Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce company that is backed by Walmart, has launched a pilot program to let customers make purchases in a metaverse setting. Flipverse, a metaverse in which multiple brands can offer their own shopping experiences, was announced by the company.
Flipkart is India’s largest e-commerce company. It has revealed that it will be piloting its own metaverse purchasing experience. This metaverse, called Flipverse, will let customers experience shopping as if they were in a physical store using their smartphone.
The company claims that the experience aims to add gamification and loyalty points to the shopping experience. Customers will be able to collect supercoins or digital collectibles from various brands who have already signed up to participate in the pilot program.
Flipkart formed a partnership to prepare the metaverse experience and launch of the new platform with eDAO (a Polygon-incubated company). Puma has already signed up several key partners, including Noise, Nivea and Lavie, Tokyo Talkies and Campus. They will also be able to offer customized experiences and stand in Flipkart’s metaverse.
An executive at Flipkart stated:
Flipverse is a platform that allows millions of people to experience shopping online. We were the first Indian company that launched Web 2.0-based commerce fifteen years ago.
Today, I believe we are the first to launch Web 3.0 commerce.
Although metaverse retail experiences are limited, the 2017 video showing an example of how purchases would be made within a Walmart-themed metaverse has resurfaced. Flipkart and Polygon believe that there is significant potential for this type of virtual shopping experience in the future.
Sandeep Narwal, co-founder of Polygon, said:
We are only scratching the surface of what is possible in the metaverse. However, we consider e-commerce one of the most significant use cases. Combining the best brands and Flipkart’s expertise in e-commerce in a virtual setting will revolutionize online shopping as we know.
Walmart owns 72% of Flipkart and has launched two experiences called “Walmart land” and “Walmart Universe of Play”.
