Now India Can Buy Sneakers in Metaverse too!

Here’s How Indian customers can now order sneakers in the Metaverse for a week.

As significant local e-commerce platforms increasingly experiment with blockchain and the Metaverse, consumers in India are getting more options for a digital shopping experience.

In the gamified and interactive metaverse, Indian shoppers can try out products from brands such as Puma and Nivea. This is due to the launch of a metaverse space for consumers to discover and shop for products in a photorealistic virtual destination by local e-commerce giant Flipkart. On October 17, Flipkart officially announced the launch of Flipverse, to bridge the best of online and offline shopping experiences. Flipverse, created in collaboration with Polygon-incubated organization eDAO, allows shoppers to create a metaverse avatar to shop in a virtual world, to bring customers closer to their favorite brands. At the same time, brands will be able to generate and create their virtual metaverse-ready digital twin.

Flipverse will support unique digital collectibles in addition to contests and exclusive brand offers. Flipverse will feature a variety of brands, including Puma, Noise, Nivea, Lavie, Tokyo Talkies, Campus, and others, according to the announcement. The new shopping experience will be available on FireDrops, Flipkart's newly launched online shopping platform. The Flipverse offering is reportedly in the pilot stage, to attract interest during the holiday season this month. Flipverse first phase pilot will be available for a week, according to Flipkart's announcement. According to Naren Ravula, vice president of product strategy at Flipkart Labs, the Metaverse is one of the "significant revolutions'' in the development of e-commerce and has enormous potential. By giving customers access to their favorite brands, offers, SuperCoins, and digital collectibles, we hope to improve their shopping experiences in a virtual and immersive environment.

The world has only "just begun to scratch the surface of what's possible in the metaverse," and e-commerce is one of the Metaverse's "killer use cases." Flipkart, one of India's largest e-commerce platforms, is known for making cryptic statements on social media. Last year, Flipkart announced on Twitter that it would begin accepting Bitcoin payments, which turned out to be an April Fools' Day hoax. Flipkart is not the only Indian company experimenting with the Metaverse. Tech Mahindra, an Indian multinational technology firm, announced the launch of TechMVerse in February 2022 to provide customers with interactive and immersive experiences. The company was working on up to 60 metaverse projects as of July 2022.