Flipkart Enters The Metaverse
Indian e-commerce company announces the launch of new Metaverse shopping offering in partnership with blockchain firm eDAO.
E-commerce giant, Flipkart, has marked its entry into Web3 and the Metaverse with a bang as it unveils a new product that aims to transform the shopping experience for the average Flipkart customer. The novel Metaverse offering is targeted at improving the interactive feel for customers during discovery and shopping and upgrading the customer experience significantly.
The Indian e-commerce juggernaut will launch the Flipverse, as it has named the new metaverse product, through a partnership with eDAO, a Web3 firm with Polygon as one of its major incubators. Flipverse, as expected, remains in its early stages, and more work will continue in earnest as both companies look towards attaining operational status later in October.
Flipverse will go live on Flipkart’s official Android app Monday. The metaverse offering promises a rich blend of immersive graphics, gamification, and an interactive experience featuring loyalty points, digital collectibles (NFTs), and games. These loyalty points are called SuperCoins, and they would serve as a reward for customers who buy products on Flipkart. With Flipverse, Flipkart’s partners can easily reward customers with digital collectibles.
Announcing the product and the company’s new direction at a press briefing on Monday, October 17th 2022, Flipkart’s executives introduced several brands who have agreed to partner with them to deliver a Metaverse lifestyle experience with Flipverse. Puma, Nivea, Ajmal Perfumes, Tokyo Talkies, Campus, Noise, Lavie, Himalaya, and VIP are some well-renowned brands that will feature on Flipverse.
The company has also elaborated on its goals, claiming the idea is to onboard millions of users and present Flipverse as the future of online shopping. Although it regards Flipverse and its other Web3 projects as in their experimental stages, Flipkart, through its executives, has expressed confidence in the role of the Metaverse in the future of e-commerce. Executives also noted that the company had long played the role of a pioneer in the region, being the first Indian firm to offer e-commerce based on Web 2.0. It has repeated the feat as the first Indian company to offer e-commerce in Web 3.0.
The launch of Flipverse comes hot on the heels of stiff competition from Amazon, the other e-commerce giant in India. Lately, both companies have pushed new offerings aggressively to onboard new customers and gain a strong foothold in the South Asian market. Amazon’s livestream shopping offering in September saw an influx of over 159 creators who hosted sessions and promoted several products on the platform during the streams.
eDAO, Flipkart’s partner in this adventure, is a Polygon-incubated Web3 company, and the co-founder of Polygon could only express his delight at the collaboration and what it means for the Metaverse, Web3, and the Polygon Network. In a statement, Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, claimed that although progress into tapping the potential of the Metaverse is only minimal, e-commerce represents one of the viable use cases, and the entry of a giant of Flipkart’s status into the Metaverse is a welcome development for the Polygon Network.
Flipverse is Flipkart’s second foray into Web3, having partnered with phone maker Nothing to deliver exclusive NFTs to customers that purchased its smartphones. By providing an immersive virtual environment with several perks for the average consumer, Flipkart is making a bold statement as the future of e-commerce unravels globally.
