Snapdeal to downsize its manpower; founders promises not to take any salary in this tough time

Snapdeal, the Alibaba backed domestic ecommerce player, is undertaking significant layoffs within the organization after a tough 2016. It is expected to lay off 600-1000 employees in short term. The company has been under shaky waters from the last 15 months due to a combination of multiple factors such as mounting losses, ongoing churn of its top leadership in the company and the rapid growth of rival Amazon over the same period. Although the company’s leadership has stated that the startup will turn profitable in next two years, the current scenario doesn’t bode well in fulfilling that promise. Both the founders, Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, have also stated that they will not take any salary from the firm for an unspecified period.

The company’s official release stated that “On our journey towards becoming India’s first profitable e-commerce company in two years, it is important that we continue to drive efficiency across all parts of our business, which enables us to pass on the value to our consumers and sellers. We have realigned our resources and teams to further these goals and drive high-quality business growth. We believe that every resource of the company should be deployed for driving us towards profitable growth and with this announcement, both Rohit and I are taking a 100% salary cut. The company has made substantial upfront investments in building e-commerce infrastructure, such as marketplace, payments and logistics platforms. Snapdeal will further leverage these technology assets and realign its resources to become a leaner and more efficient business”.