Web-based businesses are using different approaches to mobile apps
When it comes to downloading an app on the home screen of his mobile phone, entrepreneur and angel investor Ravi Gururaj is very picky, and rightly so, in his opinion. “The phone’s home screen is the most valuable real estate on the planet on a per square millimetre basis. Look at all my apps, these are the big guns of the app space in India—Flipkart, Ola and BookMyShow,” says Gururaj, chairman, Nasscom Product Council.
His selection of apps depends on their functionality. “How many apps can I possibly interact with on a daily basis? I rarely go to the second screen of my phone. While apps on my third screen, I don’t need at all,” he says. In a segment where user loyalty is hard to find, the home screen of the mobile phone is a good reflection of apps that provide relevant value to the customer. “The space is highly sticky,” adds Gururaj.
On the other hand, Neetu Thomas, 24, isn’t gung-ho about apps, but acknowledges their uses. “I have the Ola app on my phone because I don’t own a car or a bike. So for me to travel, it is very important, especially during late nights,” says Thomas, a sales professional with a Bengaluru-based media company. “I have also downloaded the Flipkart app on my home screen because I have always been a Flipkart user. But then I realised that I’m one of those users not comfortable shopping on an app. This is why I don’t shop on Myntra anymore.” Her rationale: “I wasn’t pleased. It’s just not the same when shopping on a 4.7-inch screen. I use the Flipkart app to view products, but, to shop, I go to the website.”
Flipkart and Snapdeal have taken cognisance of this. In November, Flipkart launched Flipkart Lite, a website for smartphones which claims to provide an app-like experience targeting consumers who are not comfortable installing apps due to concerns such as limited storage capacity on their mobile handsets. Flipkart gets about 80 percent of its business from mobile devices.
Not to be outdone, last month Snapdeal too launched Snap Lite, its website for smartphones that claims to load 85 percent faster than its regular website. For Snapdeal, over 70 percent of its business comes through mobile devices, using its app and website.
According to a report by mobile app intelligence platform App Annie, as of this September, Flipkart was ranked No. 1 in the list of top retail apps by downloads in India, while Amazon India was at No. 3, followed by Snapdeal (No. 4) and Myntra (No. 5). (Paytm is at No. 2 on the list.)
Neha Singh, co-founder of Tracxn, a startup research firm, feels that in the next two years proliferation of smartphones, coupled with 4G technology, will play a major role in enabling companies to embrace a “mobile-first strategy”, with a focus on apps. However, although apps will lead the movement, companies will still persist with mobile websites to reach wider audiences considering they can be accessed through different devices, says Singh. (Mobile websites can adjust themselves by compressing according to the size of a mobile device’s screen to give a better visual experience.)
And despite the buzz around an app-only strategy, many ecommerce companies prefer operating through a website and an app to reach a wider audience. “For us, a significant number of food orders come from offices and they use the website over the mobile app. In most corporate setups, there is no wi-fi access for the phone and people are directly connected to the desktop. We don’t want to be in a position where we don’t provide customers a choice. We want to keep all channels open,” says Nandan Reddy, co-founder, Swiggy, a Bengaluru-based online food ordering marketplace that is present in seven cities in India. Although 70 percent of Swiggy’s orders are placed through its app, Reddy is convinced that the combination of a desktop website and an app is the “right way” forward.
Experts point out that the app-only strategy has worked well for services-led businesses such as transport (taxi-hailing services Ola and Uber), personal finance (MoneyView, Chillr), news (Inshorts, Dailyhunt) and fitness (HealthifyMe, Orobind) because the use of such apps is high in metro cities. App adoption of etailers, however, has been slower.
“Some of the companies have figured out what to deliver on an app and what to offer on the web. In travel services, for instance, last minute bookings are much better delivered on the mobile while holiday packages are better sold through the desktop interface,” says Ritesh Banglani, partner, Helion Venture Partners. The medium has to be conducive to the services that are offered through it.
(This story appears in the 08 January, 2016 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)