Netcore Solutions Helps Flipkart Reimagine Customer Engagement through Big B Virtual Assistant on WhatsApp

by Priya Jadhav

The e-commerce major witnessed almost 20000 hours of customer engagement through the Netcore-built custom assistant during the Big Billion Days sale

Mumbai, December 20, 2019: Netcore Solutions, a pioneer in SaaS-based Multi-Channel Marketing Automation, AI/ML-powered Martech, and Contextual CPaaS, today announced the incredible success of its Big B virtual assistant on WhatsApp built for Flipkart’s recent Big Billion Days sale.

Netcore helped Flipkart leverage Facebook's Click-to-WhatsApp feature on Facebook Ads by allowing users the real-time experience to chat over WhatsApp with a virtual assistant modelled on the persona of none other than the Big B, Amitabh Bachchan, himself. 

With almost 1.3 lakh unique users engaging in over 9.8 lakh interactions with the Big B virtual assistant over a span of only 5 days, Netcore helped Flipkart scale customer engagement to incredible new highs. In fact, the total time spent by users on the WhatsApp virtual assistant was upwards of 20000 hours, with an average session lasting almost 7 minutes.

This also helped add another entertaining dimension to Flipkart’s flagship Big Billion Days sale, enthralling digital customers across the country.

This one-of-a-kind campaign helped Flipkart engage their target audience on a channel of their preference, writing a new chapter in the evolution of conversational commerce in India. 

Working closely with the teams at Flipkart and WhatsApp, the Netcore-built virtual assistant was able to offer audiences a unique conversational experience. The Big B virtual assistant offered customized category-specific offers on various products based on the audience’s performance in an engaging quiz format. Launched in both Hindi and English, the campaign took into account the large segments of the target audience from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. 

The super-simple interface went all the way down to the use of pre-selected emojis. By merely sending a single emoji, customers received real-time updates on products under that category, shortening the buyer journey significantly. 

Apart from this, audiences could purchase products, apply for shopping loans, or view video messages from various celebrities who were part of the Big Billion Days sale promotional campaign. These video messages were unlocked on progressing to different stages of an interactive game.  The overwhelming response to the campaign had customers and tech insiders raving about the industry-first concept across social media.

Vikas Gupta, Head of Marketing at Flipkart said, "We are a customer first company that takes pride in pioneering industry-first innovations. Given WhatsApp’s large footprint, we wanted to leverage it to connect deeply with our customers. And that’s why we created The Big B WhatsApp virtual assistant during this Big Billion Days, a unique tech-led engagement model in association with Facebook and our technology partners, Netcore. It made use of

several loved features such as emojis, images, and audio - to create a truly engaging experience. We were able to drive almost 1 million interactions with an impressive 7 minutes of engagement per session to drive nearly 20,000 hours of engagement with this initiative."

Kalpit Jain, Group Chief Executive Officer at Netcore stated, “Today, we exist in a multi-channel environment. In this era of conversational commerce, brands need to engage with their customers in real-time across instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp to deliver differentiated customer experiences. That was the focus when we started building out the Big B virtual assistant for Flipkart. We didn’t want it to be just a gimmick, but wanted to actually power value-driven conversations at scale for Flipkart. We are thrilled to have partnered with a like-minded, innovative company such as Flipkart and look forward to empowering brands fuel personalised customer engagement through WhatsApp as an effective channel of conversion and communication.”   

About Netcore Solutions: Netcore, a global marketing technology company offers solutions to help brands and enterprises with customer acquisition, engagement, and retention. The first and leading Marketing Automation, Analytics and AI/ ML solutions provider in India, Netcore was established in 1997 by Mr Rajesh Jain, an Internet pioneer. Netcore’s product suite includes Smartech and Pepipost. Smartech is an AI-powered growth marketing platform. Pepipost is an API-based transactional email delivery platform. 

Netcore serves a strong base of 5000+ enterprises across industry verticals such as Thomas Cook, Go Air, Cleartrip, HDFC, Kotak, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, MakeMyTrip, Lenskart, Swiggy, Myntra, BabyChakra, Dream11, Reliance, Vodafone, ITC, OLA, Pfizer, and OLX. Additionally, it also serves international brands such as PizzaHut Malaysia, Malindo Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Seek Asia, Tokopedia, Blibli, Standard Chartered, FCMB, GT Bank, and many more. Netcore, with its’ innovative marketing technology, delivers 8+ Billion emails and 3+ Billion SMSs a month, creating 11+ Billion customer connects monthly, handling 30+ Billion events a month. Netcore is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in SEA, USA, MEA, and an employee base of 500+.