Kunal
Bahl, co-founder and CEO of Snapdeal, has decisively raised the pitch
against Flipkart, emphatic that his company will become India's largest
e-commerce firm in terms of gross sales this fiscal year. Snapdeal has
made some deft moves acquiring payments platform FreeCharge and making a
strategic investment in logistics firm GoJavas, in addition to selling
high-value items such as yachts and homes that could boost gross
merchandise value, or GMV. Bahl also said Flipkart's decision to make
its fashion unit Myntra a mobile application-only platform was the "most
consumer-unfriendly idea." Edited excerpts from an interview:
What gross merchandise sales numbers are you projecting for financial 2015-16?
Relatively speaking, we will be ahead of (Flipkart). In terms of absolute numbers, I'm going to keep that close to my chest now. Whatever number they are saying they will be at, I can guarantee that we will be ahead of them. I don't know what the latest projected numbers are, but based on the trajectory we're demonstrating right now, I'm very confident that whatever their numbers are, we will be ahead of them by March.
Fashion, home furnishings and electronics will continue to be the most in-demand categories. What's going to drive growth there?
One thing that really helped our fashion business was Myntra's app-only strategy... I think it's the most consumer-unfriendly idea I have ever heard of. Maybe three years later it's worth a conversation, when PC contribution is even lesser. Even then, it is a conversation still. It's not a yes or no situation.
Why? Even Snapdeal sees almost 75% of its total orders through its mobile platform?
What about the remaining 25%? Why should we change consumer behaviour, when it pertains to moving from PC to mobile, when consumers want PC? It's not right to see it only from the perspective that 25% of our orders come through the PC. Twenty-five percent of all discovery for orders that are eventually placed on mobile come from the PC. People start browsing on the PC and start buying on the mobile.
When these guys (Myntra) announced they were going app-only, we decided to hold a survey for our consumers... While only 20-30% use the PC platform, 80% of all consumers wanted the PC site to remain. We're not going to go against consumers' wishes.
How do you get 300 million ecommerce buyers on your platform? You have to offer all choices--all choices in terms of all screens and all payment methods. Our overall team feels very strongly about this. We've had discussions about this, and we were like (Myntra's) is the dumbest and most consumer-unfriendly idea ever.
One main criticism against Indian ecommerce companies is these failed to anticipate demand during Diwali last year. How high have you set the bar this time?
This year the demand will be even higher, but we've set our bar even higher. I think we will be very surprised if we are not in good shape... While others have been in this business for many, many years, whether globally, or even someone like Flipkart, which has been in this business in India for the last 8 or 9 years, I would've thought they would've been better prepared for us, given it was just our second Diwali, as a products marketplace.
Last year, was great exercise in preparation for us. This Diwali we're extremely well prepared. Since February, I've been holding fortnightly meetings with a SWOT team that's only been focused on Diwali preparations, across functions. I've been deeply engaged in that because I feel this Diwali the market share will move very materially. This Diwali our plans are mega.
The publicly available (gross merchandise value, or GMV) numbers for someone like Flipkart is about $4 billion... As of this month, we've crossed $4 billion also. My view is, come March 2016, over the next six-odd months, we will be decisively ahead of them.
What gross merchandise sales numbers are you projecting for financial 2015-16?
Relatively speaking, we will be ahead of (Flipkart). In terms of absolute numbers, I'm going to keep that close to my chest now. Whatever number they are saying they will be at, I can guarantee that we will be ahead of them. I don't know what the latest projected numbers are, but based on the trajectory we're demonstrating right now, I'm very confident that whatever their numbers are, we will be ahead of them by March.
Fashion, home furnishings and electronics will continue to be the most in-demand categories. What's going to drive growth there?
One thing that really helped our fashion business was Myntra's app-only strategy... I think it's the most consumer-unfriendly idea I have ever heard of. Maybe three years later it's worth a conversation, when PC contribution is even lesser. Even then, it is a conversation still. It's not a yes or no situation.
Why? Even Snapdeal sees almost 75% of its total orders through its mobile platform?
What about the remaining 25%? Why should we change consumer behaviour, when it pertains to moving from PC to mobile, when consumers want PC? It's not right to see it only from the perspective that 25% of our orders come through the PC. Twenty-five percent of all discovery for orders that are eventually placed on mobile come from the PC. People start browsing on the PC and start buying on the mobile.
When these guys (Myntra) announced they were going app-only, we decided to hold a survey for our consumers... While only 20-30% use the PC platform, 80% of all consumers wanted the PC site to remain. We're not going to go against consumers' wishes.
How do you get 300 million ecommerce buyers on your platform? You have to offer all choices--all choices in terms of all screens and all payment methods. Our overall team feels very strongly about this. We've had discussions about this, and we were like (Myntra's) is the dumbest and most consumer-unfriendly idea ever.
One main criticism against Indian ecommerce companies is these failed to anticipate demand during Diwali last year. How high have you set the bar this time?
This year the demand will be even higher, but we've set our bar even higher. I think we will be very surprised if we are not in good shape... While others have been in this business for many, many years, whether globally, or even someone like Flipkart, which has been in this business in India for the last 8 or 9 years, I would've thought they would've been better prepared for us, given it was just our second Diwali, as a products marketplace.
Last year, was great exercise in preparation for us. This Diwali we're extremely well prepared. Since February, I've been holding fortnightly meetings with a SWOT team that's only been focused on Diwali preparations, across functions. I've been deeply engaged in that because I feel this Diwali the market share will move very materially. This Diwali our plans are mega.
The publicly available (gross merchandise value, or GMV) numbers for someone like Flipkart is about $4 billion... As of this month, we've crossed $4 billion also. My view is, come March 2016, over the next six-odd months, we will be decisively ahead of them.
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