Snapdeal may soon be able to outpace its competitor, Flipkart
Snapdeal, an online retailer based in India, has been seeing strong growth over the past several months. The company is on track to compete with Flipkart, which is another online retailer that is well known throughout India. Snapdeal has been able to find success among consumers due to its focus on mobile commerce. Many people throughout India are making use of their mobile devices to shop and purchase products that they are interested in.
Snapdeal reaches the $1 billion in sales milestone a year ahead of schedule
Snapdeal CEO and founder Kunal Bahl has announced that the company has reached more than $1 billion in sales a full year ahead of its target. Initially, Snapdeal had expected to reach this milestone at some point in 2015. Competitor Flipkart has recently reaches a similar milestone, but Snapdeal is expected to outpace its competitor in terms of capital this year. Bahl suggests that Snapdeal is one of the fastest growing and most capital efficient companies in India’s mobile commerce sector.
Indian consumers show their favor for mobile commerce as smartphones become more available
Consumers throughout India are finding it more convenient to shop from their mobile devices than it is to visit a physical store. Many of these consumers typically commute to their work and home, making visiting a physical store somewhat difficult. As smartphones become more available, more people are using these devices to engage in various mobile-centric activities, including shopping. Companies like Snapdeal and Flipkart are poised to take advantage of the growing interest that consumers have when it comes to mobile commerce.
Snapdeal focuses on efficiency and convenience, much to the joy of consumers
Snapdeal was established in 2010 and has managed to grow by 500% over the past year. The company’s growth is being attributed to allowing retailers to offer their products to consumers directly. This means that Snapdeal holds no inventory itself, unlike its competitor Flipkart. Snapdeal has also adopted a focus on efficiency and convenience, two things that Indian consumers have shown a great deal of support for.
Retailers seeing a marked rise in mobile commerce demand
E-commerce has grown to become a formidable force in India. The country’s retail sector has been working to appeal to consumers in a more dynamic way, now that many of these consumers have access to smartphones and tablets. These devices are beginning to change the way consumers shop online, making India’s traditional e-commerce initiatives somewhat outdated an unintuitive. As more consumers become mobile, retailers are beginning to consider whether the time is right to embrace mobile commerce more seriously.
Mobile technology expanding rapidly in India
The proliferation of smartphones and tablets is causing retailers to examine how to better engage consumers that are tethered to mobile devices. The best answer may be to adopt better mobile commerce services and ensure that e-commerce platforms are more accommodating to mobile devices. Currently, much the retailer industry’s online presence is built around those that shop online using their PCs. This means that e-commerce platforms are, generally, not optimized to be used for mobile devices, making it difficult for mobile consumers to shop and purchase products online.
Mobile commerce provides strong examples in other markets
Mobile commerce has already seen strong growth in other countries, such as the U.S. and the United Kingdom. In these countries, mobile commerce has helped several retailers find an impressive amount of success. According to a recent report from BI Intelligence, a leading market research firm, approximately 29% of mobile users in the U.S. have made a purchase through their smartphone or tablet. Many of these purchases were reported in the retail sector.
Retailers beginning to see a need to adapt to mobile consumers
Myntra, a leading seller of fashion and lifestyle products in India, notes that it has seen a dramatic rise in the number of people interested in participating in mobile commerce. This is partly due to the mass deployment of new mobile devices throughout the country. Consumers may be interested in mobile commerce due to its relatively new nature and the novelty that provides, but Myntra notes that demand is beginning to grow to the point where mobile commerce can no longer be ignored.
