Fashion's Golden Hour for Bharat

India has been witnessing tremendous opportunity in the value fashion sector of Tier-II & III cities and towns, a consumer segment often defined as 'Bharat'. But the nuances of penetrating this market are perplexing and plenty. Simply put, the aspiring shopper from Bharat seeks the fashion and quality of Tier-I at the price of TierII/III, but the complexity doesn't end there. Our conversation with Himanshu Chakrawarti, President, Snapdeal - the e-commerce platform that is focusing its energies on the value-focused shoppers of Bharat - helps get answers to the what, why and how of this emerging market

- Tripti Mehta

How do you serve people who are coming to e-commerce for the first time? The growth of Indian e-commerce is being fuelled by price-conscious consumers from the country's smaller cities and towns. As per a recent RedSeer report, the number of online buyers from India's Tier-II and smaller cities and towns which account for more than 80% of the country's population - will triple in five years from roughly 78 million in 2021 to nearly 256 million by 2026. These emerging shoppers do a lot of analysis before they make their purchase - they are less brand-sensitive but seek good quality. The Snapdeal platform is designed with assortment, platform experience and service delivery as its three main pillars to cater to the needs of value shoppers.

With over 200 million downloads, it is one of the top online lifestyle destination Apps. As a pure-play value e-commerce platform, we draw more than 86% of our orders from outside metro cities, with more than 72% of our orders coming from buyers living in Tier-II+ cities and towns. By targeting value-conscious consumers, we are catering to this growth in the 'Bharat' shoppers' base.

What does the aspiring consumer from Bharat seek when it comes to fashion? The value-savvy buyers need the assurance of getting both good quality and a good price. To enable this, the price range for each sub-category is based on the principles of good, better and best while keeping it limited to the price range that is relevant for the value shopper. We have a stringent quality process for on-boarding any seller or product on our platform and we take customer ratings on each product very seriously. We work closely with a limited number of sellers, unlike other platforms, thereby ensuring quality and value pricing for our customers.