BANGALORE: Online retailer Snapdeal to launch a platform which facilitates innovators to showcase their designed products. Snapdeal is looking forward to enable the entrepreneurs to make their products available to its vast customer based on 2.5 crore.

"It (Launchpad) has been on our mind for some time now. Unlike in the West where, if you have a good product, you can approach a Wal-Mart and get nation-wide distribution, that option isn't available in India. We are hoping to change that," said Kunal Bahl, the architect behind Snapdeal.

The products listed on Snapdeal ranges from common household item to electronics, tools and appliances. However the online company will not take an equity stake in the entrepreneur-led startups. Instead, the products on the platform will be accessible free of cost.

Snapdeal will not charge the entrepreneurs for listing their products instead they will do it free of cost but the business model still remains the same as they do not want barriers. Snapdeal will charge one percent on each transaction made on the website.

To identify and acknowledge entrepreneurs and their products, Snapdeal plans to partner with Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) and with Indian Institute of Technology Bombay’s Entrepreneurship Cell.

Ashwin Joshi the vice president of eco system development at CIIE said that they come across many individual and startups who have developed an innovative product but not been successful due to  lack of resources required for marketing and distribution.  But not anymore as Snapdeal delivers just what’s needed.