Snapdeal is one of the most popular e-commerce platform. The co-founder of Snapdeal raised his pitch against one of its competitor Flipkart. He emphasizes that his company will become India’s largest ecommerce firm in terms of gross sales this fiscal year. Within a span of two weeks after raising $500 million, Snapdeal Chief Executive Kunal Bahl asserts that his company is on course to topple the Bengaluru firm as the country’s largest electronic marketplace for its customers.
The company achieved $4 billion (about Rs 26,000 crore) in total value of goods sold, or gross merchandise value, this month, about a year after it crossed $1 billion in GMV, says the co-founder of Snapdeal. “The one thing I am very, very clear about right now is that I think we’re going to be No. 1 (in terms of sales) by March 2016,” Bahl said in an exclusive interview. “I think we’re going to beat Flipkart by then”, Kunal Bahl added. According to the sources, Snapdeal is considered as India’s largest marketplace in terms of merchants, with about 2 lakh sellers on its platform, while Flipkart has the biggest market share and is known as the country’s most valuable ecommerce company.
As per the resources, Flipkart in June adjusted its GMV target to $10-12 billion in 9 months to a year, a slight bump up from its earlier forecast of $8 billion for the year to March 2016 and more than double the $4 billion it achieved in 2014-15. It recently closed a funding round of $700 million from existing investors New York based hedge fund Tiger Global and Steadview Capital.
Snapdeal Topple Flipkart From Top
Kunal Bahl 32, says that “It took us two-and-a-half years to reach GMV of $1 billion, a milestone that we reached on July 31 last year. This month we’ve crossed $4 billion. It took us only a year to go from $1 billion to $4 billion. We hit $3 billion about three-odd months back. The acceleration has been very significant,” asserting that in about six months Snapdeal will be “decisively ahead” of Flipkart in terms of GMV.
Bahl’s assertion comes barely weeks after Snapdeal closed a $500-million funding round led by Taiwan’s Foxconn, China’s Alibaba Group and existing backer Japan’s SoftBank. The entry of the two strategic investors Foxconn and Alibaba is expected to give a massive boost to Snapdeal in its bid to emerge as the country’s largest ecommerce firm.
Snapdeal To Beat Flipkart
Bahl also said Flipkart’s decision to make its fashion unit Myntra a mobile application-only platform was the “most consumer-unfriendly idea.” As per the recent reports of Morgan Stanley,Flipkart currently holds 44% market share of India’s eCommerce market, followed by Snapdeal at 32% market share and Amazon’s India unit accounts for 15% of the online retail pie. It is estimated that over the next five years, India’s online retail industry would grow at 47% compounded annual growth rate to $47 billion .
Bahl declined to give a projection of Snapdeal’s total sales for this fiscal year, but credited the company’s recent $400-million acquisition of payments platform FreeCharge and its undisclosed investment in logistics venture GoJavas as being prime drivers of growth. Snapdeal’s investments have been part of its ambitious strategy to build a comprehensive eCommerce ecosystem offering everything from products to financial services and having the infrastructure to meet demand — crucial especially as the festive season kicks off, providing a major battleground for online retailers. “This Diwali our plans are mega,” said Bahl.