The executive director of Paytm Mall , Rudra Dalmia has resigned from his position. Dalmia, was also on the board of the company, was responsible to help revive Paytm Mall’s business by changing strategies and coming up with a new business plan.
Dalmia resigned last month and is currently serving his notice period and his abrupt departure from the company raises questions on the coherence and longevity of Paytm Mall’s strategy.
In June 2019, Dalmia was elevated to the post of executive director and was its de-facto CEO of Paytm Mall. An MBA graduate from Cornell University, New York, Dalmia is a senior executive with more than 20 years of experience, including as the country head and MD of Saxobank India. He has also worked at Dawnay Day, International and eBookers Shared Services India.as per Entrackr.
His departure from Paytm Mall without completing even a year highlights the continuing struggles of Paytm Mall — Paytm’s commerce vertical that was launched to compete with Flipkart and Amazon India.
To counter this, Paytm Mall launched an O2O (online to offline) model that sought to create a hyperlocal business by connecting local sellers to buyers close by. This was an attempt to improve unit economics in parts of the business and was being led directly by Dalmia.
Presently, Paytm Mall is caught between high GMV (gross merchandise value which is a proxy for gross sales) global players like Amazon and Walmart on one side, who continue to spend large amounts on the operations and high-efficiency players like Snapdeal, who have created a niche for themselves by focusing on the value segment.
The fact behind the business is, cash burn in e-commerce is like a drug that just makes you feel high but the real revenue and growth require you to work harder.
