[Exclusive] Snapdeal relaunches Shopo as mobile marketplace with Zero commission model

Mobile focused marketplace without any commission seems to be a new avenue to get quick scale for Indian e-commerce players. After Paytm, the Softbank-backed Snapdeal has launched mobile only marketplace Shopo to sell fresh as well as used goods.

Delhi-based ecommerce company had acquired Shopo, hailed as Indian Etsy in first half of 2013. Post acquisition, Snapdeal kept it in stealth mode for more than two years. Currently, the app offers 14 categories including accessories, men & women apparels, beauty & cosmetic and electronics among others.

Snapdeal’s CEO Kunal Bahl is slated to announce the launch of Shopo on July 15 in a press conference in Delhi.

Unlike Paytm, Snapdeal isn’t charging even payment processing fee. Merchants can opt any payment method and importantly, they don’t require to furnish any documents for processing transaction on the platform.

Shopo is aiming to make buying and selling easier. The platform claims that one can Click, upload products and sell – all within 15 seconds. Through Shopo chat, the platform enables seamless communication and exchange of information like location, images etc. between seller and buyer.

Over the past year, e-commerce players have been focusing heavily on mobile in the wake of unprecedented smartphone penetration. Currently, Snapdeal claims to get close to 75% order from mobile and debut of Shopo appears to be well timed and lure new set of independent sellers.

The move from Snapdeal to launch Shopo is also targeted to give competition to Paytm which launched ‘zero commission model’ recently on the lines of Taobao. Backed by Alibaba Taobao is a Chinese marketplace that works on the zero commission marketplace.

With zero commission model sellers on the platform don’t need to give a commission to Shopo or Paytm on sales. Merchants keep all of what they sell. Other marketplaces like Flipkart and Amazon work on a commission based model.

Given that most of the e-commerce giants will eventually become m-commerce entities in the next two years, Snapdeal’s timing to relaunch Shopo with zero commission model makes a lot of sense. Going forward it would be interesting to watch how other e-commerce giants react to Snapdeal’s move and how Shopo evolves in the future.

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