Snapdeal – Page 7

Snapdeal launches five commercials to ‘Unbox your style’

MUMBAI: Snapdeal has launched five interesting commercials on how fashion has the power to unbox something exquisite in an individual irrespective of the age, gender and lifestyle.

Each of the five commercials focus on a distinct segment and life stage, from working men to a newlywed bride to a bunch of college girls lays emphasis on the transformative power of fashion in a person’s life. The commercials focus on characters who use fashion in pivotal moments of their life to transform & unbox undiscovered sides of themselves.

Each commercial in the series re-emphasises Snapdeal’s focus on building its fashion vertical. The company had recently added 120 more brands on its platform including popular names like United Colors of Benetton, Puma, Nautica, U.S Polo Association and Steve Madden etc. Fashion contributes to almost 40 per cent of Snapdeal’s sales volumes and has grown by 50 per cent YoY with majority of the growth fuelled from tier 1 and tier 2 cities.

Talking about the advertisements, Snapdeal and FreeCharge vice president marketing Kanika Kalra stated, “Fashion as a category is growing exponentially at Snapdeal. We are constantly diversifying our fashion assortment to match the taste and preferences of the dynamic set of fashion consumers. Fashion is uniquely the most personal yet the most public signal when you transition life stages, relationships or mindsets. Taking forward the brand narrative on Unbox Zindagi- these films explore moments where fashion is instrumental to defining a new phase of life.”

Created by McCann WorldGroup, the commercials explore a mélange of life experiences; from group of hip college girls taking their first step into womanhood when they wear their first sarees; three colleagues who have quit their corporate jobs to start their own firm and decide to replace their formal wear with relaxed and casual clothing more in sync with their personalities; a mother-in-law welcoming a new bride to the family by gifting her with modern and fashionable lehenga so she can be comfortable on her wedding day; a new mother returning to her skinny jeans and getting comfortable in her new role as a caregiver and a college boy pampering himself with a makeover after a break up to regain his confidence.

The narration for every commercial has been held together with the new version of the popular Unbox Zindagi jingle, composed by the legendary musicians, Ehsan and Loy. The advertisements will go live across all prominent channels and will be cross promoted via Snapdeal’s Youtube channel, social media platforms and website.

March 15, 2017

Analytics tell Snapdeal sellers what to stock

MUMBAI: Snapdeal has shared the success of their seller initiative ‘Grow My Business’, helping sellers across categories to grow their assortment both qualitatively and quantitatively. Driven by the initiative, Snapdeal assortment size has grown by 25 per cent in key categories, such as Fashion, FMCG and Mobiles over the last one month. This has been facilitated by ‘Grow My Business’ recommendation tab that provides customized business advice and consumer insights to sellers on what will sells most, which products are trending and which critical products are out of stock.

The initiative has been welcomed and appreciated by the nearly 3,00,000 sellers on Snapdeal. With access to accurate data analytics and insights driven by consumer buying behaviour, ‘Grow My Business’ recommendations have empowered the sellers to bring relevant and fast-moving assortment to their consumer audience.

From preferred pricing to in-vogue colors relevant for a well-defined target audience, sellers can now take informed decisions basis accurate and timely data inputs and analysis made available to them on their seller panels. This has led to not just better conversions and higher sales for sellers, but has also helped them build brand loyalty.

Paridhi Creations’ Arihant shared, “The ‘Grow My Business’ tab is amazing! I can see the best-selling items as well as emerging favourites of buyers. I simply look at the recommendations and add products that are in line with my existing assortment. With this feature, I have been able to increase my sales from Rs. 4 lakhs to Rs. 30 lakhs per month.”

KD Electronics’ Kailash Shahani also shared that, “The ‘Grow My Business’ tab is immensely useful. Backed by hard data, these recommendations have brought about a significant increase in the number of orders that I receive and, hence, have helped me actually grow my business.”

In addition to helping sellers discover the best consumer suited assortment, Snapdeal has simplified and accelerated the listing process for sellers. Through automation of quality checks for standard products, the time consumed in listing has been significantly reduced.

In recent announcements, Snapdeal has highlighted its commitment towards bringing in business efficiencies across its entire ecosystem – seller stakeholders being a critical part of the same. The success of “Grow My Business” is another milestone in enabling a predictive and intelligence driven growth for Snapdeal sellers.

Additionally, Snapdeal provides comprehensive training and development opportunities to ensure that sellers understand the ever evolving essentials of online commerce. Recently, it announced the launch of GST Guru, a program that offers sellers an exhaustive range of resources on GST compliance. Likewise, “Unbox Success” is an interactive platform for sellers where they are encouraged to send in their queries, challenges, and successes and openly share them to a microsite dedicated entirely to seller learning.

March 10, 2017

Snapdeal and Truecaller partner for shopping experience

MUMBAI: Snapdeal, India’s largest online marketplace, has partnered with Truecaller, one of the leading communication apps in the world to enhance consumer experience by integrating Truecaller Priority in the company’s IVR and order confirmation numbers. Customers with Truecaller app installed on their mobiles will be able to easily identify and filter IVR or delivery verification calls when shopping on Snapdeal.

Any calls received by users who have placed an order on Snapdeal, while be clearly marked as ‘Snapdeal Order Team’ or ‘Snapdeal Delivery Team’, and color coded in purple; thus, assuring the users that the call is important and from a reliable source, not spam.

Snapdeal chief customer experience officer Jayant Sood said, “Truecaller Priority feature will help reduce a key friction point in the delivery process; ensuring that our customers don’t miss out on any important calls from Snapdeal, and also increase the daily rate of deliveries for us by increasing the call completion rate.”

Besides boosting customer satisfaction and ensuring that customers are always in the know about the status of their product, this feature will also reduce the rate of “no response” calls for Snapdeal.

“We constantly strive to enhance the user experience through safe and efficient products. With Truecaller Priority, Snapdeal ensures enhanced efficiency in its user communications while users get to know that call is critical and for relevant reasons. We are confident that such seamless experience will add immense value to both sides,” said Truecaller director – strategic partnerships – Arun Krishnan.

March 2, 2017

Snapdeal brings in Housing.com exec as strategy officer

MUMBAI: Snapdeal has announced the appointment of Housing.com’s CEO Jason Kothari as its chief strategy and investment officer.

He will work alongside co-founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, in this key leadership role and will be joining Snapdeal on 16 January. As chief strategy and investment officer for Snapdeal, Kothari’s responsibilities will include leading strategy; corporate development, including all investments and strategic partnerships; raising new capital for the Company; and portfolio management, overseeing companies Snapdeal wholly owns or has invested in.

Most recently, Kothari was the CEO of Softbank-backed online real estate company Housing.com, where he led the successful turnaround of the Company from a position of distress to a market leader in one and a half years using organic and inorganic growth.

Under his stewardship, Housing.com changed its business strategy and plan, hired a new experienced management team, restructured and reduced operating costs by 70 per cent going from 2,500 to 900 employees, raised an additional $20 million from lead investor Softbank, and achieved key operating results, such as increasing revenue by 400 per cent, customer visits by 200 per cent to 4.1 million per month and homes listed by 450% to 630,000 homes, becoming the most popular platform for buying and selling homes in the country.

Prior to joining Housing.com, Kothari was the CEO and vice chairman of character-based entertainment company Valiant Entertainment, where he led the successful acquisition out of bankruptcy, and turnaround of the Company resulting in a record return in the industry and media recognition calling the Company “Marvel 2.0”.

Snapdeal co-founder and CEO said, “Jason is a strong business leader & entrepreneur who has already been the CEO of two successful companies. Rohit and I warmly welcome Jason to the Snapdeal family and believe we will achieve even greater heights with his addition.”

Kothari said, “I’m excited to join Snapdeal which is on its way to building one of India’s best companies, and I look forward to helping in making that potential a reality.”

January 11, 2017

Snapdeal brings in Housing.com exec as strategy officer

MUMBAI: Snapdeal has announced the appointment of Housing.com’s CEO Jason Kothari as its chief strategy and investment officer.

He will work alongside co-founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, in this key leadership role and will be joining Snapdeal on 16 January. As chief strategy and investment officer for Snapdeal, Kothari’s responsibilities will include leading strategy; corporate development, including all investments and strategic partnerships; raising new capital for the Company; and portfolio management, overseeing companies Snapdeal wholly owns or has invested in.

Most recently, Kothari was the CEO of Softbank-backed online real estate company Housing.com, where he led the successful turnaround of the Company from a position of distress to a market leader in one and a half years using organic and inorganic growth.

Under his stewardship, Housing.com changed its business strategy and plan, hired a new experienced management team, restructured and reduced operating costs by 70 per cent going from 2,500 to 900 employees, raised an additional $20 million from lead investor Softbank, and achieved key operating results, such as increasing revenue by 400 per cent, customer visits by 200 per cent to 4.1 million per month and homes listed by 450% to 630,000 homes, becoming the most popular platform for buying and selling homes in the country.

Prior to joining Housing.com, Kothari was the CEO and vice chairman of character-based entertainment company Valiant Entertainment, where he led the successful acquisition out of bankruptcy, and turnaround of the Company resulting in a record return in the industry and media recognition calling the Company “Marvel 2.0”.

Snapdeal co-founder and CEO said, “Jason is a strong business leader & entrepreneur who has already been the CEO of two successful companies. Rohit and I warmly welcome Jason to the Snapdeal family and believe we will achieve even greater heights with his addition.”

Kothari said, “I’m excited to join Snapdeal which is on its way to building one of India’s best companies, and I look forward to helping in making that potential a reality.”

January 11, 2017

E-comm ecosystem to create 1.45 million jobs by ’21: KPMG-Snapdeal

MUMBAI: Ecommerce sector is powering employment generation in India, a report by Snapdeal & KPMG has concluded.

Snapdeal, in partnership with KPMG today released the findings of a study examining the macro-impact of the e-tail industry and the associated ecosystem, on the employment landscape in India. The study titled Impact of Ecommerce on Employment in India focuses on the role of e-tail in socio-economic development, outlining the alignment of measures with key government initiatives like Make in India, Digital India, Start-up India and Skilling India, among others.

Highlights from the Study

o E-tail and allied ecosystem (logistics, warehousing, IT, ITeS) is expected to create direct employment for around 1.45 million workforce by 2021
o Logistics and warehousing sector is expected to be the largest contributor (approximately 55%) to direct employment opportunities in e-tail
o E-tail is expected to add 0.4 million high-skilled jobs by 2021
o E-commerce in improving the socio-economic environment
o Impacted employment generation beyond metros – 70% of the online sellers expected to come from smaller towns by 2018-19
o Driving women empowerment and self-sustainability – 20% of total online sellers today are women
o Government initiatives like Make in India, Digital India, Start-Up India, Skill India will fuel growth and generate further employment for e-commerce

The study further outlines the potential challenges and shares recommendations on the different roles that various participants like the government, industry bodies and e-commerce companies themselves can play in building more employment avenues and up-skilling.

Snapdeal Co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said, “The impact of e-commerce industry on the entire employment landscape has been the most exciting part of India’s digital growth story, and yet often the least spoken about. Through this report, we aim to highlight how the industry is generating direct and indirect jobs in core and associated industries, creating entrepreneurship opportunities in the deepest pockets of India and how it is influencing the socio-economic fabric of the country for a more balanced development. At Snapdeal, we are working towards building the most reliable and frictionless digital commerce ecosystem in the country and we recognize the deep-seated role of our talent pool, our sellers and other associated partners in achieving this. We felt the need to conduct a systematic study to identify opportunities and challenges, that will further build models and skill sets to foster a mature, sustainable employment avenue. Our entrepreneurial culture and initiatives play a pivotal role in up-skilling our workforce for addressing the consumption needs of India.”

KPMG India CEO Richard Rekhy said, “The contribution made by the e-commerce industry in employment creation is something that has been recognized for a while now. This report highlights how this impact can be increased multi-fold by facilitating an ecosystem of growth for the industry – developing a skilled workforce, promoting entrepreneurship, improving physical infrastructure, facilitating participation of SMEs and MSMEs, defining clear regulatory frameworks, and providing easier access to funds, etc. to name a few areas which require attention. These measures will ensure that growth in this industry becomes self-sustaining to support the expanding employment opportunities that it can offer. With innovation and mobile e-commerce leading the way, this industry also looks to propel growth and generate abundant demand for IT/ITeS professionals in the years to come.”

This report is part of a series of initiatives that Snapdeal has undertaken to build wider understanding about the evolving e-commerce landscape, and its seen and unseen impact on the country’s economy. This follows a previous study by KPMG, Impact of E-commerce on SMEs in India, which focused on creating an ecosystem for MSMEs and leveraging e-commerce for their growth.

December 6, 2016

E-comm ecosystem to create 1.45 million jobs by ’21: KPMG-Snapdeal

MUMBAI: Ecommerce sector is powering employment generation in India, a report by Snapdeal & KPMG has concluded.

Snapdeal, in partnership with KPMG today released the findings of a study examining the macro-impact of the e-tail industry and the associated ecosystem, on the employment landscape in India. The study titled Impact of Ecommerce on Employment in India focuses on the role of e-tail in socio-economic development, outlining the alignment of measures with key government initiatives like Make in India, Digital India, Start-up India and Skilling India, among others.

Highlights from the Study

o E-tail and allied ecosystem (logistics, warehousing, IT, ITeS) is expected to create direct employment for around 1.45 million workforce by 2021
o Logistics and warehousing sector is expected to be the largest contributor (approximately 55%) to direct employment opportunities in e-tail
o E-tail is expected to add 0.4 million high-skilled jobs by 2021
o E-commerce in improving the socio-economic environment
o Impacted employment generation beyond metros – 70% of the online sellers expected to come from smaller towns by 2018-19
o Driving women empowerment and self-sustainability – 20% of total online sellers today are women
o Government initiatives like Make in India, Digital India, Start-Up India, Skill India will fuel growth and generate further employment for e-commerce

The study further outlines the potential challenges and shares recommendations on the different roles that various participants like the government, industry bodies and e-commerce companies themselves can play in building more employment avenues and up-skilling.

Snapdeal Co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said, “The impact of e-commerce industry on the entire employment landscape has been the most exciting part of India’s digital growth story, and yet often the least spoken about. Through this report, we aim to highlight how the industry is generating direct and indirect jobs in core and associated industries, creating entrepreneurship opportunities in the deepest pockets of India and how it is influencing the socio-economic fabric of the country for a more balanced development. At Snapdeal, we are working towards building the most reliable and frictionless digital commerce ecosystem in the country and we recognize the deep-seated role of our talent pool, our sellers and other associated partners in achieving this. We felt the need to conduct a systematic study to identify opportunities and challenges, that will further build models and skill sets to foster a mature, sustainable employment avenue. Our entrepreneurial culture and initiatives play a pivotal role in up-skilling our workforce for addressing the consumption needs of India.”

KPMG India CEO Richard Rekhy said, “The contribution made by the e-commerce industry in employment creation is something that has been recognized for a while now. This report highlights how this impact can be increased multi-fold by facilitating an ecosystem of growth for the industry – developing a skilled workforce, promoting entrepreneurship, improving physical infrastructure, facilitating participation of SMEs and MSMEs, defining clear regulatory frameworks, and providing easier access to funds, etc. to name a few areas which require attention. These measures will ensure that growth in this industry becomes self-sustaining to support the expanding employment opportunities that it can offer. With innovation and mobile e-commerce leading the way, this industry also looks to propel growth and generate abundant demand for IT/ITeS professionals in the years to come.”

This report is part of a series of initiatives that Snapdeal has undertaken to build wider understanding about the evolving e-commerce landscape, and its seen and unseen impact on the country’s economy. This follows a previous study by KPMG, Impact of E-commerce on SMEs in India, which focused on creating an ecosystem for MSMEs and leveraging e-commerce for their growth.

December 6, 2016

Expert-speak on advertising in times of mobile-first consumers

MUMBAI: With Indian government’s demonetisation of high-value currency notes in its second fortnight, there couldn’t have been a better time to discuss how mobile is moving businesses and whether the reality of a cashless economy is still a far-fetched theory.

In an effort to cash in on the latest buzz words — ‘financial inclusion, ‘digital business’, ‘internet penetration’, ‘digital advertising’, etc. — Facebook recently hosted Mobile Moves Business, an industry event in Mumbai that was designed to bring together businesses, industry experts and marketers to help engage with today’s mobile-first consumers in India.

Making a bold and future-facing statement, Dentsu Aegis Network South Asia Chairman Ashish Bhasin made it clear that the foundations of present day media planning, which depends primarily on frequencies of views, will be shaken as the lines between mediums start to blur.

“We make a plan based on an assumption of an X number of times it (a campaign) is viewed on television, but we need to start considering that the same communication may be seen in an another format on an another platform several more number of times,” pointed out Bhasin, adding most market studies predicting digital ad ex to reach 40 per cent of the total pie will be proven wrong. “Digital will command 80 to 100 per cent of the total pie, I feel. Of course, the way we classify digital advertising will also change…TV, radio and even print will all become digital,” he said.

Along with him on the panel discussing matters digital were Facebook India MD Umang Bedi, Vodafone India marketing SVP Sidharth Banerjee and Snapdeal marketing VP Kanika Kalra.

Banerjee, who seconded Bhasin’s statement, was of the opinion that India, just like China, will soon reach an inflexion point in smart-phone penetration when that number reached one-third of the total phones in the market.

“I can see that happening in the next 18 months or so. Getting the communication in mobile right will be the main issue then. What advertisers keep getting wrong is treating mobile (devices) like a separate medium to advertise on,” he said.

Pointing out that advertisers shouldn’t forget the many India’s within India, Banerjee said, “While we ready ourselves for the digital and cashless India armed with smart-phones, we mustn’t forget about a part of India where features phones will still play an important role and marketers shouldn’t exclude them from their plans.”

But smart tech and devices also bring along newer problems and challenges. Ad blocking, for example. The high rate of ad blocking in India was also addressed by the panel.

“As the digital advertising market becomes more mature, the issue of privacy will only become more acute. I believe the way ahead is opt-ins. Let’s face it, users don’t pay for advertisements, so ads will always remain (like) an intrusion, “Bhasin highlighted a valid point, adding, “Going forward, consumers will have a choice to allow certain advertisers to communicate with them. So we marketers need to collectively respect the consumer’s choice. Sooner or later we will have laws concerning it and it is better to prepare for it with best practices in place.”

Clarifying FB’s position on ad blocking, Bedi said that FB respected its users’ privacy and ensures only relevant sponsored ads reach users. “It isn’t bad but actually good for business as brands can seek out only those consumers who are interested in their communications, leading to higher fulfilment of purchase cycle instead of spraying and praying,” Bedi replied, when asked if the social media giant loses businesses due to ad blocking.

November 29, 2016