Replicating Alibaba — Cainiao Strategy in India

With technology growing tremendously, especially since the second half of last decade, fintech companies have taken over the commerce industry. Payment and e-wallet companies like Paytm has emerged and has enabled cashless transactions for the utility bills of the customers. Alibaba-backed Indian mobile payment giant Paytm has expanded into e-commerce, travel, utility payments and soon plans to become a bank. Serving over 130 million users presently Paytm had raised a hefty funding of $60 million at a valuation of whopping $5billion.

Expansion and Optimization go hand in hand

Being a mammoth in the e-commerce sector Paytm is expanding to the least accessible pin codes in India where companies like Blue Dart and DHL are yet to have their footfall. Paytm has trail-blazed its SEED initiative, promising Speedy, Efficient and Effective Deliveries to its ever-increasing user base. Under this initiative, it has got a little less than 100 mini-warehouses called Seed Centres. This will help Paytm tap the remotest parts of the country, that will help the firm scale its logistics in Tier III and IV towns, which accounts for over 50 percent of its orders.

At SEED, a first-mile run is done, where Paytm reaches out to the small merchants, help them pack shipments, help them connect shipments to all nationalized couriers so that they can service their customers across the country. These centers solve 2 important problems for Paytm viz. 1 — timeliness of delivery, 2 — actual consumer experience in terms of tracking, escalation solving, etc. So, it is a dire need for Paytm to use effective tools to track shipments, improve the handoff points & optimize the routes such that the cost of procuring and delivering the shipments is minimized.

LogiNext has given wings to Paytm’s dream of delivering to yet unexplored territories. With the help of LogiNext, Paytm will be able to collaborate with small and local unorganized courier services and improve their business. It will also work on a few initiatives, such getting KYC requirements done for these smaller sellers, helping them optimize their sales by letting them know about pick-up points and time, and helping them coordinate with sellers and buyers in real-time.

LogiNext’s products — Field and Mile — will help manage these small SEED Centres, and first- and last-mile small courier partners get online and administer their daily activities in a more optimized way. Also, LogiNext will help reduce costs and increase sales via daily sales process automation, real-time tracking, and enhanced visibility.

Paytm and LogiNext!

When speaking with LogiNext, Bhushan Patil, President, Paytm said: “Today, we are a leading player in marketplace business, taking into the account the combination of our digital and physical outreach. While we can offer our small merchants business, they would still have to manage the daily operations on their own. Optimizing their everyday operations is crucial since it is imperative for us to extend the best customer experience.”

Dhruvil Sanghvi, co-founder and CEO, LogiNext, quotes- “that the partnership with Paytm will also help boost the latter’s sales and shipments”.

Anshul Singhal — DGM, Paytm expressed his delight — “LogiNext app has an excellent inbuilt feature of taking in the resources that are available, optimizing them based on where the pick-up points are, and giving the SEED provides a perfect solution to pick. They integrate with our systems real-time, get that data & exactly tell the guy picking up, whether you need to pick it up or not”.

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