Indian online marketplace Flipkart has decided to move to an app-only format after mobile visits increased ten-fold over 18 months.
The company is following in the footsteps of Myntra, an e-commerce site for fashion and lifestyle products picked up by Flipkart last year that has already shut down its website in favour of a mobile-only model.
“Last year, we had more on the app, but still did our Web and desktop. In the next year or so, we’re going to be only mobile,” Michael Adnani, president, retail and head of brand alliances told the Economic Times.
“A year ago, 6 per cent of our traffic was coming from mobile. In less than 18 months, that traffic is 10-fold.”
Indian is the third-largest internet market in the world behind the US and China, with more than 243 million users. Expectations of growth are huge, and Boston Consulting Group expects more than 580 million people in India to use the Internet by 2018, 70-80 per cent of them accessing the web on mobile phones.
Two-thirds of Flipkart’s online traffic also comes from users in small cities and towns, where smartphone usage is likely to trump desktop computers.
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