SUMMARY
Paytm Ecommerce, which runs Paytm Mall, registered $3.5 Bn in gross sales in June 2018
The company is intensifying its efforts to garner a bigger slice of India’s online retail market
It expects unit orders to jump to 1-1.5 Mn per day by March 2019
Paytm Mall, owned by Paytm Ecommerce Pvt Ltd, is aiming for a three-fold rise in annualised gross sales and is set to achieve the $10 Bn mark by March 2019.
Paytm Ecommerce, which runs the online marketplace, achieved $3.5 Bn in annualised gross sales in June 2018.
Competition in the Indian ecommerce sector is heating up fast. Recently, the Walmart-Flipkart merger was granted CCI approval. Amazon India already holds a 30% market share. This makes Paytm Mall the third top contender to claim a significant share in $200 Bn worth Indian ecommerce market.
By March 2019, Paytm Mall expects unit orders to jump to 1-1.5 Mn per day from about 625K currently.
Paytm Mall has raised about $650 Mn since its inception in April 2017. During its latest fundraise the company raised about $450 Mn from Japan’s Softbank Group, and it is currently valued at about $2 Bn.
Shareholders in Paytm Ecommerce include Alibaba Group, Ant Financial, SAIF Partners and founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma.
Amit Sinha, COO, Paytm Mall, said, “We are excited to witness the growth of the Indian retail market and we have ramped up our efforts to expand our business to meet its ever-growing demands.”
How Will Paytm Mall Achieve $10 Bn Sales Target?
For Paytm Mall, the largest categories by value include appliances, laptops, and mobiles with the daily needs category generating the maximum number of orders.
The company plans to expand its fashion and home business this year.
It also plans to create differentiation in the market by not having an inventory-led business model. Instead, it aims to promote the O2O (offline to online) model in India to leverage India’s 15 Mn offline retail shops.
Paytm Mall has also launched a new model of retail, wherein customers can walk into brick and mortar stores, scan product QR codes, browse information and make purchases via the Paytm Mall app.
The move is in line with the company’s vision to combine online with offline, in order to offer consumers a flexible and efficient shopping experience.
Now, the real question. Is Paytm Mall ready to achieve a $10 Bn sales target by 2019? Here’s what it’s got going for it:
- Paytm Mall currently works with offline stores in partnership with brands such as Samsung, LG, Lenovo, Intel, Red Tape, Canon, HP, Godrej, and Hitachi
- It already offers same-day delivery and O2O deliveries in the top 15 cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad
- It aims to expand its services to 25 cities including Kota, Jabalpur, Dehradun, Indore, and more by Diwali
- For its new retail model, Paytm Mall has partnered with fashion and lifestyle brand Red Tape and is set to expand its reach to more than 50 Red Tape stores across the country by the end of 2018
- It aims to clock business worth $78 Mn (INR 500 Cr) by year-end with the new retail model
- It has also committed $5 Mn under its Retailer Inclusion Programme in August 2017
As Amit added, “Our partnership with brands/merchants and their offline retail stores is driving an important opportunity for them to increase their business while building engagement with their customers.
As of now, only 7% of the total retail business in India is organised. All major players including Paytm Mall, Walmart-Flipkart, Amazon India, and Future Retail aiming to leverage the untapped potential of the remaining 93% of the unorganised market, largely dominated by offline retailers, small kiranas, and mom-and-pop shops.
With deliberations on on the draft ecommerce policy, digital payments picking up pace with the UPI2.0 launch in progress, and consumers becoming increasingly digital savvy, this are good days for ecommerce companies to turn Indian retail into a different game altogether.
