E-commerce major Snapdeal on-boards 52,000 merchants in Uttar Pradesh

UP among top ecommerce markets for 'puja' items, fashion

E-commerce major Snapdeal has on-boarded about 52,000 sellers in Uttar Pradesh across different product categories and locations.

Most of these sellers are based in the Lucknow, Varanasi and Noida regions, Snapdeal senior vice-president Rajnish Wahi told Business Standard here today.

He said Uttar Pradesh was among the top markets in India for puja supplies, including Rudraksh beads and necklaces.

Since, the pan-India merchant count on-boarded by Snapdeal is about half-million, the number of sellers Uttar Pradesh is therefore more than 10 per cent. Sellers from Uttar Pradesh mainly deal in women ethnic wear, watches, personal care and grooming appliances like trimmers, hair dryers, footwear, and home decor, Rajnish Wahi added.

Traditional fashion items manufactured in Uttar Pradesh like Chikank kurtas, stone crafted home decor and Banarasi sari are also popular. Besides, furnishings like cushion covers, table runners, trays and boxes in hand printed paisley patterns also sell well in all parts of India.

“In the last two years, we have brought 60,000 new sellers on our platform across India,” he informed.

He said, although Noida and Lucknow were Snapdeal’s biggest markets in Uttar Pradesh, nearly 60 per cent of its orders emerged from smaller markets like Azamgarh, Moradabad, Bulandshahr, Deoria, Mirzapur, Mau etc.

Meanwhile, India’s retail sector, which is estimated at Rs 56 trillion, is expected to hit Rs 138 trillion by 2025.

Online shopping, which accounts for 2-3 per cent of total retail, is projected to touch 10 per cent of overall domestic retail by 2025. Hence, e-commerce in India is likely to be worth Rs 14 trillion in the next 6-7 years, from current levels of Rs 2.8 trillion.

At the same time, only 10 per cent of the Indian retail is accounted to by the organised sector, while the remaining 90 per cent is serviced by the unorganised sector, essentially the local bazaars and markets across India, which Snapdeal is focussing big time to bring online. 

“At present, we are catering to 85 per cent of the geography in Uttar Pradesh with the segments of garments, footwear, watches, kitchenware etc being the most popular with the customers,” Wahi informed.

Snapdeal reported 30 million unique buyers in the last 12 months pan-India. The company mainly focuses on non-branded products across different product categories, targetting “the fast growing value conscious mass segment of online buyers.”

The steady fall in the price of smartphones, buyers from middle-class India were logging online in big numbers, which is currently estimated at 100 million and expected to burgeon exponentially going forward.

“The domestic shoppers are starting to buy online and look for value-for-money choices akin to what they buy in Indian bazaars. Given the size of this market, the supply of value-priced selection is growing online exponentially – mirroring the selection found in the bazaars of India,” Wahi said.