ePayLater, a leading start-up in the SME- credit space, expressed its strategic intent to focus on the expansion of its retailer and kirana user base in East, North East and other tier 2 and 3 cities in India. Currently with a large retail base spread across 80 cities of India, ePayLater with its robust tech-enabled platform intends to penetrate further to empower SMEs by creating a credit and tech enabled network which facilitates smoother flow and drives higher efficiencies in the supply chain.Kirana stores not just gets the widest assortment of products under one roof, but also a consistent and interest free credit window of 14 days across all their purchases through ePayLater.
The retail industry in India is an enormous contributor to the country’s economy, accounting for approximately 20% (1) of the total GDP and is only expected to grow in the years to come. This is augmented by the burgeoning working population and rise in disposable income. Some of the trends that have been seen are the emerging shift to eCommerce, the rise of D2C brands in the country, the rise of social commerce etc. These trends have been accentuated by the pandemic e.g. the contribution from online ordering has grown from 15% before the pandemic to 25% after the pandemic in the FMCG space (4).
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In parallel, traditional general trade has also grown in tandem and continues to account for over 90% (2) of the business in the market. The overall number of stores selling FMCG products in India grew at a CAGR of 4% over the period from 2019 to 2021, with the addition of 800,000 stores in the country (3).
Mr. Aurko Bhattacharya, Co-founder, ePayLater, says, “Distributors and retailers play an integral role in the FMCG ecosystem. Some obstacles that stand in the way of distributors and retailers reaching their full potential is the fragmented nature of their industry. We at ePayLater, aim to provide a seamless financial and technology first solution to solve existing problemsand help them increase their sales, reduce costs and increase margins through the use of technology. And we are already seeing as the retail model evolves, traditional trade (by far the biggest contributor to the FMCG segment), is gradually adopting technology to not only modernise itself but also double the growth of its business. We feel this has immense potential in tier 2 and 3 cities across the country.”
ePayLater has created just such a platform that can help distributors and retailers connect with each other and do business more efficiently. ePayLater is connecting brands, distributors and retailers and helping to create a trusted network that is enabled by credit and digitization. Each stakeholder in the supply chain is both a buyer and a seller. Both seller and buyer are invested in the business and can succeed only if the other person succeeds.
ePayLater provides a zero-cost credit solution to SMEs spread across 100+ cities in the country and has disbursed over Rs1900crores in facilitating inventory purchases. The company works closely with B2B majors like JioMart,Metro Cash and Carry, Flipkart Wholesale, BigBasketetc and also directly with distributors oflarge FMCG brands. This solution is available to retailers across physical and digital sales channels and empowers SMEs to purchase inventory across product categories at the best available prices without being constrained for credit. It also helps reduce the trust deficit that typifies digital B2B commerce as buyer obligation to pay arises only after goods are physically received, with a further period of 14 days of interest-free credit. www.epaylater.in
