Snapdeal ups stake in GoJavas
Indian online marketplace Snapdeal has raised its stake in the logistics company GoJavas from 20% to 42%, according to local sources. Snapdeal is now the biggest single shareholder in GoJavas, according to a report published on Friday (2 October) on LiveMint.com. Snapdeal bought its initial stake in GoJavas back in March.
Local sources report that while Flipkart has its own logistics company, EKart, Snapdeal so far chosen to work with a number of third party logistics partners. These have included Blue Dart, Ecom and, of course, GoJavas. If the LiveMint report about Snapdeal upping its stake in GoJavas is correct (and it claims to have seen documents filed with India’s Registrar of Companies), the company may be looking to modify its strategy.
Meanwhile, Snapdeal has today (5 October) official announced the launch of its new ‘Janus’ Omni-channel platform.
According to a blog posted on the Snapdeal website: “Through this platform, customers shopping on Snapdeal will be able to enjoy the convenience of online discovery and ordering along with faster hyper-local fulfilment. Omni Channel will allow them to access value added and expert services as a part of their purchase, including demonstration, installation, activation or returns at a store near them.”
Snapdeal gave an example of how the online/offline mix could work in practice: “Customers buying their phones on Snapdeal will have the option to pick up or get their phone delivered from the nearest TMS store within 2 hours of ordering.
“TMS trained agents will also help set up and demonstrate phone features in addition to offering services like sim resizing, data transfer, screen guard installation, all in the comfort of buyer’s home.
“Customers will also be able to access these services at the nearest store if they chose the pickup option. These services will be available across 70 cities in India. Similar value added services will be available across product categories through the omni channel platform.”
