Meet the team behind the mLive feature

The coffee shops today that are mushrooming and doing well are mostly the ones that are selling something more than a coffee. This something more is not limited to that that satiates only the taste buds but takes coffee consumption to a different level. They sell experience. They sell a cozy space for a solitary reader; they sell smiles, they encourage friends of all age groups to hang out and much more. Similarly, the popularity of Myntra is not because it is a retail store but because it is revolutionizing fashion. Employees at Myntra believe in democratizing fashion by providing an enjoyable and memorable experience. Our technology genius forms the backbone of our ideology of shopping. Shikhar Srivastava, software architect with the storefront department opened up in a candid discussion about a new technology his team is implementing, why there was a need to develop this new feature, the tech complications as well as the impact his work makes towards making India more fashionable.?

How does the Myntra Tech team come up with ideas??

It is nice when a fashion expert helps you choose your wear for a special occasion. We visualize the need and come up with solutions. We saw a need and came up with Studio that provides tips on styling, popular trends, fashion hacks and styles in all price segments. While, Masterclass provides fashion advice from celebrity stylists of premier Bollywood A-listers which otherwise is not possible for a regular individual. The recently launched mLive is a live streaming platform where influencers give styling tips and respond to questions in real time before they share a curated set of products for users to choose from.?

Why did you see a need to come up with mLive?

Fashion eCommerce has seen an unprecedented growth in the last few years. New ways of shopping like live commerce have gained a lot of traction. People are increasingly relying on fashion influencers to guide them on the products to buy. In China live commerce is around $130 Billion currently. An exponential growth trajectory is expected in India too. Myntra being at the forefront of technology decided to build the mLive live shopping experience. We wanted to provide a rich shopping experience that was easy and enjoyable for the shopper while allowing us full control over the entire shopping experience. Hence, we decided to build this in-house feature. It is complex. But we have the tech skills to pull something like this.?

What are the challenges faced building such a feature??

Creating something like this in-house processes multiple challenges. Live Streaming is a beast in itself. There are only a handful of companies worldwide that have built a solution like this on their own. Most firms latch on to either free or paid solutions to power livestream. Unlike a studio environment where you can control most of the pieces like lightning, power drops, camera quality etc., here we are letting influencers run live streams from their own homes or workplace. Controlling the quality of livestream is of utmost importance as this can be viewed by the entire user base of Myntra. Additionally, there is the backend part which has multiple subsystems.?

?Initial challenges to solve were how do we manage interruptions from the influencers side? We had to ensure the live stream does not break on the Myntra users side of things. In this feature, influencers are asked questions real time. We had to ensure there is no delay or lag felt at the user’s end. Knowing that the influencers will be using their mobile device and not studio quality cameras, how do we ensure top quality? I mean, a lipstick shown by an influencer may not garner much attention if the color shows up differently on the user’s device. Plus which device are the users using??

How did you come up with solutions?

Lot of work was done to accomplish this. We built a separate app for influencers and hosts from the one which Myntra users have. Filters, image processing and various other features were added. To make this future proof, we built support for a group of influencers and not just one influencer running the livestream. Like a talk show with multiple influencers talking amongst themselves in real time and broadcasting this discussion to users. We made communication between the influencers real time and ran multiple live streams parallelly. So there is a livestream for lipstick, partywear, office wear all running at the same time. There were a lot of complexities but that added to the experience and learnings.?

?Tell us about a few of your learning from mLive

Myntra loves to operate on cutting edge technology. I can proudly say that we love to experiment and never shy away because the problem statement is tough. This sentiment that flows from the leadership is very contagious and makes us good and effective at what we do.

This project has allowed me to explore a very different side of technology. Video technologies and livestream is a very different sphere in itself with its own set of intricacies. Myntra Studio, Brand Stores and a bunch of features in the app use VOD video generated by the system and the mLive uses the livestream capability of the system. This project gave me an opportunity to learn video technologies in detail and come up with creative solutions to solve complex tech problems.?

?Why should someone consider Myntra as their tech employer?

Based on my experience of working across backend and frontend stacks, building products built on huge robust systems operating in very different domains, I can confidently say, the kind of learning one can get here, is hard to find elsewhere. Here, a techie does not end up working on the same product their entire tenure but has options to get hands-on experience with different products and features. Tech at Myntra is a fast paced environment with a strong push to try the latest technologies. Working at Myntra one will be surrounded by tech geniuses and be reminded everyday of the impact their work makes and realize how they are changing the dynamics of the entire country.?

Explore Myntra careers to help revolutionize fashion eCommerce in India. Visit: https://bit.ly/37t61hT