Snapdeal appoints Himanshu Chakrawarti as President as it seeks Bharat value shoppers

Snapdeal, the ecommerce marketplace which competed directly against the likes of Amazon and Flipkart, is positioning itself as a value player in the Indian online shopping market by strengthening its management team to meet the aspirations of Bharat shoppers.

“By dint of its positioning as a pure-play Value eCommerce platform, Snapdeal’s value proposition meets the distinct buying needs of Bharat value shoppers,” the DRHP filed by the company notes.

Founded by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, Snapdeal also announced the appointment of Himanshu Chakrawarti as President of the company. He will lead various functions at Snapdeal to drive the company’s Bharat-focused, value commerce strategy and steer various growth-related and operational initiatives.

The company recently announced its plans to raise Rs 1,250 crore from the public markets through the issuance of fresh issue of shares with some of its existing investors like SoftBank, Sequoia, and Foxconn tendering some part of their stake.

ALSO READ

Wingreens Farms acquires Monsoon Harvest, aims for an IPO

Snapdeal registered net revenue of Rs 471.7 crore for FY21 as against Rs 846.3 crore for FY20 — which was 44 percent decline.

Given these revenues, Snapdeal reported a loss (net of taxes) of Rs 126 crore for FY21 as compared to Rs 274 crore in losses in FY20.

For the first six months of the current financial year, it registered net revenue of Rs 238.5 crore with a loss of Rs 178 crore.

However, in a highly competitive Indian ecommerce market with the key presence of Flipkart and Amazon, Snapdeal wants to differentiate itself to go after those categories of buyers who seek value in their online purchases.

The DRHP notes, “Belonging to the mid-income demographic, value shoppers from Bharat are the second generation of users rapidly and increasingly using the internet and eCommerce.”

Snapdeal said these budget-focused shoppers are less tech-savvy, are vernacular-first, and have been making purchases from the traditional markets that are very heterogeneous.

The commerce company noted that one common thread across their buying choices is that they tend to opt for functional yet “aspirational” items, instead of its premium alternatives. The key drivers for their purchases are pricing, promotions and offers that fall into the category of value ecommerce.

According to Snapdeal’s DRHP, India’s value ecommerce market was worth $7.4 billion in the financial year 2021 and is projected to reach approximately $39.4 billion by FY2026. This growth will be spearheaded by “emerging shoppers” from the mid-income segment of Indian Tier-II to Tier-VI cities, the company noted.

The sizable presence of online value shoppers from ‘Bharat’ is expected to grow at an increasing rate, as the Indian ecommerce shopper base is projected to grow to 350 million people by 2026 (as compared to 140-160 million users in FY2021, the DRHP noted.

Snapdeal claimed that with over 200 million application installations on Google Play Store it is the most installed pure play value ecommerce application and among the top four online lifestyle shopping destinations in terms of total application installations in India.