The pulls and pressures of the marketplace model in India

The government would like all ecommerce players to be marketplaces, providing market access to small businesses looking to sell online. The letter and spirit of the DIPP rule that allows a maximum of 25% of sales from one vendor is meant to enforce that. However, as the ecosystem matures, the online aggregators in retail, food, hospitality, etc are forced to go 'private label' or create their own supply. Reasons include gaps in the marketplace where there are no good vendors, a push towards controlling the user experience, as well as higher margins from private label, creating potential 'frenemy' situations with vendors. More here