Myntra to bridge the gap between inspiration and commerce through content

Myntra recently announced its foray into social commerce through M-Live, the platform’s new social commerce vertical. The company says this charter is likely to engage around 50% of its monthly active users in the next 3-4 years.

M-Live is a vertical available on the Myntra shopping app itself. Speaking about the launch, Achint Setia, VP, and Business Head, Social Commerce, said audiences are looking at new ways to shop and looking for inspiration in the community. He said with this, Myntra is bridging the gap between inspiration and commerce.

“If you look at the customer journey today, they are discovering a lot of content that inspires them and gives them ideas. So, what we're going to do is to bring content-led inspiration and shopping together, and provide an end-to-end experience to our customers,” he said.

Setia also spoke about the growing command of influencers and creators in the ecosystem and said the platform endeavours to find people who can create inspirational content. They don't want just entertainers, but entertainers who are also fashion and beauty influencers.

“The customers are looking for the next big thing in the community, they are looking to follow influencers who can give them the right fashion advice and experiences which are worthy of their time,” he added.

Upon being asked what will attract influencers towards the app, as they have an established audience on platforms like Instagram, Setia replied, “I believe this is a great opportunity at this point in time for the creators in the country. If you have a passion for beauty and fashion and are ready to put your neck out and make it a profession, Myntra is ready to offer tremendous monetization opportunities for you.”

He said apart from influencers, they are also noticing a lot of excitement from brands who want to partner, as the proposition is yielding a lot many layers and bringing new experiences for them. “The biggest advantage for brands is it enables them to form their own communities and regularly engage with consumers and offer them experiences, rather than just have a transactional relationship.”

Myntra has been focusing on creator-led content for a while now. M-Live will aim to facilitate real-time engagement between consumers and brands. It allows influencers and experts to host live video sessions of product and styling concepts curated by them, on the Myntra app, enabling viewers to shop instantly. There is also an option to get stylish recommendations from experts on the platform.

The brand also has a reality show, ‘Myntra Fashion Superstar’, which also runs as a shopping digital reality show. The show is currently in its third edition and is empowering the creators and the creator economy. Apart from this they also have Myntra Studio, which is a personalized content platform meant to inspire the audience. The platform has grown by 25 times in the last 6 months itself. Some of the leading brands on Myntra have 2-3 times larger communities on Myntra-Studio and witness a 3-4X higher engagement, in comparison to other similar influencer-led platforms, said Myntra.

When asked what makes Myntra’s social commerce verticals different from others in the space, Setia gave an example he said ‘colour’ is important when it comes to fashion and beauty. When someone wants to showcase an item of clothing, chances are that the colour might end up looking different than the actual product due to the camera, lighting, etc. He said the platform’s colour sharpness is much better than others in the game.

“The other key aspect is latency, the time it takes for the video to reach from the host device to the user's device. We are again better than a lot of other service platforms, being the most proficient and able to do streaming content far more effectively than others, the reason for this is that Myntra has learned this and perfected this over many years.”

“We really don't worry about what others are building, it is important for us to understand what is it that our customers want. This is where we have invested a lot in technology, our own proprietary technology, where we can bring shopping and entertainment on the app,” he added.