WalMart’s Flipkart has launched Shopsy, a platform that allows small businesses and entrepreneurs to build catalogs of products, facilitating e-commerce for companies that cannot afford to set up their own supply chains.
The app gives you the option of sharing the catalogs of over 15 crore products offered by its sellers, which could include fashion, beauty, mobiles, computers, electronics, etc., with potential customers via popular social media and messaging apps.
As long as an entrepreneur has access to a network of people that trust him or her, the app lets him or her launch their business, without the headache of investment, inventory, or logistics. Through social media and messaging apps, they can share catalogs with customers and place orders on their behalf. They earn commissions from the sales. The commission depends on the category of products ordered. Shopsy will be free for small businesses and individuals, but if you wish to sell items on the website, you must pay a market fee.
In the future, Shopsy will also help resellers set up their own websites, said Prakash Sikaria, senior vice-president for growth and monetization at Flipkart.
“The order has to come back to you. When you get an order that people need 10 t-shirts, you can go back to the Shopsy app and place an order and Flipkart will deliver it,” Sikaria said.
Entrepreneurs now can leverage Flipkart’s catalog, delivery network, and infrastructure to bring reliability and speed to their businesses. These benefits will help them enhance the end consumer’s experience, thereby helping them grow their businesses,” he added, adding that Flipkart would act as a conduit between sellers and customers and would introduce all kinds of interfaces, products, and modules.
As of now, Shopsy’s goal is to simplify the digital commerce process by interacting with a trusted person to make it easier for consumers to access products.
It comes at a time when America-based firms are facing mounting pressure in India, after the Karnataka High Court allowed the CCI to reopen its investigation into the homegrown e-commerce market. Further, the BJP government has also tightened e-commerce regulations in the country, which has resulted in increased scrutiny.
