Snapdeal aims to stock 1 mn FMCG products by 2018

Online marketplace, Snapdeal has built up a copious number of sellers and is now looking to do the same with its range of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). Currently, Snapdeal has close to 60,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) and is aiming to increase the figure to 1 million over the next 36 months. The early signs look good as for the past 6 months, it has achieved a 50% month on month increase in FMCG’s.

FMCG categories in demand:

• Skin care products (Olay, Nivea)

• Home care product (P&G, Hindustan Unilever and Reckitt Benckiser)

“We are seeing a drastic rise in the sale of products such as premium shampoos, skin care items and products from international brands. The month-on-month sales have been increasing and customers are asking for more premium items. This is a huge opportunity for us. What we are offering is a wider assortment of products at great prices and the consumers who are buying from us are ready to wait for at least two days to get their products delivered,” said Rahul Taneja, vice-president of category management, Snapdeal.

Exclusive launches

Snapdeal envisages over the next 3 years, the FMCG category will create as much as 30% of the overall revenue for the ambitious ecommerce company. It doesn’t plan to fully move into the grocery hyperlocal market, although it has a clear vision. Snapdeal invested in PepperTap this year and is looking to integrate the egrocers solutions on its portal. Snapdeal successfully and exclusively relaunched Maggi noodles online in India and is preparing similar tie-ups with other multi-national food brands.

“We are in talks with companies such as PepsiCo, HUL, Reckitt Benckiser for a couple of launches. In the coming few months, we would do even bigger launches than what we had for Maggi. Also, FMCG companies want to launch a number of products on our platform that are available in other countries, but not in India,” stated Taneja.

Formidable FMCG frontier

A recent report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Boston Consulting group outlined the impact of ecommerce in the FMCG category, especially in tier 2, tier 3, and tier 4 cities. Ecommerce giant, Amazon also made a bigger push into the fast moving consumer goods market. So things are definitely looking up!