It looks like express deliveries are the now the flavour of season for ecommerce sites in India. Amazon started it, Flipkart quickly followed and now Snapdeal has gone the similar way.
However, unlike Amazon and Flipkart, Snapdeal is not offering a premium paid one or 2 day shipping across India. They have launched same day shipping for only 2 regions, Delhi and Gurgaon, places where Snapdeal has got it’s main warehouses.
Snapdeal calls same day delivery as “Express Delivery”, where buyers in Delhi and Gurgaon can receive products at their door step same day they have placed the orders. The buyer needs to make sure that order is placed before 1pm, to be eligible for express delivery.
Also, it is not available for all the products – Select products that are eligible will have a yellow tag that will let users know that it is available for express delivery.
The express delivery service is completely free of charge.
Our View
In our view, making express deliveries available for customers only in Delhi & Gurgaon and that too for selected products will help only a very narrow segment of people. Majority of people will still have to rely on their regular service and logistic partners.
Also, as Snapdeal does not have it’s own logistic service, it is going to be extremely difficult for them to provide similar service in other parts of country. It is possible only in places where they have their warehouses and their own personnel.
That is also the reason why Snapdeal has not mentioned anything about expanding this service to any other city.
Though a good offering, given