Snapdeal, India’s largest online marketplace, has established its data sciences centre in San Carlos, California, the New Delhi-headquartered company announced on May 30th 2016.
The centre will act as the focal point for the online retailer’s efforts in big data and advanced analytics, and will shape the SoftBank, Foxconn and Alibaba Group-backed Snapdeal’s business strategy, by looking to “optimise the operational efficiencies using data-driven algorithms, data analytics and predictive modelling,” according to an official statement released by the company.
“We have set up a Data science engine in California, which is home to domain talent, to further augment our efforts in creating a superior customer experience and strengthen our supply chain. Snapdeal is extensively working on data mining through an existing analytics team,” said Rohit Bansal , Chief Operating Officer, Snapdeal.
The data sciences centre will be led by Nitin Sharma, senior vice president at Snapdeal, the press release said. It however did not disclose the number of hires made by the company for the centre.
“We have a highly accomplished team which can distil key patterns, consumer preferences and hidden correlations by quickly analysing huge quantities of data. We will bring fresh insights to the existing work and will enhance customer experience through better planning and forecasting,” Sharma said.
Snapdeal has been looking to establish its presence in the us for some time now.
In May last year, Bansal had said that the company, which closed a $200 million round of funding in February that valued it at about $6.5 billion, was exploring several options, as it mulled establishing its presence in the US
In September, Snapdeal acquired Silicon Valley-based startup Reduce Data , a programmatic display advertising platform, for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2012 by Asif Ali, Reduce Data’s platform uses artificial intelligence, real-time data and other tools, to help brands deliver advertising strategies for consumers across platforms and devices.
“The richer understanding of the customers by capturing and integrating the information on their buying behaviour will drive habit commerce and is in sync with our vision of 20 million daily transacting users by the year 2020,” Bansal said.
The news comes about a month after reported the Snapdeal will is now focusing on adding and retaining high-quality users, defined as frequent shoppers purchasing high-margin products, instead of relying on gross merchandise sales, which has thus far, been the primary metric of choice for online retailers globally, to quantify growth.
However, the company is not the first Indian startup to establish its presence outside domestic borders.
Alibaba Group-backed Paytm also opened in data sciences lab in Toronto, Canada in 2015, which has onboard about 30 scientists till December last year, and looks at fraud detection, advertising and merchant analytics.
Source: Economic Times
