Softbank-backed e-commerce firm Snapdeal is going to move into the offline zone because of the launch of partner stores across small cities of the country. The aim to attract and cater to ‘Bharat’, according to sources.

The company plans soon to expand the number to around 25 by the end of the next year.

Snapdeal’s brands was launched an year ago and will partner with existing or aspiring retailers for an asset light so as to rollout under which the company will help retailers procure goods of its power brands through its very own sellers.

Snapdeal runs a range of 11 power brands across famous categories like apparel, fashion accessories, footwear, home and kitchen, health and wellness and personal grooming.

These brands are designed to administer and value needs of customers who want to pay primarily for the features and functionality instead of brand premium.

Snapdeal has also hired former chief operating officer of Iconic Fashion, Priyaranjan Kumar to take forward this  initiative.

The stores are supposed to also act as on-ground outposts for Snapdeal from where users can collect, return and exchange the merchandise they have bought online.

Despite online retail in India is growing rapidly it still accounts for less than 10% of India’s retail.

Omni-channel approach in India facilitate the e-tailers to look after the consumers who are still exploring online channels but conventionally do all the purchases offline. These are customers with hybrid habits who will take a while to get comfortable with online platforms.

Many online firms such as Nykaa, Lenskart, FirstCry run omni-channel businesses and have multiple retail outlets spread across the country. However, Snapdeal would be the first online company to do so especially for small towns instead of metro cities.

Moneycontrol outlined  that one of the existing investors of Snapdeal was finding a secondary transaction for a partial exit from the company which could be valued at $30-50 million.

Bank of America, Axis Bank and JM Financial are assisting Snapdeal for the IPO which counts investors like Softbank Nexus, Alibaba, eBay, and Blackrock.