The one thing you carry around with you like everyone else is a cell phone. According to statistics collected by Coupon Hippo, mobile is the future of India. There will be 986,000,000 mobile phones in use and the most preferred operating system is Android.
Etailers have specialised apps for online shopping to make the most of this trend. And this is where focus mostly lies when cellular usage and online retail are spoken of together.
However, consumers are not the only ones marketplaces provide apps for. Online sellers also have mobile apps to help them do business from anywhere.
We considered seller apps by the big names in ecommerce and noted their functions and how the everyday seller rated them. We also spotted a couple of interesting seller testaments from the Google Play Store to bring out the facts of seller apps from online marketplaces.
The Flipkart seller app facilitates numerous functions like the above, but at the same time, it doesn’t support Flipkart Advantage!
Flipkart seller hub has an average rating of 4.0 from its total users. But what are sellers saying about the app? Some say they had a decent experience with Flipkart’s online seller app.
But that wasn’t the case for every user of the app. Some sellers claim to have had negative experiences with the Flipkart Seller Hub app.
To avail of these facilities through the Amazon mobile app, sellers must create a seller account on the marketplace.
Amazon Seller is a common app for sellers in various counties. As a result, the app has many more users in comparison to Indian online marketplace apps. The app receives an overall good response from sellers. At the same time, they also feel the app could be better as it is lacking in some cases.
Snapdeal Seller has received good reviews too that have put it at an approximate rating of 4.0. The etailer recently revamped its brand entirely and the reviews for its seller app have been pretty positive.
Yet, some have pointed out instances where the app has caused them trouble and disappointment too.
Paytm Seller’s ratings are at 4.1 on Google Play Store. However, this month the app had issues with displaying notifications, but the issue was fixed soon.
Other issues with the app include invoice format on the app as you can see here.
To avail of the facilities on the Shopclues mobile app, sellers must create a seller account on the marketplace first. This can be done through their website.
Shopclues reviews are far less compared to other seller apps. The Shopclues Seller app has a rating of 3.5. The etailer has also received some negative reviews about its apps performance.
To determine whether online sellers see themselves moving on to mobile apps, we decided to ask a couple about their experiences with them.
Online seller Asad Virani of eShop 24×7 says, “Desktop panel or Marketplace place seller central are always more user-friendly and easy on the eyes due to large screen vis-a-vis a mobile screen.”
According to the multi-category seller, there are numerous reasons why mobile apps are good for online sellers. Even though, right now the desktop version of seller panels is much better.
He says, “Notifications of items sold is the best part as it gives a lot of joy when we get a notification of item sold, other features are:
– easy to track inventory
– edit pricing on real time basis
– know the next remittance due amounts”
When asked what they lack he says, “Proper tracking of remittances and there are no detailed reports available either on the app.”
Virani uses multiple marketplace apps to sell online. He mentions, “We use Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm, Snapdeal and eBay. But, in our opinion the Amazon and Paytm seller apps are the best so far.”
Electronic category seller Akash informs us that he uses only Flipkart’s app for online sellers. He claims it is ideal for viewing his business summary while on the go. So far he hasn’t experienced any issues with the app he says. At the same time, he doesn’t see himself switching to the app full time.
Another online seller we spoke with told us he too feels the desktop version of online selling is better than the mobile app. The seller, Abdul Quadir, deals in the sale of furniture and pet supplies and has been selling online for 3.5 years now.
“I have used a Snapdeal, Amazon, Shopclues, Flipkart, Askmebazaar seller apps. Out of them all Snapdeal seller app is the best,” claims Abdul.
“We can work anytime anywhere using a cell phone. That’s the biggest advantage of marketplace apps. However, we receive too many notifications,” states the electronics seller.
Nova Enterprises mentions that Snapdeal has the better ecommerce app for sellers. The online seller has used both Amazon’s and Snapdeal’s seller apps. He says instant sales tracking and price updating make seller apps a good tool to online merchants. But the seller also claims that desktop is far superior in comparison to mobile apps.
After sieving through various seller app reviews we identified these some features that online sellers wanted to see in their marketplace apps.
On Flipkart, online seller Mahendra Gupta says he wants to see FA related details.
Flipkart seller Sahil wrote that a barcode scanner would make things a lot easier for app users.
An online seller on Snapdeal, Varun Jain states, pending orders are missing in addition to other notifications on the mobile app panel.
In case of Paytm, seller Rabinarayan says, the etailer must simplify its features also the option to view previous tickets is unavailable.
For Shopclues, there need to be multiple changes states, Mansoor a seller on the platform.
The online sellers who spoke with IOS also said they’d like to see new features added to marketplace apps for them.
eShop 24×7’s Virani says, “If marketplaces can share their inventory info via their apps and sync with each other then it will take away lots of pressure on the seller. There are 3rd party service providers which do this seamlessly. However, some often fear data privacy may lack with such service providers.”
According to Nova Enterprises, features relating to shipment and ASR creation are what online marketplaces really need to work on.
So, all in all, the seller app facility for online sellers has not peaked yet. In fact, it is far from it. Online sellers know the advantages seller apps have to offer and there is much more marketplaces can do with them. Then again, there is the fact that sellers have better control over their actions via desktop panels.
What about you, what is it you expect to see from online marketplace apps? Do you think they are worth the download or a waste of phone space?
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