Snapdeal to allow payment by credit and debit cards on delivery

Snapdeal will allow customers to pay through credit cards and debit cards in a bid to push up sales even as India's second-largest e-commerce firm is closing ranks with rival Flipkart.

Snapdeal has hit a sales run rate of $3.5 billion this month, bridging its wide gap in gross merchandise worth (GMV) with Flipkart, the nation's largest e-tailer, which is claimed to be clocking $4.5 billion in GMV (inclusive of Mynta).

Snapdeal, which is backed by Japan's SoftBank Corp, is the second-largest e-tailer in India after Flipkart and is followed by US giant Amazon which is closing in on the $2 billion sales mark in India.

Snapdeal users across 200 cities will get the option to pay through their credit and debit cards when they opt for pay-on-delivery option.

Currently, e-commerce sites in the country allow only cash on delivery payment option.

Snapdeal has developed the card-payment solution in partnership with GoJavas. The service is already available across metros and cities like Agra, Ahmedabad, Ajmer, Aligarh, Bareilly, Chandigarh, Darjeeling, Gorakhpur, Hisar, Kanyakumari and Ooty.

Under the service, GoJavas will equip its delivery staff to carry POS machines to allow users to pay using their credit and debit cards.

Snapdeal will soon be extending the facility to customers in 120 cities, allowing customers to select the pay by card on delivery option, just like they would for cash on delivery. This will be extended to 200 cities in the next few months.

Snapdeal plans to invest $150-200 million (about Rs940-1,250 crore) by March next year on expanding its delivery operations and the company is looking at a ten-fold growth in the next 2-3 years, which will translate into delivery of about 80-100 million packages a month.