GURUGRAM:
Snapdeal, India’s largest value-focused online marketplace, has established a call centre in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, to handle the growing volume of customer care traffic from customers across India. The centre is also expected to cater to the higher call volumes during the festive season later in the year.
Establishing this facility in Shimla is consistent with Snapdeal’s approach to further deepen its connect with Bharat. More than 85% of Snapdeal’s users come from non-metro cities. A very large part of its sellers is also based in smaller cities across the country including in Ambala, Salem, Tirupur, Guwahati, Kanpur, Panipat, Coimbatore, Jodhpur and many more.
According to a Snapdeal spokesperson, “the decision to locate our new call centre facility in Shimla is part of our on-going efforts to create more employment and enterprise opportunities outside the metro cities. We believe that the increasing digitalisation and improved connectivity offers the right impetus to stimulate economic activities in smaller cities, which will ensure that the gains from the growth of e-commerce are spread all over the country.”
Other such facilities for Snapdeal are located in NCR Delhi and in the Greater Mumbai region. The center in Shimla runs on a third-party partnership with a process management company based in Himachal Pradesh.
In the last three months, Snapdeal has witnessed a V-shaped recovery in its business. Its shipment volumes are now trending above pre-COVID levels and exceeding those levels for most categories like casual wear, small appliances, home decor, work from home essentials etc.
The large proportion of buyers from non-metro cities has been a big positive factor for Snapdeal because e-commerce has played an even more crucial role in smaller cities given the constraints in the offline supply chains.
In the last 12 months, Snapdeal has added 20 Million new buyers. It has also added 75,000 MSMEs as new sellers and now has more than 500,000 registered sellers on its platform. Snapdeal delivers products to over 26,000 pin codes across India.