Covid Has Created Demon 2.0 Movement For Merchants: Instamojo
Online payment technology startups like Instamojo, have been expanding tremendously to solve the problems of merchants, especially in the current scenario. The next decade belongs to micro-business who will have a digital shift, says Sampad Swain, Co-founder, Instamojo, a fintech firm. While startups considered Demonitisation as the inception of digitisation, Covid has created Demon 2.0 movement for merchants. Digitisation today is the new normal. He also foresees consolidation of companies who won't be able to survive. After Instamojo’s acquisition of GetMeAShop to boost its e-commerce vertical, it is planning to build digital pipes for payments and lending and also for e-commerce. Founded in 2012, Instamojo is planning to offer a huge digital store offering wherein merchants can create a virtual online store for free and catalogue their products along with payments, shipping service, lending service, all at one place.
Discussing the pre-Covid era, "Every year about 1.8 to 2 million micro-businesses come online, which means around 5,000-6,000 per day that are contributing approximately 3.5 million GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) to the overall ecosystem", said Swain. He further added, “Post-Covid, 2 million merchants will add close to $ 3 million GMV. We will see a huge rise in the freelancer community, 2 million merchants will soon become 4-5 million. The Post-Covid era will see digitisation get a huge boost in the arm."
Swain pointed out that 60% of merchants from travel and entertainment sector have been hit however, B2B businesses, education and freelancers providing services have grown 5x.
In the last quarter of FY19-20, he said, specifically in the month of March, the company saw a tough time due to Yes Bank crisis and lockdown.
The new normal
On the recent Facebook and Reliance Jio partnership, he said, “We can’t be happier. This will lead to more people transacting digitally. This partnership will cause pressure for offline businesses because of the sheer scale of Jio and Whatsapp in India, underscoring the need for digital transactions. A lot of businesses who have so far had just a single method of engaging with consumers and merchants, especially offline QR code companies, might not survive at the end of the day if Whatsapp and Jio scale up. Their existence may become negligible."
