<article>E-commerce startup <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=shopclues" target="_blank">ShopClues</a> is looking to rapidly expand its seller base, a key resource to propel big sales events.</article>

E-commerce startup <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=shopclues" target="_blank">ShopClues</a> is looking to rapidly expand its seller base, a key resource to propel big sales events.
Rivals <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Flipkart" target="_blank">Flipkart</a> and <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Snapdeal+" target="_blank">Snapdeal</a>, two of India&#8217;s largest e-commerce firms, have also been aggressively expanding their seller base by offering a host of services, including loans, to make it easier for them to list online on their platforms.
The Gurgaon-based startup has launched an Android app exclusively for sellers, which it hopes will prove a differentiator and attract more sellers, who are currently running stores offline, to come aboard. &#8220;We deal in unstructured categories. Through this app, merchants can chat with consumers in real time, and close deals on chat by creating coupons,&#8221; said Arun Goel, VP Products, ShopClues.
ShopClues will also provide services that can be a hassle for shops, such as taxation, and reconciliation for invetory and payments. The company has also started communicating with sellers about right price points. &#8220;We are telling some of them, for instance, that if you lower your price by a certain percentage, you can get a bump in sales. That data is based on how much their competitors are selling at,&#8221; said Goel in a chat with DEALSTREETASIA.
Getting more sellers is crucial to compete in India&#8217;s e-commerce sector, where all the major sites, including <a style="color: #000080;" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/?s=Amazon+India" target="_blank">Amazon India</a>, follow the marketplace model. Much of their revenue comes from big sales events, inspired by Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US, around the festival of Diwali. To execute the large number of orders — Flipkart reported more than $300 million in value of goods sold over five days during its event in 2015 — companies need thousands of sellers, a key competitive advantage.
Unlike the other players, ShopClues focusses on unbranded clothing, targeted at India&#8217;s middle class customers. Sellers on its platform include small stores that are a common feature in India&#8217;s towns and cities. The company is shipping out over 3.5 million items on a monthly basis.
ShopClues, which recently entered the &#8216;unicorn&#8217; club of private companies worth more than $1 billion, is aiming to become profitable by 2017, and then launch an initial public offering. The valuation of the company has tripled in the last one year, since Tiger Global invested $350 million in January, 2015.
The e-commerce market in India is expected to grow to $220 billion in the value of goods sold by 2025, up from an expected $11 billion in 2015, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a recent report.
Also read:
<a style="color: #ff0000;" title="ShopClues raises fresh funds, led by Singapore’s GIC, enters billion-dollar club" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/shopclues-raises-fresh-funds-joins-the-billion-dollar-club-26665/" rel="bookmark">ShopClues raises fresh funds, led by Singapore’s GIC, enters billion-dollar club</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" title="India: ShopClues on shopping spree, to invest $50m in buying startups to scale up" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/india-shopclues-on-shopping-spree-to-invest-50m-in-buying-startups-to-grow-scale-22566/" rel="bookmark">India: ShopClues on shopping spree, to invest $50m in buying startups to scale up</a>
<a style="color: #ff0000;" title="India: Blue Tokai Coffee raises seed funding led by Snow Leopard Ventures" href="http://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/29175-29175/" rel="bookmark"> Blue Tokai Coffee raises seed funding led by Snow Leopard Ventures</a>
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The Gurgaon-based startup has launched an Android app exclusively for sellers, which it hopes will prove a differentiator and attract more sellers.

Shopclues using new app to build seller network and retain e-commerce marketshare

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Shopclues using new app to build seller network and retain e-commerce marketshare

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