More than one in four Indians likely to visit Flipkart during the BBD festive sales event | Company News

“Our enhanced supply chain technology, including machine learning for route planning and faster sorting, is enabling faster deliveries across 19,000 zip codes,” said Harsh Chaudhary, Head of Growth (Vice President) at Flipkart. “We are also expanding same-day and next-day delivery.”

Flipkart said that during this BBD, sellers will be able to offer better value to their customers through the simplified price list, updated shipping rates and cheaper Fulfilled by Flipkart (FBF) prices. This price list redesign is part of Flipkart’s wider initiative to streamline operations and provide robust support to its vast seller network across India. The company said that since the introduction of these policies, it has seen growth in seller business across India.

Engagement for Flipkart’s Brand Mall mode, which offers customers access to premium brands, is expected to double in BBD 2024 compared to last quarter.

Video commerce

Flipkart is also betting big on video commerce for this year’s BBD. The company recently launched a ‘Live Commerce’ stream that garnered 1.4 million views within 2 hours. This is the highest recorded engagement for a live stream on Flipkart so far. Products like watches, bandhini saris, t-shirts and kitchen sets featured in the stream saw a 20x increase in searches during the stream compared to pre-stream. The company also observed a 40 percent YoY increase in ‘queries per second’ during the live stream hours. About 55 percent of these customers are from Tier-3 regions and about 85 percent of the live stream customers are below 35 years of age.

“With this BBD, we are making the Flipkart shopping experience more intuitive, comprehensive and immersive by integrating advanced technologies to meet the evolving needs of customers,” said Ravi Krishnan, Head of Category Experiences at Flipkart. “Given the early success we have seen, we remain laser-focused on growing our video commerce and immersive shopping experiences. We believe experiential shopping plays an important role in helping users visualize products to make informed decisions,” said Krishnan.

With this in mind, Krishnan said that the company has introduced a host of new and innovative artificial intelligence-based features this year to enhance the shopping experience.

Flipkart, for example, has launched generative AI-powered 3D product explainer videos. These include various features like voiceovers for better product understanding.

There is also a feature that lets users try on watches virtually on their wrist to boost their buying confidence. This feature is available on 150 smartwatch products on Flipkart. Features like ‘Beauty Looks and Virtual Try-On’ offer customers a personalized experience.

The company’s “Stylemate” feature uses multimodal AI to help users find visually similar products. For example, it answers queries like, “I want this kurti but with a different pattern.”

Flipkart says 50 percent of its catalog is now video-enabled, including top video categories like t-shirts, women’s clothing, backpacks, facial cleansers and moisturizers.

There are also nearly 100,000 styles under Flipkart’s ‘Flip In Trends’, a program by Flipkart that aims to offer trending products to consumers. It is powered by generative AI, merchandising and technological enhancements and is available on the Flipkart app.

Leading e-commerce companies Flipkart and Amazon are launching their annual flagship sale events on September 27 with 24-hour early access for their Prime, VIP and Flipkart Plus members.

First published: September 24, 2024 | 9:42 p.m. IS