Snapdeal Relaunches Shopo As App Only Zero Commission Marketplace For Sellers

The online marketplace, Snapdeal has relaunched Shopo which was acquired two years back. It is a mobile only marketplace with Zero Commission model to sell new as well as used goods without paying commission fee on sales.

With this model, the Softbank-backed, Snapdeal has come more close to compete with Alibaba-backed Paytm.  However, unlike Paytm, the former will not charge any payment processing fee from the merchants and they will be allowed to process transaction through whichever payment method without furnishing any documents.

Presently, the Shopo app offers 14 categories including accessories, apparels, beauty & cosmetic and electronics among others. It was hailed as an online marketplace for Indian designer and handcrafted goods before getting acquired.

Currently, less than 0.1% of the small businesses India have online presence and the listing process followed by ecommerce companies sometimes exclude a large percentage of such entreprises. Snapdeal has turned away 450,000 sellers over the last three years on various grounds. Shopo could provide such sellers with the apt platform to sell their goods.

The sellers will be rated on their products and behavior, the onus will be on them to take care of the user experience. But, Snapdeal has not come up with a way, to how it would deal with consumer grievances in case of a fraud, cheating or sale of sub-standard products.

How It Works?

The app starts with an easy to use landing page where first-time users need to key in their name and mobile number which will be verified. A list of tile-shaped handpicked collections shows the 14 categories mentioned earlier.

Listing has been made easy as a walk in the park. All the user has to do is to to add a picture with basic details like description, product’s condition and voila! the product is listed. Not only this, it also lets users add offers on their listed products for a stipulated time. To execute a sale, users have the option to ‘chat and buy’ where they can talk to the seller about location, price and more.

Introducing Shopo, Kunal Bahl, Co-Founder and CEO, Snapdeal said, “We are building the most impactful digital commerce ecosystem in the country and are committed to make the experience convenient, efficient and mutually rewarding for consumers and sellers. Mobile is one of the key drivers fuelling the growth of e-commerce in the country. In line with this, we have launched Shopo – a mobile based open marketplace that will allow businesses as well as individuals to harness the power of the internet instantly and at zero cost. We are very excited about this launch and are confident that Shopo will add a new dimension to India’s digital commerce ecosystem. Our aim is to bring 1 million shops online in the next 1 year.”

According to the Morgan Stanley Research report, India’s internet market which was valued at $11 Bn (about INR 70,000 Cr) in 2013, can rise to $137 Bn (about INR8.77 lakh Cr) by 2020. This huge rise is expected due to a shift in trend towards smartphone and internet usage.

If we observe the trend over the year, many ecommerce sites have planned to go the m commerce way. In the e commerce battlefield, Snapdeal alone claims to get close to 75% of its orders from mobile and is confident that Shopo will lure a new set of independent sellers and increase Snapdeal’s growth.

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