Flipkart’s social commerce platform to bolster tier 2 presence as users hit 200k

Shopsy, the social commerce platform from Walmart-backed Flipkart, said it has onboarded over 200,000 active users within a month of its launch.

The company is aiming to achieve 20x growth ahead of the festival season in India, a time when digital platforms and other retailers traditionally achieve record sales.

Photo credit: Flipkart

Shopsy also announced the launch of a zero-commission marketplace, with a focus on smaller sellers across categories like fashion and grocery, among others. The marketplace is likely to help the platform strengthen its presence in tier 2 cities and towns.

According to Flipkart, 70% of its customers come from tier 2 and tier 3 cities, and Shopsy is likely to help it scale this number to 90%.

Flipkart hopes its low-cost logistics network and buy now, pay later programs would further drive its social commerce foray.

“Shopsy is growing 100% week on week. The platform is demonstrating the behavior of a typical social app, and virality is starting to kick in,” said Prakash Sikaria, Flipkart’s senior vice president for growth and monetization.

The company’s big bets on Shopsy come as the social commerce space heats up in India. According to a Bain & Company report, social commerce in the country will be worth up to US$20 billion by 2025 and up to US$70 billion by 2030.

Shopsy’s biggest rival is Facebook-backed Meesho, which raised US$300 million in a recent funding round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The fundraise valued the company at US$2.1 billion, elevating it to unicorn status.

Google has also joined the fray with YouTube’s acquisition of a two-year-old video-driven social commerce platform called Simsim. Other social commerce startups such as Citymall and DealShare have also drawn investor attention.