Google India is opening online store for its gadgets this Diwali

Over the past few months, there have been strong rumours that Google is planning an e-commerce play in India this Diwali. While Diwali is around the corner, we don’t see any sign of search giant preparing for the horizontal e-commerce platform.

Nevertheless, the company is planning an indirect online storefront for all its branded hardware products including smartphone, Google Home smart speakers and virtual reality gears. The company is shortlisting partners to operate and manage fulfilment.

The company is talking to several third-party partners including American distributor of IT products - Ingram Micro to operate and manage the fulfilment components.

Currently, Google operates web platform store.google.com in India that enables users to locate offline and online platforms to buy its products. However, starting November this year, users can buy through authorised partners.

A yet to be launched store would help the search behemoth to have a better grip on consumer buying experience. Currently, smartphone brands such as Xiaomi and Samsung have been witnessing decent traction on their e-commerce platforms.

Since the beginning of this year, there have been reports in media that Google is looking to have its e-commerce play after investment talks with Flipkart fizzled out. As of now, there is no update on its horizontal e-commerce play in India.

The Sundar Pichai-led company’s interest in Indian online commerce said to have driven by its $550 million investment in China’s second-largest Internet retailer JD.com.

Last year, Google entered digital payments space with UPI-powered app Google Pay (previously Tez). Besides, it also invested in startups including fashion-focused e-commerce marketplace – Fynd and concierge service dunzo.

To get a pie in fledgling online food ordering market, Google also had launched food delivery app Areo. Accelerating its Next Billion Users program, Google had launched Datally, a mobile data manager that will help you monitor, save, and gain control of your data in India.

The development was reported by ET.