Flipkart on Monday unveiled a metaverse-based shopping platform called Flipverse, in partnership with decentralized music and entertainment firm eDAO. The platform will be in an early adoption phase and will only be available to Android users for a week, the e-commerce company said. The first phase will involve 15 brands including apparel brand Puma, cosmetics and personal care brand Nivea, and homegrown electronics brand Noise.
Flipverse is part of Flipkart Labs, which was unveiled in April to build “blockchain and metaverse use cases” including virtual storefronts. Users will get virtual avatars and a future version of the platform would also include collaborative shopping experiences, where users will be able to interact with each other’s virtual avatars when shopping.
Flipkart said it does not plan features such as the ability to link cryptocurrency wallets to the platform to migrate their NFTs. Flipverse will also not feature its token for the time being. However, Flipkart said that users shopping on the platform will win NFT rewards, which can be monetized for physical items.
Industry experts said metaverse e-commerce offerings would be largely educational and promotional. Sanjay Kothari, associate partner at market research firm Redseer, said, “There may not be immediate returns from metaverse experiences. However, given the reduced attention spans among users, brands aim to create more engaging experiences for shoppers.”
As the experiences are at an early stage, most of the user engagements will be driven by mature users from tier-I markets, Kothari said. “The early examples of e-commerce metaverse adoptions will mostly come from large companies such as Flipkart, as even if a small percentage of a platform’s million-odd user base tries it out, it will lead to a cumulatively constructive pilot experience for such projects,” he said.
As such, brands may aim to adopt such experiences in increasing frequency as e-commerce platforms seek to drive user engagement and awareness activities towards new technologies, Kothari said.
The move marks the latest push for metaverse e-commerce experiences in India, a nascent space now. Brands such as home automotive components brand Ceat Ltd, multi-brand footwear retailer Metro Brands, and textile conglomerate Mafatlal Industries had signed deals to be part of the metaverse space, said Toshendra Sharma, chief executive of NFTically.
