Instamojo rolls out DIY ecommerce platform for D2C brands, small merchants

In a significant business expansion move, Bengaluru based Instamojo Technologies on Tuesday announced the launch of a new platform to enable small businesses and direct-to-consumer brands set up their independent ecommerce stores. 

The move comes over a year after Instamojo’s acquisition of Times Internet owned ecommerce enabler GetMeAShop (GMAS). The cash-and-stock transaction was valued at $5 million. 

“Putting together the expertise of GMAS and our learning from serving millions of MSMEs, Instamojo is now venturing full-fledged into the space of ecommerce,” Sampad Swain, co-founder and CEO of the startup, said in a statement. “We are aiming to redefine online store business, and possibly be one of the first to build a do-it-yourself (DIY) SaaS business for small businesses and DTC brands in India,” he added. 

While Instamojo already offered a free online store builder, the new platform goes a step ahead and offers merchants a variety of tools to not just run and manage their business website but also build an online profile. The platform will include Instamojo’s existing business solutions such as online payments, instant pay-outs, logistics, and credit services as well as advanced ecommerce-critical solutions such as analytics, marketing, and CRM (customer relationship management) tools.

The platform also comes with a do-it-for-me (DIFM) option, wherein Instamojo’s tech experts take over and build the website for the merchant in a hassle-free manner.  

Since coming out beta in February 2021, the ecommerce platform claims to have clocked more than 100% growth across key performance indicators, including subscriptions, active paying customers, and net subscriber addition. It also claims a retention rate of 95%. 

The company aims to rope in over 1 lakh direct-to-consumer brands with its ecommerce offerings by the end of this year.  

Founded in 2012 by Swain, Akash Gehani and Aditya Sengupta, Instamojo competes with Tiger Global Management backed Razorpay and Naspers backed payments company PayU in the MSME payment space. On the lending side, it competes with players such as Lendingkart and CapitalFloat.