JSW One Platforms targets $5B GMV from B2B online business
JSW One Platforms aims to become a large online marketplace for the transaction of infrastructure materials, including steel, cement, and paints, while catering to small and medium businesses.
Over the last several decades, JSW Group has connected with end customers through its brand and product differentiation. It is among the leading steel manufacturers in India, with business interests in cement, paint, and energy products.
These infrastructure materials—accounting for multi-billion-dollar businesses—see a largely limited online penetration.
Platforms—the B2B platform of the $22-billion JSW Group—deals in such construction and manufacturing materials. Now, it has set a target to achieve a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $5 billion by FY28 and also aims to be profitable. In FY23, it achieved a GMV of Rs 1,415 crore (approximately $172 million).
“The intent was to build a new-age tech company within the group that operates like a startup,” Gaurav Sachdeva, CEO of JSW One Platforms, tells Enterprise Story in an interaction.
In July 2021, the group launched the ecommerce entity as it saw buyers, especially small and medium businesses, having several unmet needs in the offline market.
Sachdeva felt that the group’s position in the market could be leveraged to build an ecommerce platform—where buyers get access to JSW Group’s various manufactured materials on a single platform with technology as the driving force.
According to the CEO, there were four major pain points for the buyers. Firstly, a lack of transparency in the pricing of products, especially in the steel category, which comes in various types or sizes.
Secondly, challenges in product delivery, where one could ensure the quality and quantity. And thirdly—perhaps the most important—a lack of adequate access to credit facilities. Lastly, to resolve issues arising while transacting on the platform.
“We set out with an idea that JSW One Platforms will provide transparent pricing on a very large catalogue of products with working capital requirement and an unparalleled service,” says Sachdeva.
Today, JSW One Platforms has customers primarily from the manufacturing and construction industries—businesses with a turnover ranging between Rs 25 crore and Rs 2,500 crore.
The platform has over 24,000 registered accounts across industrial, building, and construction material segments. Sachdeva claims it receives over 70% repeat orders.
He says, “Our biggest USP is the service levels we provide to our customers in case of an issue, similar to a B2C ecommerce site.”
According to him, JSW One Platforms found it easy to get customers on board its digital platform. He remarks that while its customers are not digitally savvy, they are technologically equipped, given their business requirements. It saw around one-third of customers coming onto the platform on their own.
Moreover, JSW One Platforms’ in-house sales team focuses on making the scanning, purchase, and delivery processes seamless for anyone who enters the platform. Besides, it has a field sales team that meets with prospective customers.
“Our focus is to keep the experience of transacting on our platform as simple as possible, which should lead to repeat purchases,” adds Sachdeva.
JSW One Platforms’ credit facility, available to its customers, is one of its strong suites, and it has partnered with banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) to enable this process.
Moreover, it has applied for an NBFC licence. According to Sachdeva, around 30% of the GMV on the platform is done on a credit basis.
Additionally, JSW One Platforms operates a retail business for those customers interested in building their homes. Under this B2C model, it gets requests from consumers who want to build their houses but do not know which engineer to approach or what materials to buy.
“There was always an information asymmetry or a trust deficit between a contractor and the customer. We are solving that through the JSW One Homes Platform,” said Sachdeva.
Called the JSW One Homes Platform, it provides these orders to home contractors who follow the construction standards laid out by the platform to maintain the quality level.
At present, JSW One Homes Platforms delivers around five houses every month. It has got a presence in about seven Indian cities and aims to extend it to about 20-23 locations in the next year.
Starting its operations in Tamil Nadu first, JSW One Platforms later moved into Karnataka and is now present in Telangana, Maharashtra, and National Capital Region. It plans to be a pan-India player.
As part of its future expansion plan, the platform wants to add more product categories like electrical cables, pipes and tubes, chemicals, etc.
JSW One Platforms is also attracting talent to create a technology platform to fulfil diverse customer requirements, enable ecommerce transactions, and fulfil other needs like GST maintenance, ledger books, credit scoring, etc.
In April 2023, JSW One Platforms said it raised Rs 205 crore from Mitsui of Japan in a Series A funding round at a valuation of Rs 2,750 crore.
JSW One Platforms has witnessed a steep growth trajectory in the last two years. In July 2021, it recorded a GMV of Rs 62 lakh, expected to cross Rs 250 crore in May 2023.
Sachdeva believes the business sees enough tailwinds for growth, especially with the government’s focus on infrastructure creation and MSME growth.
Edited by Suman Singh