Flipkart-owned Myntra is banking on shoppable videos to boost engagement and drive the next phase of sales growth amid rising competition.
On July 4, Myntra announced the launch of Glamstream, a shoppable lifestyle content destination that will offer over 500 hours of bite-sized video content to consumers in the first phase. This includes music videos, chat shows, styling and beauty shows and vlogs across travel and weddings among others.
As part of this launch, Indian rapper and singer Badshah will be premiering his new song 'Jordan' on the platform, which will be exclusive to the Myntra platform for 48 hours. People will be able to shop Badshah's entire look in real-time while watching the video.
Myntra has partnered with over 50 media houses including Filmfare and Zoom and over 100 celebrities like Badshah, Vijay Deverekonda, Tabu, Zeenat Aman, Raveena Tandon, Tammanah Bhatia, Khushi Kapoor, Malaika Arora for this initiative. Content creators like Sakshi Shivdasani, Naina Bhan, and Raj Shamani will be part of the lineup as well.
Myntra chief marketing officer Sunder Balasubramanian told Moneycontrol in an interview that they are also experimenting with podcasts and fictional shows and scale up the offering based on adoption.
"We are looking at it from a fashion, beauty, and lifestyle perspective. At the end of the day, it’s about driving inspiration to shopping. So that's the lens that we will use for the content that we will put out. We know just entertainment doesn't work — We are not a social media app. It has to have that linkage," he said.
Read: YouTube partners Flipkart, Myntra for India shopping push
Bringing discovery and shopping in one place
Glamstream will offer a mix of exclusive and shared content to consumers, 90 percent of which will be short form videos. 15 shows will be exclusive to the platform and over 4000 episodes will be shared, the company said.
"Fashion and beauty shopping has largely moved away from the world of catalog-related shopping to content-based shopping. People find inspiration on the back of content that they see on social media, which is becoming an enabler for shopping itself," Balasubramanian said.
However, discovery and shopping still happen on different platforms. With Glamstream, Myntra aims to bring inspiration, discovery, and shopping together in a single place, he explained.
"The goal with Glamstream is to increase the engagement on our platform by 15 percent and double the revenue from content-based commerce in the first year," he said.
The content destination will be accessible through a prominent floating button on the homepage. Each content piece will showcase interactive product trays that allow viewers to shop featured and relevant fashion and beauty items in two steps: first viewing product details, then adding to cart.
Using AI to surface relevant content
Myntra plans to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to surface personalized content tailored to different consumer types.
"It's not just about what kind of content shows up for which audience, but where in their journey it appears: what surfaces on the homepage, during browsing, in search, and after completing a purchase" Balasubramanian said.
Another key area is helping shoppers and content creators with tools for the video creation process, although Balasubramanian noted that this is still a work in progress.
That said, Myntra has no plans to use AI for content generation. "There is a lot more trust and relatability that comes specifically from real people putting content out there," said Lakshminarayan Swaminathan, Head of Technology, Product Management and Design, Myntra.
Myntra's social commerce journey
The launch of Glamstream marks the next major step in Myntra's social commerce journey, which began with Myntra Studio in 2020, featuring static influencer images. The company later expanded into live commerce with M-Live and short videos with Myntra Minis, a couple of years later.
In 2024, Myntra introduced Ultimate Glam Clan, an initiative that allows shoppers to post photos and videos reviewing products purchased on the platform and earn commission. The company claims that over 1 million shoppers have signed up for the programme and these posts have generated over 4.5 billion views. This content will now be integrated into Glamstream.
"As we build the future of shopping around this new behavior, phase one is focused on driving user adoption and understanding the nuances of how content on an e-commerce platform differs from content seen elsewhere. That’s the stage we’re currently in," Balasubramanian said.
He added the second phase will involve enabling the company's partners across the country to collaborate and engage with the offering.
"But first and most importantly, it's about building out the platform in terms of usage and driving purchases" Balasubramanian said.
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