In another bold move, Paytm mall has confirmed that it will invest nearly $5 million to attract new sellers on its e commerce platform.
Paytm Mall, the e-commerce arm of Paytm, is all set to go full throttle to attract sellers on its platform. The company has confirmed that it will invest nearly $5 million to attract new sellers under its Retailer Inclusion Programme. The Alibaba backed start-up will also deploy about 500 personals to successfully implement this Programme.
This is the first big move made by Paytm, after it de-listed 85,000 sellers from its platform last month. The company called the de-listing process necessary in order to keep a check on sellers selling fake and low quality products on its platform.
The startup is pretty hopeful that all these recent drastic decisions will definitely help in increasing its sales volume in the long run. While increasing the sales volume is apparently the main goal, but getting an equal footing with Flipkart and Amazon is equally important for a new player like Paytm mall. As a key differentiator Paytm mall has decided to offer its service only through app, but realistically speaking this cannot be considered as a USP. Not at least against big boys like Amazon and Flipkart.
Paytm Mall actually came into existence only last year, after the parent company One97 Communications decided to demerge its e-commerce and digital payment business. After the demerger, Paytm is hopeful of becoming more laser focus on its e-commerce ambitions. While strong funding and success in digital payment arena will obviously serve as an motivation, but Paytm mall must also be mindful of the pitfalls in the e commerce sector. If it needs any lesson on this front, then study of Snapdeal’s downfall will provide more than enough lessons.
However, Paytm Mall seems to have already devised a strong strategy in order to avoid these pitfalls. The company has repeatedly signaled that it will be more focused on tier II and tier-III cities – regions were Flipkart and Amazon still don’t boost strong market share. The company can easily seek inspiration from Shopclues, a start-up that has made the most of Amazon and Flipkart’s lack of presence in smaller towns & cities.
Although Shopclues does not enjoy the same brand re-call as Flipkart and Amazon, but there is no denying that the Gurgaon based startup has made a niche for itself. In fact, recent media reports suggest that shopclues is all set to launch a pre-IPO pretty soon.
