Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], January 23: CoutLoot, India’s largest offline to online social commerce platform has launched a video commerce feature that enables small sellers to use short online videos and engage with potential buyers.
The company built on the lines of Taobao said creator economy-led revenue streams could see a massive upsurge and enhance the social experience of both sellers as well as buyers. In its new video commerce plugin format, over 6.5 lakh sellers can put up a video on the app and describe their products and store. The video story will entirely be user-generated content, customized to showcase the sellers’ journey.
“Our video commerce feature is developed while keeping in mind our both set of users – sellers and buyers. Since, our sellers are indegenious local traders, they might not have the technical wherewithal to market themselves. However, they do know how to upsell and our new feature brings out a host of information about the sellers, merchandise and stores,” Jasmeet Thind, co-founder of Coutloot said.
The videos will also bring transparency to the fore – by showcasing real-life conditions of the products, helping buyers validate the authenticity of the sellers and their products. At the same time, sellers can leverage short stories for customer acquisition as videos become social proof.
RedSeer Consulting in a recent report forecasted that the gross merchandise value of live commerce through short videos is expected to reach $5 billion in India by 2025. This is largely driven in small towns, where several companies are focussing to expand distribution through local sellers.
Founded by Thind and Mahima Kaul, Coutloot is a platform that allows buyers and sellers to bargain while shopping. It helps sellers list non-MRP (non-fixed-price), unbranded local market products across fashion, electronics, home decor, sports and other boxed categories that account for three-fourths of India’s retail market.
Coutloot has raised around $10 million from Ameba Capital, 9Unicorns, and Astarc Ventures, among others. The company said its latest feature is intended to gain buyers’ trust that can lead to higher influence on purchase decisions.
The social ecommerce platform has also recently launched a B2B side of the business connecting its sellers to factories for sourcing the products at cheap prices. During the calendar year 2021, Coutloot saw its GMV surge seven times with its platform reaching sales of nearly $70 million.
