bengaluru, Sept. 22 -- India's value-commerce market is moving beyond the simple promise of cheap products, with platforms experimenting with new ways to attract shoppers, deepen engagement, and drive repeat purchases. Flipkart's Shopsy, launched in 2021, has rebuilt its app around artificial intelligence-powered personalization, video-led discovery and gamification, turning shopping into a more interactive experience for Gen Z and the country's next 100 million shoppers. This has shifted Shopsy from an offers-led destination towards an engagement-led platform, with games, rewards, and video built into the shopping journey. Amazon Bazaar is taking a different route. After starting as a separate destination for low-priced products, Amazon has brought value commerce deeper into its main app. Sellers no longer need separate listings for Bazaar, while qualifying products can receive a Bazaar badge and appear in regular Amazon search and in the dedicated Bazaar store. "When you're coupling crazy low prices with Amazon's trust, we believe it's creating an unbeatable combination that customers are not able to find elsewhere online," Sameer Lalwani, head of Amazon Bazaar, told Mint. He added that selection has grown threefold over the past year, while customers and orders have grown fivefold. Customers from tier-II and tier-III cities have grown eightfold. Kunal Bahl-founded Snapdeal, meanwhile, is leaning heavily into fashion and apparel within the value-commerce segment as it prepares for a Rs.300-crore fresh issue initial public offering (IPO). Shopsy is also focusing on localization. It has more than 16 million products across 1,300-plus categories, sourced directly from sellers and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), and uses regional storefronts, AI-powered discovery, and a zero-commission model to strengthen its value proposition, the company said in response to Mint's emailed queries. This comes as the value opportunity itself expands rapidly. Market research firm Kearney estimates that the country's value lifestyle e-commerce market will grow to $40 billion by 2030 from $4 billion in 2019. E-commerce is expected to be the fastest-growing channel in the segment, with a 26% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2019 and 2026, compared with 12% for modern trade and 5% for general trade. Yet the market remains overwhelmingly offline. E-commerce's share of value lifestyle retail will rise from just 4% in 2019 to 13% by 2026 and 19% by 2030, according to Kearney, leaving offline value retailers with the bulk of the market even as digital becomes an increasingly important channel. Aakash Agrawal, associate director (digital and new-age business) at Anand Rathi Investment Banking, said the next phase of the market would involve a shift beyond price. "The next wave of online value retail won't be a pure race to the bottom on price but about mixing affordability with real engagement, shopping frequency, and standout customer experiences," he said. While there are no specific market-share estimates for value e-commerce, Meesho is widely considered the segment leader, while Shopsy, Amazon Bazaar and Snapdeal remain relatively small, according to Satish Meena, analyst at market research firm Datum Intelligence. Meesho's revenue jumped 48% year-on-year to Rs.3,713 crore in the June quarter, while losses narrowed to Rs.133 crore. Shopsy's new app embeds gamification directly into the shopping experience....