Paytm Mall claims losses reduced 60% in FY20

Paytm Mall, the offline to online ecommerce platform operated by Paytm Ecommerce, said it cut losses by 60% to Rs 479 crore during financial year 2019-20. Revenues for the year stood at  Rs 703 crore, down nearly 27% from the previous year, according to a statement.

Paytm Mall is yet to file its annual earnings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

The company attributed the dip in revenues to the overall realignment of the business towards profitability. The company, the statement said, had managed to sharpen its marketing costs, leading to better unit economics. 

The company also stated that it was looking to reduce cash losses by another 60% in the current fiscal. 

“During the last fiscal year, we have streamlined business operations to improve our unit economics which has helped us in reducing losses by 60%. Our efforts are to become profitable with hyperlocal outreach and initiatives which have already started giving positive results,” Abhishek Rajan, COO at Paytm Mall said in the statement. 

Rajan joined Paytm Mall in June, almost a year after previous COO, Amit Sinha resigned from the post. Back then, Paytm Mall had stated that it had reduced losses by 88% over the last three quarters of financial year 2019-20, down to $2 million (around Rs 14.7 crore according to current exchange rates) per quarter. 

The company plans to continue to focus on its hyperlocal initiative and focus on profit-making categories and assortment. 

Launched in 2017 by Softbank and Ant Group backed Paytm, the ecommerce app has gone through multiple pivots as it wrestles for market share with existing players Flipkart and Amazon India, apart from Snapdeal and others. 

The company which initially started as a pure-play ecommerce platform moved to working with brand resellers due to increased reports of fraud and counterfeits being sold on the platform. 

As Reliance’s JioMart shifts the focus on hyperlocal delivery of grocery and other retail products, Paytm Mall now connects nearby shopkeepers with users for cutting down costs and faster deliveries, according to media reports citing Paytm CEO, Vijay Shekhar Sharma.