Paytm Mall delists 85K sellers to improve consumer experience

To weed out fraudulent and non-performer merchants, Noida based Paytm Mall has started revamping its seller on-boarding process. As a result, the company has delisted about 85,000 sellers from the marketplace. The Softbank funded company has made mandatory for sellers to furnish brand authorisation letters.

Paytm wants sellers to furbish their registration number, location of the store and GSTIN with some other details to list their products on the platform. This initiative will help company to get rid of fraudulent merchants onboarding on the platform that usually cause bad consumer experience.

Amit Sinha, Chief Operating Officer – Paytm Mall said in a statement, “Our goal is to set the benchmark for a platform that empowers reputed local shopkeepers and brands to sell quality merchandise. We will work closely with existing sellers, and continue onboarding further. This will help us offer a superior consumer experience.”

This move comes just after two weeks of GST implementation, however Paytm says that the initiative to delist sellers is independent of new taxation structure. 

Meanwhile, as per company, this initiative has caused no impact on the sales volume as existing sellers are witnessing more transaction. Currently, Paytm has about 1,00,000 sellers on its platform. Despite of Paytm’s claim that sales volume hasn’t suffered, it looks difficult for 15,000 sellers to contribute same volume as of 1,00,000 sellers.

Following the GST, it was speculated that margin structure of sellers will also change but according to Paytm the company hasn’t revised margin or service fee. However, service charge now carries a GST component.

Delisting non-performers and fraudulent sellers from Paytm will certainly help it to improve consumer experience. Of late, consumer experience with Paytm isn’t at par with Amazon and Flipkart. One can see a lot of consumer complaints regarding products and their fulfilment on social media. “Delisting such sellers are aimed to improve overall consumer experience,” said one of the industry analyst to Entrackr.