Snapdeal delivered units rose 75% while marketplace revenue lagged

Snapdeal delivered units rose 75.42% from 14.81 million in Financial Year 2024 to 25.98 million in Financial Year 2026, while marketplace revenue increased 16.13% to Rs 293.675 crore. The gap followed seller-cost reductions in Financial Year 2025 and higher customer-acquisition, promotion and digital-campaign spending in Financial Year 2026.

How did Snapdeal delivered units grow faster than marketplace revenue?

Snapdeal increased delivered units by 11.17 million over two financial years, but marketplace revenue did not increase at the same rate. Delivered units rose 34.44% to 19.91 million in Financial Year 2025 and a further 30.49% to 25.98 million in Financial Year 2026. Marketplace revenue declined 1.19%, or Rs 3.02 crore, to Rs 249.867 crore in Financial Year 2025 before increasing 17.53%, or Rs 43.808 crore, in Financial Year 2026.

Snapdeal defines net merchandise value, or NMV, as the total list price of individual delivered units sold through its marketplace, including taxes and discounts but excluding cancelled or returned units. NMV increased 37.30% in Financial Year 2025 and 25.71% in Financial Year 2026, reaching Rs 1,093.11 crore. The comparison shows that both delivered transaction value and unit volume expanded more quickly than marketplace revenue.

Why did Snapdeal marketplace revenue lag its delivered-unit growth?

Snapdeal said the Financial Year 2025 divergence followed a strategic shift towards scale through lower seller costs. Snapdeal passed operational efficiencies to sellers and lowered seller margins, with the stated aim of allowing sellers to offer more competitive customer prices. Delivered units consequently rose 34.44% in Financial Year 2025, while marketplace revenue declined from Rs 252.887 crore to Rs 249.867 crore.

Snapdeal increased investment in customer acquisition, promotions and targeted digital campaigns in Financial Year 2026. The programme coincided with a 30.49% increase in delivered units and a 17.53% increase in marketplace revenue, leaving a 12.96-percentage-point difference between the two growth rates. For this volume strategy to persist, seller pricing and promotions must continue to convert users into delivered orders rather than cancellations or returns.

Marketplace marketing and business-promotion expense rose from Rs 58.546 crore in Financial Year 2024 to Rs 63.182 crore in Financial Year 2025 and Rs 84.398 crore in Financial Year 2026. The expense represented 13.69%, 13.92% and 14.67%, respectively, of total expense. Spending per delivered unit was Rs 39.52 in Financial Year 2024, Rs 31.73 in Financial Year 2025 and Rs 32.49 in Financial Year 2026, remaining below the Financial Year 2024 level despite higher aggregate spending.

How important was marketplace revenue to Snapdeal’s revenue mix?

Snapdeal’s marketplace was its largest reported operating-revenue segment in Financial Year 2026, but its share of revenue from operations fell to 57.54% from 66.59% in Financial Year 2024. Marketplace revenue increased to Rs 293.675 crore in Financial Year 2026 from Rs 252.887 crore in Financial Year 2024, while total revenue from operations rose to Rs 510.381 crore from Rs 379.761 crore. Segment amounts are reported under Ind AS 108, the operating-segments standard, and are gross of inter-segment eliminations.

SaaS, described by Snapdeal as e-commerce enablement software as a solution, increased revenue 97.08% between Financial Year 2024 and Financial Year 2026, compared with 16.13% for the marketplace. Uniware had 4,615 clients in Financial Year 2026, comprising 1,126 enterprise clients and 3,489 small and medium business clients, and processed an annual transaction run-rate of 1,155.79 million order items. The shift means Snapdeal’s 29.20% growth in revenue from operations in Financial Year 2026 included a larger SaaS contribution rather than marketplace monetisation alone.

What must support Snapdeal’s delivered-unit strategy?

Snapdeal’s delivered-unit strategy depends substantially on value-conscious users in Tier 2+ cities. Tier 2+ users accounted for 16.95 million of 25.98 million delivered units in Financial Year 2026, or 65.24%, compared with 9.85 million units and a 66.48% share in Financial Year 2024. The number of Tier 2+ deliveries increased, although their proportion of total deliveries was broadly stable over the two years.

Annual transacting customers rose from 7.85 million in Financial Year 2024 to 10.43 million in Financial Year 2025 and 12.16 million in Financial Year 2026. Snapdeal defines annual transacting customers as customers identified by unique mobile number to whom at least one unit was shipped in the preceding 12 months. Snapdeal said it focused on growing business scale in Financial Years 2025 and 2026, so maintaining the trend requires acquired users to continue buying and sellers to maintain product quality and competitive prices.

Snapdeal identifies advertising-platform pricing, digital-advertising policy changes, search-algorithm changes, competition and marketing effectiveness as factors that can affect customer acquisition and engagement. Snapdeal reported a restated loss of Rs 45.506 crore in Financial Year 2026, compared with Rs 126.306 crore in Financial Year 2025 and Rs 51.297 crore in Financial Year 2024. Net cash used in operating activities narrowed to Rs 1.797 crore in Financial Year 2026 from Rs 27.347 crore in Financial Year 2025, primarily because of working-capital adjustments, while Snapdeal stated that future net cash outflows may continue.

Conclusion

Snapdeal’s disclosures show a trade-off between scale and marketplace monetisation. Delivered units and NMV expanded sharply after seller-cost reductions and higher acquisition activity, while marketplace revenue grew more slowly. Marketplace revenue still represented 57.54% of Financial Year 2026 revenue from operations, but SaaS increased its contribution to 40.04%, reducing the marketplace’s share of the consolidated revenue picture.

The next measure to watch is whether Snapdeal’s disclosed investment in customer acquisition, promotions and targeted digital campaigns can continue to increase delivered units while marketplace revenue grows closer to transaction value. That outcome remains unresolved because it depends on seller quality, advertising costs, user retention, competitive pricing and growth in Indian e-commerce transactions.