Snapdeal eyes $1 bn sales by FY15

Homegrown online market place Snapdeal expects sales on its platform to cross $1 billion by March 2015, buoyed by boom in the e-commerce segment.

The company expects to close the ongoing fiscal with over $500 million in sales through its platform.

"We have seen huge growth in the last few months. Customers are now more confident while making purchases online, taking growth rates to 4X-5X growth. By March 2015, we are looking at sales of over $1 billion from our platform," Snapdeal.Com Vice President (Business Development) Tony Navin told PTI.

There is growth across categories but segments like electronics and apparel are doing tremendously well, he added.

Launched in February 2010, Snapdeal has seen rapid growth in the last three years and claims to have over 20 million members.

It offers products across over 500 product categories through 20,000 sellers and delivers to more than 4,000 cities in the country.

With a headcount of over 1,000 people, Snapdeal is backed by global investors like eBay Inc, Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and IndoUS Venture Partners. It is also looking at listing on the US bourses in the next two years.

Snapdeal today also announced a partnership with Taiwanese firm Oplus Technology to exclusively sell the product on its platform.

Oplus will sell its tablet -- XonPad7 -- exclusively through Snapdeal for Rs 9,990.

"Just like in the past, we continue to partner with brands exclusively to bring the best of their portfolio to our over 25 million subscribers. We will push the device using our platform," he said.

The seven-inch Android JellyBean tablet features a 1.2GHz quad core processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM, 5 megapixel back camera and 2MP front camera. It supports 3G Calling and Wi-Fi.

"This is our first product in India and we have a strong pipeline going ahead. Snapdeal is a market leader and we are sure this will be a partnership of mutual benefit," Oplus Technology India Sales Director Ranadip Kundu said.

He declined to give further details on the producty line up but said it would include other tablets and smartphones, which would be abailable in second half of the year.

Kundu added that Oplus would explore other retail channels as well.