Forgotten unicorn Snapdeal bets on Bharat, budget fashion to script a comeback

With a valuation of $6.5 billion, more than 100 million registered users and half a million sellers at its peak, Snapdeal once appeared destined to become India's e-commerce behemoth. But after years of losing ground to rivals and seeing many write off its prospects, the company is attempting a comeback with a very different playbook.

Now operating under AceVector Ltd, which filed for an IPO last year, Snapdeal is looking less like the daily deals and coupon website it once was and more like a focused lifestyle platform built for value-conscious shoppers in smaller towns. The company says the strategy is beginning to show results.

"The good news is for us in the last seven quarters, the business has doubled," Achint Setia, chief executive officer of Snapdeal, told Fortune India. 

Nearly 83.4% of orders in the first half of FY26 came from repeat customers, while the platform served more than 1.1 crore customers, according to the company. Net merchandise value has doubled over seven quarters between Q4 FY24 and Q2 FY26, while units sold have grown 93%.

The biggest shift came after Snapdeal abandoned its traditional commission model and moved most sellers to a zero-commission structure from the earlier 20-25%, unlocking a larger assortment and attracting more value sellers. The company earns through advertising income and logistics-related fees instead.

This is post Meesho's entrance on a zero-commission strategy for sellers, on the back of which it reported 135% year-on-year order growth in late 2022 and achieved profitability by mid-2023.

"Our economics are very different. We wanted to be clear that our economics work with our business model and fixed-cost structure and that's when we made this shift," Setia said. 

But Snapdeal insists it is not trying to replicate Meesho. Instead, it is targeting what Setia calls the "value-savvy shopper" sitting between premium branded platforms and ultra-low-price marketplaces.

"There is a large base of customers sitting between these two buckets, which we term as a value-savvy shopper," he said. "They want the aspiration that a brand offers but they have the budget of value." 

Recent analysis by Redseer shows that the fastest-growing segment sits below the ₹800 ASP range, with a dense cohort of brands and platforms scaling within this band. "As price points increase, growth becomes less consistent, with outcomes varying more widely across brands and categories," says the report. 

The company believes this addressable market of 250 million customers could double over the next five years. It estimates the value-commerce opportunity itself could expand from $25 billion to $75 billion during the period. 

Lifestyle & fashion takes centre stage

Over the past two years, Snapdeal has steadily exited electronics and general merchandise categories to focus almost entirely on lifestyle products.

Lifestyle categories now contribute more than 90% of its business, with fashion alone accounting for more than half of all delivered orders. More than 80% of sales come from products priced below ₹599 and over 80% of demand originates from non-metro India. Names such as Mirzapur, Leh, Kanchipuram, Sonipat, Idukki and Thiruvallur are among the markets witnessing strong growth, according to Setia. 

The company occupies what it sees as a large white space between premium brands that offer predictable quality at higher prices and ultra-cheap marketplaces where consistency can be uneven.

Its average selling price stands at around ₹420, generating contribution margins of ₹40-42 per order. With an asset-light structure, reliance on third-party logistics partners and a workforce of only about 250 people, Snapdeal believes scale will improve profitability. "More the volumes, the better the profitability over time," Setia opined. 

Browsing rather than searching is another hallmark of the platform. Nearly 70% of purchases happen without users typing a search query, reflecting the discovery-led nature of fashion shopping.

"We put a lot of effort on showcasing collections in the right way and curating the latest trends," Setia said. 

Snapdeal's Bharat Seller Report underlines that about 46% of sellers said more than three-fourths of their sales now come from online channels, while 66% identify themselves as manufacturers selling directly online. More than half reported faster demand growth from Tier-II and Tier-III towns than metros.

However, the company currently commands only an estimated 8-10% share of India's value segment, comprising budget lifestyle products priced below ₹1,000. Major rivals in the category are Meesho, Flipkart's Shopsy, and Amazon Bazaar. 

Setia insists the focus is not on regaining lost market share but on capturing a fast-expanding market. "We have found a very different customer base, which is equally exciting and much larger in the country today," he expressed. "Currently we are only focused on profitable growth."