International e-commerce platform ‘Shopmatic’ recently celebrated its fifth year in operations. From setting up a customised web store, managing payment gateway integration, fixing logistics and shipping support, handling digital promotions, and offering insights from big data analytics, the company has evolved to become an end-to-end service provider, enabling merchants to do business online. Anurag Avula, Co-Founder and CEO, Shopmatic, talks about how the platform is helping shopkeepers and sellers in Delhi-NCR, and beyond. Excerpts:
Could you take us through the journey of Shopmatic?
Shopmatic entered India in 2015 to help aspiring entrepreneurs who are looking to take their business online but face problems like unfamiliarity, lack of technical know-how, and high capital expenses. In 2016, the platform reached 10,000 users, indicating the need-gap that hitherto existed in the market. Having gained a deep understanding of Indian entrepreneurs and small businesses, Shopmatic launched a new transaction model where customers could pay a nominal web hosting fee of `50 and `3 of every successful transaction. In view of the disruption caused by the pandemic, Shopmatic launched tailored solutions for kirana stores looking to increase visibility online.
What led Shopmatic to pivot towards multiple ways of selling?
We noted that while social selling, chat selling and marketplace selling have been picking up pace in India, most players offer these services as an extension of web stores. While offering multiple possibilities to online sellers, Shopmatic will take away the tediousness of managing social selling or chat selling businesses by providing all-encompassing back-end solutions. Sellers can share a single check-out link through chat or social, where customers can learn more about a product, fill in their details, make payments, and get their product shipped. Through a single dashboard, Shompatic is enabling people to plug the ecommerce gap, while also taking care of shipping, logistics, and digital payments. The greatest advantage of its new, advanced services is that users will be able to share a single payment link across every platform such as Whatsapp, Line, Facebook, etc. to offer convenience and boost conversion.
Which product categories see the most traction on Shopmatic?
We are seeing the most traction on fashion apparel, jewelry, accessories and furniture. The pandemic period has also seen significant growth in packaged food such as chakkis and kiranas in general.
How many merchants does Shopmatic currently have? Please outline the challenges faced by merchants.
On the back of its customercentric initiatives, cost-effective services, and feature-intensive portfolio, Shopmatic crossed 5,00,000 merchants in June 2020. Merchants face threshold challenges such as high capital expenses, lack of technical know-how, and unfamiliarity with the vast and competitive Indian business landscape. Shopmatic addresses all these existing pain points and encourages more merchants to go online.
Do you also provide logistics, last-mile delivery for the sellers?
Yes, we do offer logistics solutions including domestic and international shipping. In a bid to empower SMBs and individual entrepreneurs to take their business online within minutes instead of months, Shopmatic offers numerous holistic solutions, including a customised online store, payment integration, marketplace listings, and logistics.