Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Flipkart and Myntra - Move to Mobile App

Wondering why Flipkart and Myntra are moving away from the mobile website (and desktop version later) to mobile app.

I guess the first reason to shutdown the mobile website is to reduce the cost involved in maintain both app and the mobile website. With the increase in the usage of more and more smartphones by the people. Research say shipments of smartphone increased by eight-fold in just 3 years 80 million sales in 2014 from 10 million in 2011.

Next, people in rural places are more likely and more comfortable to use a app as compared to a website. More and more people opt for 2G or 3G for the mobile phones rather than for a desktop. Usage of internet for the mobile has increased. App ensures them that they are always connected with their customers and can push offers and notifications directly to the phone.

Additionally, advertising on apps is cheaper than the desktop version. This also helps to target the right advertisement to the right people as per the demographic which is easier through an app.

Moreover, the discount sales which they came up with, has seen that more sales happened from the mobile as compared to the desktop version. Myntra’s move to mobile-only was also due to high traffic through the app. Currently, Myntra draws as much as 80 percent of its traffic and 70 percent of sales from its mobile app.  Flipkart generates about 75% of its traffic from the mobile app. Both the shopping apps are among the 15 most-downloaded apps on Google's Android-backed phones in India. Flipkart, which claims to have 26 million registered users, has app downloads of more than 11 million while Myntra app downloads have exceeded six million so far.

It is a bold move to shut the website and have the app. The mobile internet speeds are not up to the mark and this may lead for payment failures. But, there are much more smartphones as compared to laptops and desktops across the country.

Lastly, people can use the app on the move and whenever and wherever they want. App is the latest trend and this will pave way for App Store Optimization (ASO) just like Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I am imagining that Play Store will come up with PPC ads for search as well :)