tech2 News Staff

After its online fashion store Myntra, Flipkart is all set to go app-only starting this September.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, a report by Times Of India, claims that the company's chief product officer Punit Soni addressed a town hall meeting last week and announced Flipkart will operate only as a mobile app from September.

We tried reaching out to Flipkart, and the e-commerce site neither denied nor confirmed the move. A spokesperson responded stating, “India is gradually transitioning from a mobile first to a mobile only country. At Flipkart, we have been following a mobile first approach and 70-75% of our total traffic is already coming from our mobile app. We are constantly experimenting with various aspects of our service to create the best shopping experience for our users on our app. Meanwhile, we continue to offer both desktop as well as mobile option for our customers"

It was just two months ago that Myntra hit headlines with its app-only platform. Flipkart-owned fashion store had said that 95 percent of Internet traffic comes through mobile and 70 percent sales are generated through smartphones. This was speculated to be the possible motive as to why it ventured completely into smartphones. However, it did raise many questions such as does cutting off all desktop operations and moving into an app-only format make sense? The move received mixed reactions.

The growing need for smartphones is bound to drive online shopping in the future, but how ‘far distant future’ is still unclear. For many, it seemed like an abrupt shift rather than a gradual one as Indian audiences aren’t absolutely ready to completely abandon shopping from their PCs. Restricting users to the app could have its disadvantages.

However, looks like, the strategy seems to be working and the high penetration of Internet-enabled smartphones has led to enough traction in purchases through mobile devices. This may have assured Flipkart that it's moving in the right direction by going app-only.