Snapdeal uses data to 'Unbox Success' for its sellers this Diwali

In the run up to its Unbox Diwali Sale, Snapdeal, India's largest online marketplace is relying on extensive data analysis to guide its sellers to achieve maximum sales this festive season.

The company's seller facing team, SD Advisors is in the process of finalizing Joint Business Plans with more than 15,000 sellers in face-to-face meetings conducted across 120 cities and towns in India.

The plans will enable sellers to tailor their assortment and inventory on the basis of predictive analysis shared by Snapdeal with them. This joint planning will help sellers stock what is selling and store it closer to the expected consumption centers.

The plan will also provide quantity guidance for fast moving items so that adequate stocks are available to avoid an out-of-stock out situation.

In addition, Snapdeal has rolled out a Business Recommendation Engine on the seller panel, which is available to all sellers. This engine provides valuable information on top selling products, diversification ideas and sub-category level information which allows sellers to make smart business decisions powering their growth.

"Traditionally, sellers relied on intuition and conventional wisdom to decide assortment. Snapdeal is changing this by providing big data analytic tools to even small and medium sellers, easily accessible on their Snapdeal seller panel. Our brand promise to our sellers is "Unbox Success" and these data-based decision making tools will provide a unique edge to our sellers in their journey to greater success," said Senior Vice-President Market Development at Snapdeal, Vishal Chadha.

In the past six months, Snapdeal has added over 45 new features on its seller panel to provide a seamless experience to its sellers across functions such as listing, on-boarding, query resolution and reconciliation. The new seller panel allows sellers to list new products in under an hour especially in big sub-categories like personal electronics, home appliances, fashion, etc. These significant improvements in seller interface have led to a sharp jump in the assortment available on Snapdeal, which has now grown to 50 million products from 35 million products earlier this year.