It is always a trouble for us Indians to buy products from Chinese e-tailers. When you make purchases abroad, either the product gets stuck in the Customs or sometimes we just don’t get what we paid for. This inconvenience while buying Chinese products will be a thing of the past soon, thanks to Paytm.
“We want to connect Indian consumers with the Chinese sellers and give an opportunity for them to buy Chinese goods directly,” announced Sudhanshu Gupta, GM Marketplace at Paytm.
Alibaba Invested In Paytm For A Reason
You might remember when Jack Ma-led Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba acquired 25% stake in Paytm for $650M in February this year. Alibaba wants to take products on its online shopping portal- AliExpress to the rest of the world and make it a global brand.
This plan of Paytm to list products from about 1 lakh sellers on AliExpress will definitely boost their GMV (Gross Merchandise Value). Paytm hopes to double its GMV from $1.5 bn currently to $3 bn by the next 6 months.
“We are undergoing quite a complex integration with AliExpress, something we haven’t done in the past. We are looking at various aspects such as legal and taxation issues, international logistics, customs, the process for issuing payouts to merchants and for refunds,” said Amit Lakhotia, VP Payments at Paytm.
That being said, Paytm has successfully handled the most troublesome process that Indian buyers go through when shopping from Chinese sellers. “From a customer perspective, there’ll be no difference between an Indian and a Chinese merchant. We’ll be the one responsible for the logistics and customer care,” Lakhotia added.
Paytm will take care of logistics and customer care. The whole process will no different than buying from local Indian sellers.
Shopping Chinese Products On Paytm
Paytm will notify the buyers when they will be browsing through the products listed from AliExpress having their amount mentioned in Indian rupees. Once purchased, the good will be delivered to the buyer directly within 15-30 days. There will also be an option for faster delivery if the buyer agrees to pay an extra delivery charge.
During the initial phase, Paytm will only list fashion products and accessories, toys, bags, home décor, electronic accessories, and unstructured category from AliExpress.
This move from Paytm will not only benefit its 30 million active users but will also attract a lot more buyers from its competitors.
While this is a very good news for the online shoppers in India, this could deal a serious blow to smaller online shopping portals and ‘Make In India’ campaign. Who would buy ‘Made in India’ products when better alternatives are available at a lower price? I sure would give it a serious thought before making a buying decision.
