Paytm Mall eyes international sellers in a bid to take on competition

Paytm Mall is in the process of integrating its offline merchant base with international sellers on a single platform in a bid to take on competition. This will help its 300,000 offline merchants access international brands from across the world, an executive said. 

The e-commerce platform of Vijay Shekhar-founded One97 Communications believes it could serve as a gateway for international brands and sellers to do business in India.

“Last year we sort of under-achieved on cross border commerce and the only reason was we were following the law very seriously. Many e-commerce players were skirting the law by not paying the right duties,’’ said Rudra Dalmia, executive director and CFO, Paytm Mall. Two to three brands are in trouble now as they were under-declaring and under-invoicing, showing buys as gifts, according to Dalmia. “That has stopped now. … We are now giving shopkeepers many options including products made in other countries such as Bangladesh and China.’’

The company has set up an office in China and it will source and identify the things they believe will sell in India. Listing Chinese merchants on its platform from where customers can buy directly is another new initiative. For that, the last mile logistics are yet to be finalised.

Last month, international e-commerce player eBay had bought 5.5 per cent stake in Paytm Mall. While the deal size was not revealed, estimates suggest eBay invested $160 million in Paytm Mall, which is valued at $3 billion. The deal meant Paytm Mall would now start getting catalogues from the US and Europe. “eBay wanted us to take its catalogues in the US and Europe to India. We said we are focusing on offline shops and this could be a good supply source for our shopkeepers,’’ Vijay Shekhar Sharma had told Business Standard then. Since the company’s consumer traffic was growing rapidly, eBay got interested in becoming a strategic shareholder, Sharma had said. 

The online marketplace has over 300,000 merchant partners and about 9 million transacting customers. It ended the last financial year at Rs 13,000 crore and is targeting Rs 17,000 crore in gross merchandise value (GMV).