HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Snapdeal is an Indian
e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manag ...
company, based in
New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Hous ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
. It was founded in February 2010 by
Kunal Bahl Kunal Bahl is an Indian technology entrepreneur and investor. Early life Bahl was born in India and had completed his initial school education at Delhi Public School R. K. Puram (DPS) New Delhi. He applied to the University of Pennsylvania an ...
and
Rohit Bansal Rohit Bansal is an Indian entrepreneur, co-founder and COO of e-commerce company Snapdeal. Early life Bansal was born in Malout, Punjab India. He completed his school education at Delhi Public School (DPS) New Delhi and got his bachelor's ...
. Snapdeal was one of the largest online marketplaces in India. Snapdeal targets the value e-commerce segment, which Bahl estimated to be three times larger than the branded goods market. Fashion, home and general merchandise account for a majority of the products sold by over 500,000 sellers on Snapdeal. Buyers from more than 3,700 towns in India shop on Snapdeal.


History


Establishment

Snapdeal was founded on 4 February 2010 as a daily deals platform, before expanding to become an
online marketplace An online marketplace (or online e-commerce marketplace) is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce and can be a wa ...
in October 2011.


Unsuccessful merger with Flipkart

Reports emerged in Q2 2016 that
SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the Vi ...
planned to engineer a merger between Snapdeal and
Flipkart Flipkart Private Limited is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bengaluru, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. The company initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categorie ...
. Discussions took place for months, but concluded in July 2017 after the deal fell through due to lack of consensus among Snapdeal's board members. Disagreements over valuation and proposed special payouts to early investors—Nexus Venture Partners and
Kalaari Capital Vani Kola is an Indian venture capitalist. She is the founder and managing director of Kalaari Capital, an Indian early stage venture capital firm. She was listed as one of the most powerful women in Indian business by ''Fortune India'' in 2014 ...
—were among the reasons cited.


Snapdeal 2.0

Following the unsuccessful plan to merge with Flipkart, Snapdeal pursued a new strategy it called ''Snapdeal 2.0''. The initiative saw the sale of non-core businesses—
Freecharge Freecharge is an Indian financial services company based in Gurugram. It allows users to pay bills such as electricity, gas and telephone, as well as recharge mobile, broadband, DTH and metro cards. In addition, it enables the users to invest ...
and Vulcan Express—to dedicate more resources to Snapdeal's e-commerce marketplace, which is its core business. The strategy yielded strong results. From 2017 to 2021, Snapdeal's revenue grew by 74% at its peak, while losses were cut by nearly 95%. Between the financial years in 2018 and 2020, the number of unique customers on Snapdeal's platform also tripled to 27 million. More than 90% of Snapdeal's orders came from non-metro users. Under ''Snapdeal 2.0'', the company built an asset-light operating model designed specifically to serve the value e-commerce segment, including decentralised logistics and minimal inventory, keeping operating costs low. Part of the strategy's success is derived from recreating the bustling and diverse experiences of India's bazaars online. To sell products to non-metro buyers, Snapdeal identified a need to engage and entertain, just like in physical bricks-and-mortar settings. In February 2021, Bahl shared in an interview with ''KrASIA'' that "Snapdeal's engagement with this new and a large part of our existing user base is built on three key themes of video, voice, and vernacular. All these initiatives are built around the central idea of how we can help our users discover and transact better, rather than a traditional approach of how we can sell better." Snapdeal's focus on the value e-commerce segment has led Indian FMCG companies such as Godrej and
Himalaya The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...
to use its platform to sell their brand products. The companies have made arrangements to sell their products directly on the platform through authorised dealers. Other brands such as The Man Company, Mamaearth, and Ustraa have also partnered with Snapdeal to reach customers from non-metro regions.


Miscellaneous


Diwali campaign with Aamir Khan

In March 2015, Snapdeal engaged actor
Aamir Khan Mohammed Aamir Hussain Khan (; born 14 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director and producer who works in Hindi films. Through his career spanning over 30 years, Khan has established himself as one of the most notable actors of Indian ci ...
to promote its website in India with its Diwali campaign, "Dil Ki Deal. The year-long campaign stirred controversy due to comments made by Khan in his personal capacity.


Reported sales of counterfeit products

In January 2021, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) released a 2020 report that identified Snapdeal as a marketplace where counterfeit products are sold (a notorious market), it had been listed by the USTR since 2019. Snapdeal responded that the report "reflected a blinkered and flawed view of the world that not only fails to make a distinction between the respective roles of brands, sellers and platforms, but also wilfully ignores the applicable laws in various jurisdictions, including in India". Snapdeal also sent a notice to the USTR asking for the statements made in the report to be retracted, and for a corrigendum to be issued. It was subsequently dropped from the 2021 USTR notorious markets report, released in 2022. Snapdeal is a member of the
International Trademark Association The International Trademark Association is a global association of brand owners and professionals dedicated to trademarks and complementary intellectual property to foster consumer trust, economic growth, and innovation, and committed to building ...
(INTA), which has over 7200 members from 187 countries that pledge to protect
intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
on online marketplaces.


Open Network for Digital Commerce

In July 2022, reports emerged that Snapdeal will debut on the government-led Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC), which would make it the first e-commerce marketplace to do so. Snapdeal will launch on the network under three categories: fashion, home, personal and beauty care.


Funding and acquisitions


Fundraising

Snapdeal has completed multiple rounds of funding. It received its first investment in January 2011, amounting to US$12 million from Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners. Another round was done in July 2011 for funds amounting to US$45 million, from
Bessemer Venture Partners Bessemer Venture Partners (Bessemer) is an American venture capital firm. The firm has over $19 billion under management and invests globally, with offices in San Francisco, Redwood City, New York City, Boston, Israel, India, and London. Besseme ...
and existing investors. A third round of funding worth US$50 million was completed the same year, from
eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became ...
and existing investors. In February 2014, Snapdeal raised US$133 million in a round led by eBay together with Kalaari Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Intel Capital and Saama Capital. The following month, it raised an additional US$105 million from
BlackRock BlackRock, Inc. is an American multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager, with trill ...
,
Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...
, PremjiInvest and others. SoftBank also invested US$647 million in October 2014, making it the largest shareholder in Snapdeal. In August 2015, Alibaba Group,
Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd., trading as Hon Hai Technology Group in China and Taiwan and Foxconn internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational electronics contract manufacturer established in 1974 with headquarters in Tucheng, New ...
and SoftBank invested US$500 million in Snapdeal. In February of the following year,
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (french: Régime de retraite des enseignantes et des enseignants de l'Ontario) is an independent organization responsible for administering defined-benefit pensions for school teachers of the Canadian pr ...
and Brother Fortune Apparel injected US$200 million in funds into Snapdeal at a valuation of US$6.5 billion. The completion of the investment coincided with new appointments to Snapdeal's leadership team, including Anand Chandrasekaran (from Airtel), Jayant Sood (from Airtel), Rajiv Mangla (from
Adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for '' mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of ...
), and more. In May 2017, Snapdeal raised funding worth 113
crore A crore (; abbreviated cr) denotes ten million (10,000,000 or 107 in scientific notation) and is equal to 100 lakh in the Indian numbering system. It is written as 1,00,00,000 with the local 2,2,3 style of digit group separators (one lakh is eq ...
from Nexus Venture Partners. In December 2021, it was reported that Snapdeal is planning to raise US$250 million in an initial public offering (IPO). Snapdeal also announced that it intends to enter the offline retail space in smaller Indian cities.


Acquisitions

In June 2010, Snapdeal's holding company Jasper Infotech acquired
Bengaluru Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...
-based group buying website Grabbon.com for an undisclosed amount.Shrija Argawal
"SnapDeal owners acquire Grabbon; to expand & differentiate,"
''
Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was est ...
'', 29 June 2010.
In April 2012,
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
-based online sports goods retailer eSportsBuy.com was acquired. This was followed by the acquisition of Shopo.in in 2013, which is a customer-to-customer (C2C) e-commerce platform. In 2014, Snapdeal acquired Doozton, a fashion product discovery technology platform, and Wishpicker, a technology platform that uses
machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...
to deliver recommendations for gift purchases.Priyanka Pani
"Snapdeal.com buys fashion products discovery platform Doozton.com,"
''
The Hindu Business Line ''Business Line'' or ''The Hindu Business Line'' is an Indian business newspaper published by Kasturi & Sons, the publishers of the newspaper ''The Hindu'' located in Chennai, India. The newspaper covers priority industry verticals, such as Agri ...
'', 16 April 2014.
Both deals were completed for undisclosed amounts."Snapdeal acquires gifting recommendation tech firm Wishpicker,"
''
The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bu ...
'', 11 December 2014.
Snapdeal made multiple acquisitions in 2015, acquiring a stake in product comparison website Smartprix in January, before acquiring a discovery site for luxury fashion products, Exclusively.in. Two months later, it acquired a 20% stake in logistics service company GoJavas as well as e-commerce solution provider Unicommerce, and financial transaction platform RupeePower. In April 2015, mobile payments company
Freecharge Freecharge is an Indian financial services company based in Gurugram. It allows users to pay bills such as electricity, gas and telephone, as well as recharge mobile, broadband, DTH and metro cards. In addition, it enables the users to invest ...
was acquired by Snapdeal. Programmatic display advertising platform Reduce Data was also acquired in September of the same year. In August 2016, logistics firm Pigeon Express acquired a 51% stake in GoJavas with Snapdeal holding 49% stake in the firm. Snapdeal later exited GoJavas.


Finances


See also

*
E-commerce in India India has an Internet user base of about 636.77 million as of May 2020, about 40% of the population. Despite being the second-largest user base in world, only behind China (650 million, 48% of population), the penetration of e-commerce is low ...
*
Online shopping Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of t ...
*
Retail Retail is the sale of goods and Service (economics), services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturing, manufacturers, dire ...


References


External links

* {{SoftBank Companies based in Delhi Online marketplaces of India Privately held companies of India 2010 establishments in Delhi Retail companies established in 2010 Internet properties established in 2010 Indian brands Multilingual websites Softbank portfolio companies Notorious markets