A New Chapter For HomeShop18 As It Launches a Huge New Online Bookstore

Indian e-commerce site HomeShop18 is today launching a new online bookstore that’s incorporated into its site coming stocked with over 10 million titles across more than 100 genres.

Although HomeShop18 has sold books for some time, the company is describing its store as “all-new,” and that’s because it’s vastly larger than it was before, and makes book-selling a core part of the site’s product range. It was made possible by the company’s acquisition of CoinJoos.com last summer, expanding its line-up into what it now describes as a “world-class book shopping experience.”

HomeShop18’s bookstore comes a few weeks after the launch of Amazon in India – though of course it has been over six months in the planning.

When we talked to the site’s CEO, Sundeep Malhotra, last September, he stressed that “book [selling] was a gap in our enhanced online portfolio” that needed to be filled, and that it was “absolutely nothing to do with competition” – i.e.: not a knee-jerk reaction to Amazon’s long-awaited entry.

In a press release for today’s announcement, Mr. Malhotra added that books are “a category which touches all demographic groups and therefore a very critical one, and we are very excited to add books to our range of offerings.” Its expanded online bookstore – see it here – has a promotional sale going on right now with discounts of up to 50 percent on many titles.

Just yesterday we saw rival site Flipkart launch its own music service, so it seems to be an auspicious week for Indian online retailers to expand their product line-up.