ShopX aims profitability by 2017 end

ShopX, the assisted ecommerce startup, is planning to turn profitable by the end of 2017 after growing by 40x in the last 7-8 months. The company partners with retailers and kiryana stores in small towns to display their products on its application, and consumes can directly select and order from there. ShopX is backed by the IT tycoon Nandan Nilekani, and is present in over 50,000 stores across 230 towns in southern and western India. It not only offers products online, but also provides services, including ticketing facilities and loans to the shopkeepers.

The startup recorded INR10.3 crore of losses during FY16, and aims to bring this number down to zero. Amit Sharma, one of the co-founders of the startup, exuded confidence in the future of this business and said that “Retailers don’t trust companies like Amazon or Flipkart. We are not here to threaten them (retailers), but to work with them. One of our goals this year is to cross 75,000 retailers and turn unit profitable. ShopX pre-selects retailers by charging a non-refundable fee of INR1,000 per retailer to use the ShopX application. This ensures that the retailer is serious about it and it also guarantees that we make money with every retailer who comes on board”.