Paytm rolls out Paytm Force service to assist sellers

Mobile wallet and e-commerce firm Paytm has rolled out a service to help small and medium sellers on its platform, as the company looks to expand its marketplace business to better compete with Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon.

Under the new service, Paytm Force, about 3,000 e-commerce specialist partners of Paytm will help sellers in creating catalogues, fulfilling orders and managing their accounts. The partners will get paid a fee for their services directly from the sellers, the company said in a statement.

Sudhanshu Gupta, associate vice president of business at Paytm, said the company ran Paytm Force on a pilot basis in some cities including Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore before rolling it out.

To avail the services of Paytm Force, sellers have to book an online appointment on Paytm's seller platform PaytmGoBig.com. They can also avail weekly and monthly service packages.

E-commerce players are trying to encourage more small and medium businesses to sell online. A senior Snapdeal executive told TechCircle.in in September last year that the company planned to increase the number of sellers to as much as 300,000 from 200,000. Paytm has about 60,000 sellers on its platform, according to its website.

One97 Communications Ltd offers consumers digital goods and mobile commerce services under its Paytm brand. The company also provides mobile marketing and payments services to e-commerce merchants. It is backed by investors such as China's Alibaba Group, Ant Financial, SAIF Partners, Sapphire Venture and Silicon Valley Bank.