BIS Starts Examining The Need For Regulating Live Commerce In India

SUMMARY

The development has come at a time when the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has floated a ballot to register a new proposal on live commerce

BIS too has sought comments from members after the ISO move

Over the past year, many major ecommerce players started foraying into the live commerce space

The Indian government has started discussions with stakeholders to regulate live commerce in the country.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has started to examine the need for guidelines for live commerce, ET reported.

The development has come at a time when the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has floated a ballot to register a new proposal on live commerce. Following this, the BIS has sought comments from members of its retail, ecommerce and e-payment services sectional committee.

“The idea essentially here is whether to follow the ISO guidelines or to customise as per market need,” a BIS member said as quoted in the report.

The committee consists of representatives from companies including Amazon India, Flipkart, Tata group, Reliance Industries, Paytm, Shiprocket, BigBasket, and others.

It also counts officials from the ministries of electronics and information technology, MSME, corporate affairs, as well as representatives from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Quality Council of India and industry bodies such as Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) as its members.

Live commerce is an influencer-led, interactive commerce that integrates recommendation tools right into the buying experience. India’s live commerce market is expected to clock a gross merchandise value (GMV) of $4-$5 Bn by 2025, driven by beauty and personal care, according to a RedSeer report.

Over the past year, many major ecommerce players have started foraying into the space. For example, Amazon launched its live commerce feature called Amazon Live in India at the sidelines of its The Great Indian Festival 2022 sale.

Earlier in 2022, Walmart-backed commerce platform Flipkart too roped in a host of content creators to debut its live commerce features. Flipkart’s fashion and lifestyle ecommerce arm Myntra also launched its live-commerce feature M-live in 2021.