Snapdeal
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
E-commerce
Available inEnglish
Founded2010 (2010) [1]
HeadquartersNew Delhi, India
Area servedIndia
Founder(s)
Key peopleHimanshu Chakrawarti
(CEO)
IndustryE-commerce
ServicesOnline shopping
RevenueDecrease ₹510 crore (US$64 million) (FY 2021)
URLwww.snapdeal.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationRequired
Current statusActive
Native client(s) oniOS, Android, Windows

Snapdeal is an Indian e-commerce company, based in New Delhi, India. It was founded in February 2010 by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal.[2]

Snapdeal was one of the largest online marketplaces in India.[3] Snapdeal targets the value e-commerce segment, which Bahl estimated to be three times larger than the branded goods market.[4]

Fashion, home and general merchandise account for a majority of the products sold by over 500,000 sellers on Snapdeal.[5] Buyers from more than 3,700 towns in India shop on Snapdeal.[6]

History

Establishment

Snapdeal was founded on 4 February 2010 as a daily deals platform, before expanding to become an online marketplace in October 2011.[7]

Unsuccessful merger with Flipkart

Reports emerged in Q2 2016 that SoftBank Group planned to engineer a merger between Snapdeal and Flipkart.[8][9] Discussions took place for months, but concluded in July 2017 after the deal fell through due to lack of consensus among Snapdeal's board members. Disagreements over valuation and proposed special payouts to early investors—Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital—were among the reasons cited.[10][11]

Snapdeal 2.0

Following the unsuccessful plan to merge with Flipkart, Snapdeal pursued a new strategy it called Snapdeal 2.0. The initiative saw the sale of non-core businesses—Freecharge and Vulcan Express—to dedicate more resources to Snapdeal's e-commerce marketplace, which is its core business.[12][13]

The strategy yielded strong results. From 2017 to 2021, Snapdeal's revenue grew by 74% at its peak, while losses were cut by nearly 95%. Between the financial years in 2018 and 2020, the number of unique customers on Snapdeal's platform also tripled to 27 million. More than 90% of Snapdeal's orders came from non-metro users.[4][14]

Under Snapdeal 2.0, the company built an asset-light operating model designed specifically to serve the value e-commerce segment, including decentralised logistics and minimal inventory, keeping operating costs low.[15]

Part of the strategy's success is derived from recreating the bustling and diverse experiences of India's bazaars online. To sell products to non-metro buyers, Snapdeal identified a need to engage and entertain, just like in physical bricks-and-mortar settings. In February 2021, Bahl shared in an interview with KrASIA that "Snapdeal's engagement with this new and a large part of our existing user base is built on three key themes of video, voice, and vernacular. All these initiatives are built around the central idea of how we can help our users discover and transact better, rather than a traditional approach of how we can sell better."[6]

Snapdeal's focus on the value e-commerce segment has led Indian FMCG companies such as Godrej and Himalaya to use its platform to sell their brand products. The companies have made arrangements to sell their products directly on the platform through authorised dealers. Other brands such as The Man Company, Mamaearth, and Ustraa have also partnered with Snapdeal to reach customers from non-metro regions.[16]

In 2021, Snapdeal also announced that it intends to enter the offline retail space in smaller Indian cities.[17]

Miscellaneous

Diwali campaign with Aamir Khan

In March 2015, Snapdeal engaged actor Aamir Khan to promote its website in India with its Diwali campaign, "Dil Ki Deal.[18] The year-long campaign stirred controversy due to comments made by Khan in his personal capacity.[19]

Reported sales of counterfeit products

In January 2021, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released a 2020 report that identified Snapdeal as a marketplace where counterfeit products are sold (a notorious market), it had been listed by the USTR since 2019. Snapdeal responded that the report "reflected a blinkered and flawed view of the world that not only fails to make a distinction between the respective roles of brands, sellers and platforms, but also wilfully ignores the applicable laws in various jurisdictions, including in India".[20] Snapdeal also sent a notice to the USTR asking for the statements made in the report to be retracted, and for a corrigendum to be issued.[21] It was subsequently dropped from the 2021 USTR notorious markets report, released in 2022.[22] Snapdeal is a member of the International Trademark Association (INTA), which has over 7200 members from 187 countries that pledge to protect intellectual property on online marketplaces.[23]

Open Network for Digital Commerce

In March 2023, Fortune India reported on Snapdeal's integration with the government-led Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), focusing on India's non-metro regions. The company generates over 86% of its business from these areas. With this integration, Snapdeal has expanded its product range to include home products, fashion, and personal care, to serve the needs of customers in smaller cities and towns.[24]

Funding and acquisitions

Fundraising

Snapdeal has completed multiple rounds of funding.

It received its first investment in January 2011, amounting to US$12 million from Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners. Another round was done in July 2011 for funds amounting to US$45 million, from Bessemer Venture Partners and existing investors. A third round of funding worth US$50 million was completed the same year, from eBay and existing investors.[25]

In February 2014, Snapdeal raised US$133 million in a round led by eBay together with Kalaari Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Intel Capital and Saama Capital.[26] The following month, it raised an additional US$105 million from BlackRock, Temasek Holdings, PremjiInvest and others.[27] SoftBank also invested US$647 million in October 2014, making it the largest shareholder in Snapdeal.[28]

In August 2015, Alibaba Group, Foxconn and SoftBank invested US$500 million in Snapdeal.[29] In February of the following year, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and Brother Fortune Apparel injected US$200 million in funds into Snapdeal at a valuation of US$6.5 billion.[30] The completion of the investment coincided with new appointments to Snapdeal's leadership team, including Anand Chandrasekaran (from Airtel), Jayant Sood (from Airtel), Rajiv Mangla (from Adobe), and more.[31][32][33]

In May 2017, Snapdeal raised funding worth ₹113 crore from Nexus Venture Partners.[34][35]

In December 2022, Reuters reported that Snapdeal had canceled its $152 million IPO due to unfavorable market conditions. The decision followed challenges in the tech stock market, influencing Snapdeal's reassessment and potential deferral of its IPO plans amidst a broader trend of declining valuations in the tech sector.[36]

Acquisitions

In June 2010, Snapdeal's holding company Jasper Infotech acquired Bengaluru-based group buying website Grabbon.com for an undisclosed amount.[37]

In April 2012, Delhi-based online sports goods retailer eSportsBuy.com was acquired.[38] This was followed by the acquisition of Shopo.in in 2013, which is a customer-to-customer (C2C) e-commerce platform.[39]

In 2014, Snapdeal acquired Doozton, a fashion product discovery technology platform, and Wishpicker, a technology platform that uses machine learning to deliver recommendations for gift purchases.[40] Both deals were completed for undisclosed amounts.[41][42]

Snapdeal made multiple acquisitions in 2015, acquiring a stake in product comparison website Smartprix in January, before acquiring a discovery site for luxury fashion products, Exclusively.in.[43] Two months later, it acquired a 20% stake in logistics service company GoJavas as well as e-commerce solution provider Unicommerce, and financial transaction platform RupeePower.[44][45][46] In April 2015, mobile payments company Freecharge was acquired by Snapdeal.[47] Programmatic display advertising platform Reduce Data was also acquired in September of the same year.[48]

In August 2016, logistics firm Pigeon Express acquired a 51% stake in GoJavas with Snapdeal holding 49% stake in the firm.[49] In March 2017, Snapdeal sold its stake in GoJavas to Pigeon Express.[50]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Chakraborty, Alokananda (18 July 2014). "Lunch with BS: Sachin Bansal". Business Standard Ltd. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  2. ↑ Gooptu, Biswarup (28 February 2014). "Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl: A rising star of India's e-commerce space". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  3. ↑ Bhattacharjee, Nivedita; PM, Indulal (28 October 2014). "Japan's SoftBank kicks off $10 billion India online spree, buys stake in Snapdeal". Reuters. Archived from the original on 5 December 2015. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  4. 1 2 Balachandran, Manu (12 November 2020). "How Snapdeal Is Turning Around Its Fortune". Forbes India. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  5. ↑ "Snapdeal to add another 5000 manufacturer-sellers to its platform in 2020". The Economic Times. 10 January 2020. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  6. 1 2 Tiwary, Avanish (4 February 2021). "India's Snapdeal staged a comeback by diving into small cities | Tales from India's Towns". KrASIA. Archived from the original on 22 November 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  7. ↑ Agrawal, Shrija; Rai, Anand (15 November 2012). "We should do a billion dollar in gross merchandise value by 2015: Snapdeal's Shyam Bahl". VCCircle. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2014.
  8. ↑ Bidkar, Chinmay (5 April 2017). "SoftBank Aiming for Flipkart-Snapdeal Merger, Rest of the Investors in a Disagreement - TechStory". TechStory. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
  9. ↑ Stacey, Kiran; Massoudi, Arash; Inagaki, Kana (9 April 2017). "SoftBank pushes for merger of India's Snapdeal and Flipkart". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  10. ↑ Pitchiah, Vijayakumar (13 June 2017). "SoftBank steers Flipkart-Snapdeal merger talks to broad agreement". VCCircle. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  11. ↑ Gooptu, Biswarup (1 August 2017). "How Kunal Bahl sold the idea of Snapdeal 2.0 and what's in store". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 26 March 2018. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  12. ↑ "Axis Bank Buys Freecharge From Snapdeal For Rs 385 Crore In All-cash Deal". Moneycontrol. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  13. ↑ Gooptu, Biswarup. "Future Supply Chain Solutions buys Vulcan Express for Rs 35 crore". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  14. ↑ Bhattacharya, Ananya (23 October 2019). "Snapdeal's comeback strategy seems to be paying off". Quartz India. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  15. ↑ Srivastava, Moulishree (22 December 2021). "SoftBank-backed Snapdeal aims to raise USD 165 million from IPO, eyes international expansion". KrASIA. Archived from the original on 26 November 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  16. ↑ "Marico, Godrej and Himalaya list value-selection on Snapdeal to widen reach in non-metros". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  17. ↑ Srivastava, Moulishree (8 December 2021). "SoftBank-backed Snapdeal to venture into offline retail ahead of IPO". KrASIA. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  18. ↑ "Aamir Khan roped in as brand ambassador for Snapdeal". India Today. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  19. ↑ Reddy, Sujata. "Snapdeal releases official statement on Aamir Khan controversy". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 2 April 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  20. ↑ "Snapdeal terms USTR report placing it on Notorious Markets List 'ill-informed'". Livemint. 16 January 2021. Archived from the original on 31 January 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  21. ↑ "Snapdeal writes letter to USTR protesting inclusion in Notorious Markets list". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 15 August 2023. Retrieved 5 February 2021.
  22. ↑ "2021 Review of Notorious Markets for Counterfeiting and Piracy" (PDF). Office of the United States Trade Representative. 17 February 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
  23. ↑ "Snapdeal joins International Trademark Association - ET Retail". ETRetail.com. Archived from the original on 28 August 2022. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  24. ↑ "Snapdeal joins ONDC network; to focus on non-metro cities". www.fortuneindia.com. 6 March 2023. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
  25. ↑ "Exclusive: Snapdeal raises $50 Million from eBay and existing investors". NextBigWhat. 1 April 2013. Archived from the original on 26 August 2013. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  26. ↑ Gooptu, Biswarup (27 February 2014). "eBay increases stake in Snapdeal, invests $134 million". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  27. ↑ K. Abudheen, Sainul (21 May 2014). "Snapdeal raises $100M in fresh funding from BlackRock, Temasek, PremjiInvest, others". VCCircle. Archived from the original on 13 March 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  28. ↑ "SoftBank becomes largest investor in Snapdeal" Archived 28 October 2014 at archive.today, Affairscloud, 28 October 2014.
  29. ↑ "Snapdeal secures USD 500 Million in an investment round led by Alibaba, Foxconn and SoftBank to power its digital commerce ecosystem - Snapdeal Blog". 18 August 2015. Archived from the original on 22 August 2015.
  30. ↑ Gooptu, Biswarup; Chanchani, Madhav (15 February 2016). "Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and others lead $200 million funding round in Snapdeal". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 27 July 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  31. ↑ Gooptu, Biswarup (11 June 2015). "Anand Chandrasekaran joins Snapdeal as new product chief". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 28 May 2021.
  32. ↑ "Jayant Sood joins as chief customer experience officer for Snapdeal". The Economic Times. 30 April 2015. Archived from the original on 28 May 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
  33. ↑ "Snapdeal appoints former Adobe executive Rajiv Mangla as CTO". The Economic Times. 28 August 2015. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  34. ↑ Sen, Anirban; Dalal, Mihir (29 May 2017). "Snapdeal gets Rs 113 crore from Nexus, founders in surprise funding". Livemint. Archived from the original on 29 May 2017. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  35. ↑ "Struggling Snapdeal gets Rs 113 cr funding". The Economic Times. 29 May 2017. Archived from the original on 29 May 2017. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
  36. ↑ Sriram, M.; Kalra, Aditya (9 December 2022). "Exclusive: India's Snapdeal to shelve $152 million IPO amid tech stocks rout". Reuters. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
  37. ↑ Shrija Argawal, "SnapDeal owners acquire Grabbon; to expand & differentiate," Archived 26 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine Reuters, 29 June 2010.
  38. ↑ Chatterjee, Paramita. "Snapdeal acquires Esportsbuy.com". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 9 August 2023. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  39. ↑ "Snapdeal acquires Shopo.in". The Times of India. 1 June 2013. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013.
  40. ↑ Priyanka Pani, "Snapdeal.com buys fashion products discovery platform Doozton.com," Archived 15 August 2023 at the Wayback Machine The Hindu Business Line, 16 April 2014.
  41. ↑ "Snapdeal acquires gifting recommendation tech firm Wishpicker," Archived 27 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine The Economic Times, 11 December 2014.
  42. ↑ Shu, Catherine (12 December 2014). "Snapdeal, One Of India's Leading E-commerce Sites, Acquires Wishpicker To Deliver Better Product Recommendations". TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  43. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (18 February 2015). "India's Snapdeal Buys Exclusively.In To Add Luxury Goods To Its Online Marketplace". TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  44. ↑ Verma, Shrutika (18 March 2015). "Snapdeal acquired 20% stake in Gojavas.com". Livemint. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  45. ↑ Verma, Shrutika; Dalal, Mihir (31 March 2015). "Snapdeal buys e-commerce management firm Unicommerce". Livemint. Archived from the original on 20 July 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2015.
  46. ↑ Lunden, Ingrid (31 March 2015). "Snapdeal Acquires RupeePower, Will Add Loans, Other Financing To Its Marketplace". TechCrunch. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  47. ↑ Thoppil, Dhanya Ann (8 April 2015). "India's Snapdeal Buys FreeCharge". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 31 December 2016. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  48. ↑ Gooptu, Biswarup. "Snapdeal acquires Silicon Valley startup Reduce Data - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 2 September 2015.
  49. ↑ "Pigeon Express in talks to buy out Snapdeal's GoJavas stake". Livemint. 16 March 2017. Archived from the original on 7 May 2017. Retrieved 4 May 2017.
  50. ↑ Alam, Tausif (7 October 2017). "Gojavas sends Rs 300-crore legal notice to Snapdeal and its co-founders". Entrackr. Retrieved 7 January 2024.
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