Flipkart abandons 'app-only', launches mobile website

Flipkart went app-only a few months ago by making some of its product categories exclusive on the smart phone app which made many users download the app. Recently, Flipkart had its Big Billion Days sale which was a five-day sale where it was available for customers only through the Flipkart app.

Flipkart has now found a road between the constant battle of online websites and mobile apps.

The e-commerce online shopping player with the help of Google has re-launched a mobile friendly version of their website which is similar to the app.

There are more mobile-only users (70 million) than desktop users (60 million), nearly 55 million continue to be on both these platforms.

The mobile website has a search engine at the centre of the page, a little like the Google search engine.

Flipkart worked with Chrome and Opera to build the mobile website, and plans to do the same with Firefox. 

Applications tend to have many benefits like offline services and simple easy interface but also need frequent updates and take up space on a device. 

The new mobile web application uses significantly less wireless data than apps.

Flipkart said that 75% of its sales were accounted from its mobile application.

Flipkart Internet Pvt. is among the first website operators to adopt Google’s innovations. For example, its mobile website now taps a smart phone’s graphics processor, rather than a remote computer, to render pages more quickly.