkart for a merger. ShopClues CEO Sanjay Sethi told reporters at Bengaluru.

Really speaking, it is not the fact. Of course, mergers help but do not guarantee businesses to grow.

Sethi said if money was the sole criterion to make and sustain a business, Tatas and Birlas would have merged their companies

If money was the only reason why businesses have to be made and sustained, then Tatas and Birlas should be one entity, but they aren't. They are competing with each other, he said.

Also read : GoDaddy, ShopClues announce a strategic partnership

Sethi also said it is wrong to link Flipkart and ShopClues on the basis of a common investor - Tiger Global.

The largest investor in our company is Nexus Venture, which is also a very large investor in Snapdeal. Nexus Venture has been with ShopClues for four years, but somehow, nobody asks the same question about Snapdeal, he said.

Reports of ShopClues-Flipkart merger come in the wake of speculation about consolidation in the e-commerce space. Earlier, ShopClues launched AdZone, a dedicated sellers' platform where merchants looking to advertise their products on ShopClues can enter a bidding process to initiate their campaign.

ShopClues has over 400,000 merchants or small businesses listed on its marketplace, and ships more than 3.5 million items every month across all product categories. It had recently announced its strategic partnership with GoDaddy. ShopClues merchants can now drive potential customer web traffic directly to their page listed on ShopClues and at the same time, building their online identity and brand with a distinct domain name from GoDaddy.

The ability to drive traffic to their specific page using a short and memorable URL, presents SMBs with the ability to offer promotions and better target its customers with their own website address via a link as the ‘call-to-action’.