eBay in talks with ShopClues, other e-commerce firms for India relaunch: Report

eBay

American e-commerce company eBay is exploring fresh options for inorganic growth in India and has held merger talks with other e-commerce firms such as ShopClues, according to a report by The Economic Times.

eBay has, however, said that it is looking at relaunching itself in India for cross-border trade.

"We plan to relaunch eBay India with a differentiated offer to focus initially on the cross-border trade opportunity, which we believe is significant," an eBay spokesperson told the newspaper.

"We believe that there is huge growth potential for ecommerce in India and significant opportunity for multiple players to succeed in India’s diverse, domestic market," the spokesperson was quoted as saying.

Reports earlier this week suggested that Flipkart, which was recently acquired by Walmart, is considering shutting down the operations of eBay.in.

Flipkart has been operating eBay in India for the past year, after it raised a round of $1.4 billion from eBay, Tencent and Microsoft. eBay had then invested $500 million in Flipkart and will exit with $1.1 billion, the news daily reported.

Flipkart is expected to launch a new platform to sell used goods as the firm looks to solve key barriers to refurbish customers' trust and convenience at scale. The company will be stopping all customer transactions on eBay.in starting August 14, for a smooth transition to the new platform.

ShopClues, which recently raised $10 million from existing investors, is itself holding talks with multiple e-commerce companies for a potential sale, the news daily reported.