One big difference between India & many other markets is a foreign retailer can't open up shop selling to consumers if they are selling third party products retail unless they are selling own-brand products.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-seeking-to-buy-stake-in-indian-e-commerce-giant-flipkart-1525437107 "Marks & Spencer , Zara, H&M and others global brands have set up physical shops. IKEA says it will open in India soon. These retailers are allowed in because they only sell their own products. Foreign-owned companies aren’t allowed to sell others’ brands, which is why it is tough for Walmart to do business here. Online retail, however, provides an opening. Seattle-based Amazon gets around restrictions by acting as a marketplace only. Its website sells third-party products, providing the tech and logistical support for a fee."
Companies like Walmart or Amazon have only been able to sell B2B or operate marketplaces where local third party merchants sells.
Amazon likely makes more selling handcrafted Indian goods into the US market than they make from their India retailing marketplace
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/26/technology/amazon-india-merchants.html "The India program is quite lucrative for Amazon’s bottom line. A merchant who chooses the full array of Amazon services, including buying advertising and contracting with the company to store and deliver the products from Amazon’s American warehouses, typically hands over about one-third of the item’s sale price in fees and commissions."
Amazon is likely losing a lot of money trying to win India, trying to avoid losing another fast-growth key market like they did in China.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-05/after-losing-china-jeff-bezos-really-wants-to-win-in-indiahttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/technology/delivering-amazon-india.html "With few choices in Leh stores, cosmetics and clothing are popular categories for Amazon here. Orders typically arrive in five to seven days, slower than the two-day delivery that Amazon’s big-city customers receive but quicker than the monthlong journey they often took with the post office."
the big CPG companies like Unilever & P&G are duking it out with local upstarts
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-15/this-multibillion-dollar-corporation-is-controlled-by-a-penniless-yoga-superstar "Since 2012, Patanjali’s revenue has climbed twentyfold, from $69 million to $1.6 billion. It’s the fastest-growing company in Indian consumer goods, and Ramdev predicts he will overtake the subsidiaries of multinational giants such as Nestlé SA and Unilever NV as soon as next year." ... “Idealism is easy when you have nothing,” Karamveer told Pathak-Narain. “It’s what you do when you have fame, money, or power that matters.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-17/yoga-guru-s-ambition-to-beat-unilever-in-india-just-got-tougherhttps://www.bloombergquint.com/business/2018/01/17/patanjali-wont-list-as-it-plans-to-turn-into-a-non-profit-says-ramdevTravel has historically been a big driver in ecommerce. MakeMyTrip is a big player in India.
In 2016 Chinese travel company Ctrip invested in MMYT
http://ir.ctrip.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=148903&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=2127304& there was a follow on round in 2017 after MakeMyTrip acquired competitor Ibibo in an all stock deal in October of 2016
https://www.livemint.com/Companies/4P3ffS4ZKukXzOBZzmUztN/MakeMyTrip-looks-to-raise-330-million-via-share-sale.htmlMMYT is fast-growing but is still unprofitable.
