Online marketplace Snapdeal is looking to monetise its zero-commission marketplace Shopo, which is targeted at small sellers and home-preneurs. Shopo claims a seller base of 1 lakh merchants across 800 cities.
“We are working on monetisation and by the next quarter will introduce it in a phased manner,” said Sandeep Komaravelly, senior vice-president at Shopo. “We are looking at advertising on the platform and product listings on the platform to generate revenues. The model will continue to be commission free.” Shopo, which was launched in July 2015, competes with peer-topeer marketplaces such as Kraftly and Shopmatic.
Snapdeal launched Shopo following high in-bound requests from small sellers on its marketplace. “Almost 80% of the in-bound requests on the Snapdeal marketplace comes from small businesses. The percentage of overlap of sellers between Shopo and Snapdeal is very less. For Shopo, the process of on-boarding and verification of sellers is faster,” said Komaravelly.