Bengaluru: A platform for refurbished products has been launched by online retailer Flipkart. The platform is named ‘2GUD’ and is an independent platform for refurbished products. As of now, this platform will start with a mobile site.
As of now, 2GUD will be offering smartphones, laptops, tablets and electronic accessories while large appliances will be added in near future. The price range of the products will vary from 50-80 per cent of the original product’s price depending on the level of the certification.
This development underscores the etailer’s increased focus on tier 2 and beyond customers. The company recently announced their acquisition of AI-led speech platform Liv.ai, to target a similar customer base.
Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of Flipkart, said, “The refurbished site is for the aspirational customer in India. The refurbished market is unorganised and we want to organize it and break the barrier of trust.”
There were media reports about the plan of the online retailer to come up with a platform for refurbished products based on their “learnings from eBay.” Notably, the online retailer had raised $1.4 billion in 2017 from Microsoft, Tencent and eBay. eBay alone had invested around $500 million and got shares worth $220 million from selling its India business to Flipkart.
However, there wasn’t much activity following that. Then, In May when Walmart announced its intent to acquire Flipkart, eBay had said that it had decided to end its strategic partnership with Flipkart and relaunch eBay India with a differentiated offering to focus on cross-border trade.
Several members from the eBay team have been integrated with Flipkart’s 2GUD team. Products ordered on 2GUD are refurbished by sellers either using Flipkart’s company F1 Info Solutions or other third party services. However, the company offers a post-purchase warranty of 3 to 12 months.
While the current platform is mobile-only, it will soon be available on desktop and mobile app. will soon be taken across other channels including desktop and mobile app.
With this move, Flipkart will compete with platforms such as Zefo, which offer second-hand refurbished products across categories ranging from furniture and appliances to mobile phones.
