Walmart-backed ecommerce platform has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the industry interface organisation for the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D), Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT).
As part of the MoU, FITT will develop hands-on prototypes and publish research papers related to social commerce, product recommendation to resellers and consumer product exploration journey, in collaboration with the teams at Flipkart. The company and FITT will also jointly organise seminars offering conference travel grants and internship and mentorship opportunities as part of the MoU, said a statement.
“As an organisation committed to solving for India, we have developed numerous industry-first capabilities over the years and continue to push the boundaries to bring customer delight and create shared value for the ecosystem partners. In this endeavour, we are pleased to partner with IIT-Delhi to co-develop capabilities that play a pivotal role in revolutionising the future of social commerce,” said Mayur Datar, chief data scientist at Flipkart.
In July 2021, Flipkart had launched its social commerce platform Shopsy, enabling users to start their online business without any initial investment. Users can share catalogues with potential customers on social media and messaging apps, placing orders on their behalf and earning a commission on each transaction.
Flipkart has previously partnered with other academic institutions including the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), IIIT Hyderabad, IITs Kharagpur, Patna, Bombay and Kanpur, IIMs Ahmedabad and Kolkata as well as Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California, San Diego.
These collaborative projects have led to the development of a range of technologies for Flipkart, including fashion recommendation, query understanding, attribute extraction, demand planning, and others.
