three years ago technology giant amazon introduced echo its range of wireless speakers into an already crowded market leaning on its inhouse technology and marketing muscle the etailer has made waves previously with its kindle and fire devices amazon has sold over eight million units of echo for a company best known in india for its ecommerce platform success of private labels such as echo is useful in a cutthroat battle in india the behemoth is locked in a bruising tussle with homegrown rival flipkart the ecommerce market is expected to grow from 26 billion rs 17 lakh crore currently to 103 billion rs 68 lakh crore by 201920 according to goldman sachs private labels could help amazon reel in new costconscious customers especially from smaller towns from where etailers get half their business amazon and flipkart are following contrasting strategies in their pursuit of private labels the seattlebased amazon which launched its ecommerce platform in july 2013 launched amazonbasics in september 2015 in the consumer electronics category home and kitchen brand solimo in early 2016 followed by fashion offerings myx and symbol in the latter half of the year private brands play a role in providing great value to the customer by reducing costs from the value chain optimised design for ecommerce and providing this as value to the customer says an amazon india spokesperson there are customers who are willing to try out a new brand provided it offers a reliable product at an attractive price point globally amazon with sales of 136 billion in 2016 has had success with private label offerings amazonbasics and elements babycare products control a quarter to a third of their respective markets in the us across categories as disparate as electronics accessories and baby care amazon has built a robust private label unit helping ecommerce firms squeeze additional margins 1520 more than competingthird party brands from this business at flipkart which is reportedly raising some 2 billion in muchneeded funding private labels may be a good booster shot on its journey to profitability as both companies duel for supremacy in indias ecommerce market and try to wean off discounting and other freebies private labels could offer a more sustainable way of doing business private labels will be one of the important pillars for their efforts to become profitable says kartik hosanagar john c hower professor of technology digital business at the wharton school us while amazon has experience from us flipkart can draw on its experience from myntrai the fashion etailer which flipkart acquired in may 2014 for 300 million expects a fourth of its business from private labels by the end of next fiscal year in march it opened its first offline store to push sales of its roadster clothing label for myntra some private labels have grown strongly hrx devised in association with actor hrithik roshan is a rs 120 crore unit and others such as all about you and rapido are growing