Shop-Clues is scouting for payments, analytics and ad-tech companies to buy, leaning on acquisitions primarily to strengthen its seller network to trump over its rivals.

The online retailer only recently laid claim to being a billion-dollar startup but has been quick to outline aggressive plans to secure a perch atop India’s ecommerce rankings. These include a stock market listing next year and profits shortly after.

“The acquisitions will be in the category of payments or analytics… ad-tech, expanding seller base… basically technology acquisitions or acqui-hires,” said Chief Executive Sanjay Sethi, adding that any acquisitions in the payments space will be to aid the company’s merchants and not be of consumer-facing payment solutions or wallets.

ShopClues has set aside $30-40 million (Rs 200-275 crore) to spend on acquisitions, said Chief Business Officer Radhika Aggarwal.

Gurgaon-based ShopClues, which recently raised undisclosed funding led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC that, is focused on building high-margin categories such as furniture and digitising its merchant base, including establishing point-of-sale (PoS) systems for its vendors, mobile banking, hyperlocal delivery services, and credit and financial services.

The company, which typically works with sellers in unstructured categories, said its seller-focused payments solution will combine PoS systems, reconciliations, and loan and credit offerings for merchants.

“Nearly one-third of our merchants have physical retail outlets and we are designing a PoS that will work on an Android device,” said Sethi.

Non-transaction revenue, such as through advertisements on its platform, makes up only 10% of Shop-Clues’ gross merchandise sales currently. The company aims to scale this up to 30-40% by mid-2017, including through merchant-managed digital ad campaigns.

Source: The Economic Times

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