Homegrown e-commerce website Snapdeal.com has crossed $1 billion in gross merchandise sales. After online giant Flipkart, Snapdeal is the second online player to cross the $1 billion mark a year ahead of schedule.
By Anushree Bhattacharya
Speaking at a press conference held in Delhi, Kunal Bahl, chief executive officer and co-founder, Snapdeal.com, said, “We had announced earlier that we would like to hit the target by fiscal 2015 but it took us just about two and half years to reach the mark.”
Snapdeal, which has raised $300-400 million recently, also plans to increase the number of sellers on its portal from 50,000 to 100,000 in the next 12 months in addition to introducing various categories.
“About 65% of our sales come from tier-II and smaller cities, so the objective is to ramp up operations by bettering the products and services offered by us,” added Bahl.
The portal, which currently has 25 million subscribers, sells its products and services to consumers in 5000 cities and towns.
Interestingly, exclusive deals will continue to play an important role in the business plan. And as part of its plan, the e-commerce player joined hands with Tata Value Homes, a subsidiary of Tata Housing Development to foray into the real-state category.
With this partnership Snapdeal.com will now sell apartments by the real-estate company on its site. According to Bahl exclusive deals allows one to offer unique products and services. “Through such deals we able to offer better value to consumers and at the end of day that is our main aim,” he added.
According to a recent study released by Google the online realty market is valued at $43 billion and about 72% of consumer’s buying decision is influenced by the internet.
As for Tata Housing it was the experience of selling over 50 flats for over R25 crore during the four-day Great Online Shopping Festival (GOSF) organised by Google last year that has brought back the real-state company online.
“Our journey began with GOSF and since then we have sold more than 600 homes online through our website. With 70% of our consumers coming through our website, we have realised the potential of the medium and so have joined hands with Snapdeal,” said Pawan Sarda, head marketing and product development, Tata Value Homes.
As part of the partnership, Tata Value Homes will be selling apartments in seven projects located in five cities including Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Pune, and Ahmedabad on Snapdeal.
Moreover, consumers can book an apartments on the website after paying a booking amount of R30,000. The e-commerce website has also launched a special offer for a period of one week under which each customer will get R10,000 per month for a year for booking a Tata Value Home.
Meanwhile, Ratan Tata, Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus, has invested in online marketplace Snapdeal.com.
“Mr Tata has made a personal investment in the company,” Snapdeal cofounder and CEO Kunal Bahl said. The investment amount, however, was not disclosed.