Cloudtail saw revenues nosedive 84% in FY23, a year after break-up with Amazon

At its peak Cloudtail had turned a profit of Rs 29.4 crore in FY19, a sharp contrast to its performance in FY2, which had a similar topline, showing how crucial Amazon’s support was for the seller.

Cloudtail, once the top seller on Amazon, saw its total revenues nosedive 84 percent from Rs 19,090.5 crore in FY22 to Rs 3,093.2 in FY23, regulatory filings sourced via Tofler showed.

Cloudtail India listed on Amazon as a seller in 2014 and was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Prione Business Services, where Amazon owned 49 percent and NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures held the remaining. Later, in 2019, Amazon had to trim its stake in Prione to 24 percent to comply with Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rules.

Amazon and Catamaran Ventures, however, decided to end their JV by May 2022 after All India Online Vendors Association and Delhi Vyapar Mahasangh asked the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to intervene as they alleged Amazon was following anti-competitive practices, predatory pricing and provided preferential treatment to the seller.

About a year after the etailer decided to shut Cloudtail, the seller saw its total revenues nosedive 84 percent, from Rs 19,090 crore in FY22 to Rs 3,093 crore in FY23, as per regulatory filings, a year after it parted ways with Amazon.

Over 95 percent of Cloudtail’s total revenues came from operations while the rest was other income.

As a result of the reduction in scale in FY23, Cloudtail’s losses also narrowed from Rs 522 crore in FY22 to Rs 98 crore in FY23. Cloudtail’s purchase of stock in trade, the products it bought and later sold, saw a massive fall from Rs 15,493 crore in FY22 to Rs 792 crore in FY23 as it lesser demand for its products.

At its peak, around FY19, Cloudtail had registered a revenue of Rs 8,945 crore and a profit at Rs 29.4 crore in FY19, a sharp contrast to its performance in FY23, showing how crucial Amazon’s support was for the seller.

Even in the year after that, in FY20, Cloudtail India had clocked revenues of Rs 11,413 crore and turned a profit of Rs 68 crore on that base.