Axel Springer-backed product comparison portal ShopAlike forays into India

Visual Meta GmbH, an e-commerce company owned and operated by European multimedia giant Axel Springer AG, has announced its expansion into India with the launch of its products comparison portal ShopAlike.in. This is Visual Meta's first expansion outside Europe.

What's it about?

ShopAlike.in is a product comparison portal for apparels, shoes, bags, accessories, jewellery, fashion and home furnishing. It also acts as a marketplace for other e-commerce players. However, unlike regular marketplaces that simply list products and mention different sellers along with their prices, ShopAlike.in offers complete storefronts to these players to display their product catalogue on the site.

It is already displaying products from a number of players, including baby products e-tailer Firstcry.com, HomeShop18.com, Indiatimes.com, Infibeam.com, as well as fashion majors like Jabong.com and Myntra.com.

"We are very fast when it comes to expansion into new countries, but we also tailor fit our strategies based on the target country and market," Visual Meta's founder Robert Maier said.

Set up in 2009, Visual Meta has been operating multiple shopping platforms across Europe under the brands LadenZeile and ShopAlike. The company incorporates products from thousands of online retailers with focus on fashion, furniture and lifestyle. The advanced product search allows users to find the desired products quickly and compare items. People can use the product search in 16 countries all over the world and Visual Meta works with more than 6,000 partners. Its clients vary from online shops such as Amazon and Zalando, to brands such as Esprit and other exclusive specialty shops.

In India, Axel Springer already runs automotive classified ads portal Carwale.com, which it had acquired back in 2010.

ShopAlike.in will face competition from players like MySmartPrice.com and Amazon's Junglee.com. Other players operating in the products comparison space across various categories include FindYogi.com, PriceBaba.com, Buyhatke.com, Reviews42.com, and PriceDekho.com. Last month, price comparison site BearShop.in shut up shop.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)