 "Homing in on realty: Tata Value Homes, Snapdeal to sell homes starting at Rs 31 lakh")
Snapdeal.com today partnered with Tata Value Homes to start a real estate vertical. So you can book built-up homes starting at Rs 31 lakh across seven locations for an initial booking amount of Rs 30,000 on snapdeal.com. This is perhaps the first instance of an e-commerce company partnering a housing company to offer homes in India.
Not just real estate, Snapdeal.com claims it was the first e-commerce site in India to sell scooters and other atypical products too. And 10 more such atypical verticals are coming up over the next one year.
Here are nine things Snapdeal said today:
- It hit a billion dollars in sales, the fastest among all e-commerce sites in India though it claims with least investment, of just $350 million.
- Snapdeal.com says it is still mulling whether to go for an Initial Public Offer (IPO). CEO Kunal Bahl says Snapdeal.com has three times the money it has already invested sitting in a bank and does not really need funds as of now. An IPO is a choice of different people for different reasons such as a liquisity milestone, we have yet to determine the right path, he says. So it is neither a yes nor a no for now.
- Bahl says sales grew 600 percent in the last 12 months when headcount grew by only 10 percent. Obviously he believes in keeping his company lean and mean.
- Rival Flipkart acquired Myntra to get a leg up in fashion and now controls almost half the online fashion market. For Snapdeal.com, fashion is now the single largest product category. It now accounts for more than 60 percent of all orders versus nil 18 months ago. However, what is it doing to keep its grip on this fast growing category, we would sure like to know.
Atypical product categories on Snapdeal.com include automobiles, hardware and fixtures, products for hotel and catering business. Bahl says the hardware and fixtures category raked in a million dollars in the very first month! It sells 8-10,000 scooters every month on the site.
Snapdeal.com turned into a pure marketplace model in 2012 after its founders returned from China, having studied the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. From early 2012, when Snapdeal.com had zero merchants, the count now is 4-5 million; subscribers to its site have risen from 50,000 then to 25 million now.
Bahl claims Snapdeal.com is three times more capital efficient and 10 times more people efficient than competition, but did not specify whether the comparison is with other pure play marketplace companies only.
With the partnership with Tata Value Homes’, one can now book a 1BHK, 2BHK or 3 BHK apartment at any of the seven locations (Chennai, Bangalore included) for a booking amount of Rs 30,000. Though this amount is non-refundable, it needs to be paid only after the customer has agreed to the entire payment plan. Houses start at Rs 31 lakh and go up to Rs 70 lakh.
- Tata Value Homes will sell about 1000 apartments through Snapdeal.com. Though it has sold 600 units online since last December, Snapdeal.com will offer it a much wider reach than through its own website.
There has been speculation recently about Ratan Tata planning to buy out an early stage investor of Snapdeal.com and become one himself. Given the growth potential of e-commerce business in India, why not?