How Paytm plans to cash in on Amazon, Flipkart's regulatory woes

India’s online retail industry has been in turmoil since the government implemented stringent new rules to rein in major players like Amazon.com Inc. and Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart. Amid the uproar, Vijay Shekhar Sharma -- whose two-year-old Paytm Mall is backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. -- is quietly devising ways to outstrip his rivals.
The new regime forbids retailers from holding any business interest in online merchants on their websites, exclusive arrangements and deep discounts -- forcing Amazon and Flipkart to redraw contracts and rescue thousands of product listings that vanished overnight. The founder of Paytm Mall operator Paytm E-commerce Pvt, an affiliate of India’s largest digital payments provider, spoke in an interview this week about how his business stands to gain.
The new rules require more stringent adherence by e-commerce marketplaces. For some of us who have been compliant all along, this gives us an opportunity to consolidate the business while rivals are otherwise busy. It’s attracting to our marketplace those partners and sellers who were fighting online retailers that skirted rules and threw money in the market. We’ve become a far stronger player.
Our cash burn has come down. We have just turned net contribution positive. We are now at $3 billion GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) annually.
Our focus is on growing the market by converting offline partners to online retail. That way we are bringing newer users to transact on the app. Getting users to shop through our app has become our most important performance indicator. Read More

Article Source -> Business Standard