A reward program powered by Blockchain and Web3 to redefine how customers engage with brands in their online shopping journey

BENGALURU, 14 JUNE, 2023 (GPN)– Flipkart, India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, has collaborated with Hang, the comprehensive customer relationship-building platform to introduce FireDrops 2.0 on Polygon. This innovative brand-first rewards and loyalty program aims to redefine how users connect with brands. FireDrops revolutionises the traditional e-commerce customer journey, offering a perpetual flywheel of motivation, engagement, and loyalty. This brand-first loyalty program, powered by Hang, a US-based web3 loyalty platform, will provide millions of Flipkart users with rewarding experiences such as engaging brand challenges, intriguing mystery boxes, valuable discount coupons, and limited edition brand membership badges. FireDrops 2.0 will launch with a waitlist, and users can sign up to gain early access and be among the first to experience the program.

FireDrops will transform brand loyalty programs by involving the community and using underlying NFT technology for rewards for a better user experience. NFTs enable easy ownership and redemption of rewards, thereby creating new revenue streams for brands and empowering customers to actively participate in the loyalty ecosystem. The program also plans to explore the launch of a dynamic marketplace that allows users to buy and sell rewards, adding flexibility and value to loyalty programs and fostering deeper brand engagement.

The program is being built on the success of its previous pilots, where users engaged in various actions to earn coveted digital collectibles and membership passes, such as Nothing Black Dots during the launch of Phone (1) and eDAO Culture Sparks during The Big Billion Days event in 2022, FireDrops 2.0 aims to provide an even more immersive Brand-first rewards experience.

Naren Ravula, VP, Head of Product Strategy and Deployment at Flipkart, expressed the significance of this collaboration, stating, “By integrating web3 and NFTs into brand loyalty programs, we are revolutionising brand marketing, storytelling, and customer engagement. As India’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace which is constantly innovating, we recognize the value of customer loyalty and more importantly, the emerging space of web3 loyalty. We are excited to collaborate with one of the best in the space for this innovative brand-first rewards and loyalty program.”

Flipkart Labs is the Moonshot factory focused on leveraging emerging technologies to create immersive customer experiences and differentiation for the Flipkart Group. At Flipkart Labs, the technologies that are being worked on currently include 3D, AR, VR, Blockchain and Generative AI.

“The world’s most innovative brands, like Flipkart, have a monumental opportunity to redefine how they connect with their customers and build loyalty,” said Matt Smolin, CEO and founder of Hang.  “The best programs of the future will be gamified, personalized, and web3-enabled.

The next generation of loyalty is here, and we are excited to partner with Flipkart to bring it to the masses.”

FireDrops’ strategic partnership with US-based loyalty platform Hang aligns with Flipkart’s vision of providing its users with market-leading technology. Hang’s loyalty solutions offer sustainable costs, incentivize user participation, cater to the preferences of Gen Z, and provide easy scalability for partnerships. This GenZ-friendly approach reimagines loyalty into community-driven programs that deliver unique and engaging experiences.

FireDrops combines the strengths of Flipkart, Polygon, and Hang, leveraging Flipkart’s extensive presence in the Indian market with Polygon’s scalable web3/blockchain technology, resulting in fast, accessible, and ubiquitous NFTs. Hang, a renowned leader in developing web3 loyalty programs for global brands, successfully partnered with Flipkart through the Flipkart-Polygon Blockchain Centre of Excellence, which was announced in December last year.

About the Flipkart Group

The Flipkart Group is one of India’s leading digital commerce entities and includes group companies Flipkart, Myntra, Flipkart Wholesale, Flipkart Health+, and Cleartrip.

Started in 2007, Flipkart has enabled millions of sellers, merchants, and small businesses to participate in India’s digital commerce revolution. With a registered customer base of more than 450 million, Flipkart’s marketplace offers over 150 million products across 80+ categories. Today, there are over 11 lakh sellers on the platform, including Shopsy sellers. With a focus on empowering and delighting every Indian by delivering value through technology and innovation, Flipkart has created lakhs of jobs in the ecosystem while empowering generations of entrepreneurs and MSMEs. Flipkart is known for pioneering services such as Cash on Delivery, No Cost EMI and easy returns, which are customer-centric innovations that have made online shopping more accessible and affordable for millions of Indians.

Join the FireDrops waitlist – firedrops.flipkart.com

For more information, About Hang

Hang is the premier next generation loyalty platform. By harnessing game design, personalization, and web3 technology, Hang provides brands with a radically new customer engagement solution, making being a loyal customer fun and rewarding.

Hang integrates with leading brand POS and CRM systems, including but not limited to Square, Toast, and Shopify, and has a number of top brand customers across eCommerce, retail, hospitality, food & beverage, and entertainment. Hang has raised funding from Paradigm, Tiger Global, Howard Schultz, Kevin Durant, Mr. Beast, and the founders of Warby Parker, Allbirds, and Bombas, among others.

About Polygon Labs:

Polygon Labs develops Ethereum scaling solutions for Polygon protocols. Polygon Labs engages with other ecosystem developers to help make available scalable, affordable, secure and sustainable blockchain infrastructure for Web3. Polygon Labs has initially developed a growing suite of protocols for developers to gain easy access to major scaling solutions, including layer 2s (zero-knowledge rollups), sidechains, app-specific chains and data availability protocols. Scaling solutions that Polygon Labs initially developed have seen widespread adoption with tens of thousands of decentralised apps, unique addresses exceeding 287 million, over 1.4 million smart contracts created and 2.7 billion total transactions processed since inception. The existing Polygon network is home for some of the biggest Web3 projects, such as Aave, Uniswap, and OpenSea, and well-known enterprises, including Robinhood, Stripe and Adobe. Polygon Labs is carbon neutral with the goal of leading Web3 in becoming carbon negative.If you’re an Ethereum Developer, you’re already a Polygon developer! Leverage Polygon’s fast and secure txns for dApps you develop, get started here.