I am an regular Flipkart User, and I do not like this behaviour, Flipkart is forcing me to move to an mobile app, just to have better control and tracking.<p>They have already stopped supporting the mobile website, and it simply instructs you to download the app to continue.<p>This is the moment I have completely stopped using flipkart and moved to amazon.in<p>I like website more than app, both gets the job done, where as In an mobile app I have to give various permission which is not required for a simple E-Commerce website (which suggest the are just doing it for the data)<p>See the list of permission used by the app below.<p><pre><code> Device & app history
retrieve running apps
read sensitive log data
Identity
find accounts on the device
Location
approximate location (network-based)
precise location (GPS and network-based)
Photos/Media/Files
read the contents of your USB storage
modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
Camera
take pictures and videos
Wi-Fi connection information
view Wi-Fi connections
Device ID & call information
read phone status and identity
Other
receive data from Internet
use accounts on the device
view network connections
full network access
control flashlight
prevent device from sleeping
read Google service configuration</code></pre>
Unreal. Do they really expect it to cost more to maintain their web presence in addition to their mobile app than their web presence will make them? If you already have a back-end for servicing all of those mobile apps, is having an HTML front-end really that difficult?<p>I vastly prefer doing almost anything I can think of on a real desktop with big displays and a good keyboard over a mobile app. Am I that out of touch? Why would anyone, that has a choice in the matter, prefer a mobile app for shopping, when it's much easier to open and manage dozens of tabs of product listings and reviews across lots of different sites for ease of price comparison and product comparison?<p>... wait, I think I realized why they're doing this. They want to create a walled marketplace where you're locked in to buying things from them, and can't easily compare products or prices elsewhere.
Another Indian e-commerce site Tradus did this last year, and they failed so badly they went back to stealth mode.<p>Having said that, Flipkart might be just big enough to actually pull this off. I must note that it is highly irritating. They already shut down their mobile site ages ago with a "Download the app or go die" page. This is extremely irritating especially when you follow links from e-mails, their app fails to catch it and mobile site is giant "Ha Ha".<p>For this to work they would have to significantly boost the quality of their apps. It is just not that great on either iOS or Android. Flipkart has made apps for insane amount of platforms though, even S40, to probably support this decision. Even my Android Wear has a Flipkart app.<p>EDIT: FYI, Flipkart didn't really say that they will shut it down. All they said is that their mobile traffic grew 10-fold and in the next year they might become totally mobile. He was obviously referring to traffic, with no word about shutting down website.
A mobile app can have a higher conversion factor than a website. But still this decision seems to be short sighted. A well-designed website allows people the access information from a wide variety of devices - Amazon e-readers, Google Android, iOS, Blackberry, linux terminals. If your device platform is not supported then Flipkart then you will have to select a competitor website.<p>If you do not want to agree with the many "Allow this app to access X, Y, and Z" then you will have to select a competitor website.<p>If you want to use a bigger screen and a keyboard then you will have to select a competitor website.<p>A bug on website can be fixed immediately. If app has a bug and updated fix is stuck in the app review process then you will have to select a competitor website.<p>A company such as Flipkart can definitely support a web version along with apps. And aren't website and apps supposed to be simple frontends using the same backend APIs?<p>I think Flipkart is being too much ahead of time by ditching the web. Hopefully, competitors such as Amazon and Snapdeal will fill the gap left by Flipkart.
If they really turn off their website entirely, they'd get no traffic from search engines. I assume this means they'll either keep product pages up for the robots (and then redirect you to the mobile app), or that their 40M registered users simply go directly to Flipkart when they want to buy something.
They just tweeted out that the decision is not final.
<a href="https://twitter.com/flipkartsupport/status/592456925612085248" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/flipkartsupport/status/59245692561208524...</a>
I used to be a regular Flipkart user, I even bought their "Flipkart First" subscription. That was a waste of money.
Nowadays I just shop on amazon or ebay,
Prices are usually cheaper for the same items. Plus they don't force me to use the app when on mobile.
I love Amazon Prime Now in NYC (free 2 hour delivery of tens of thousands of items), but am constantly annoyed to have to pull out my iPhone to use it. Of course, I presume Amazon is doing a mobile-first rather than a web-never strategy.
This is crazy. It used to be that companies who couldn't do both mobile and desktop just made an app wrap their website. Maybe we need the reverse of a WebView. A website that does nothing more than emulate an app.
Strategy hypothesis --<p>They believe they have more knowledge of how to execute in the mobile space than amazon or other outside incumbents and so they think they can move faster and better by shutting off the power alley's of the incumbents (web) by driving the warzone to mobile.<p>It's a strategy... and just a hypothesis as to some of their thinking... but maybe? :-)
There was a very good blog post about why shutting down the website makes a lot of sense in India (and many parts of the world).<p><a href="http://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2015/4/6/tech-miscellany" rel="nofollow">http://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2015/4/6/tech-miscellany</a>
I imagine they will still have a website, just not one that has the functionality. It makes perfect sense, if a particular interface is only driving single digit usage you drop it. No need to waste dollars updating something no one uses.
To be precise, 85-90% of their customers are now coming through mobile app. Going forward, it doesn't make sense for them to support so many platforms. People using their website are now a minority. Keeping the website operational is just too much effort in the long run for them.<p>You can compare this with, how many developers worry about Blackberry when they launch? Hardly any! The reasoning is simple: it's a platform whose usage is sinking(was?).
Note: They are not closing the flipkart online portal, but they are closing the myntra website which they acquired an year ago. And in the press release they must have mentioned that they are moving completely to mobile version.<p>They bought myntra because of tough competition and have to close it anyway. They are doing an experiment by keeping the mobile version.<p>Slow death for Myntra! PR for Flipkart mobile app!
I think they are making a mistake, there is a reason why the internet was created, and forcefully migrating all users to the mobile app is wrong, it defeats the purpose of having a website which anyone can handle, the news might be that flipkart is shutting down its mobile website, shutting down the main website is like shooting yourself with a pistol :D
While they're at it, there's this new wave of services with no interface. They believe in the mantra "The Best Interface is No Interface" eg: Operator, Magic etc. Interesting times!
I think there is a mistake with this article. They were and already have shut down their mobile website. There is no official statement the they are going to shut down their website.