Flipkart to go Myntra way, shut website by September: Sources

ssdivisiongermany1933

Still in war with allies
BENGALURU: When Myntra did it, it was a highly controversial move. But less than two months after the fashion e-tailer switched to an app-only strategy, parent company and India's largest online retailer Flipkart too has decided to morph into an app-only player.

The company's chief product officer Punit Soni informed employees at a town hall meeting last week that Flipkart will operate with only a mobile app from September, said sources familiar with the development.

Flipkart's planned phase-out of its web presence indicates phenomenal traction among Indian consumers to make purchases through the mobile app thanks to exponential growth of smartphones and mobile internet.

The app also allows e-tailers to create personalized shopping experiences for consumers by understanding their location, preferences and purchase patterns, something that's not possible to do to the same extent on the web.

When TOI asked Flipkart about the September plan, the company did not deny it. It said, "India is gradually transitioning from a mobile first to a mobile only country. At Flipkart, we have been following a mobile first approach and 70%-75% of our total traffic is already coming from our mobile app. We are constantly experimenting with various aspects of our service to create the best shopping experience for our users on our app. Meanwhile, we continue to offer both desktop as well as mobile option for our customers."

Flipkart has 45 million registered users clocking over 10 million daily visits, and expects to more than double the gross merchan dise value (GMV) of the products it sells on its platform to $8 billion this year.The company raised $2 billion in 2014-15, and it was valued at $11 billion in its last round of funding.

Ravi Gururaj, chairman of the Nasscom Product Council, said smartphones are omnipresent in the consumer's palms and allow a vastly superior, more secure and highly personalized user experience when incorporating elements like seamless user authentication (via one-time password, biometric scanners), rapid payments via digital wallets, presence (via GPS, NFC and beacon sensors), real time push notifications, and the ability to invoke cameras for discovery interactions.

"All of these capabilities are simply not available or easy to implement on landlocked' desktops. Large platform players will realize he benefits of adopting a less-is-more approach since ewer internal IT systems need to be built, tested, supported and maintained in he future," he said.

Myntra, which Flipkart acquired last year, is said to have seen a 10% decline in sales in the immediate aftermath of its going app-only. But it was confident of making that up in the following weeks. Myntra had said that prior to abandoning its website, 90% of traffic and 70% of sales came from the mobile platform.

Myntra's move was controversial and many analysts weren't convinced by Myntra's explanation of the move. But Flipkart's decision to go the same way indicates that the two companies are clear that it's better o focus fully on what they believe is the future and not fritter resources and mindshare on a channel that looks destined to become irrelevant, if not die -- at least or online retail.


Flipkart to go Myntra way, shut website by September: Sources - The Times of India

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Time to shutdown flipkart from my life also /////
 

Nerevarine

Incarnate
TL DR :
we have made a lot of bad decisions lately, our services have become crap, we do not ship to non metro cities anymore.. we dont care about product availability, and we will shove a crappy mobile app down your throats,
F*** you customers
-Flipkart
 

rijinpk1

Aspiring Novelist
Flipkart's planned phase-out of its web presence indicates phenomenal traction among Indian consumers to make purchases through the mobile app thanks to exponential growth of smartphones and mobile internet.

:lol: costly and cost increases day by day! i stopped using 2g when airtel increased the price to nearly rs 200 for just 28 days! forget about 3g either.
it is been some times flipkart app asked me to review the app on playstore. I think september is the right month to give a review then ;)
 

vidhubhushan

Alakh Niranjan
they have become real big confused creatures. most of these apps means Invasion of Your Privacy. they need your Contacts, Messages, Gallery, GPS location etc. Why can't these just be a simple interface to buy? because these all things (out data) means Money for them.
i checked bank's app and it wants contacts, sms etc. i just stopped at that.
 
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ankitj1611

Journeyman
If they will do this then during flash sales it will be difficult for those using tricks to get the product added to cart.And for flipkart it will be helpfull to them as we will not get error Internal server error etc etc
 

kARTechnology

Sony " VA" "IO"
amazon is much, much better than FK....goodbye FK...
Many people don't have Mobiles when they have PC's - what will they do??? ahh, no worries, Amazon...

when is Newegg Coming here with local warehouse?
 

Anorion

Sith Lord
Staff member
Admin
see very few reasons why this is a bad idea. apart from data use and app using personal data...
what really is the problem here
 

REDHOTIRON2004

Journeyman
see very few reasons why this is a bad idea. apart from data use and app using personal data...
what really is the problem here

Both are bad things.

Privacy, security, small screen with sub standard resolution pics, non standard interface and experience due to different shapes and size of mobile phones, limited compatibility and comparability between different platforms like iphone and android is going to be quite difficult. Even now myntra doesnt have an official app for android gingerbread and back which is still quite present in many mobile phones.
Apart from that debit card or credit card transaction through mobiles are definately not recommended as they are much more prone to getting hacked etc compared to desktop or laptop browsers.

There are many other problem with mobile apps as well. Hope you see the problems now.
 
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Anorion

Sith Lord
Staff member
Admin
There are many other problem with mobile apps as well. Hope you see the problems now.
No I really, really don't understand this reaction. Acc to me, phone is actually more secure for credit card transactions than desktop. At least my phone is, cannot speak for droids.
Does FK have an app on Gingerbread Androids?


At best I think this reaction is because using app after using site is like breaking a habit
I think everyone will use the app if there is a good deal
 

sujoyp

Grand Master
I like to see bigger images of product...complete detail on a single page...basically nice user interface...

using app is like click multiple times, keep on zooming in out, scrolling up down side...blah 2 days back I wanted to check price of some clothes didnt bother myntra..just checked jabong.com
 

Ronnie11

Judgement Time!!
oh jeez not this again..how difficult is it for these sites to maintain a site and an app..goodbye flipkart.
 

avinandan012

Cyborg Agent
all ppl who debating about moving to app. this is merely a business decision. Only the app consumers are looser.
In desktop you can get side by comparison of same product from different seller / different online shops. but in app you are limited to one product one price one seller. you have to click multiple buttons to get to other sellers thus the inconvenience. and most ppl will not go for that. So flipkart wins here.
Another thing is reviews and other related data you can see in browser but in app as of now its not available.

The pro-sumers will always compare and buy but majority are consumer thus this will increase sell / visit.
 
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