Snapdeal hires Jayant Sood from Amex to lift prepayment

Snapdeal has hired former American Express executive Jayant Sood as its chief customer experience officer to push prepayment at the online marketplace.

Sood will report to Snapdeal co-founder and chief operating officer Rohit Bansal. "We are looking to boost prepayments at Snapdeal by creating a single platform for resolving the consumer experience," Sood said.

Indian e-commerce sells 60 per cent of products by cash-on-delivery (COD), says Morgan Stanley.

Snapdeal recently bought online mobile recharge payment platform FreeCharge for $450 million in one of the biggest e-commerce mergers in the country.

According to Kunal Bahl, co-founder and chief executive of Snapdeal, the 20 million consumers from FreeCharge all pay online. "The percentage of Snapdeal's COD will drop by 20 per cent over six months, with the FreeCharge merger," he said.

"The cost of returns goes down and logistics problems are solved. So, it increases efficiency," Bahl added.

Flipkart, Snapdeal's rival, sells 50 per cent of its products COD; fashion e-tailer Jabong 60-65 per cent, and Foodpanda 50 per cent, Morgan Stanley says.