Snapdeal, the online e-commerce portal has closed the biggest online residential deal of the country, by selling a luxury penthouse for Rs. 6 Crores in Bengaluru. Snapdeal has made this sale just a few days after an apartment of Tata Housing was sold for Rs.1.1 Crores by a firm based in New Delhi.
Snapdeal became a popular name once it started providing great deals to its customers in Mobiles and Televisions product and now it has entered into other segments also such as automotives, financial advisory services and Real Estate. VP fashion, FMCG and real estate at Snapdeal, Amit Maheshwari says that Snapdeal is planning to make tie-ups for big deals through its website, such as in Real Estate and in financial advisory services at a later point of time.
Amit Maheshwari said, “Real estate category on Snapdeal has been growing by over 400% since its launch last year and has a lot of potential. We have RupeePower that can help with financing such purchases. We are working on the model.”
Amit told that the large customer base of Snapdeal has helped in targeting particular consumer for particular real estate deals; he said “Through the data collected over the years, we know who the big spenders are in various cities. So, depending on the value of the project and its location, we send out personalized notifications to potential customers.”
The penthouse which was sold for Rs.6 Crores is situated at Mantri Espana, which is a Mantri Developers residential project. Rs. 50,000 was the token amount for Rs.6 Crores property.
Amit also told that Snapdeal takes full participation in the backend of real estate sales on its website, he said “We take the booking amount for the property. Real estate is a high involvement category so we have to cater to our customers in a different manner. We arrange physical site visits as well. Other online portals dealing in properties pass on the lead to brokers or developers. But we stay involved. In case, the customer doesn’t like the house, we refund the booking amount after taking a token commission.”
At the moment, Snapdeal is selling only new residential properties, however in coming time it may enter the Pre-owned residential properties as well. Amit stated, “It requires a different technology and approach, “At present, we only have reputed developers including Godrej, Tata, DLF and Unitech on board.”
Do you think that Real Estate Dealers will now have a threat from Snapdeal, what is your opinion with regard to the article? Share your views in the comments section below.
