In the run-up to the festive season, e-commerce company Snapdeal has been working with brands and manufacturers to expand its inventory and logistics network. A recent AT Kearney report has pegged the value of the e-commerce segment as the biggest growth opportunity for Indian lifestyle retail in the next 10 years.

Consumers in the segment focus on finding affordable products that meet their needs of desirable quality, durability, and trendiness – which is the primary target group for Snapdeal. BusinessLine spoke to Saurabh Bansal, Chief Merchandising Officer, about the company’s festive season plans and strategies to capture the growing number of value conscious customers.

How is Snapdeal preparing for the expected surge in demand during the festive season?

Since January this year, Snapdeal has set up 130 logistics hubs across India and expanded coverage in J&K and in the Northeast. The new hubs are located in areas where the buyer or seller concentration is increasing. This expansion will help meet the growing demand for online shopping from smaller cities such as Baramulla (J&K), Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh), Khammam (Telangana), Alwar (Rajasthan), Sambalpur (Odisha), Tumkur (Karnataka), Latur (Maharashtra), and Dimapur (Nagaland), as well as the surrounding areas.

This network expansion will enable faster pick-ups from sellers and deliveries to consumers.

What are some marketing strategies and offers planned for this festive season?

Seeking value is an integral part of an Indian customer’s purchase consideration. Our brand campaign, Brand Waali Quality, Bazaar Waali Deal , this year has been about nudging consumers to find the best value for their money and trust their own wisdom to judge what’s value and what’s hype. We’ve been using humour to poke light-hearted fun at the pressure users feel to live a branded lifestyle and to show how they’re freed from that pressure when they discover the breadth of high-quality, affordable options available on Snapdeal.

Our campaigns have not only been about our positioning but also about what we offer to our customers. We will continue to reinforce this message during the festive season with region-specific video campaigns, collaborations with social media influencers and moment marketing. We are currently running campaigns in Gujarat and West Bengal for Navratri and Durga Puja respectively, that will showcase our offerings in fashion including clothing and accessories items.

Are you planning to partner with new brands for this year’s festival sales?

At Snapdeal, we have a sharp lens on value e-commerce and focus on selling most things between ₹200 and ₹600. Home and fashion are two of the most popular categories among our consumers, and in the run-up to the festive season, we have worked with brands and manufacturers to expand our inventory value-priced merchandise. Some of the brands that we have recently onboarded include Ethnic Bay, Juniper, Aks in womenswear, Glito, Jumpcuts, Crusoe ( menswear), Luke and Lilly, Hopscotch, Gini and Jony, Cherokee, Donuts for kidswear and Khadim’s, Sparx, Action for footwear, among others.

Pandemic is said to have increased the number of e-commerce users in tier-2 and beyond cities. How did this reflect in Snapdeal’s user base?

A recent Kearney report speaks of the rise of mid to low-income, value-conscious users from urban areas, tier-2 and -4 cities and rural area is reshaping India’s e-commerce landscape. And that’s true for Snapdeal in many ways. In the last 12 months, we have seen an increase in sales from non-metros, towns and also places in the North and the Northeast regions like Baramulla, Anantag, Imphal, Shillong and others.

How has consumer behaviour changed in the past year?

Post-Covid, we have seen a common theme that cuts across classes and categories is ‘value buying’. Shoppers are looking to buy more, but for less and yet keep an eye on quality. Generally speaking, wallet-share has moved from expensive brands to affordable labels, partly because of the rise of value-conscious consumers from tier-2 and -3 cities shopping online.

These come true when we look at growth in some of our categories. In fact, value merchandise priced between ₹200-₹600 drove growth for Snapdeal. Our home category grew by 70 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic and the men’s and women’s fashion category grew by 210 per cent in the first six months of the year and the sale of kids’ apparel on Snapdeal leaped 493 per cent in 2021.

Value commerce buyers tend to base their buying decisions on discounts and offers. So, what steps does Snapdeal take to inspire customer loyalty?

We are not a platform that offers discounted branded products. If we can save money on a product, we like to pass the savings on to the consumer directly, which encourages them to buy from us again. They return not because of loyalty points or discounts, but because we provide outstanding value for their money and meet their expectations in terms of variety of assortment and quality standards

Related Topics