Snapdeal, a company started in 2010 became 2nd largest ecommerce retailer in 2013.
After the arrival of Amazon in India, it became the number 3rd ecommerce marketplace in India.
In 2016, Snapdeal was in the top 3 ecommerce retailers of India.
So what suddenly happens with that and why did they lose their market in just 6 months.
In this article, I will tell you the story of Snapdeal’s fall in 2017 and its revival in 2020.
So Let’s get started
The fall of Snapdeal
In 2016 every ecommerce player was inviting himself, improving the experience of customers, and doing multiple tie-ups.
Snapdeal was also doing the same. Snapdeal acquired many startups and small companies but nothing from it worked for them.
Snapdeal – Freecharge didn’t work.
Snapdeal and Gojavas court case.
And many other controversies made Snapdeal uncomfortable.
Snapdeal was unable to improve their customer experience and unable to innovate in their company.
All investors are moving and in the mid of 2017 Snapdeal has the funds for only 1 month.
Founders of Snapdeal have the chance to move out of the company.
But they chose the Agnipath.
In October 2018, Kunal Bahl the Co-Founder of Snapdeal wrote an article on Linkedin, “So, how are things now at Snapdeal?”
In that article he explained the situation of Snapdeal by writing, ‘‘With a perplexed team in the office and critics crowing from rooftops, it was much easier for Rohit and I to move away, washing our hands off a toxic situation. That, however, was farthest from our minds.’’
Now in 2021, they will grow their operating revenue to 85%.
The Revival Story of Snapdeal
“We are the last large entrepreneurial Indian ecommerce company left,” Bahl tells Forbes India over Google Meet.
Snapdeal 2.0
Snapdeal is now Snapdeal 2.0, A company that returns with a fighting back strategy.
Snapdeal now started focusing on Value Ecommerce.
With the help of Value Ecommerce, they are getting more and more customers from tier 3 and 4 cities.
Fresh customers from the small towns of India.
What is Value Ecommerce?
Value Ecommerce means a business that depends on unbranded or lesser-known brand products.
We all love to buy value for money products, that’s the reason we love Chinese goods.
A common man who doesn’t have too much money to spend on the products always searches for the value for money product.
And bringing unbranded or lesser-known brand products online called Value Ecommerce.
Bouncing back by Snapdeal
After the covid19, More and more people prefer to buy online, and that works for Snapdeal.
In 2020, Snapdeal added 6 million+ fresh customers, 20,000 new sellers added in the lockdown period.
About 80% of orders come from small towns. Now the company is running on its own funds and generating a profit.
Conclusion
Snapdeal believes that the non-branded retail space is around $163 billion.
So there is huge potential in the value market, and Snapdeal has a deep focus on this market.
The lockdown forced people to buy online and now more and more consumers are coming online.
Snapdeal targets small business owners who are unable to sell on Amazon and Flipkart due to huge competition.
Snapdeal is on the right track.
They are doing really good but some things still have to be improved
What does Snapdeal have to improve?
Snapdeal covered all the issues and became a fighter and did a comeback.
Covid helps them a lot in surviving, But still, some things are bad with Snapdeal.
What is bad with Snapdeal?
1. Quality of the products
Customers bought the product by seeing the picture and when customers receive the product, they complain about the quality of the product which is the most common issue with unbranded products.
Unbranded products are valued for money as their quality is not similar to branded products.
But while shopping online customers think that the product is of very high quality but when they receive the product they find it very bad.
2. Customer Service
Making trust with the customers is the most important factor of any successful business.
Specially in ecommerce where customers buy products on trust on the website.
And that trust can be made only with excellent customer service.
That’s the reason amazon always focuses on its customer service.
Majority of the startups failed because they were unable to create trust with customers.
In e-commerce, only a good customer service experience can create trust.
And Snapdeall still struggling with that.
Future of Snapdeal 2.0
Snapdeal is doing great. They are running very low-cost operations.
Bahl said that they served around 30 million customers with a staff of 750 and they generated $100 million of net revenue.
So Snapdeal is fighting.
And if they follow the right steps at the right time and improve their issues with customer service.
Snapdeal will definitely return back with good returns.
But they have to remember that Jio Mart is coming and competition will grow.
India is a huge market and we can accept multiple players in one market so Snapdeal has huge potential.
We have to appreciate Snapdeal’s efforts. As they are the Indian startup that is fighting from the giants.
Thanks for reading this article
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