Paytm Mall targets 190 bn grocery GMV

New Delhi: Paytm Mall is planning to expand the groceries segment on it e-commerce platform.

“Grocery is the fastest growing category in e-commerce. At present, around 25 per cent of the GMV (gross merchandise value) at Paytm Mall comes from grocery, this will go up to 40 per cent. Grocery will contribute around ~190 billion ($3 billion) GMV by the end of the year,” said Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of One97 Communications, the company that owns Paytm Mall.

The company is bringing more fast moving consumer goods brands onto its platform as well as entering tie-ups with local grocers to increase its reach. The latest entrant in the e-commerce race, Paytm Mall plans to take on Amazon India, which runs Amazon Pantry and Amazon Now, a two-hour grocery delivery service.

Paytm Mall on Tuesday tied up with Patanjali to sell its products on its platform. The company may also bring Patanjali’s retail outlets into its online-to-offline network.

“We are working with a host of partners to expand our network and we are confident that we will be able to achieve our targets by end of this year. Grocery is an important category for us. We expect our online-to-offline strategy will help us garner the numbers,” said Amit Sinha, chief operating officer, Paytm Mall.

According to Paytm Mall, it witnessed a six-fold growth in FMCG sales in 2016-17. Paytm Mall sells brands like Maggi, Lakme, L’oreal, Cadbury, Dettol, Pampers, Mamy Poko and Nivea manufactured by leading FMCG companies such as Hindustan Unilever, Nestle, ITC and Mondelez.

It holds joint promotions with these brand partners and has collaborated with them for exclusive product launches.

“We are bringing in key elements in logistics. The idea is use more hyperlocal partners to send groceries,” Sinha said.

Paytm Mall, owned by Paytm Ecommerce Pvt Ltd, features over 65 million products and has customers in 19,000 pin codes. The company’s investors include Alibaba Group Holdings, Ant Financial and SAIF Partners.

Grocery has been key to Amazon’s success in making ecommerce a habit among its customers in India, scoring over rival Flipkart. According to experts, groceries account for ~25.2 trillion ($400 billion) and form the largest chunk of consumer spending.

Amazon has proposed to invest ~32.4 billion ($515 million) in retailing food in India over the next five years. It was the first company to secure foreign direct investment approval for setting up “food-only” retail outlets. The firm is planning to start selling locally made food items through a wholly owned subsidiary in India.

The company is bringing more fast moving consumer goods brands onto its platform as well as entering tie-ups with local grocers to increase its reach

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.