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IndiaMART planning new initiatives to combat slowdown in demand| HBL

Hindu Business Line

B2B e-commerce portal IndiaMART is eyeing a 20-25 per cent growth in turnover this fiscal.

The company, which listed on NSE and BSE in July, is looking to beat the slowdown blues through new additions that include financing options, payment/credit facilitation for buyers and introduction of more brands (including international ones).

According to Dinesh Agarwal, CEO and Founder, IndiaMART InterMESH Ltd continues to be a pre-eminent B2B online marketplace with a deep reach in rural India as well as Tier-III and -IV towns. Moreover, it has set a benchmark for pricing of B2B offerings.

The company already has 200 brands, including JCB, Caterpillar, Kohler, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and others on its platform and is planning to add more in the coming days.

“There is a slowdown in demand. And, it will not be easy to have high growth numbers. We are hopeful that there will be 20-25 per cent growth in revenues this fiscal,” he told BusinessLine during an interview.

IndiaMART has seen a 28 per cent CAGR over the last 4-5 years. In the first three months of this fiscal (April to June), growth in turnover was around 28-29 per cent.

New initiatives

IndiaMART, Agarwal said, is looking to provide financing options to buyers. It is in the process of tying up with NBFCs and a rollout is likely to happen over the next two-three quarters. “If this picks up, we may explore tieups with banks,” he said.

The recent initiatives include integration of payment gateway and credit facilitation facilities, among others.

Previous ones include introduction of cloud telephony (where there would be missed call alerts, dedicated business calls to suppliers and so on) and customer relationship management software.

It now plans to look into the invoicing and ordering segment and has accordingly invested in Vyapar, a mobile-based business accounting software for small businesses. Vyapar is an invoice accounting and stock inventory app, which can be used SMEs for billing GST invoices, managing stock inventory and accounting solutions.