Snapdeal is going to fire 500-600 employees in next few days

In a bid to rationalise its businesses and make them more efficient, Snapdeal is going to lay off at least 500 employees in coming days.

Earlier, Snapdeal founders had embraced employees about the same, saying “tough times were ahead”.

SoftBank-backed Snapdeal is going to fire around 600 people across its e-commerce, logistics and payments operations over the next few days.

PTI quoted sources saying Snapdeal started the process last week and the reduction will include employees across levels and the process will be completed in the next few days.

A Snapdeal spokesperson told PTI, "On our journey towards becoming India's first profitable e-commerce company in two years, it is important that we continue to drive efficiency across all parts of our business, which enables us to pass on the value to our consumers and sellers. We have realigned our resources and teams to further these goals and drive high-quality business growth."

The company had last reported an employee strength of 8,000 people.

Snapdeal, which has been locked in an intense battle with rivals Amazon and Flipkart, has been struggling to raise fresh capital.

Snapdeal has already taken a number of steps to increase optimisation of operations that resulted in 35 per cent lower delivery costs and 25 per cent lower company fixed costs.

"Building on all of these substantial gains, Snapdeal expects to be the first profitable e-commerce company in India within two years," the spokesperson said.