Walmart-Backed Indian Commerce Giant Flipkart to Allow Customers to Buy Items in the Metaverse

As Indian online retail giant Flipkart seeks more digital interaction with its customers, the company has announced it will initiate a metaverse offering, Flipverse, enabling them to access “gamified, interactive and immersive” experiences through the firm’s app. 

Backed by U.S. retailer Walmart, Flipkart said “a wide range of brands” which comprises Puma, Noise, Nivea, Lavie, Tokyo Talkies, Campus, VIP, Ajmal Perfumes and Himalaya are cooperating with the business to set up experience theaters with the use of Flipverse, Techcrunch.com reported. 

“The idea is to have millions of users experience Flipverse and open the doors to the future of shopping,” the company’s executives said. 

Flipkart’s web3 efforts are at a pilot phase, but company representatoves say they are expected to become a vital part of the retailer’s near future.

“Fifteen years ago, we were the first Indian company to launch Web 2.0-based commerce. And I feel today we are the first company to launch web 3.0 commerce,” a Flipkart executive stated at a recent briefing.

As part of the metaverse project, the company’s clients will be enabled to collect Supercoins, Flipkart’s loyalty points, and various digital collectibles from partner brands. Flipverse will also host a number of online games.

For blockchain Polygon, partnering with Flipkart represents an opportunity to create synergies and gain privileged access to the company’s customer base in the Indian market. 

“While we have only just begun to scratch the surface of what’s possible in the metaverse, we see e-commerce as one of the killer use cases. Combining top brands with Flipkart’s e-commerce expertise in a virtual environment stands to revolutionize online retail as we know it. Flipverse will be a vibrant, visible expression of the metaverse, and I’m proud that this activation is taking place on Polygon,” Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Polygon, said in a statement.

As of late August 2022, Flipkart had more than 350 million registered users, according to data obtained by local business daily Business Standard. 

As a rising number of major firms are expanding to the metaverse, international consultancy McKinsey estimates that annual global spending linked to the virtual world could reach as much as $5 trillion by 2030. Analysis by Gartner Inc. confirms that the metaverse is the next major innovation in tech. The company forecasts that, within just a few years, one in four people will spend at least an hour per day in the metaverse.