Fabmall.com, India’s leading e-commerce company, announced today that it is acquiring US-based Indiaplaza.com, the leading e-commerce destination for Indians in USA. The combined e-commerce business will operate under the global brand name Indiaplaza, with immediate effect.

This acquisition will create the world’s largest India-centric e-commerce business. The integrated business will be managed out of India. It will have operations and logistics both in India and USA, a wide range of merchandise on offer and a 24-hour customer service centre in Bangalore.

Announcing the acquisition and the new brand, K Vaitheeswaran, Chief Operating Officer, Indiaplaza said, “We pioneered the concept of online shopping in India and have built a strong online brand for Indians in India. Indiaplaza.com provides us access to the largest transacting customer base for Indian products in the USA as well as USA-based logistics and vendor management systems. We will now aggressively invest and scale up the operations to create a global online shopping brand for Indians and Indian products in India and USA. In due time, we will also look at UK, Australia and South Africa”

He also said “Given the explosive market opportunity for e-commerce, we are confident of building a US $ 100 million company by 2009.”

Param Parameswaran, Chairman of Indiaplaza.com said, “The Internet retailing business targeting Indians and Indian products is on the verge of explosive growth worldwide. The two biggest markets though, are India and USA. The combined entity will be a dominant player in both these markets. Further, nobody else has on-the-ground operations and logistics in these markets to deliver a customer experience equal to ours.”

Indiaplaza has a base of over a million loyal customers. Customers in India will be directed to the website www.indiaplaza.in  and customers in USA will continue to use the website www.indiaplaza.com All existing customer accounts at fabmall.com including user log-ins, reward points, pre-paid accounts will continue to operate as before, with no change.

Indiaplaza.in pioneered online shopping in India under the brand name Fabmall.com and is today a clear leader in the Indian e-commerce industry. It has the largest catalogue in the industry with over 3.5 million items across books, music, movies, CD-ROMs, toys, mobile phones, electronics, consumer durables, home & kitchen appliances, apparel, jewellery, cosmetics, flowers, chocolates, cakes and many more. It is the only Indian e-commerce business that handles the entire e-commerce eco-system in-house, including web technologies, order processing, logistics, warehousing, vendor management, shipping and customer service. This allows delivery of superior customer experience.

The company has forged business alliances with several leading Indian media houses to power their online shopping sites including NDTV (NDTVShopping.com), Business Standard (bsbazaar.com), Malayala Manorama (manoramaemart.com) among others.

Indiaplaza.com is today the leading online shopping destination for customers in USA for Indian products and to send gifts to India. Among other things, Indiaplaza.com has established a strong presence in Bollywood related entertainment products. Indiaplaza.com’s operations, warehousing and delivery systems are based out of Austin, Texas.

Indiaplaza.com received funding from The Indigo Monsoon Group (IMG), a private investment firm investing in Indian Internet and mobile domains. Other investments of IMG (www.indigomonsoon.com) include Sulekha.com, a leading online community for Indians integrating social media with local commerce and eshakti.com, a leading online India inspired and customized apparel retailer aimed at a global audience.