Homegrown e-commerce company Snapdeal has launched an e-store Pride of India for “patriotic-themed items”, days ahead of India’s 74th Independence Day. In line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for supporting local artisans and domestic manufacturing, the e-store will help sellers of indigenous products to revive business even as the coronavirus pandemic continues to take a toll on businesses, the chief rival of Amazon and Flipkart said on Tuesday. Other than local artisans, the online store will also feature products from women entrepreneurs, local weavers and craftsmen. Amazon and Flipkart already have their platforms in place to showcase local products — Amazon Karigar and Flipkart Samarth.
A majority of the sellers on Snapdeal are already small businesses and this year, the company has added thousands of new products on the e-store. “This year, we included patriotic-themed collections, indigenous items, and products from famous local brands to the e-store. These are across categories like apparel, decor, fashion accessories, cosmetics, and fitness,” said Snapdeal spokesperson. Items such as tri-colour clothes, flags, books on independence, and organic food as well as collectibles like travel and tech accessories, fridge magnets, keychains, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and phone cases will be available. For clothes, the company will showcase items of various ethinc craftsmanship such as Jamdani, Bhagalpuri, Kantha, Kancheepuram, Phulkari, Ikkat, and Bhandej etc from states such as Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh.
Snapdeal has added 75,000 MSMEs to its platform in the last 12 months. The platform now has more than 500,000 registered sellers and delivers products to over 26,000 pin codes across the country.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pushing for Make in India, the government has raised its pitch on Vocal for Local and boosting domestic manufacturing amid coronavirus pandemic and prevalent anti-China sentiments.
