Flipkart, in a Bangalore launch event today, announced the launch of Ping — a new feature embedded within the app, which lets you ask your friends when you’re puzzled while shopping — in short, a social networking experience added to your shopping experience.
Flipkart’s Ping can be accessed by clicking on a ‘Chat icon’ on the top-right corners of the app. Once clicked, you can simply share products with friends in your network and take their recommendations for buying a particular product.
However, Ping works in a way closer to WhatsApp and less closer to Facebook. This is because, with Ping, consumers get to choose contacts they want to share their chosen products with and have real time conversation with them on the Flipkart’s app.
Drag. Drop. Share. 3 easy steps to social shopping with #FlipkartPing pic.twitter.com/jyHJFrQvRn
— Flipkart (@Flipkart) August 25, 2015
“Shopping is primarily a social activity and going for it with friends and family has been the norm since time immemorial. Online shopping, on the other hand, has largely remained a solo experience. Ping aims to transform online shopping by allowing users to talk to each other [in] real-time in order to make decisions and decide on what to buy,” said Flipkart’s chief product officer, Punit Soni.
The feature, just like Flipkart’s previous Image search feature, isn’t new though. Many startups have ventured out to build great apps in social shopping domain, helping you connect with your friends while you browse through products.
However, apart from ping’s launch, it was Flipkart’s focus towards Mobile app traction and consumer numbers which sounded interesting. The company just recently announced that it is not going the app-only way, in the near future at least. Thus Punit Soni’s presentation was perhaps to convince people and prepare a platform for the app-only way.
More to come, Stay tuned.
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