Snapdeal on-boards over 5k manufacturer-sellers in 9 months, exceeds target

Homegrown marketplace Snapdeal has added over 5,000 manufacturer-sellers on its platform so far this year, most of them in the September quarter, exceeding the target it had set for itself earlier in the year, a top company official has said.

Though it began on-boarding new manufacturers directly as sellers from January, majority of the sign-ups have taken place in the September quarter, the official said, thanks to the lockdowns and the resultant shift in consumer behaviour. It can be noted that every online seller/service provider has benefited from the lockdowns.

Adding new sellers will help the e-tailer to ramp up its Diwali sales plans as direct shipment to buyers help manufacturers move stocks faster to customers.

The leading value-focused marketplace has over 5 lakh registered sellers and over 70 million visitors every month who can buy from over 213 million listings and its network covers over 26,000 pin codes.

A large chunk of the new manufacturer-sellers are into kitchen gadgets like juicers, food processors, steel & copper utensils, crockery items, bed linen, fashion accessories like watches & wallets and a wide range of apparel including kidswear, sarees and suits and regular use items like T-shirts, track pants among others, according to the company.

There are also many manufacturers who offer a range of fitness equipment like tummy trimmers, resistance bands, weights, etc. Most of these manufacturer-sellers are from small towns manufacturing hubs like Meerut, Ludhiana, Tirupur, Jaipur, Panipat, Surat, and Rajkot.

Ahead of its festive sales push, Snapdeal recently opened 25 logistics centres in major metros like Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru as well in small towns like Surat, Jaipur, Panipat, Gurugram, Bahadurgarh, Yamuna Nagar, Rajkot, Bhiwandi, Agra, Noida, and Mathura.

Snapdeal allows manufacturer-sellers to ship directly to buyers, which means that their stocks are not stuck in the warehouses of online platforms.