Paytm Mall captures up to 20% of market this festival season

After the just-concluded online festival season sales, when industry experts were assesing the winner between Flipkart and Amazon, recently-overhauled Paytm Mall claimed to have garnered a market share of 15-20 per cent during the sales.

The company achieved 40 per cent of the total sales through online-to-offline (O2O) model and hit gross merchandise value (GMV) to an estimated $300 million and GMV run-rate of approximately $4 billion, a target that was set for March 2018.

“People shop less post-Diwali season, but that will not impact our business since it is a horizontal platform selling products with repeat purchases as well,” said Amit Sinha, chief operating officer, Paytm Mall talking to ET.

“Moreover, our O2O model will lead to a month-on-month increase in retailers on board, thereby causing an increase in acquisition of customers.” While majority of the ecommerce platform customers were existing Paytm users, the company claims to have witnessed a six-fold increase in new consumers.

In July, to enable its offline retailer partners to setup online stores, Paytm Mall decided to invest Rs 32 crore and help them to enhance their retail potential.

How Paytm Mall joined the battle

Close on the heels of these Indian e-commerce companies starting their festive sales, Paytm e-commerce-owned Paytm Mall also announced Mera Cashback Sale – held between 20th to 23rd September.

Apart from giving its customers a chance to win Paytm Gold, it also set aside Rs 501 crore worth of cashback for its customers.

Paytm Mall was also offering 100 per cent cashback on smartphones for 25 lucky buyers every day and a daily chance for 200 customers to win Paytm Gold.

This was over and above a wide range of cashback offers from Paytm this season with an array of offers on products from several top brands such as Apple, Samsung, LG, Oppo, Vivo, Sony, HP, Lenovo, JBL, Philips, including several others.

During the four-day sale, Paytm Mall’s ‘Mera Cashback Sale’ was accompanied with Paytm Lifafa. The deal was extended from movie vouchers, extra cashback, and special offers along with a chance for 200 lucky customers to win Paytm Gold everyday.

After its first festive sale, Mera Cashback Sale, Paytm Mall launched its Super Cashback Sale on all grocery essentials.

Since October 10, it began its four-day sale and was offering up to 70 percent cashback across various categories including appliances, mobiles and fashion including apparel, footwear, and accessories among others.

Paytm claims meet rebuttal

However, analysts differ with Paytm Mall’s claim and said that they have pegged the company’s overall festive sales at no more than $200 million, primarily powered by cashback offers.

“The two categories customers were comfortable buying on Paytm Mall were smartphones and laptops and only if there were good enough cashback offers,” said an analyst, requesting anonymity.

“You don’t see customers opting for Paytm Mall if the cashback option isn’t available.” Majority of the company’s GMV during the festive season has been contributed by home appliances, smartphones, laptops, and two-wheeler, while most units sold have been from the FMCG section, a category which has been Amazon India’s focus as well.