Ecommerce major Flipkart has partnered with audio streaming platform Pocket FM to launch its audiobooks category. It has also extended its augmented reality (AR) capabilities to offer virtual try-on for beauty products.

Pocket FM licensed audiobooks will be available to Flipkart’s 400-million customer base. According to Pocket FM, India currently has about 25 million audiobook listeners — making it the third largest globally — and this number is expected to double in the next few years. It says it sells over 120,000 audiobooks every month.

Kanchan Mishra, Business Head-FMCG, Home and General Merchandise, Flipkart, said, “Audiobooks have gained great prominence during the pandemic and this collaboration with Pocket FM is in line with our aim to cater to consumers’ evolving needs. This will help authors publish their work on our platform with the aid of audiobooks and reach out to our customer base. Flipkart will assist the author in receiving the appropriate exposure... We believe this collaboration will hold immense strategic importance for the audiobook market in India as we continue to address our users’ appetite for regional content.”

Virtual try-on

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Flipkart now offers a virtual try-on feature for beauty products such as lipstick, foundation, eyeshadow, kajal, eyeliner, compact, concealer, highlighter, blush and mascara from brands like Lakmé, Maybelline, Blue Heaven, Faces Canada and L’Oréal Paris. .

After enabling camera and gallery access on the Flipkart app, users can upload a selfie to find out virtually how a product would look on them, as well as save the image to share across other apps.

Flipkart said a pilot test of the virtual try-on feature showed an increase in the conversion rate among consumers who used it as compared with those who didn’t.

“The e-commerce landscape in India is changing rapidly with millions of new customers from all geographies looking for richer and customised experiences online. At Flipkart, we aim at being at the forefront in bringing technology-led solutions. We are proud to expand our augmented reality(AR)-enabled feature to a category such as beauty, where there are nuanced product differences that customers are acquainted with purchasing offline. This feature will herald a new era for online makeup shoppers, enabling easy access to leading brands while driving growth for lakhs of our sellers,” Mishra said.

The virtual try-on feature was designed and developed by the Flipkart camera team that is part of Flipkart Labs, said Naren Ravula, VP of Product Strategy and Deployment.