Flipkart's refurbished electronics platform 2GUD to launch other categories

2GUD has served a million customers from over 3000 towns, with around 60-65% of the orders coming from tier-2 and tier-3 markets

Flipkart-owned 2GUD, an e-commerce value platform for refurbished mobiles and electronics is now planning to launch new product categories by the end of this month that cater to affordable fashion, accessories and beauty. The other categories include toys, stationery and home and electronics such as audio and feature phones (all brand new) to serve customers looking for hyper value products. 

The move comes at a time when the company is witnessing rapid demand for such products from tier-2 and tier-3 cities and towns across the country. 2GUD is focusing to provide products and services to bring the next 200 million Indians into e-commerce fold. 

“This opportunity of unbranded online retail ranges anywhere between $60 billion to $100 billion. But this is a fragmented market and (we are) organising it,” said Chanakya Gupta, head of 2GUD. 

The platform is also focusing on different shopping experiences including vernacular languages and technologies such as voice-based search to reach out to the customers from tier-2 and tier-3 regions. 

So far, it has served close to a million customers from over 3000 towns, with around 60-65 per cent of the orders coming from tier-2 and tier-3 markets from states like West Bengal, UP and Bihar which have previously been underpenetrated by e-commerce.

The company said the expansion of the platform comes with the promise to fulfil aspirations of those who seek styles that are larger than life, within a budget. Present across more than 40 categories previously, the platform will now expand to over 150 categories and over 2000 verticals, beyond the ongoing refurbished space.

“Refurbished is just one way of denoting value to the customers. If the customer wants to buy an iPhone but is not able to afford it, then ‘refurbished’ become one (way) of accessing that brand at a lower price,” said Gupta. “Similarly if the customer is willing to trade off the brand and is more likely to buy an unbranded product because it is good and affordable, that is the segment on which we will concentrate,” he said.

2GUD said its unique selling point is  ‘Desh Ka Style Bazaar’, where the goal is to make the latest trends and fashion affordable and at the fingertips of aspirational Indian. 2GUD will continue to remain a distinct and separate platform aimed at value buyers and would also maintain its refurbished category.