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After Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon India, who have crossed the $1 bn in gross merchandise value (GMV) barrier, the latest Indian ecommerce website on the cusp of entering the exclusive club is ShopClues. What has taken it near that sweet spot is the ongoing festive season, which has turned the online space into a virtual war zone, with heavy discounting offers that lure increasingly savvy customers by the tens of thousands to products on offer. Here are 10 top points that indicate the rise and rise of ShopClues:
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1. Shopclues will be the fourth e-commerce firm after Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon India to cross $1 bn GMV — the most widely used parameter to measure growth of e-commerce platforms (it is the total value of goods sold through the platform)
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2. Shopclues expects to enter the billion-dollar club most probably after this festive season
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3. With a current annual GMV run rate of $1.2 billion, by the end of the festive season Shopclues will close the festive season at a billion dollars
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4. ShopClues expects 100 millions visits in the next 30 days, with 5 million transactions worth Rs 1,000 crore. By December, the number according to internal calculations show that Shopclues is expected to do Rs 1,500 crore ($250 million) of transactions.
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5. The gap between Shopclues and larger e-commerce firms like Snapdeal is much higher. Snapdeal did Rs 1,500 crore of transactions in the first four days of the sale, which Shopclues plans to do in the entire festive season.
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6. ShopClues is looking at getting 15% market share by the end of the festive season. Industry estimates that this festive season, transactions on e-commerce companies will reach $8 billion, compared to $1.8 billion last year.
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7. What is driving traffic for Shopclues are discounts, which are more than what are available on other e-commerce sites — a Samsung 43 television is available for Rs 25,000, while on other e-commerce platforms it is for Rs 32,000 onwards. Unique products like cow-dung cakes, havan kunds, etc, that are popular in smaller towns and cities are available on the platform — has also helped in getting buyers.
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8. Most of Shopclues’ GMV is coming from the categories of home and kitchen, and lifestyle.
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9. ShopClues focuses on tier-II and tier-III towns and cities
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10. ShopClues burn rate is 10% of the topline sales, while for others its close to 25%. ShopClues has made efforts to get sellers to offer the discounts backed by huge volumes, which is why we have a lower burn rate. ShopClues said that other companies have a much higher burn rate because of extreme discounting.
