We are not a mere copy of Alibaba, says Paytm Mall COO Amit Sinha

Alibaba's answer to Amazon and Flipkart in India might be Paytm Mall, but Amit Sinha, chief operating officer (COO), has said he is not building a copycat company of the Chinese e-commerce giant, rather a model that's tailored for India.
 
Sinha said Paytm Mall started business a year ago, but its online-to-offline model, which works with small unorganised retailers, is beginning to gain traction. Clocking over $3 billion (Rs 193 billion) in gross merchandise value (GVM) so far, the company is now eyeing a GMV growth of $10 billion (Rs 643 billion) in the next 12 months.
 
"Honestly, our model is not 100 per cent based on the Alibaba model. We've had to customise it and the online-to-offline (O2O) play is something very unique to us. They also, at the early stages of their new retail philosophy, had tried it out, but essentially it's our own," said Sinha in an interview with Business Standard.

 

Rather than trying to replace unorganised retail sector with a one-size-fits-all solution, Paytm Mall is trying to work with small retailers to build on their strength of localisation. The small retailers struggle in gaining scale and it's essentially what Paytm Mall will solve through technology, He said.
 
This O2O model will also allow the company to tap the $1.1-trillion (Rs 70.7 trillion) retail market that will exist in India by 2020, he added. Moreover, it's a completely different way of looking at the sector.
 
"Our goal is to ensure all the 15 million shopkeepers, who are the largest chunk of the retail ecosystem, actually gain from our presence and our ability to build technology," Sinha said. "That way, our O2O model is very well-suited for India, where traditionally retail has been done by smaller retailers in deeper pockets."

 
This is the biggest difference between India and the West, and even China for that matter. In those markets, large-format retail makes up majority of the market. But it is the exact opposite here. Sinha said this is the prime reason why Paytm Mall isn't a copy of Alibaba, because India needs a model that uses small retailers, who've already done the job of reaching out to customers in the last mile.
 
Now, Paytm Mall wants to grow to over four times in the next year on the back of its parent company Paytm's user and merchant base.

 
"We've been in existence for the past 16-17 years and in that journey, we've learnt how to scale up multiple businesses. Of course, there's a lot of learning and we get support from Alibaba as well. But there already is an inherent learning with us, as an organisation," said Sinha.
 
Before Paytm Mall's split from its parent company, there were around 110,000 sellers listed on the platform. Today, that number stands at 75,000. Sinha said he wanted to ensure all the sellers were either brand authorised or sellers of good products. From a customer standpoint, over 15 million people have already transacted on Paytm Mall.

 
Sinha says it all boils down to how fast the company can onboard and train its sellers, as awareness about Paytm among customers is already there. Now moving from just paying using Paytm, sellers will need to educate customers, who walk in to route their transactions through Paytm Mall, which will offer them better service and better prices.