I, hereby solemnly declare that I’m a true shopaholic. Also, I take online shopping as my right and have agreed to adhere to all of its benefits and use it to the fullest.
Then why o why these e-tailers are going ‘Only App’? Don’t I as a consumer should be given a choice to decide if I want to buy on my smartphone app or through my laptop. Agreed, that mobile is the major traffic source for these e-tailers but hey desktops aren’t far behind.
Myntra’s decision to shut down its website didn’t come as a big surprise. It makes perfect business sense. Being a digital media professional I can understand the premise and the hypothesis behind the decision. But what as a shopaholic I can’t digest is that myntra is taking away a choice from me. I shopped on a pretty frequent basis. But till today I have never bought anything through an app or even through my mobile.
No superstition or limitation behind it. Just doing online shopping through my laptop is what I’m used to. I like so many things online (its not even funny) that I end up shortlisting great many options and then I share the links with my friends and sisters. And based on their voting I do my final selection and proceed to make the payment. But will I be able to do that with the app? Agreed, the app does have an option to share the link with my friends but they also need to have the app to check it out. Is it not? And if I’ll have to show it to someone who is not a fan of myntra and doesn’t have the app then I’m forcing him as well to install the app. Yeah, good for myntra. But what about me? If not that, then how many screenshots will I need to take and send to my friends. How much space will that eat in my phone. Downloading those images will eat my friends’ data charges, phone memory and money. And if this was not enough, for every dress I’ll have to share the different angle images and even then they won’t be able to zoom in and check. I’ll have to tell them it’s specifications and the kind of reviews it has got. God, too much effort just to think of it. So yeah we’ll start being this dictator asking everyone we know to download the app. Great strategy myntra *slow claps*
Nonetheless with myntra going only app in 30 minutes I’m a little paranoid. It makes it difficult to even compare products across sites. Being so used to doing ‘Ctrl + T’ and checking products on other sites I might end up not buying anything from Myntra going forward. In any case, I have made my sister download the app and keep it ready but I still moan the end of its desktop version. Flipkart is all set to follow the step of its last year’s acquisition and shut down its website. Blame it on whatever but I’ll miss the desktop version. The big screen experience does matter, otherwise why will we continue going to theatres instead of watching movies at home, eh?
Anyways, do share your views about this new e-tailer fad of going ‘only app’ in the comments below.
Just an Inquisitive Soul 