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The COO of IndiaMART shares the companys market expansion strategies, advertising campaigns and growth plans

by Tanya Dwivedi Published - Apr 21, 2023 3:52 PM | 5 min read

Indias tier 2 and tier 3 markets are driving the economy owing to better utilisation of government schemes, enhancementof customer acquisition and monetisation. This is effectively supporting the growth of Indias B2B sector, says Dinesh Gulati, COO, IndiaMART.

Nearly 35 per cent of the B2B traffic comes from Metros and the rest is from far-flung areas, Gulati shared in a conversation with e4m. He also spoke on the companys market expansion strategies, advertising campaigns and growth plans.

Excerpts:

What major investments are boosting the overall growth of the company?

We started expanding our network of acquisitions 18 to 24 months back. Earlier we used to have only an in-house team and then we started expanding through our channel partners in large cities as well because of the change in traffic patterns, which is coming almost 65 per cent from tier two, three, and four towns. Our revenues are increasing because we have a steady growth in the number of customers.

Our net customer addition is between 8,000 to 10,000 per quarter. Having said that, there is a lot of work happening on the platform itself so that we can improve our experience for our buyers and suppliers.

As per recent reports, IndiaMART looks to add a credit facilitation offering on its platform to help small businesses. What is the aim behind offering credit facilities?

We were able to enhance our access to the markets by enriching our platform through good categories and good content. Besides facing other problems, SMEs are bereft of financial resources to continue their businesses. Thanks to the technology that we have, we can monitor their behaviour. Hence, we decided we should also look at providing access to funding finance to these businesses. We are trying to build a sustainable and effective system on the IndiaMART platform to reduce credit borrowing complications and high-interest rates.

Recently, IndiaMART has announced market expansion across India. Besides opening four new branches in Tamil Nadu, the company plans expansion across Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala. How does the company plan to connect larger sellers to local buyers?

With businesses adopting digitisation rapidly, buying patterns have changed explicitly. To keep pace with the GDP contribution from the South, we had to move much faster so that we would be always in sync with the South. Two to three years back we realised buyers from smaller towns were not very well-versed in English. They either use voice search or their vernacular language. We implemented these interventions on our platform and today our buyers can search through voice in nine languages.

Clear detailing of products on the website, flexible marketing approach, and strong SEO and AI-driven marketing algorithm help IndiaMART stand out in the clutter of B2B business. Also, we have been trying to make this platform as relevant for our suppliers and buyers and as functional as it needs to be, rather than throwing money on above-the-line media marketing, and channel marketing. Today we have almost 16 crore-plus buyers. We have more than 10% of India's population registered on a B2B platform like IndiaMART and our repeat traffic is almost 53%. Furthermore, with the adoption of AI, we aim to cross demographic barriers and make match-making happen across geographies and every aspect of buyer and supplier. Presently, we have almost 400 plus brands that are large enterprises and present on the IndiaMART platform, whether it is Toshiba carrier, Aircon, Tata Motors, or Tata Steel.

IndiaMART launched its campaign during the IPL season. How does IndiaMART plan its quarterly advertising spend?

Our entire investment has been in creating more content. We have 74 lakh suppliers on the platform and keep enriching their catalogues. On another side, we keep doing these videos and we do almost one video a month.Which sector does IndiaMart plan to focus on in the following fiscal year?We have 56 industries on our platform and a very horizontal marketplace. Having said that, we cannot push any particular category or industry sector. But these things keep changing. We started focusing on one category during the Covid times when the entire nation was in the need of medical products, facial masks and concentrators. We had the entire team working on only the pharma and medical category.What are the challenges for Indias B2B sector and whats the way to tackle them?

In China, internet adoption amongst businesses is close to around 80% or so. Whereas in India we are still less than 50%. So, there is headroom for B2B businesses to improve. Having said that, in the last few years, thanks to UPI, GST, and e-way bills a lot of things have simplified businesses across all demographics. Thanks to the credit guarantee scheme, the government of India has offered a sizable chunk of loans that are given collateral free.

There are small teething issues where we have scope to improve things. But the biggest challenge is to make finance and funding available for businesses.

I'm very bullish about the way things are going to help our B two B micro and medium enterprises to a great extent. However, headwinds are there because of various global factors. We saw raw material prices going up, and inflation going up. But despite that, we continue to grow primarily because of some ease of policies. We are strengthening our manufacturing processes in the country. I'm sure we will see a lot of improvement for our B two B businesses.

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With the adoption of AI, we aim to cross demographic barriers: Dinesh Gulati, IndiaMART - Exchange4Media