 "Will invest Rs 350 cr this year to expand supply chain infrastructure: Snapdeal")
New Delhi: Homegrown online marketplaceSnapdeal will invest Rs 350 crore this fiscal to expand itssupply chain infrastructure as it aims for a stronger footholdin India’s internet retail market that is estimated to expandseven-fold to USD 22 billion by 2018.
Besides, the city-based company also seeks to triple itsseller base to 100,000 by March 2015 trying to cash-in on therising number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) turningto the Internet to increase sales and presence.
On Tuesday, Snapdeal, controlled by Jasper Infotech, hadannounced setting up of 40 fulfilment centres across 15 citiesto help its over 30,000 sellers.
“We will invest Rs 350 crore in 2014-15 fiscal in supplychain management,” Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl toldreporters here.
Explaining the rationale behind the investment, Snapdealco-founder and COO Rohit Bansal said for a larger presencebeyond the top cities, a stronger supply chain is required tonot only reach consumers in a short time but also to addsellers from all corners of the country.
“We are an online marketplace and to expand further andreach out as far as possible we need to ramp up our supplychain like our announcement of 40 fulfilment centres across 15cities. We plan to expand it to 75 centres covering 30-35cities,” he added.
About 60 per cent of the company’s demand comes frombeyond the top cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai andHyderabad.
“We are also talking to non-banking financial companies(NBFCs) and banks to provide cheap loans to our sellers sothat they can invest in technology and better their service,“Bansal said.
Going ahead, Bahl said Snapdeal seeks to enhance theexperience of both buyers and sellers, which will befacilitated through investment in technology.Last month the company announced the acquisition ofDoozton.com, an online product discovery technology platform,for an undisclosed amount.
“We want to be known as a technology company. Our focusis on automation. We are looking at acquiring tech firms tofurther enhance user experience on mobile platforms, which nowcontributes to over 50 per cent of all orders and will rise to75 per cent by next year,” Bahl said.
He added that it would not be “unrealistic” to go for 3-4acquisitions in 2014.
On the type of acquisitions, Bansal said: “We are lookingat firms in payments (mobile) and technologies to increasebuyer and seller experience.”
Snapdeal will also increase its headcount, preferably inthe engineering and products section, further indicating itsstrong thrust on technology.
“At present we have about 300 people in the engineeringand products section. We expect this team to swell to 600 by2014 end,” Bahl said.
PTI