Yes, as you have probably guessed, this review is triggered by Flipkart’s decision to be a’Mobile App Only’ platform with effect from September this year. The message is clear: Flipkart is no longer interested in website-user customers like me, regardless of how loyal I have been or how many books, CDs, DVDs, electronic appliances and IT gizmos I have purchased from them over the years. So it is time to say: Goodbye, Flipkart.
Let me explain my peeve in greater depth and detail so that readers and other reviewers will have a clearer idea of why I am parting ways with Flipkart.
I am what marketers call an "Involved Buyer". I select a product on Flipkart and I read the description, the specs, the user reviews - and then I go to other sites(like Mouthshut) for more information. In short, I read quite extensively, even if I am buying a pair of speakers priced at seven hundred odd bucks. And one can’t do all this in-depth, text-heavy reading on a Mobile App. Not conveniently, at least.
I also like to see enlarged product images. If these aren’t available on Flipkart, I go elsewhere - relying on a Google Images search to find and view what I want. Those piddly little images on Mobile Apps can conceal a lot and I’m just not interested in squinting at them.
What I have written so far constitutes a short, highly compressed description of my online buying behaviour and methodology - and I am not going to change or modify it because Flipkart wants to push me into a Mobile App corner.
I do understand that Flipkart probably has a hundred valid "business" reasons to justify their decision. Likewise, I have numerous "consumer" reasons for rejecting the Mobile App-centric offering.
Even in the midst of these chaotically changing times, I still like to believe that the Customer Is King - and as an extension of that belief, for me Flipkart is passe.