Two million and counting; Snupit achieves its ambitious milestone, despite COVID-19

When COVID-19 restrictions imposed a gloomy outlook for South African businesses, Snupit’s growth has shown no signs of slowing down. The company’s growth has had a steady upward trajectory, recruiting more ‘pros’ on the platform, and hitting its 2 million customer requests milestone.

South Africa’s leading online marketplace, Snupit connects customers to thousands of local professionals. The platform was founded by Avinash Samlall when he was unable to find service providers online. Once he identified the gap, it was not long before he set up the platform for local South African businesses. The customer-centric focus, recruiting the best providers in the business and an insightful understanding of the marketplace, has catapulted Snupit as one of the leading online platforms of the country.

Mithundra Sivenandan, Snupit’s Sales & Marketing Manager, stated: “We’re the best in the business, not only because we know the market well, but because we are the market.” This claim is hard to dismiss, especially when the platform has over 350 000 businesses registered across 600+ categories. The company also boasts serving over a million customers each month through their online directory and call centre. As of September, Snupit has hit the two million milestone in customer requests posted by customers through their website and mobile apps.

Snupit continues to show positive signs and growth during the COVID pandemic and seeing an influx of new businesses and service professionals signing up due to the COVID pandemic. The platform also saw a regular increase and decrease of customer requests for different service categories based on the COVID pandemic and lockdown restrictions.

With over 90% success rates for customers requesting quotes, finding and hiring service professionals, Snupit has seen a huge increase in return/repeat customers.

Approaching crucial periods for 2021, such as Black Friday and the festive period, including Christmas and the New Year, Snupit looks forward to assisting hundreds of thousands of new customers to find and hire service professionals to complete their projects.

This achievement is no ordinary landmark for the company given the timing of the milestone. The company had set out to achieve the 2 million objective in 2020, but the unprecedented hit by the pandemic slightly delayed the achievement. At a time when businesses and economies faced serious downturns, Snupit has exhibited continual upward growth manifesting its ambitious goal in 2021.

The uptake of digital channels and technology had accelerated globally as businesses shifted focus to online efforts. Sivenandan further remarked: “The pandemic has been harsh for all businesses. Restrictions and lockdowns greatly affected business activity, and SMEs particularly have been hit hard. During this time, Snupit has served as a valuable platform for businesses to create a digital presence and reach out to customers.”

While business activity took a hit on-ground with lockdowns, the online marketplace kept the ball rolling through customer requests placed online and finding the best service professionals to get the job done. During these tough times, Snupit has not only facilitated customers but also sought to empower local SMEs through its platform. Snupit's sustained growth and its strong and loyal customer base indicates it is well-positioned for a profitable and prosperous future.