Shopo Launches Peer to Peer Chat & Vernacular Content

After Flipkart’s Ping, Snapdeal’s mobile only zero commissioned marketplace, Shopo, has launched peer to peer chat functionality for its customers.

The peer to peer (P2P) chat feature allows buyers on Shopo to chat and exchange views, product images with their social groups and friend lists for quick shopping.

Besides, Shopo is also piloting its vernacular content in Hindi.

Sandeep Komaravelly, Senior Vice President at Shopo said that Shopo was designed to cater rising demands for open and free models of commerce that allows convenience and direct engagement between buyers and sellers. To strengthen this bond Shopo has introduced a similar behaviour of peer-to-peer chat to offer offline shopping experience. He added, “Keeping in mind our vision to create life changing experiences for buyer and sellers we have initiated our vernacular journey.”

Shopo has over 20,000 shops listed on its platform with over half a million products.

Shopo’s android app will have some features in Hindi language in order to provide convenience to their buyers and sellers engage and transact in vernacular language.

Shopo has updated its app with some new features for a seamless experience. The new features include buyer-seller ratings, tools to set up and promote shop, product cards and more.

With a plea to invest over $100 Mn (about INR 665 Cr.) in Shopo, Snapdeal is creating Shopo as a platform to build commerce through chat engagements. This essentially involves an exchange akin to real-life situations where business-owners can share product images and information with prospective buyers and close exchange through mutually convenient modes of transaction and delivery. The peer to peer chat feature has added a layer further to engagement in Shopo’s platform.

The growing smartphone penetration and proverbial social platforms have given rise to a trend of social shopping. Last month, Flipkart had launched Ping for its mobile app users to enable buyers share their buys or wishlists with their phonebook contacts and social groups. Shopclues too had rolled out a chat platform to connect its stakeholders.

Apart from the bigwigs like Snapdeal, Flipkart and Amazon, startups like Violet Street and Clipr which enables a buyer or shopper to discuss and decide or even shortlist the product that they want to buy through social shopping.

Though the fashion industry may have boomed a big number but great minds always find a way to disrupt it.

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