Amazon India may soon launch its own beauty products brand

Online retailer Amazon India may soon launch its own brand of beauty and personal care products, taking on the much-smaller e-retailers engaged in the niche business.  

"Amazon India is talking to contract manufacturers and will be launching private labels (in-house brands) in a few categories within skincare and makeup," reported Economic Times, quoting unidentified sources. 

Cosmetics market is a fast-growing segment and has also seen interest from another e-tailer Flipkart. 

The beauty market is largely dominated by small startups like Nykaa and Purplle. Nykaa commands a 33% share and reported sales worth Rs 1,000 crore in 2017, reported ET, quoting company's chief executive Falguni Nayar.

Meanwhile, bolstered by blockbuster quarterly results, Amazon's market capitalisation may soon beat that of Microsoft Corp's. 

On Wednesday, Amazon's stock was down 1.14 per cent on Wall street, bringing its market capitalization to $690.4 billion, while software maker Microsoft's 1.83 percent fall depressed its market capitalization to $690.3 billion.

Amazon's explosive growth in retail and cloud computing has sent its shares 77 per cent higher over the past year, outpacing Microsoft's 42 per cent rise. 

Apple Inc's $819 billion market capitalization remains Wall Street's largest, followed by Alphabet Inc , the parent of Google, at $736 billion.