Flipkart Launches Its First 'Furniture Experience Centre'

E-commerce major Flipkart on Sunday said that it has launched its first "furniture experience centre", in Bengaluru. The company said that it is also working with Google to enhance customers' overall viewing experience at these centres through integration with Google Lens.

"In order to give a touch and feel experience to customers in an ever-growing online furniture market, Flipkart has introduced its first furniture experience centre in Bangalore," it said.

"Visitors at the experience centre can use their smartphone to scan the 'Flipkart Furniture' icon at the experience centres, which will then route them to the platform's furniture page, allowing them to explore the product catalogue along with their various features."

The statement noted that furniture is one of the fastest-growing online categories, witnessing a surge in demand from across metros along with tier-I and tier-II towns. This is majorly driven by the digitisation wave, growing income in the hands of millennials and improving real estate scenario, thereby expanding the market size for online furniture in India to $17 billion (roughly Rs. 1,17,000 crores) in 2018, it said.

Meanwhile, Flipkart has earlier announced it has revamped its seller onboarding process to ease the first-time e-commerce experience for medium and small businesses (MSMEs). The e-retailer has also stationed 13 regional teams across the country to help onboard sellers in person, by meeting with them at their premises.

These changes to the onboarding process will make it easier for small sellers, who may not have prior digital expertise, to list their products on the platform and access Flipkart's pan-India base of over 150 million customers.