GURUGRAM:
Snapdeal has taken a variety of measures to help sellers on its platform resume their operations without getting lost in a maze of central, state and district level regulations.
The permission and procedure to reopen various kinds of commercial establishments, including offices, warehouses, shops etc vary depending on local assessment of the Covid-19 threat at any given point of time. While e-commerce deliveries have been allowed for both essentials and non-essentials, there are several practical challenges faced by the sellers on the ground.
To help sellers to operate their businesses in a compliant manner, Snapdeal is using various specialised tools & inputs. It has engaged Legistify, a law tech platform, that has developed live trackers of latest regulations on red, orange and green and containment zones, including the trends and micro details from such areas. These inputs help sellers and Snapdeal track COVID19 related compliance by monitoring the movement of goods at individual pin codes.
Snapdeal is also using the Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) tool by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to track these compliances and changes in regulations. Based on such inputs, regular seller communication with updated SoPs is shared with sellers to advise on best safety and hygiene practices. Through its network of associates, Snapdeal is also enabling support on the ground for the sellers to obtain requisite permissions and resolve queries.
In the last one week, Snapadeal’s seller support team responded to more than 28,000 queries from sellers, helping them with verified inputs and connecting them with local resources for further assistance. Snapdeal continued to receive orders for both essentials & non-essential items during the lockdown phase in April 2020, but only essentials were shipped out. In addition, millions of products were wishlisted and searched for by buyers. Snapdeal’s data sciences team has distilled inputs from these to guide the sellers with regard to what the buyers are looking for and at what price points.
This is helping the sellers make the right stocking decisions. For instance, based on the popularity of multi-use packs, more sellers are now listing multi-packs of t-shirts (3 T-Shirts in basic colors), multi-pack & combos of undergarments, hair dye gel in smaller packs for frequent touch-ups (6 smaller packs instead of one big pack) etc.
Snapdeal is also assisting the sellers who are seeking to diversify into new or additional lines in order to reduce their dependence on existing products. Many large wholesalers and distributors have stocks and they are keen to list the same on online platforms via sellers who have existing online operations. Snapdeal is facilitating these by making introductions between large wholesalers/distributors, who are looking at new retail partners who can source from them and list these products online. Consumer electronics, beauty & health products and fitness are the categories witnessing interest from the sellers.
According to a Snapdeal spokesperson, “The resumption of E-Commerce operations has received an enthusiastic welcome by Snapdeal’s online sellers, who are now connected to a huge base of online buyers looking to buy what they need. Our sellers from all parts of the country have been reaching out to us in order to understand how they can resume their online operations while complying with new and changing regulations. Our policy, legal, analytics and business teams are working in close coordination to address these queries in a prompt and informed manner.
