Paytm Mall Rejigs Management Amid Declining Sales

SUMMARY

Paytm Mall has appointed new CFO, CMO and vertical heads

The reshuffle comes soon after the company reported declining sales

Paytm Mall aims to double its GMV to $2 Bn by March 2019

Paytm’s ecommerce arm, Paytm Mall, has made a significant restructuring of its top-and mid-level management team, as the company aims to strengthen its daily operations, marketing and verticals.

As part of the reshuffle, Paytm Payments Bank chief financial officer (CFO) Sudhanshu Jain will now lead the ecommerce business as the financial comptroller, Alibaba Group senior director Bharti Balakrishnan and Paytm vice-president Varun Gupta will lead its shopping categories. The company also appointed Srinivas Mothey to lead the marketplace’s marketing as a chief marketing officer.

Paytm launched Paytm Payments Bank in November 2017, with Jain as its CFO. He was in charge of the bank’s financial and regulatory management functions, including expansion plans. Jain was previously working with ICICI Bank as the head of borrowings. He has around 16 years of experience across Internal Audit, Finance and Borrowings roles.

The company has appointed Balakrishnan to lead the online marketplace’s unstructured categories such as fashion, home and kitchen. He joined Alibaba in June 2016 from services marketplace LocalOye where he worked as a chief business officer. Gupta, on the other hand, will lead Paytm Mall’s groceries vertical. According to sources, he will continue his role as Paytm’s vice-president.

Meanwhile, Saurabh Vashishtha and Amit Bagaria who had been working as the company’s senior vice presidents have reportedly quit Paytm Mall, ET reported citing company executives.

The executives restructuring may as well help Paytm Mall to rise from the declining sales amid growing competition, as the company’s CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma recently announced company’s goal to grow 50% to double the GMV to $2 Bn by the fiscal year ending March 2019. He also expects that his newly launched wholesale entity will add up to 15% GMV in Paytm Mall’s total revenue in 2019.

The company has been under pressure as its ecommerce market share declined from 5.6% in 2017 to 3% in 2018 according to reports.