After having recently invested in online grocer BigBasket and logistics arm XpressBees, Alibaba’s earlier investee Paytm Mall is looking to integrate these two companies into Paytm mall to create a larger ecosystem.
According to an Economic Times report, Paytm Mall will work with these companies to help reach its target of $10 billion gross merchandise volume (GMV)run rate by the end of FY19. It is currently on track to close FY18 with a GMV of $3 billion. Working with BigBasket will help it rake in high-repeat purchases such as FMCG and grocery. And this combined with other high-GMV products such as laptops and smartphones will help it reach its ambitious targets.
Paytm Mall is reportedly in the process of integrating BigBasket app onto its platform and is expected to be live in 3-4 months, allowing Paytm Mall’s customers to shop from BigBasket within Paytm Mall’s platform.
“A BigBasket store will be opened on the Paytm Mall app and web version. BigBasket has a complementary set of offerings for Paytm Mall. We want to work on a full basket rate and BigBasket will play a role in fulfillment,” ET quotes Amit Sinha, chief operating officer at Paytm Mall as saying.
Speaking of XpressBees, Paytm Mall is already an investor in XpressBees and fulfills half of Paytm Mall’s shipments. Now with Alibaba also investing in this logistics major, it will be working with Paytm Mall to co-develop logistics solutions to improve delivery, Amit told ET. Paytm Mall is currently helping XpressBees in building algorithms. Both will co-own the IP.
Experts say that this integration will work well for Alibaba, as its portfolio companies can work together and not compete with each other.
The online grocery space is currently a space that’s in demand. Amazon has invested nearly Rs 500 crore for food retailing India and is running its Amazon Now app in a few cities. Flipkart too, has relaunched its grocery, FMCG products segment. For Paytm, the next biggest internet company in the country, integrating with BigBasket for grocery and XpressBees for logistics will help it stack up against competition.
Alibaba also recently invested in food discovery platform Zomato. It will be interesting to see how the synergies of Zomato will work with the rest of its portfolio companies.