Sellers welcome Snapdeal's steps to fix all outstanding issues

Troubled e-commerce company Snapdeal has been on an overdrive to please it sellers. 

Its plans to reduce the payment cycle to sellers by 40% from 5 days to 3 days has gone well with many sellers and they seem to have buried the hatchet. Apart from this, sellers also welcomed the move from Snapdeal for its ad platform.

Sanjay Thakur, President of eSellers Suraksha, an association of about 1,000 e-commerce sellers, who just concluded a meeting with Snapdeal on Wednesday told Zeebiz that they had a very successful meeting with Snapdeal. 

“They assured us of solving the problems that sellers had. They were very welcoming of suggestions for sellers regarding various problems such as seller payment, GST, among others. There were also many loopholes regarding GST and we wanted to resolve it. This was need so that there will be growth of both sellers and buyers,” Thakur said. 

Earlier this month, Snapdeal ran into issues with many sellers on its platform who stopped selling their products one-tailer's website in absence of clearing of pending payments. 

The All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA), which represents 2,000 online sellers, claimed that there is around Rs 300-400 crore of unpaid dues with Snapdeal.

Many sellers had also approached Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and urged her to intervene to ensure Snapdeal pays their dues.

This was despite Snapdeal trying to woo sellers by reducing the payment cycle of sellers by 40% from 5 days to 3 days. The company, two days ago, announced it will cut advertising rates for sellers by 50% for most categories including fashion and electronics. 

Snapdeal expects to earn an annual revenue of over Rs 100 crore from its advertisting platform that assists sellers in improving their brand visibility on e-commerce platform.

Thakur said, “It is a good move that they have done by reducing the ad rates by 50% for sellers. It is an appreciable move and from their plans they are now going for profitability instead of just discounts." 

He further added, “The price war will not do anything for the industry and advertising way will be a good way to attract customers and sellers. Snapdeal's ad platform has always given mileage to seller volumes, which is something we have seen in the part.”

When asked about the new discounted ad rates offered by Snapdeal on its portal he said “it is as low as Rs 500, depending on the quality (type of ads) and quantity of ads that the seller wants.”