Online retailer Amazon goes Junglee.com in India

American online retail giant Amazon.com entered the Indian market this morning with Junglee.com, an online shopping site powered by the US-based company.

The site says that it is an online shopping service by Amazon "which enables customers to find and discover products from online and offline retailers in India and from Amazon.com".

Potential customers cannot directly buy anything from Junglee.com as the government is yet to allow foreign investment in multi-brand retail. Amazon is branding the site as a purchase decision-making site rather than a transactional site.

The move by Amazon - the world's largest online retailer with $48 billion in assets - was widely anticipated, with rumours of it hitting the media in January.

News agency PTI had reported that the world largest internet retailer will set up a facility in Hyderabad and employ over 3,000 people. According to the report, the Andhra Pradesh government had met with an Amazon delegation led by John Schoettler, vice president (global real estate and facilities) in November, after which the announcement was made.

Junglee.com claims to offer more than 1.2 crore products covering over 14,000 brands and hundreds of retailers. Amazon lists Homeshop18, UniverCell, Hidesign, Gitanjali, The Bombay Store, Fabindia, Bata India, Dabur Uveda, Microsoft India Store, Reebok, and Amazon.com as some of the biggest names available.