Mobile-based open marketplace Shopo, which charges no commissions from sellers, is planning to integrate payment and logistics solutions on its platform to attract more sellers.
With this, sellers present on the zero-fee and zero-commission platform owned by e-commerce major Snapdeal, will be now able to complete a transaction thus easing the process of closing a deal. At present, sellers on Shopo have to close a transaction offline and have to bear the cost of shipping the goods.
Sandeep Komaravelly, Senior Vice-President, Snapdeal, said, “Some users have expressed that they would like to have the option of completing the transaction on Shopo and hence we are exploring ways to integrate both a payment gateway and logistics solutions. We are developing the technology in house in this regard.”
Shopo, which was launched in July by Snapdeal, has a chat-based model to allow sellers to connect with buyers. It aims to bring small and medium businesses (SMBs) that cannot register on bigger e-commerce portals. These also include sellers who sell out of homes even in the rural market. The platform has also launched a peer to peer chat functionality and is piloting vernacular content in Hindi.
Since its launch, the platform has got 1 million listings in three months and hosts over 20,000 businesses. Komaravelly said the company's aim was to target the 50 million SMBs present in the ecosystem and help them bring online. “The goal is to have a million sellers on the platform in the next one year.”
Snapdeal had earlier announced that it will invest $100 million in Shopo over the next two years to expand the brand. Individuals selling anything from cakes to jewellery can click photo of their products and list on Shopo for sale. A seller and a buyer can choose a mutually convenient mode of transaction as well as delivery.