After having successfully sold houses on its site, leading online marketplace Snapdeal.com will now sell four-wheelers. This is the first time any e-commerce company in India will be selling four-wheelers. The New Delhi-based company has tied up with home-grown utility vehicle manufacturer, Mahindra & Mahindra to launch its upgraded and improvised Scorpio on Friday.
When contacted, Snapdeal offered a statement on behalf of Rohit Bansal, who co-founded the company with Kunal Bahl. “At Snapdeal.com our aim is to provide the Indian consumers with the widest selection of products and services at best prices, and a nationwide reach to our business partners. In line with the same, we are glad to have partnered with Mahindra & Mahindra to launch four wheeler automobiles on Snapdeal.com. We are extremely excited and hope to continue enriching Indian consumers’ shopping experience with an ever increasing selection of products and services. We look forward to a long term and mutually beneficial relationship with Mahindra & Mahindra,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, the offline launch would be on September 25, sources said. This is not the first time that Snapdeal has tied up with Mahindra and Mahindra. Last year in January, the company had launched its Mahindra Duro scooters on Snapdeal, a first of its kind initiative by an auto company in India. The company is already selling car accessories and other auto-related products on its site.
Snapdeal has been tying up with large Indian corporates to launch online stores and launch more categories such as housing and auto. It has recently sold Tata Housing’s value homes on its site and also tied up with Tata’s Infiniti Retail to sell Croma products. These developments came in soon after Tata Son’s former chairman Ratan Tata invested in the company.
To a question on whether the company would sells cars online, Kunal Bahl had said in an earlier interview, “It is an interesting category to look at but I cannot say if we are doing that now. While we have to keep listening to what consumer wants, at times it happens that consumers don’t know what they want. Real estate looked like a bad idea initially but it worked well for us. Similarly there are other categories which have tremendous potential.” Tata Housing has sold over 85 houses on the first week of the launch.