JOIN USSnapdeal's TV arm bares its strategy
DEN Snapdeal TV-Shop, a TVCommerce company, launched its first regional channel in Karnataka on Tuesday. The new channel will be its first, dedicated to a specific regional audience in a regional language.
DEN Networks has operations across 14 states, Karnataka being the only southern state. Maneesh Goel, CEO, DEN Snapdeal TV-Shop said, “Karnataka contributes about 20 per cent of our total business.” The state has been able to garner sales of Rs 15 crore in the last eight months for the company.
The television platform is focused on delivering to customers in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, who are not necessarily internet-savvy. “We offer products that are otherwise not easily found, and at compelling price points, which gives us the edge over other eCommerce players and platforms,” said Goel.
Some of its top selling products include sports shoes and smartwear for men and women (kurtis, leggings, chinos, etc.) apart from mobile phones and tablets which lead in sales, especially brands like Intex, Lava, and Karbonn. The CEO said that doing things on scale is what makes it capable of selling at low price points. “The fact that we sell products that are not easily available and are scaling the sales of such products, gives us the advantage in pricing right at the stage of procurement,” he said.
Combos popular
“Besides, we try to do a whole bunch of combos.” People tend to buy when they feel they are getting more value for their money, hence a lot of the combos do well, he added. Some of its combos include sports shoes with duffel bags and mobile phones with power banks. “The eight T-shirts combo is something that is extremely popular,” he said.
On the very confusing and dwindling state of telemarketing platforms in India, Maneesh said, “A lot of the channels and companies do a hard-sell, we don’t do that. Our pitch is very soft with our USP being the language we use in our commercials. We also take pride in the entire shopping experience we provide, in terms of order placement calls and follow-up calls.”
The DEN Snapdeal TV-Shop reaches over 30 million households on a daily basis, and receives interest calls from at least 0.7 per cent of them, which Goel says is a very good standard. “At the rate of about 6,000-8,000 calls per day, we are able to convert at least 40 per cent of it into sales.” The company which started operations late last year, targets sales of Rs 500 crore by the end of 2015. In a $1-billion market, DEN Snapdeal TV-Shop says that the kind of value-system that it provides in commercials and service is what will lead the way forward.