Snapdeal.com had launched as a platform for online discount coupons, then revamped its business model in the evolving Indian e-commerce sector to become one of India's largest e-commerce retailers. In India's rapidly growing market, the major players jockeyed for the top position and used various business models and strategic initiatives. Now, the entry of Amazon into the industry challenged the market dynamics and Snapdeal.com faced challenges of funding, positioning, and consumer dissatisfaction. How could it address these challenges to sustain its position as a leading Indian e-retailer? Would it be able to face the growing domestic and global competition? Would it be acquired by a global player, such as eBay, which was already a stakeholder and was perhaps waiting for the right moment to make its strategic move in India? Was coming out with an initial public offering a possible step in the future? Tripti Ghosh Sharma is affiliated with Institute of Management Technology-Ghaziabad.
Swot Analysis of "Snapdeal.com" written by Tripti Ghosh Sharma, Dheeraj Tewani, Laksh Sharma, Amit Sharma includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Snapdeal.com Jockeyed facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Snapdeal.com case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Competition, International business, Marketing and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Snapdeal.com casestudy better are - – technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, there is backlash against globalization, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
increasing transportation and logistics costs, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Snapdeal.com case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Snapdeal.com Jockeyed, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Snapdeal.com Jockeyed operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Snapdeal.com can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Snapdeal.com case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed
Strengths Snapdeal.com | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed in Snapdeal.com Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Snapdeal.com Jockeyed are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Snapdeal.com Jockeyed does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Snapdeal.com Jockeyed is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Snapdeal.com Jockeyed is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Snapdeal.com Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by Tripti Ghosh Sharma, Dheeraj Tewani, Laksh Sharma, Amit Sharma can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Snapdeal.com firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Snapdeal.com Jockeyed to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Snapdeal.com Jockeyed to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High brand equity
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Snapdeal.com Jockeyed to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Snapdeal.com Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Snapdeal.com Jockeyed digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Strong track record of project management
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Snapdeal.com HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Snapdeal.com | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Snapdeal.com are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Snapdeal.com, is just above the industry average. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Snapdeal.com, in the dynamic environment Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Snapdeal.com Jockeyed is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Snapdeal.com can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Snapdeal.com HBR case study mentions - Snapdeal.com Jockeyed takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Snapdeal.com that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Snapdeal.com can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Snapdeal.com Jockeyed is planning to shift buying processes online.
Lack of clear differentiation of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Snapdeal.com Jockeyed needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Tripti Ghosh Sharma, Dheeraj Tewani, Laksh Sharma, Amit Sharma suggests that, Snapdeal.com Jockeyed is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Snapdeal.com HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Opportunities Snapdeal.com | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Snapdeal.com are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Snapdeal.com Jockeyed in the consumer business. Now Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Snapdeal.com - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Snapdeal.com Jockeyed to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Snapdeal.com Jockeyed operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Manufacturing automation
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Snapdeal.com Jockeyed to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Snapdeal.com case study. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Snapdeal.com Jockeyed to increase its market reach. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Snapdeal.com suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Snapdeal.com Jockeyed is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Snapdeal.com case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Developing new processes and practices
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Threats Snapdeal.com External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Snapdeal.com are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Snapdeal.com Jockeyed is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Snapdeal.com, Snapdeal.com Jockeyed may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Regulatory challenges
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Snapdeal.com Jockeyed can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Increasing wage structure of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Snapdeal.com Jockeyed high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Snapdeal.com Jockeyed business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Snapdeal.com Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Snapdeal.com needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Snapdeal.com is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Snapdeal.com is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Snapdeal.com is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Snapdeal.com Jockeyed needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.