Snapdeal is making progress in taking Indian markets online to offer sellers a robust and future-ready opportunity to grow their business by expanding their operations, a senior company official said here on Wednesday.

“In India, (just) 10 per cent of the retail is in the organised sector... In the past, unorganised retail was adversely impacted by organised retail... Snapdeal built a marketplace to provide these (unorganised) sellers with an opportunity to move online in order to grow,” Snapdeal senior vice-president (Corporate Affairs and Communications) Rajnish Wahi said here.

He said the country’s overall consumption demand was worth USD 800 billion currently and was expected to reach USD 2 trillion by 2025. “Online commerce is nearly 2 per cent of India’s retail and will reach 10 per cent by 2025. Thus, the online market in India will be worth USD 200 billion in the next 7 years.”

On the Punjab market, he told reporters that Punjab-based retailers were the highest sellers of sports goods on Snapdeal and serve buyers all over the country. “Some of the popular sports goods sold online by Punjab-based sellers are punching bags, badminton racquets, sports shoes, hand wraps, and home gym sets. They also sell huge quantities of safety rods and protein supplements,” Wahi added.

Snapdeal has more than 5 lakh registered sellers from across India including 15,000 in Punjab, he said.

“On the buyer’s side, the e-commerce market in India is growing not only in size but also in diversity. In 2018, India’s e-commerce heralded the rapid emergence of buyers from India’s tier-II and III cities. This growth of e-commerce into India’s non-metro cities is expected to accelerate in 2019 and over the next few years,” he said.  Punjab is industrially an aggressive and prosperous state and is a significant market, he added.