Microsoft launches online store through Snapdeal to service consumers in India

Microsoft has announced its latest move to infiltrate the potentially lucrative Indian market — it’s launching a digital store through online marketplace Snapdeal.

Similar to the likes of Flipkart or eBay, Snapdeal lets anyone set up a store on the platform — including tech juggernauts such as Microsoft. Shoppers will be able to nab Lumia smartphones, PCs, tablets and software through the site, which will deliver to 5,000 towns and cities across India.

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has launched an online store through a third-party platform — back in 2013 it introduced an eBay store in the U.S., and last year it rolled out a store on Amazon India.

Though Microsoft already has had an online presence in India for a number of years, including selling software through its own website, launching a hardware-focused store through Snapdeal is indicative of the reach the ecommerce portal has — Microsoft clearly feels it can garner greater mindshare this way.

Indeed, Snapdeal has emerged as something of an ecommerce titan since it was founded initially as a daily deals site in 2010. In February last year, news emerged that eBay was leading a $134 million funding round into Snapdeal, and the New Delhi-based company secured a further $100 million in equity financing just a few months later.

“Increasingly consumers are going online to shop for a number of things, including mobiles, tablets, laptops, and software,” said Sharlin Thayil, group OEM director at Microsoft India. “We therefore see tremendous opportunity in delivering Microsoft products and services through our online store to these customers.”

Ever since the $7 billion acquisition of Nokia’s devices division last April, Microsoft has been steadily eroding the Nokia name in favor of its own Lumia brand of smartphone. While Nokia may have fallen out of favor in the West, it actually remained strong in emerging markets, including India, meaning Microsoft has continued to target these countries with a number of budget phones, including the $70 Lumia 430.

Today’s news follows the announcement this April that India was to be the launch market for the first Microsoft Priority Reseller store, with 9,000 Nokia stores and 120 Care Centers to be rebranded as Microsoft Authorized Resellers. The rebrand continued globally a couple of months later.