How payments is playing an important role in the ecommerce growth story

India’s e-commerce segment has witnessed a massive revolution. It is projected to rise to US $ 188 billion by the end of 2025. Whether it is B2B, B2c, or D2C, the transformation led by the adoption of technology has had a significant change in consumers’ buying behaviour. One of the main reasons for this revolution is undoubtedly marketplaces like Flipkart that started at a time when consumers were hesitant to make purchases online.

In a candid conversation with Paytm’s Nakul Jain, Ritesh who helms the role of Head of Product, Fintech and Payments at Flipkart delves deep into the role of evolving payment ecosystem in helping e-commerce companies scale.

Collaboration between Paytm and Flipkart

Year after year, Flipkart has continued to set new benchmarks when it comes to growing at scale. “Our partners have always been an important part of our success story. Paytm has played a crucial role in helping us implement seamless payment experiences,” said Ritesh.

He believes India has a diverse demography when it comes to its consumers. The first five million consumers in India are different from the next 50 million and so on. Paytm's role is crucial to understand the different needs of each of these consumer segments, especially from a payments perspective. “Both Flipkart and Paytm complement each other’s strengths to a great extent. Paytm’s trust with its consumers made our journey comparatively easier,” he added.

Sharing his perspective on the collaboration, Nakul said, “We feel equally a part of success when Flipkart registers extraordinary numbers in ‘The Big Billion Days’ sale. That is the kind of partnership we share.”

Flipkart has established a strong presence in Tier II and Tier III markets of the country. It is where the next wave of online shoppers is going to come from. And Ritesh shared that a lot of Flipkart’s strategy centres around catering to the needs of these consumers. “The journey for people in these areas is different from that of those in metro cities. Digital payment is a new concept for them. And for us having a trusted logo at the payments page plays a key role in offering a seamless experience,” shared Ritesh.

What goes behind the scenes of ‘The Big Billion Days’?

Events like The Big Billion Days have defined Flipkart and its success. “For the payments team, the first 15 minutes of the sale are extremely important. Because payments are dependent on a lot of external factors. From banks to UPI framework, we highly depend on the resilience and the robustness of our payment partners,” said Ritesh.

“Flipkart, during all the major sale events closely tracks the success rate metrics and have always been able to achieve the targeted numbers,” he added.

Being a customer-centric company, Flipkart has recently integrated product features like BNPL, EMI, Paytm Postpaid etc that lets users purchase products on credit. “We know that Paytm has substantial reach in India when it comes to using postpaid products on different platforms. We have been able to tap into the same and it has helped us offer ease and affordability to our customers,” he shared.