Only last week we were talking about Snapdeal’s new browser website Snap-Lite, and Snapdeal has taken no time in launching another service, this time for apparel merchants. Dubbed as Snaptrends, the service has the ability to forecast fashion trends and provide assistance to the merchants, including small and medium sized apparel manufacturers and businesses.
This comes as a very fresh launch from an E-commerce giant since the service is going to benefit the merchants, rather than the customers. In fact, this is the first time an E-commerce website has come up with a forecasting service for its merchants.
Snaptrends will act as a guide to the apparel manufacturers and business to foresee the trends and put up their range on the website accordingly. It will be covering both ethnic and western wears. The trend-generating service would keep the merchants informed of the latest trends and give them insights into what is hot and what is not. In simple terms, it is like using business intelligence and analytics on the data Snapdeal has collected over the past few years. The service will generate key fabrics, colours, design and prints etc for the sellers to guide them on the best trends and collections.
Talking about the product in detail,Vishal Chadha, Senior Vice President at Snapdeal, said, “Snaptrends will enable us to create value for our customers by bringing them the latest apparel and fashion accessories and to our sellers by empowering them with valuable consumer insights.With this trends forecasting service, we will enable Indian fashion manufacturers of all sizes to keep abreast of latest industry insights, giving them a chance to tap the fast growing market.”
Will it work?
The way I see it, it looks like a win-win situation for all. I decide by buy something that is in fashion these days and incidentally the product that I’m looking for is available on Snapdeal with a merchant. Why would it not be there? Of course Snapdeal has helped the merchants stock up relevant items and hence I have an opportunity to grab it at the available price. While merchants also can regulate their prices accordingly and earn the maximum profit.
Now if I was to buy something I prefer which is not a trend these days, I surely will not find it with many merchants, however would this hurt Snapdeal or the merchants much? Probably not. Considering the volumes generated by items selling like hot cakes, lesser important products may not even get any spotlight.
Overall, Snapdeal and the businesses would generate higher revenues from more hit rates on trendier products, which would make a lot more sense than putting up items which are completely out of fashion today. The only problem I feel is the oversaturation of the market. If everyone ends up designing the product that is most liked by everyone, then there would be lesser options for customers to choose from.
The main question however is, whether Snapdeal’s fashion business is any bigger than that of Jabong and Myntra. While they are not comparable, but through services like these, Snapdeal could think about matching with its rivals and getting more attention in this portfolio. Snapdeal will have a dedicated team of analysts who will be working behind the scenes and doing all sorts of permutations and combinations to create the most innovative and sort-after designs for the sellers.
Snaptrends will be available at the earliest to its users for Autumn/Winter collection 2015 and Spring/Summer collection 2016. If you’re looking forward to getting a wardrobe makeover, you know where you should be headed to.
