After Delhi-NCR, Snapdeal to offer home services in other metros

E-commerce giant Amazon.com might be planning to launch local handymen services in the Indian market after having done it in the US a few months ago, but Snapdeal.com has already started providing plumbing, electrical and other household services in some cities.

The Gurgaon-based company, the second largest online marketplace in the country, is betting big on the growing needs of consumers for such services.

After a pilot project in Delhi and NCR in October, the company has started offering the services in Bengaluru last month, and will go live with Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune in January.

By March next year, it plans to target about 10 more cities, where people can call for a plumber, electrician, hardware professionals, carpenters and home cleaning services online.

It will allow users to call for tutors, yoga instructors, baby sitters among other services after gauging the demand.

Saurabh Bansal, AVP (Home) at Snapdeal, said that the demand for local handymen services is mostly in the cities with about 8,000-10,000 requests per month.

“We expect this demand to grow with the increasing online retail market. As people are getting comfortable shopping for physical products, they are also looking and searching for local services online. We thought of this after getting a few queries and feedback,” Bansal added.

Snapdeal currently has not created a separate category for the service but has kept it under its home segment but plans to go live with a standalone segment soon.

The company is also providing carpenter services in about 100 cities for free for customers buying furniture from Snapdeal, but will also cater for non-customers soon. Customers can also avail packages priced at ₹2,000 per one home cleaning service that includes kitchen, living and bathroom.

“We have tied up with a few agencies for such blue collared jobs. This is a new area and we are taking utmost care to provide them proper training related to safety of customers as these services are mostly required inside the home. We are doing proper checks for any criminal background to avoid any untoward incident,” Bansal said.

The demand for such services is growing in larger cities due to the time constraints faced by nuclear families and working couples, several start-ups are looking at this segment as a huge opportunity.

However, the channel is yet to grow as people still rely on local classified ads, friends and neighbours when they need a reliable person for such blue-collar services, which are unorganised.

Companies like Snapdeal and Amazon, which is also likely to go live in another six months, will help make such services more credible, reliable and organised.

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