![\"Are](\"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/ci-moi-images\/my-india\/2015\/07\/mobile-apps-future-of-eCommerce-in-India.jpg\")
<\/a>The thing about technology is that it is ever evolving and what we have witnessed over the last four decades is that the pace of evolution in technology is increasing with time.<\/p>\nTill the 1980s, IBM\u2019s mainframes were the mainstay of the computing world and all companies were hedging their bets on developing bigger mainframes, but time showed it was the other way round. The desktop soon emerged as the mainstay of everyday computing and then the laptops and then the mobile phones.<\/p>\n
We are now currently going through the phase where information, communication, transaction and entertainment are all moving to mobile and wearable devices. With websites being the go-to platform to engage visitors for the above mentioned activities, the mobile \u2018app\u2019 is now becoming commonplace. Therefore, it is no surprise that there is a vociferous debate happening on whether the \u2018website\u2019 for e-commerce should give way to company- or brand-specific \u2018app\u2019 or can they co-exist?<\/p>\n
It is in this context that the decision by e-commerce fashion retailer Myntra to shut down its popular website and shift to an \u2018app-only\u2019 platform running on mobile devices has surprised many. The move is not restricted to Myntra alone, Flipkart, currently India\u2019s largest e-commerce company, has also followed suit in shifting to an \u2018app-only\u2019 model. So have several smaller start-ups.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s making the big e-commerce companies shut down their popular websites and shift to an \u2018app-only\u2019 model? The answer lies in evolving technology, user preference, and buyer behaviour.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s examine the three.<\/p>\n
Evolving Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n Mobile phone is fast replacing laptop and desktop as the preferred hardware to access information, undertake transaction and seek entertainment. With 3G and 4G technologies offering a significantly faster and better user experience, the consumer preference is shifting towards smartphones. Thanks to the explosive growth in mobile phones, the number of persons having access to the Internet has significantly risen by each year. This is borne out by the data released by IAMAI in January 2015 that confirmed that there were over 300 million internet users in India, with user base increasing 32% over the previous year. With India\u2019s population well over a billion and growing, the potential for expansion of smartphones and other wearable devices is tremendous.<\/p>\n User Preference<\/strong><\/p>\n People now want to remain connected all the time and want instant access to information or service. This is possible only on a mobile device. Users don\u2019t want to \u2018log-in\u2019 and then go through a \u2018search\u2019 process before accessing what they want over the Internet. People are not even willing to wait for the usual \u2018boot\u2019 time. With smartphones, it\u2019s an \u2018always on\u2019 experience and therefore meets user expectations more than the earlier practice. This behavioural shift has led to smartphones becoming more popular over traditional hardware like desktops or laptops.<\/p>\n Buyer Behaviour<\/strong><\/p>\n Buyer preference and behaviour are the major reasons e-commerce is growing exponentially now but failed when it was first introduced as the next big thing during the last dotcom boom, at the turn of the century. Internet availability and bandwidth are improving significantly with the introduction of 4G technology in India. Access to a shopping platform is now instant and easy; user experience is much better. Integrated distribution logistics is rapidly improving, with the \u2018same day\u2019 delivery acting as a catalyst to the shopping experience. Protecting user\u2019s data and securing online transaction has vastly improved and now e-commerce is changing how people shop, react, behave and experience, acquiring a new product or service over the Internet.<\/p>\n Website vs. App-Only Model<\/strong><\/p>\n Why have e-commerce companies like Myntra and Flipkart decided to abandon their existing and popular websites in favour of \u2018app-only\u2019 model?<\/p>\n Two primary reasons:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s first look at \u2018competition\u2019 and why that\u2019s a big worry for large e-commerce companies. Regular websites are open to access on the Internet and with technology penetrating niche functions, it\u2019s becoming harder for companies to keep their client\u2019s access pattern confidential. There are \u2018cookies\u2019 that track who is visiting which website, from which countries or regions, the time they visit and other visitor behaviour patterns, and this information is visible to competitors. Besides this, various open analytics platforms like Google provide free information on visitor trends. This information is then used by competition to develop relevant counter strategies against the target website and e-commerce companies don\u2019t like this.<\/p>\n They realise that customer retention is tougher than customer acquisition. While potential buyers can be \u2018acquired\u2019 through traffic exchanges and directed to visit the website, converting them into buyers is another challenge altogether. And once they do make a purchase, retaining them as repeat customers is the biggest challenge. These were lessons not learnt in the earlier wave of e-commerce in the late 1990s. Besides technology of the kind we have today wasn\u2019t available.<\/p>\n E-commerce companies have now realised that potential customers convert to \u2018buyers\u2019 based on their shopping experience when they visit the e-commerce platform and this is best served through greater customer engagement. E-commerce companies are now closely tracking visitor behaviour patterns by collecting vast amounts of data on them. The secret is not how much data they collect but how they analyze, interpret and respond to that data. They then come up with a slew of customer engagement \u2018actions\u2019 that offer \u2018relevant\u2019 information, offer best discounts on products or services of their interest and most of all capture instant feedback through engaging the customer. They then automate the process of further engaging the potential or existing buyer over an extended period to ensure that the buyer continues to return to the site. All this is possible through \u2018apps\u2019. And since the engagement is through the smartphone, it\u2019s both instant and responsive.<\/p>\n The biggest advantage for e-commerce companies is that by avoiding search platforms like \u2018Google\u2019, they can retain all information and data without the competitor getting access to this. This is another reason companies like Myntra and Flipkart have switched their entire business model to an \u2018app-only\u2019 one.<\/p>\n Smartphones and Apps \u2013 The Game Changer<\/strong><\/p>\n So why all other big e-commerce companies like Snapdeal have not yet shut down their websites and switched over to the app-only model? They will but in time. The best indicator to this is the phenomenal growth of Snapdeal, a company that started just five years back. Flipkart has been the dominant player in the field and was around 100 times larger than Snapdeal, in the latter\u2019s early years. By 2013, Snapdeal had significantly closed the gap between itself and Flipkart, riding on the back of the \u2018mobile phone\u2019 and \u2018app\u2019 popularity. And now, it\u2019s as large as Flipkart!<\/p>\n But Snapdeal is not about to shut their website, at least not anytime soon. Myntra, which took the first initiative to shut their website and make the switchover to \u2018app-only\u2019 model in May this year, witnessed 10% drop in sales the same month. While that is a significant loss of business, it has still not deterred Myntra from continuing its new app-based model.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a matter of timing. There is still a large segment of potential buyers out there who are not comfortable transacting purchases over the mobile phone and prefer to continue using their desktop or laptops for visiting the company website. This is a phase when the transition is happening from a traditional platform like website to an app-only one and it will take time. Meanwhile, Top web developers<\/a> think that e-commerce companies do not want to lose out on this valuable segment, at least not just yet, but it\u2019s a matter of time before traditional e-commerce \u2018websites\u2019 will have moved into history. \u2018Smartphones\u2019 and \u2018apps\u2019 are here to stay, with instant gratification the new mantra.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The thing about technology is that it is ever evolving and what we have witnessed over the last four decades is that the pace of evolution in technology is increasing with time. Till the 1980s, IBM\u2019s mainframes were the mainstay of the computing world and all companies were hedging their bets on developing bigger […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1316,"featured_media":47820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,11315,6124],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-47718","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"category-india","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47718"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101525,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47718\/revisions\/101525"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mapsofindia.com\/my-india\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n