Launch of mobile sites by ecommerce leaders reignites App vs Web debate

Flipkart, which seemed to be marching steadily towards app-only mode, shocked everyone by launching Flipkart Lite mobile site. Soon after, Snapdeal came up with Snap-Lite.

This has opened up the debate on which is better- mobile app or website/mobile site, once again.

App VS Web/Mobile Site

ETRetail presented few ecommerce businesses with common complaints about mobile apps. And they refuted all.

One complaint put forth by ET was, “Our phone is not a war zone; so don’t bombard it with apps: Web merchants on a daily basis (or should we say half-hourly basis?) prompt us to download an app. Our mobile phones, that are getting better on paper and dumber in reality, will not be able to handle so many shopping, travel, hotel, utility, banking apps simultaneously.”

Shamik Sharma, Myntra’s CTO answered, “If everything that you just said was right, our app would not have witnessed 1.2 crore app downloads. Apps are certainly working for users. And what you call bombarding is actually personalising shopping according to customers’ needs.”

To this a reader, Niraj Baua left a comment, “If someone says that there 1.2B downloads of the app, it was due to the extra discount on the app as compared to the website… so the companies can’t claim that people are preferring the app, they are going for discounts and savings.” Isn’t he right?

Other ecommerce business owners also rebutted every complaint in a similar manner and insisted apps are better than web. But comments left by readers below the article said a different story.

If apps were indeed working, why ecommerce biggie Flipkart felt the need to reintroduce its mobile site?

Buyers’ throat have become hoarse, shouting app-only is not what they want. IOS has regularly shared how shoppers are not comfortable with mobile app-only shopping and Myntra’s struggles. We also reported how Flipkart’s app-only Big Billion sale drove customers to other sites.

But it’s only now that the ecommerce biggie admitted, “Websites push users to install the app. But only 4% of the people actually install the app. Flipkart doesn’t have a mobile website. So we wanted to give the experience of a native application on a mobile website.”

No one is denying the growing popularity of m-commerce. But who’s to say that this isn’t a temporary phase and that users will eventually get bored of downloading numerous apps? App crashes, rising mobile data tariffs, invasion of privacy and limited mobile storage space may very well result in people staying away from apps in the near future.

Based on the general feedback given by online shoppers, mobile sites/websites are winning this debate for now. But there’s a long road ahead before we can reach any conclusion.