PayTM social commerce launch

I opened the PayTM app after many days today and noticed a new tile on the front screen called 'Bang - Up to 90% off' - right next to the 'Online Shopping' one.

(side notes - must write about PayTM UI revamp in recent months + the whole cashback --> scratch card transition they're doing, both seem to be inspired significantly by GPay)

So, back to Bang. Interesting. I clicked through to realize that 'Bang' is a social commerce offering.

See screenshot here. Apologies for the very poor quality - PayTM doesn't allow screenshots now.

So what is Bang! exactly?

It's a simple seeming social commerce construct - There are a handful of product offers that are shown to you - If you AND at least 2 other friends buy the product then all of you get the product at the offer price.

If you don't reach the 3 people mark - you get your money back.

So, an interesting return of social commerce in the online commerce conversation, alongside Flipkart touting 2Gud as a social commerce platform (Which frankly I'm completely unable to see - they don't even have a share button on the product listing - it looks like Flipkart's attempt to fight the club factories and Amazon Renewed's of the world together.).

Some people might recall when social commerce last saw a big move - I believe it was Flipkart touting 'group shopping' called Ping back in 2016. This is not counting new players like Meesho which are building a social re-selling model.

The devil, ofcourse, lies in the details. There's plenty of SNAFU potential in Bang!, things like:

1. A No returns policy
2. Workflow for sharing (happens at the end, after payment, and 1-1 over android sharing using a link, rather than natively owning the sharing experience in the app)
3. And finally, the assortment, which to me feels pretty random - no novelty value, brand appeal or fit to my typical browsing. Also, too many options - the appeal of one a day / few a day offers seem to be lost.