Flipkart goes offline with Spice Hotspot

In a unique instance of online and offline retail experience coming together, Flipkart, e-commerce portal, has tied up with Spice Hotspot, smartphone retailer, to showcase its exclusive phone portfolio in retail stores across India. As part of this unique assisted e-commerce model, customers can touch and feel Flipkart’s exclusive range of smartphones at selected Spice Hotspot outlets. The store staff will assist them to place their order on the Flipkart app and customers can take the delivery of the phones at the same store or at their home. This association is aimed at reaching out to a larger target audience, especially the not-so-tech-savvy customers as they can now get a first-hand experience of these exclusive products and place their order conveniently at a store near them.

Taking the customer’s shopping experience to the next level, the two companies will set up exclusive experience zones in these stores with live demo phones on display and sale to customers. Customers will also be able to interact with the stores’ well trained staff about the smartphones and address their product queries directly.

Speaking on the association, Rajiv Sethi, Chief Marketing Officer, Spice Retail said “We are delighted to partner with Flipkart as an offline partner for their exclusive smartphone range. With our wide footprint across India and our well trained store staff, we are confident that we will add a lot of value to our customer’s shopping experience. This unique “online and offline synergy” will offer customers the best of both worlds - the convenience of online retail and the touch and feel in-store experience of offline retail.”

Sandeep Karwa, Director Retail Flipkart, said, "This is targeted mainly at places where online shopping is still catching up. Customers in Tier-3 and Tier-4 towns have heard about online shopping but are still circumspect. This initiative will empower and ease customers from smaller cities to shop online. Overall, we foresee this becoming a big customer conversion tool for our smartphone category."