Paytm Mall says FMCG has become the highest selling product by volume

KOLKATA: Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) has become the highest selling product by volume in Alibaba-backed Paytm Mall at a time when it wants to become the third largest online shopping site in India.

Amit Sinha, chief operating officer at Paytm Mall, said the numbers of customers and orders for FMCG has grown rapidly. “This is a healthy trend since FMCG drives regular purchase which brings stickiness,” he said.

However, by value mobile phones and consumer electronics is the largest category at Paytm Mall. The site is offering huge cashback on popular smartphone models, which in some cases making them the cheapest in the country.

Sinha said Paytm Mall can offer the best price for smartphones as a combined effort of the marketplace, brands and sellers. “The cash back goes to the wallet. We don’t go against the brand. The inventory is held by thousands of sellers,” he said.

Paytm Mall also runs its extensive advertising campaign which are also co-funded by the brands. “Even for FMCG, all the advertisements are co-funded by the brands,” said Sinha.

Paytm Mall is targeting to become the third largest marketplace in India this Diwali after Flipkart and Amazon. It is looking at overall sale of $4 billion by the year-end. “Our eventual target is to become one of the top two online sites in India,” said Sinha.

Sinha said Paytm Mall does not want a single seller to do billion dollar sales and would rather want more sellers to drive business. “That is the metric of success we measure rather than gross merchandise value (GMV),” he said.