Snapdeal plans to spend $100mn on research

Snapdeal has plans to spend about $100 million on the Multimedia Research Lab in Bangalore, over the next three years, said the company.

The e-tailer intends to map Indian consumer needs and build localised technology solutions which address real concerns and enhance consumer experience.

The technology team at Snapdeal is currently 1000 people strong and the company looks at doubling it by the end of this year. The company has significantly ramped up its technology leadership team and has hired senior leaders from across the globe.

Snapdeal has hired the former Taxiforsure CTO Amitava Ghosh as Vice President, Engineering to lead the development of intuitive technology solutions for ease of accessibility and enhanced user experience.

It added a new dimension to product discovery capability recently and showcased it in the portal, findmystyle.in. The search methodology is very detailed and customised to a consumer’s preference and it helps users discover a product of their choice easily without wasting too much time and effort on the search.

The technology is developed at Snapdeal’s Multimedia Research Lab and a result of an acquisition of a technology start-up called Fashiate by Snapdeal in March 2015.

Analysing the customers’ browsing and purchase patterns, this feature uses intelligent technology solutions, smart algorithms to pre-empt customer needs and offer a plethora of choices with minimal search.

Anand Chandrasekaran, Chief Product Officer at Snapdeal said, “findmystyle.in is powered by advanced computer vision and machine learning algorithms. The feature will further enhance customer experience and make online shopping faster, better and more informative. With the introduction of findmystyle.in, we are looking to create an experimental playground and set the base for our image modelling, product search and discovery technology.”

Source: CIOL.com