GeM closes in on Amazon, Flipkart in gross merchandise value

In FY22, govt's public procurement portal recorded a GMV of $14.2 bn, as against Amazon India's $17 bn and Flipkart's $23 bn

The Government eMarketplace (GeM), the six-year-old public procurement website, is closing in on e-commerce giants Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart in terms of gross merchandise value (GMV).

Prashant Kumar Singh, chief executive officer of GeM, recently said the portal would be the largest e-commerce platform in India by the end of the current financial year, crossing Amazon and Flipkart. Singh pegged the FY23 GMV target for GeM at Rs 2 trillion (around $25 billion).

In FY22, GeM recorded a GMV of $14.2 billion, as against Amazon India’s $17 billion and Flipkart’s $23 billion.

GeM is time-efficient as the turnaround time for award of contract on the platform is significantly lower than state-specific portals. This has reduced the share of cancelled tenders to single digit in several states.

The portal also saves cost in the range of 8-10 per cent of GMV. If GeM manages to achieve the Rs 2-trillion target by FY23-end, it will save around Rs 20,000 crore to the public exchequer and public sector undertakings. 

The average order value per day has witnessed a six-fold jump, and the average number of orders per day has almost doubled in FY23 compared to FY21.

Where they stand

Platform	FY22 annual GMV ($ bn)
GeM	14.2
Amazon India	17
Flipkart	23
*Portal crossed ~1 trillion in GMV on Tuesday in FY23
*Cumulatively, it has logged over ~3 trillion in GMV since inception
*GeM's revised GMV target for FY23: ~2 trn (about $25 bn at current exchange rate)
Sources: GeM; Bernstein report; Walmart Publications

Saving time and effort

State	Turnaround time for award of contract (in days)		% of cancelled tenders
	GeM	State portal	GeM	State portal
Odisha	34	166	3%	22%
Assam	23	65	9%	24%
Karnataka	63	137	6%	47%
Maharashtra	42	95	9%	23%
Rajasthan	23	95	4%	24%
Tamil Nadu	34	127	10%	12%
Source: GeM

Gaining traction

-	FY20-21	FY21-22	FY22-23
Average order value per day (~ crore)	69	292	410
Average no.of orders per day	5,337	9,086	10,418
Source: GeM