Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall is gearing up to disrupt the Indian ecommerce industry this festive season. As of now, Amazon and Flipkart hog the limelight during all major shopping events. But the Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led company is looking to steal the limelight by splurging Rs. 1000 crore on festive sales prep.
Paytm has set aside Rs. 1000 crore
The Indian digital wallet leader Paytm launched its marketplace Paytm Mall in February this year. The upcoming peak shopping season that would start in October would mark the Alibaba-backed marketplace’s debut in hosting festive sales.
To make it a huge success, Paytm has reserved Rs. 1000 crore for:
- Discounts
- Marketing
- Cashbacks
- Promotional campaigns
- On-boarding shopkeepers and brand authorised stores
- Hiring additional workforce
Paytm Mall’s COO Amit Sinha said, “Our promise is to offer customers the best and biggest offers from trusted retailers and make our platform the de-facto first choice for online shopping.”
He also stated, “Our business model is to build digital infrastructure and partner with offline retailers to make them the winner. In the long term, we -along with millions of stores -will be fighting one or two online retail stores. Our winning formula remains the power of collaboration and scale across every corner of India.”
O2O strategy would be put to test
The marketplace is going to host an offline-and-online (O2O) sale, which is a different strategy compared to Amazon, Flipkart and other etailers.
The etailer has chalked out a detailed O2O strategy in order to differentiate its platform from the existing leaders. Local retailers and sellers would play an important role in Paytm’s festive sales.
While speaking about its O2O model, Sinha had earlier affirmed that for the festive season, they have planned a number of special offers for its shopkeepers and retailers. The company also intends to make the shopping & selling experience same, be it online or offline and make customers and sellers in both worlds happy.
According to the marketplace, appliances, consumer durables, electronics, fashion, gifts, and home furnishing would be the top selling categories on its platform. With 1,000 brands, 15,000 brand-authorised retailers and 30,000 sellers, Paytm is all set to win. But would it succeed against Amazon and Flipkart?
Flipkart is flush with funds after Softbank invested $2.5 billion in it! And Amazon has a generous founder Jeff Bezos who wants to continue investing in India. How will Paytm Mall’s Rs. 1000 crore fare against the biggies’ billions?
