Flipkart-Myntra shut mobile sites; Desktop site to be the next?

As reported earlier, Myntra has been since a long time planning to turn into an app based marketplace; but now the news is that both the ecommerce giants Flipkart as well as Myntra have shut their mobile websites already.

Is it a step forward towards becoming an App Only Platform?

While confirming the news the spokesperson of Flipkart said, ‘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’.

Mr. Prasad Kompalli, head of Myntra’s ecommerce platform believes that the app is the best way of offering a seamless, personalized shopping experience to the consumer. And the ecommerce giant has been generating more than 90% of the traffic from mobile and 70% orders from the app.

Looking at the percentage, even we would agree that the desktop sites are absolutely not worth the company’s time and efforts.

When asked about the shutting down of mobile websites, Kompalli said, ‘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,”

Special Focus on the App

Flipkart and Myntra make sure that they do not miss a single chance to promote their app and shift their website traffic to mobile. To increase sales on app, Flipkart has seen offering additional discounts on app purchases.

Considering some of the percentage of traffic and orders shared by the company’s spokesperson, it looks like the day isn’t far when all the ecommerce sites get into ‘app-only’ business.