PwC to assist Snapdeal with its Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) programs

As part of the engagement, PwC has assisted Snapdeal to define the overall ESG Vision and in mapping the current ESG practices of the Company considering the relevant global ESG frameworks in accordance with the standard industry practices.

Snapdeal is  working on the development of an enabling  e-commerce ecosystem for sellers, democratizing access for value-conscious buyers and catalyzing economic opportunities beyond the top 10 Indian cities.

While the last year and a half have been both unpredictable and disruptive, Snapdeal has continued to further its various initiatives that seek to assist various stakeholders.

Some of the recent initiatives by Snapdeal include

●        In September 2021, Snapdeal rolled out an option for new mothers to avail of six months of work from home (WFH) after the completion of six months of maternity leave.

●        “Jaldi Payments” initiative for sellers: In March this year, Snapdeal rolled out fast-track payment options for sellers.  The sellers can opt to receive a payment within 3 days of the delivery of their shipment, for a minimal fee which is a fraction of the cost that they would incur in accessing funds from a bank, NBFCs, or other sources.

●        To promote access to online education channels for its seller partners, Snapdeal in partnership with Khan Academy launched the Foundation Program, a digital learning initiative for students in Classes 1-10 in English, Hindi, and Kannada.

●        To expedite the dispute redressal and enhance customer satisfaction, Snapdeal is working with SAMA, an online dispute resolution (ODR) specialist. It ran a pilot to resolve some of the pending consumer disputes. Of the total cases, Snapdeal was able to achieve comprehensive dispute resolution in nearly a hundred cases, thus, achieving a 50 percent success rate. Cases that usually take up to three years to resolve, were settled by the Sama Suljhao Manch within 15 days.

●        In 2020, Snapdeal on-boarded experts from the Indian Institute of Counselling to provide easy and confidential access to its employees who wish to seek counselling support to handle any issues of anxiety or stress in their lives. The need for this was acutely felt due to pandemic related uncertainties.

●        To help protect intellectual property and help brands fight counterfeits,  Snapdeal’s  “Brand Shield” program offers a simple and online, triple-checkpoint process for brands to report any violation of their intellectual property rights in terms of trademark, copyright, patent or design concerns. Brands can also list specific issues relating to unlawful copying of logos, brand images, design features and packaging.

Snapdeal has also supported a variety of causes through CSR initiatives in collaboration with Akshay Patra, Goonj, Habitat for Humanity, and others, including providing mid-day meals for children, running menstrual health and hygiene awareness programmes, and providing stationery kits for underprivileged children.

For many of these initiatives, Snapdeal helped connect willing donors to worthy causes so that required donations in kind could be made available to the NGOs supporting the causes.

“As one of India’s leading online brands, we touch the lives of millions of users and service partners across India. This presents us with both an opportunity and the responsibility to leverage our presence for the larger good. PwC will help knit together our ongoing and future societal and environmental initiatives towards helping build inclusive communities and a healthier environment.  We are proud to partner with PwC in advancing our sustainability agenda that will benefit all stakeholders,” Snapdeal added.