Flipkart bets on 2GUD to woo value-conscious customers

A year after launching 2GUD as a refurbished products platform, Walmart-backed Flipkart on Tuesday said the entity will offer fresh products across categories like fashion, home and electronics to woo value-conscious customers from tier II cities and beyond.

2GUD has served close to a million customers from over 3,000 towns with about 60-65 per cent of the orders coming from tier II and III markets.

"We are changing our positioning from refurbished-only platform to a completely value-conscious platform... We realised that there is a large gap in the fashion and home products market and it is a fragmented market. So by the end of this month, we will start catering to affordable fashion, accessories, beauty, toys, stationery, home and electronics such as audio and feature phones (new) among others," 2GUD Head Chanakya Gupta told PTI.

While he declined to comment on the business generated by 2GUD in the last one year, Gupta said, the goal is to make the latest trends and fashion affordable.

He explained that in terms of pricing, the products will be more affordable compared to Flipkart.

"The merchandising strategy will be towards the unbranded, lower price point selection...This will be pure-play marketplace, where the sellers will source the products. We will start with 100-plus sellers and scale it up going forward," he said.

Gupta said the company will focus on ensuring the affordability as well as the quality of the product.

Flipkart had launched 2GUD in August last year as a platform for selling refurbished goods - a segment that it believes is a USD 8-10 billion opportunity.

"The new business will also drive more customers, many of whom are coming online for the first time. Flipkart is committed to bringing the next 200 million customers online and we see this development playing an important role in that," he said.