Flipkart bets big on IoT-powered devices

E-commerce major Flipkart is betting big on IoT-powered devices like wearables and smart home solutions and is working with large Indian and global brands to expand these niche categories.

"Home automation category is at a nascent stage in India. For the category to scale up, we need big brands... We are working with brands across these niche categories to bring them to customers in the country, Flipkart Head of Private Labels and Electronics Adarsh Menon told PTI.

The company has partnered tech giant Google to exclusively sell online the latter's 'Home' and 'Home Mini' voice-activated speakers.

"We will work with Google to see how Flipkart's services can be integrated with Google Home. These are work in progress," he said.

He said the wearables category (fitness bands and smart watches) has been growing at a strong pace for Flipkart and it expects to sell 2.5 million such units in the ongoing fiscal.

"Fundamentally, online share of wearables in India, is a whopping 80 per cent and Flipkart commands almost 50 per cent share of this market...We plan to sell around 2.5 million units of wearables between April 2018 to March 2019," Menon said.

The e-commerce major, however, does not plan to launch any wearable as of now under its 'Billion' brand and instead would sell and showcase IoT products from various brands till the market is of a larger scale.

"There is traction in other smart product categories also, like smart lighting, smart surveillance products and smart locks. We expect these to also grow well in the coming days," he said adding that the company is working on bringing new products and brands for the customers.

The executive said there is a need to educate customers about the use cases of many of these smart products, which it is working on.