India’s Snapdeal ventures into TV commerce shopping

India’s online marketplace Snapdeal.com recently launched a 50:50 joint venture with DEN networks to launch a TV Commerce channel.

The DEN Snapdeal TV shop is urrently available for viewers on channel number 132 on DEN cable network and will be extended to other cable and DTH networks in the course of the next six months.

The move is seen to benefit customers who have limited access to Internet services, particularly in Tier 2 and 3 cities further hampered by lack of physical access to top retail products and brands at competitive prices.

DEN Networks Ltd. reaches about 13 million households in over 200 cities across 13 states in the country. Snapdeal.com said it will use this distribution network to provide customers easy access to products across home, lifestyle and electronics categories with great value deals.

“India is a country with many heterogeneous segments of consumers, and we believe that by reaching 150 million households with 600 million people that have a TV, we can create another revolution through TV Commerce,” Kunal Bahl, Co-founder and CEO Snapdeal.com said.

The pilot was launched in September in select geographies and so far the channel has posted a growth rate of 200 percent month-on-month since inception.

Sameer Manchanda, CMD, DEN Networks, said the response to the pilot has been very encouraging and the parters are confident the DEN Snapdeal TV Shop will be received well by viewers.

The plan is to take the DEN Snapdeal TV shop to 100 million households across India over the next 12 months.