ShopClues to double headcount to 1,500 by Mar'16

E-commerce player ShopClues aims to more than double the number of employees to 1,500 by March next year in view of strong growth in its seller base.
The company, which claims to have about 1.5 lakh merchants on its platform, has about 700 employees.
"We are looking at ramping up our headcount. It will be about 1,500 by March, 2016. This will be across operations, in line with the significant growth that we are witnessing," ShopClues.Com co-founder and CEO Sanjay Sethi told PTI.
The company expects its merchant base to grow from 1.5 lakh to about five lakh by the end of the fiscal.

Founded in July 2011 in Silicon Valley, ShopClues.Com is a managed marketplace and small and medium businesses account for a significant chunk of its seller base.
"We are growing at a strong place. Our GMV is about USD 500 million right now but we are confident of closing the year at about USD 1.3 billion," he said.

GMV is a term used in online retailing to indicate the gross merchandise value of the products sold through the marketplace over a certain period of time.
Asked if the company was looking at acquisitions like its larger rivals Snapdeal and Flipkart, Sethi answered in the affirmative.

"We are looking at firms that will help strengthen our technology platform or in areas like Big Data, security and mobility," he said.
Sethi added that the company is "open to investing anywhere between USD 1-75 million", depending on the potential of the firm.
"We closed a round in January and we are well-funded at this point in time. However, in case we go for a large-size acquisition, then we will have to raise funds," he said.
Flush with funds, e-commerce firms like Flipkart, Snapdeal, Amazon and Alibaba-backed Paytm are ramping up infrastructure and adding more sellers to their platforms to cater to the booming demand from customers.

According to industry estimates, e-commerce business in India was about USD 6 billion in value in 2012 and is expected to touch around USD 76 billion by 2021.