Snapdeal, India’s largest value-focused online marketplace, is scaling up its brand registry program, which helps protect sellers having their own registered brands from brand infringements on its marketplace.

Snapdeal has more than 5,00,000 registered sellers, who together have more than 200 million listings on the platform. Snapdeal is a pure marketplace and all products are listed and sold by third party, independent sellers.

According to a Snapdeal spokesperson, “Many of the sellers have successfully developed their own brands for online sales. The success of these brands leaves them open to the threat of their brand name being misused by those looking to sell lookalike products under the same name.”

To assist such brands, Snapdeal runs a program whereby sellers on Snapdeal having their own registered brand name, trademarks etc. get exclusive rights to sell their product in the relevant categories on the Snapdeal marketplace.

More than 1000 brands are now part of the registry. These include brands like Wolphy (Fitness Equipment), Tanishka Fabs (Bed Linen), Voylla (fashion jewelry), Bentag (Electronics) - all of whom have a strong online presence in their respective categories.

Many of these brands have been bestsellers in Snapdeal’s recent Diwali Sale, which saw business volumes double in 120 cities across India, with 90% of the sales coming from non-metro cities.

Snapdeal’s focus is on the value-conscious segment, which comprises emerging brands and the unbranded segment. The unbranded market in India is worth ~ USD 160 Billion and is now starting to come online in a big way to meet the demand of buyers from non-metro cities.

The emerging brands focus on serving the unmet needs of buyers by focusing primarily on the functional attributes and with a pricing strategy that doesn’t include large brand premiums.

The online markets present an opportunity to create brands in an efficient way without the need to invest in mega advertising campaigns or a network of physical stores. In fact, India is now witnessing the emergence of many online-only brands, mirroring the trend in China, where many brands have chosen not to explore the physical markets while establishing new lines of products, especially in personal care, food and home products.

According to a Snapdeal Spokesperson, “The program is aimed at helping SMEs create and grow their own brands. This initiative strongly supports, domestic “Made-in-India” brands in their online growth. We are happy to be able to support these brands right from the initial stages of their journey.”

Snapdeal’s Brand Registry is expected to scale up to include more than 5000 emerging brands by March 2020.

Snapdeal also operates “Brand Shield”, which offers a single point of contact for brands to report suspected counterfeit products being sold on the Snapdeal platform. Brand Shield offers a fast-track one-day delisting process for verified complaints. The program has significantly boosted collaboration between brands and the marketplace in on-going and successful efforts to weed out sellers who peddle counterfeits on online platforms.