ShopX, LoanTap Launches Credit Services For Small Retailers

In a bid to help retailers get easy loans, Bengaluru-based B2B ecommerce startup ShopX, on Wednesday (February 12), announced the launch of ShopX Suvidha in collaboration with Pune-based digital lending company LoanTap Financial Technologies. ShopX Suvidha offers quick loans to businesses ranging from INR 25K to 5 Lakh.

With this, retailers will now have easy access to credit, along with flexible and one-tap repayment options. At the same time, the company’s data platform helps in assessing the risks, creditworthiness and market valuation of these retailers affiliated to the ShopX network. Currently, the credit service is available to one lakh small retailers across 16 cities across India.

Through this partnership, LoanTap plans to bring a seamless experience for retailers so that they are able to avail loans quickly at friendly and flexible terms.

Amit Sharma, cofounder and CEO of ShopX, in a press statement, said that kirana stores constitute a large portion of unorganised retail, and the digital model of commerce will facilitate financial inclusion and cashless transaction in the country. More importantly, it will make life easier for retailers, he added.

ShopX was launched in 2015 by Amit Sharma and Apoorva Jois. The company helps offline retailers to list their products and services online, particularly the kirana stores in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. As a business aggregation platform, the company looks to enable both, B2B and B2B2C commerce and credit, backed by scalable and sustainable business model and technology capabilities. It is on a mission to build India centric infrastructure for commerce for the ‘next 400 Mn’ people.

The company is backed by Nandan Nilekani and Fung Strategic Holdings. Till date, the company has raised 57.3 Mn of funds. ShopX believes that the next wave of growth and expansion for digital retail in India will not be fuelled by traditional ecommerce model, but a new ‘digital offline’ model.

According to an IBEF report, the Indian ecommerce market is expected to grow to $200 Bn by 2026 from 38.5 Bn as of 2017. The report further stated that the ongoing digital transformation in the country is expected to increase India’s total user base to 829 Mn by 2021. ShopX claims that its business model has the potential to be around 20% of the $1.5 Tn consumption space by 2025.

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