Earlier last month, Flipkart launched the ‘Image Search’ feature on the
mobile app, enabling shoppers to use images as a base for discovering
visually alike products. The idea was relatively simple—‘see, shoot and buy’ fashion merchandises, in just a few clicks.
Shopping for products in this category can be quite a task,
especially when users are trying to verbally search and find something
that have visually triggered their purchase intent. In other words,
describing an image can end up running into a thousand words.
A few weeks after the new feature was launched on the Flipkart app,
the product development team wanted to get a true sense of how Image
Search was being received. So Flipkart did something a little
hatke.
The Bloggers Meet
On the first of August, a meet was organized with some of the
country’s best independent bloggers—after all, who better to give a pure
point-of-view than bloggers who dabble in the fashion and technology
spaces, that too every day!
The Bloggers Meet was organized between 10.30 a.m and 3.30 p.m, on
the first of August. And being a Saturday, HRC-Bangalore was chosen as
an apt venue for the bloggers to unwind and for Flipkart to unravel
everything around the newly launched Image Search feature.
With over 100 curious bloggers and many more anticipatory tweets and
messages on social media, the event kicked off with blogger
introductions, giveaways and an opening gig by the Indi Band (courtesy,
our event partner – the IndiBloggers).
The ice breaker was done and the spirit was high on the floor.
Flipkart’s social team was checking on the event trends and noticed that
bloggers had already started tweeting on
#FlipkartImageSearch.
Next up, was Punit Soni, Flipkart’s Chief Product Officer, who took the
stage and gave the crowd an overview of how relevant mobile is in India
and the drastic shifts in adoption that he has seen over here against
the US. The numbers were pretty crazy!
Hands popped up and questions were brewing, but the animated bloggers
had to hold on for some more time. Why? Because the demo and experience
sessions were coming up, to provide some answers to those questions!
The demo session opened up with a video on Image Search, setting the context for its application.
Akshay Rajwade, Director of Mobile Product and Deepali Tamhane, Head
of Discovery & Personalization took the crowd through the Image
Search feature and usage. The other guests at HRC kept peeping over
during the real-time demonstration of the feature.
Curiosity was swelling on the floor and it looked like no one wanted
to wait for the Q&A session. The flood gates opened and questions
poured in. After Akshay and Deepali paddled through most of them, the
experiential games began.
The bloggers were divided into teams and were given the task of using
the Flipkart Image Search feature and finding as many ‘close-to-actual’
search results. Great grub and an open bar kept the ‘spirits’ high and
in the end the team with the most number of positive search hits in
their shopping wish list won free Flipkart vouchers.
The contest was over and the clock struck 3.30 p.m.
#FlipkartImageSearch was on a Twitter rampage throughout the day and was trending in India.
Bloggers were casually catching-up with Flipkart Product team members,
in deep discussions around the feature. The MC tapped the mic, thanked
the bloggers for their participation and feedback, and announced the
close of the meet. With energy still high and buzz still on, the
bloggers slowly parted, and later blogged about their experience.
‘Simply point and shoot an image of the item you are looking for
and the app automatically throws together a list of things specific to
your needs. Not only does it do away with confusion but is also a much
more efficient use of one’s time and a rather simplistic approach to
digital shopping,’ mentions Vikram on his blog
Desi Brands.
‘Just from a daily life example, if I find a nice running shoe
being wore by someone at park next day morning, I just have to take a
picture of the shoe and upload that on Flipkart and I will get similar
matches and recommendations. That means, instead of carrying a paper cut
from a magazine, carrying a picture of my favourite product’s image on
my camera phone,’ writes Amar Shekhar from the Indi Bloggers community.
It was time for the Flipkart team to head back home—some great
experiences to look back at from the Image Search Bloggers Meet and some
incredible insights on the feature for the future.
#Flipkart – waiting for the next feature update.
