Now Snapdeal sees old records smashed with Unbox Diwali

The Diwali sale of 2016 has got off to a lucky start for Snapdeal, as the company has recorded massive sales on the first day of its sale. The sale began on October 2nd, and has witnessed the following:

• 37 sellers cross Rs 1 crore in turnover,

• 1.6 million units sold in the first 16 hours,

• A 5-time increase in income from ad platform Snapdeal Ads,

• A 20-time increased traffic from Tier 2 and 3 cities,

• 80% orders from mobile platform,

• More than 50% of transactions are cashless (possibly to take advantage of Snapdeal Gold),

• Two million logged in users in the first hour, and

• Fashion, mobiles, home appliances lead the sales.

The season has helped the company recover a part of its lost sheen courtesy the rough patch it has been undergoing over the past year. Competition from Flipkart–Myntra–Jabong and Amazon has put Snapdeal under immense pressure. Anil Kumar, CEO of RedSeer Consultants feels,

“It is a very critical period for Snapdeal, as it is for its two main rivals. (But) Snapdeal needs to show that they can reverse the dip in their sales, that has taken place over the past six to nine months.”

Supporting sellers with loans

Rajnish Wahi, the company’s senior VP, has stated that it has helped sellers raise loans worth nearly Rs. 1,000 crores through Capital Assist. Sellers are also customising their stores using the Seller Store Platform.

Tier 2 and 3 cities coming forward

Shoppers from smaller cities are getting savvier this season. A spokesperson for the company said,

“From cities and towns across Mizoram, Meghalaya, Goa, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir we witnessed the maximum surge (other than metros).”

All these observations are a possible indication of the growing Indian ecommerce industry.