Snapdeal FY20 revenue increases marginally to Rs 846.4 cr

E-commerce marketplace Snapdeal said its consolidated revenue from operations has grown marginally to Rs 846.4 crore in FY20

E-commerce marketplace Snapdeal on Thursday said its consolidated revenue from operations has grown marginally to Rs 846.4 crore in FY20.

The company had registered Rs 839.4 crore revenue from operations in FY19, the firm said in a statement.

The total revenue dipped marginally from Rs 925.3 crore in FY19 to Rs 916 crore in FY20 on account of reduction in finance and other income, it added.

"In FY20, Snapdeal continued its investments in market expansion activities that have helped grow the market beyond only brands, urban centres and a primarily English-speaking audience. One-time investments booked by Snapdeal in FY20 on account of such initiatives are factored into the FY20 loss of Rs 274 crore from about Rs 186 crore in FY19," it said.

Snapdeal noted that it has invested in video, vernacular and other strategic projects, aimed at growing the online market among new users.

While the ongoing financial year has seen recurrent disruptions and subdued consumer sentiment on account of safety and economic concerns, the benefit of these growth initiatives is expected to play out over the coming years, it added.

The company has also seen more people coming to its platform to shop with the number growing from 19 million in FY19 to 27 million buyers in FY20.

"Consistent with Snapdeal's focus on growing the value segment, more than 85 per cent of Snapdeal's orders were shipped to customers living outside the top 10 cities in India," the online platform noted.

Citing industry data, Snapdeal said the market in India for non-food products (comprising mostly home, fashion and general merchandise) is worth about USD 282 billion annually. Within this segment, the sale of value/unbranded products (at USD 212 billion) is nearly three times the size of the branded products (USD 70 billion).

The company said over the last few months, Snapdeal has partnered with regional logistics players in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and Punjab as part of its network expansion. It has also expanded its call centre operations beyond the metro cities to smaller cities like Shimla.

In the ongoing fiscal, Snapdeal added vernacular interface in eight languages -- Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Gujarati, Punjabi and Marathi -- to serve a growing number of users from smaller cities, who prefer the comfort of browsing in their native languages, the statement said.

"Value is an abiding theme in India and a key consideration for millions of new buyers coming online from smaller towns. In FY20, we have successfully grown the market for value e-commerce. This has been achieved by expanding the online selection of value-priced merchandise and using technology to enable an unstructured segment of retail to sell online," a Snapdeal spokesperson said.

The company continues to expand its efforts to create new opportunities for existing offline retailers and manufacturers to grow and strengthen their online presence, the spokesperson added.