New Delhi, Jul 8 (PTI) Walmart-owned Flipkart on Wednesday announced the launch of social commerce on its 2GUD platform.

Consumers on 2GUD's social commerce platform will be exposed to a feed of videos made by a hand-picked influencer network across various topics and categories, according to a statement.

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These influencers will curate their favourite products as part of their collection in the virtual store, allowing consumers to witness their styling journeys across categories, it added.

It will also allow consumers to shop the products that are part of the video, without moving away from the video interface, leading to a seamless, natural and content-to-commerce experience, it said.

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"We want the next 200 million customers to be able to experience social commerce comfortably and build their trust on 2GUD as they come on to the platform for an engaging shopping experience. These consumers quite often face trust and style deficits," Chanakya Gupta, head of 2GUD at Flipkart, said.

Influencers are changing the landscape of online retail and bringing greater opportunities for social commerce platforms in India and 2GUD has specially curated a set of influencers who are best positioned to understand the target audience and help them through their buying decisions on the platform, he added.

The company cited industry reports and said social commerce accounts for 15-20 per cent of the online retail market currently, which is expected to hit the USD 70 billion mark in the coming decade.

With low data costs and an increasing market of first-time internet users in Bharat, especially from tier II and III cities, the opportunity for the social commerce industry is growing by leaps and bounds, it added.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)