With a bid to move towards becoming a mobile app-only shopping platform, e-commerce firm Flipkart and its unit Myntra have both shut down their mobile websites.
According to a Live Mint report, spokespersons for Flipkart and Myntra have confirmed that the companies had shut their mobile websites. The desktop-based sites are still functional though both companies are considering shutting them over time.
“Over the past year we have come to believe that we can serve our users much better through our apps simply due to the flexibility it offers. With the app, customers can stay logged in to Flipkart at all times. This helps them save time and get smoother and faster checkouts. Our app is designed to work relatively well even in low bandwidth conditions compared to the m-site,” a Flipkart spokesperson told Live Mint.
Myntra already generates more than 90% of its traffic and 70% of its orders from its mobile app, Prasad Kompalli, head of its ecommerce platform told Live Mint.
“The app is the best way of offering a seamless, personalized shopping experience to the consumer. We don’t want to compromise on the customer experience, so we’ve shut the mobile website. Going forward, we will be launching many innovations on the app that will make the shopping experience even more seamless and personalized,” Kompalli was quoted in the report as saying. Kompalli also confirmed that Myntra may shut its desktop-based website, too.
Kompalli added in the report that mobile and desktop websites are increasingly becoming more and more irrelevant and Indian consumers have showed that they are adopting the app way faster than consumers in the US and even China.
Apart from being able to offer a more personalized shopping experience than websites, mobile apps allow companies to save costs on deploying people and technology on other platforms. Apps also enable companies to advertise and market to customers more accurately than websites, collect more detailed user data and potentially increase customer loyalty.
Flipkart and Myntra have both launched initiatives to shift shoppers toward their apps, including giving app-only discounts and offers, over the past few months.
Recently, Flipkart hired former Google Inc. executive Punit Soni as head of products, partly to accelerate its push into mobile commerce and move sales away from web browser-based platforms.
Flipkart is reportedly in advanced talks to buy mobile marketing technology firm DSYN Technologies. DSYN’s product Appiterate helps clients increase downloads of their mobile apps and drive higher spending on apps by targeting users more efficiently. Recently, the online marketplace also acquired global mobile network AdIQuity for an undisclosed amount.