Flipkart joins live commerce rush driven by influencers

Mumbai/Bengaluru: Homegrown ecommerce company Flipkart, majority owned by US-based retail behemoth Walmart, has joined the live commerce bandwagon, in what marks the entry of one of the largest e-tailers experimenting with the medium.

Flipkart is betting big on live commerce and also actively conducting live shopping streams on its app with social media influencers.

It has also created a ‘feed’ — similar to the one on photo and video sharing application Instagram – on its platform where prominent influencers can be seen showcasing various fashion wear that can be bought directly from the feed, according to ET’s review.

Meanwhile, Flipkart’s partnership with regional language social media platform ShareChat has also gone live where influencers are conducting live sessions on its short video app Moj and their followers can buy goods on Moj itself.

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“Building the entire live shopping infrastructure also requires building an entire creator base. And all of that is a very large effort and it is a business vertical itself. If Flipkart goes on to build on their own, it will take significant amounts of time and management bandwidth,” said an industry executive requesting anonymity.

Another source familiar with Flipkart’s plans told ET that its live shopping product has been active for almost a month.

A company insider said Flipkart was building its technology infrastructure in-house, even as its fashion arm Myntra has invested significant time and resources to do the same. Myntra’s live-commerce product
M-live was launched in November last year, ET reported.

Flipkart’s live shopping experience is driven by social media influencers.

According to its mobile application, it conducts multiple live shopping sessions on its application. Aside from live shopping, the company seems to be using influencers with a relatively smaller following – under 100,000 – to appeal to a younger audience. The company is leveraging their following and mass appeal among the younger audience to sell products.

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Social media influencers drive live commerce

Instagram content creator Sandeep Rai operates “basicallymenz” and has a following of about 72,000. He has an ongoing contract with Flipkart to sell “massy looks from homegrown brands”. Most of his content for the company has garnered audiences in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, he said.

“Nowadays, what happens is celebrities have a very wide reach, but it doesn’t have a personalized experience. When people see influencers or a content creator who look like them or are accessible to them, they pay more attention to the content that they’re creating and the kind of products they’re using,” Rai, who has also worked with Myntra, said.

Another person aware of the matter told ET that the product is at an early stage and that it needs to mature for “capabilities to evolve”. “The relevance is not great for the customer at the moment,” the person added.

When contacted, Flipkart confirmed the launch of live commerce on its platform.

“The rise of short-form video as a preferred content format across India today has created the right opportunity for Flipkart to pursue video and live commerce at scale,” said Prakash Sikaria , senior vice president and head of Flipkart’s growth charter. “During the last two editions of our Big Billion Days events, we engaged with a diverse set of influencers for live commerce experiences on the Flipkart app which made the shopping festival more engaging for our customers.”

Prior to Flipkart’s foray, ecommerce players like Meesho, Myntra, Nykaa and short video platform Roposo had also been using influencer-led live commerce to enhance engagement and drive sales on their platforms.

Trell, backed by Sequoia’s Surge programme and Mirae Asset Venture Investments, is another player in the influencer-led video commerce space that has been leveraging its in-house creator base to drive sales for its partner brands.

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Following China’s lead

The efforts of ecommerce and live-streaming focussed companies like Bulbul are grounded on the assumption that live shopping will take off in India just as it did in China earlier.

According to a report by management consultancy McKinsey & Co published last year, the value of China’s live-commerce market grew at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 280% between 2017 and 2020 to reach an estimated $171 billion in 2020.

The report added that the growth intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic, and Chinese sales are expected to reach $423 billion by 2022.

“We know that live commerce is big in China, especially in fashion and beauty,” said Arpit Mathur, partner, Kearney. “In the post-pandemic world, in-store experience has dried up, the concept is gaining even more traction because you can do events through live commerce.”

According to a senior executive, multiple ecommerce companies are experimenting with live commerce to not miss out if it takes off in India.

“Everybody in the ecommerce space is trying to figure out how to make shopping more engaging for consumers. This is all a method to ensure that no stone is left unturned in terms of engaging because nobody knows what really picks up. We would not want to be found short on our efforts in any direction,” the executive said.

Instagram and Reels have had a big role in driving influencer-led commerce, the person said.

“Live stream is a big way of engaging youth because most of them are on mobile browsing content, also interacting a lot with creators. It is a way of staying relevant to the changing behaviour of youth. People who have more time on hand are typically those that end up engaging a lot more,” said an industry executive.

According to a report by Bain and Company in October 2021, live streaming will become commonplace in both long- and short-video format platforms, and investment in creator economy, technology to deliver a hyper personalised experience – as done by TikTok – and a large amount of capital will be key to success.