(I) Logistics Advantage
Although Snapdeal borrowed Alibaba’s business model, it is not static. Different markets are different after all. Bahl and Bansal have developed a business positioning for Snapdea specifically for the Indian market.
India’s logistics has always been a “stubborn stone” that hinders the development of e-commerce. Without removing this “stubborn stone”, Indian e-commerce is doomed to fail.
Therefore, Snapdeal has invested heavily in supply chain, logistics infrastructure and “last mile” delivery from the beginning.
Snapdeal supports sellers in selling goods by providing them with warehouses. It turns out that Snapdeal’s move is very wise – products shipped from warehouses account for 80% of Snapdeal’s total sales.
According to the Economic Times of India, starting in May 2016, Snapdeal spent 18 months and $300 million to strengthen its logistics operations. During that time, its shipments nearly doubled and the number of sellers on the platform tripled. From 100,000 sellers at the beginning of 2015 to 300,000 sellers in May 2016. In order to cope with the surge in sales, Snapdeal acquired 2 million square feet of warehouse space, which are distributed in 63 different locations in 45 cities in India.
(II) Multiple protections for sellers
Competition in local e-commerce in India is fierce. In order to prevent sellers from being snatched away by other platforms, Snapdeal provides sellers with multiple protections, such as product traceability, seamless service, and buyer recommendations. In addition, Snapdeal also allows sellers to comment on buyers. For example, some consumers buy the same product from 5 sellers. They keep the seller whose goods arrive first and return all the other 4 items, which will be disadvantageous to the seller. In this case, the seller can “punish” such malicious buyers. In addition, if the buyer returns the goods (without a reasonable reason), he will lose the right to pay on delivery.
(III) Support multiple languages
India is a multilingual country, with 33 languages spoken by more than one million people. Therefore, the first thing to solve when operating an e-commerce business in India is the language problem.
In order to prevent consumers from having shopping problems due to language problems, Snapdeal launched a multilingual page in December 2016. It is also the first multilingual e-commerce platform in India.
(IV) Other advantages
Snapdeal platform also has the following advantages:
(1) No fee required to open a store;
(2) A large user base;
(3) Orders accepted 24 hours a day;
(4) No restrictions on work location;
(5) Promotion support, marketing support, and advertising support;
(6) Providing sellers with store templates;
(7) Providing OC+ partners;
(8) Providing CA services;
(9) Speeding up order processing;
(10) The Snapdeal Plus plan can help sellers handle packaging and shipping;
(11) A dedicated team to help sellers take product photos;
(12) Providing sellers with free online training to reduce marketing costs and achieve product diversification.