CaratLane contacting US based online stores for acquisition

CaratLane, a Jewellery E-Commerce venture is discussing with three US based online stores for acquisition. The company is previously backed by the investment of 300 crore made by Tiger Global Management, who has invested in Flipkart and Ola as well. The company’s planning, is to link international market to low cost manufacturing market in India and make it famous worldwide. The main motive is to raise the operating margins. The revenues would range between $15-20 million.

The basic idea behind this approach is to achieve high end supply chain and to earn high revenues from the business. The brand value of the businesses is very high in the US, but do not have the great brand value in India because manufacturing is not done in India. The deal is still a month away to get locked and the owner do not want to speculate about the size of the deal, but has confirmed that it will be purely an online model with no physical stores present for the customers. The human resource will be nil, but will target customers with strong brand recall and implementation of advanced technology.

According to a recent report published by TechSci Research “India E-commerce Market Forecast & Opportunities, 2020”, the country’s e-commerce market is projected to grow at a CAGR of more than 36% during 2015-2020. E-services segment, which comprises online travel, online payments, online classifieds, etc., is expected to continue its domination through 2020. However, the e-tail segment that includes electronics, apparels & accessories, health and personal care, etc., is expected to witness significantly higher market growth compared to e-services segment over the next five years.