Snapdeal and Microsoft jointly hold a two-day hackathon

Snapdeal, India’s largest online marketplace, announced that it organised a two-day Hackathon in collaboration with Microsoft India. The collaboration saw engineers from both Snapdeal and Microsoft jointly develop technology concepts and solutions aiming to provide an enhanced seller experience on the online marketplace.

The Hackathon focused on identifying real-life business needs and developing in – house solutions to address these requirements. Two days of continuous coding from the participating Snapdeal and Microsoft engineers led to the development of winning ideas like dynamic machine-based personal assistant for sellers and message-based listing modifiers to ease the online selling process.

Speaking on the occasion, Viraj Chatterjee, VP, Engineering, Snapdeal, said, “Enabling SMBs to do business online with ease and convenience is one of our key focus areas. For this, we have taken a plethora of initiatives to simplify the journey of selling online. The joint Hackathon with Microsoft, witnessed top engineering talent develop innovative solutions to further enhance our sellers’ journey.

Harish Vaidyanathan, ‎Lead - ISV Business at Microsoft India, said, “Technology is changing the face of the ecommerce industry in India. Omni-channel retailing is the new norm in the industry and powered by Cloud technologies, sellers are focusing on delivering differentiated customer experiences. With Microsoft’ cloud technologies at the very centre of these innovations; we are excited to see the disruptive ideas presented by India’s smartest minds during the joint hackathon with Snapdeal. The winning idea delivers social marketing solutions and empowers NextGen retailers while enhancing the experience of the new age digital customer.”

Through a string of initiatives like Fireside Chat with tech industry leaders, What the Hack (an annual hackathon) and internal bug bashes, Snapdeal is steadily working towards fostering a healthy culture of tech innovation.