Snapdeal aims to achieve profitability within the next quarter, as it bets heavily on the value customer base to drive growth, according to Himanshu Chakrawarti, CEO, Snapdeal Marketplace.
The company’s consolidated revenue stood at ₹563 crore in FY22, up from ₹510 crore in a year-ago period. Loss for the period stood at ₹413 crore on account of higher marketplace expenses, along with increased spending on marketing activities for brand building, and one-time adjustment towards employee benefits expenses.
In FY21, its losses stood at ₹125.4 crore, as it clocked ₹238.5 crore revenue from operations The loss for the period was narrowed by 54 per cent from ₹273.5 crore in FY20. Going forward, Snapdeal believes it will achieve profitability shortly as it has optimised its cost.
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Chakrawarti told businessline, “The vital costs for low-value e-commerce are shipment and customer acquisition. We have worked extensively using our data science, tech skills, and understanding of the supply chain side. On customer acquisition, we believe all our previous investments will pay off as we are seeing a loyal base being built for the platform.”
Snapdeal is betting heavily on the value customer segment to drive growth. Chakrawarti said, “Almost half the e-commerce customer base is value customers, according to various data points that we have come across. As the addressable market increases for e-commerce, the new customer base that forms will mostly be value customers as the affluent customer base has already completely entered the e-commerce segment.”
The company recorded an 88 per cent increase in net delivered units, which grew from 18.56 million in FY21 to 34.92 million in FY22. The marketplace’s annual transacting customers also grew from 13.9 million in FY 21 to 17.7 million, it said.
Snapdeal and its subsidiaries, Unicommerce and Stellaro Brands, have recently been consolidated under a group brand, AceVector. Chakrawarti is also bullish on Stellaro Brands, a value-focused House of Brands, which aims to build affordable brands in key categories like home, fashion, etc. The brands are also listed on Amazon and Flipkart. He says the companywill be building up a scale for the business over the next six months.
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