Ecommerce major Flipkart on Tuesday (September 5) announced the launch of its metaverse-powered immersive virtual shopping feature, Virtual Worlds.
With an eye on enhancing customer experience and engagement, the new offering will be available on the Flipkart app. Virtual Worlds are 3D-rendered metaverse environments where users of the platform can engage with different brands and try out products.
Modelled after offline stores, the new feature will allow Flipkart customers to participate in gamified web experiences while interacting with a product.
Overall, the immersive shopping experience will be available to users in two formats. While brands will be able to create dedicated and customised Virtual Worlds on the Flipkart app for their products to attract and engage shoppers, they will also be able to simply list on a ‘co-tenancy’ basis within Flipkart’s own Virtual World called Flipverse.
“Brands can establish 3D stores for standout discovery, inspiring purchases, and rewarding customers through gamification, thereby crafting a distinct brand image,” said Flipkat in a statement.
Besides, the company also announced the launch of its ‘Laptops Virtual Showroom’, which enables buyers to explore laptops in an immersive setting.
Commenting on the development, Flipkart Labs’ head Ravi Krishnan said, “… Brands have the opportunity to virtually present their unique characteristics, forging closer relationships with customers. The co-tenancy feature within Flipkart’s Metaverses allows brands to present a variety of products in a shared 3D space, setting the stage for the future of shopping.”
Meanwhile, Flipkart Labs claims to have multiple new Virtual Worlds launches in the pipeline as the festive season approaches. The ecommerce major also added that brands will be offered a ‘special opportunity’ to allow users to explore products in 3D on Flipverse during the festive period. There was no further clarity on what this special opportunity was.
Flipkart is also partnering with Bengaluru-based Web3 platform Layer-E to build these Virtual World experiences.
“Flipkart Labs enables the Virtual World experiences in collaboration with brand-facing teams within Flipkart including the Ads & Category teams, and a key external tech partner – Layer-E. Layer-E builds immersive infrastructure for Web3 commerce with global brands and creators, as well as art, media, and entertainment IPs,” the company said.
Flipkart claims to actively leverage emerging technologies such as 3D, augmented reality (AR), blockchain, and generative AI to enhance shopping experience for its 45 Cr users. Leading from the front, the ecommerce major has been tinkering with such technologies at least for a few years now.
It launched the 3D and AR features back in 2021, and followed it up by the introduction of beauty and makeup try-ons on its app. It also piloted Flipverse last year, which, as per the company, achieved the largest ecommerce metaverse activation globally. During the six day trial, users from 2,300 cities streamed 20,000 hours of content on Flipverse to discover products virtually in an immersive fashion.
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