Flipkart pulls the plug on Ping, working on user-seller interaction feature

Remember, Flipkart's social feature Ping that let you discuss shopping within the app. The company has now decided to pull the plug on the feature, owing to lack of interest, according to a report by Business Standard. Seriously who used that feature!

Ping was introduced as an invite-only feature, and on installing, one would find a bubble-like chat icon on every page one navigates. Once you start chatting with a friend, it would throw options such as sharing your wishlist, cart, screen share, photos and videos from the gallery, and simply click a photo and share it.

While Ping is gone, Flipkart is believed to be planning a new feature that will allow users to chat with sellers and customer care executives.

The new pilot feature isn't surprising as, at the Surge 2016, Flipkart booth did put up a screen showing Ping that seemed like demonstrating something similar. It should be noted that Snapdeal already has Shopo, which allows buyers to chat with small scale retailers. And, finally Flipkart has also realized that social experience in e-commerce isn't something users prefer, as users have ample of options to discuss shopping over social networks.

Apart from Ping, the company has also discontinued its 'image search' feature, that was aimed at fashion shoppers looking for clothes on Flipkart similar to ones in pictures. A statement from Flipkart cited difficulty with usability as the reason for the features demise, where "many customers struggled with understanding how to upload an image."

Both Ping and Image Search were part of Flipkart's focus on building a mobile-only app ecosystem, with the features being used as hooks to make people download the app on their smartphones. As the company now reverts back to innovating for other platforms such as web and PCs, it is withdrawing the features as well.

While image search will be discontinued, the Flipkart app will retain its visually similar feature which it says has seen a lot more traction from users. Recently the company relaunched the desktop and mobile shopping websites for its fashion subsidiary Myntra, as it looks to tap users who it blocked out by switching to a mobile-only service.

Meanwhile, some other reports floating online claim that a small group of sellers is threatening to cut ties with Flipkart over the new changes in policy implemented by Flipkart.