Amazon and Future Group may end partnership

The much-touted partnership between Amazon and Future Group may be on the rocks. It is believed differences cropped up over funding of discounts. Amazon wants Future Group to bear a portion of the discounts which Kishore Biyani-led Future Group is likely to refuse. It is believed that Future Group doesn’t want to give in to Amazon’s demands and share the burden of rebates.

The two companies came together in October 2014 after Biyani and Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos met. The idea was the sell Future Group's’portfolio of brands on Amazon’s marketplace in India. At that time, Biyani had said that partnership with Amazon, ‘which obsesses to be the earth’s most customer-centric company’, would help them to leverage their strengths, investments and innovations in technology in order to reach out to a wider set of customers across India.

Even though Biyani tied up with Amazon, he continued to be critical of foreign-funded e-commerce companies. According to him ‘online retailers violate the law on overseas investment in spirit and in letter’.

The Future Group operates more than 1,200 stores selling everything from food to furniture.