NEW DELHI: Offline discovery and rewards platform Magicpin, owned by Samast Technologies, said it will enable online sales, allowing consumers the use of its platform to order from retailers and vendors listed on its website as covid-19 casts uncertainty over the future of brick-and-mortar stores.
The Gurugram-based company has raised $7 million in funding from Samsung Venture Investment Corporation along with existing investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners and WaterBridge Ventures.
This fundraising is part of Magicpin’s ongoing Series-D round.
Magicpin hosts over 5,00,000 retailers, with 20% on-boarded to enable online transactions.
The company is scaling up its online delivery model, launched in April using, third-party channels that will connect users to 1,00,000 local retailers across fashion, pharmacy, stationery, grocery, and restaurants to place orders online, Anshoo Sharma, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO), told Mint.
The move comes at a time when the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted and brought uncertainty to physical businesses and even cast doubts over how long retail stores will take to reach pre-covid level of sales. With footfalls in stores falling dramatically, online transactions across the board have seen a rise.
The company is therefore shifting away from relying purely on helping users discover offline places and offering deals in local salons, gyms, restaurant and stores—to now enabling deliveries online.
The platform also offers rewards and offers on offline orders—the same will continue to users of its platforms on online orders.
The company has already moved 30-35% of its business online, Sharma said.
It witnessed a significant dip in business during the lockdown, as a result of which several retailers are yet to return to the platform. “Our core business is driving people to offline retail around them but because of the lockdown, the company saw a meaningful hit in April because our business depends on physical retail. Our goal is to connect users to retail around them, even if they are not going out, it is an opportunity to enable delivery between user and retailer," Sharma said.
To be sure, pre-covid, Magicpin’s listings were 80% skewed towards food and restaurants and fashion. However, since April it has on-boarded several new businesses such as pharmacies and grocers.
Magicpin will provide marketing, payment gateway and order management platform to such retailers and will work with third-party delivery partners such as Delhivery, Dunzo, Shadowfax to fulfill orders. Customers will be charged a delivery feee.
Sharma said the platform will not charge any on-boarding fee per retailer, but charge a commission on the first transaction.
"Across all categories, F&B, grocery, pharmacy we are enabling retailers to generate online orders, without charging them any commission, the need is very here and now. So far, retailers did not need that service, they wall wanted to be omni-channel but that was an after thought, because offline was their core business. But now it is the need of the hour," Sharma said.
The company could look at onboadring more investors. "We would look to add one or more investors to this round, we would look to do that as the market opens up," he added.
The pandemic has been prompting several companies to explore new business models as lockdowns continue to haunt the country's largest cities. The pandemic has also prompted shoppers to use e-commerce and hyper-local deliveries to order a range of products.
For instance, logistics unicorn Delhivery is leveraging its the direct-to-consumer (DTC) model to as retail brands opt for omni-channel models. The Gurugram-based firm, which traditionally focused on large clients, including e-commerce majors, is now seeing increased demand from enterprise firms, smaller brands and even home entrepreneurs, as social distancing norms impact offline shopping, Mint had said in an earlier story.
Click here to read the Mint ePaperLivemint.com is now on Telegram. Join Livemint channel in your Telegram and stay updated
