Assisted e-commerce start-up ShopX, which digitally connects small retailers and kirana store owners with FMCG brands, expects to grow its user base by 40 per cent, and become profitable on a per unit basis by the year end, according to a company executive.
"Presently we have connected over 50,000 users in the south and west, and are looking to expand this number to over 70,000 small retailers by the end of 2017," chief executive officer of ShopX, Amit Sharma told PTI.
Started in 2015, the Nandan Nilekani backed company allows the shop owners to directly order products from the brands, and has expanded rapidly in tier-2 and tier-3 towns. It plans to expand services in the north and east next year, he said.
"Most of the citizens residing in tier-2 and -3 towns as well as villages rely on neighbourhood shops for every need. There are over 12 million of those spread across the country that we are targeting to scale our business," Sharma said.
The company clocks a gross merchandise value worth USD 250 million, and expects to touch USD 1 billion in three years. "Our revenues will be typically 20 per cent of this," he said.
The company is now working on a B2B payments app that will be integrated into the same platform to help connect wholesalers, distributors, stockists, and logistics to facilitate smooth payments down the supply chain. This will be available from August onward, Sharma said.
The start-up has also added a formal credit option in its platform that allows shopkeepers to avail loans from a clutch of partner banks and NBFCs such as FlexiLoans and CapitalFloat.
It claims to have disbursed about Rs 20 crore of loans in three months since its launch.
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