I am not a huge online shopper but I do like the whole concept of it. Sitting in your room comfortably, in your pajamas, if you want especially in the summers with a/c on, no sweating bullets while roaming around and searching through bundles of crap before coming across exactly what you need.
So yeah, especially for a lazy person like me, online shopping is the best, and usually you develop your favourite sites from where you will usually shop either due to bigger and frequent discounts or the delivery time is less etc etc.
But when these very e-commerce websites start to get a little too over confident in their client base and start to make really illogical decisions, well as they say there are plenty of fish in the sea.
One such illogical and frankly stupid decision has been made by the popular online shopping site Myntra. Recently when I went on Myntra’s site I saw this:
I was a little taken aback and confused to be honest, why would this be appearing especially since I am using my desktop. It wasn’t until I went on the FAQ page that I found out that Myntra has permanently shut down all its sites, desktop and mobile included and has apparently gone all app based.
I was like what the…. Have they gone mad? I had found out quite some time back that Myntra had shut down its mobile site and that to use it on the phone or tablet you had to install their app, and while I wasn’t super enthused by this move, at the same time I wasn’t really put off by their tactic either. I figured this was a good way to increase members to their app. And I have also found that such websites operate better as apps instead of opening them in the browser, since the apps download the images and all faster. But what I didn’t understand was why they had to go all app and shut down even the desktop version. I mean come on…really!!!
When I searched further this is the reason that Myntra is using to justify their move:
” This May 15th, 2015, Myntra is taking the first step towards the future of fashion shopping – we move on from the desktop to being exclusively available on the app.
We believe fashion is a very personal experience. Your sense of style, the brands you wear, the trends you choose to follow are unique to you. What inspires you to look good changes and evolves every day. The best fashion experience therefore, is a truly personalised and engaging one that is only possible through the device that is closest to you. A device that understands you – your mobile.
Thank you so much for being part of Myntra’s exciting journey. We look forward to bringing you a new age of fashion experience, and being your personal fashion assistant anytime, anywhere. This is only the beginning!
Love,
All of us at Myntra “
To be honest, I was really irritated by this reasoning and feel like they are just forcing this app down the customers throat because they want to save on their money and resources.
What if we don’t want a personalized experience, what if we just want to do all the work on our own? Why take away that choice? Isn’t that what we are all about these day? A person’s personal choice.
Reasons to Keep A Desktop Site:
- A lot of people, myself included do not like to make payments or give off personal information through the mobile. We might browse the contents of the site through the app in-case we need to be quick, but mostly we’ll make the final order from the desktop only.
- We also like the ease that a desktop gives us wherein we can compare and look at various items at once by opening multiple tabs. This is not something that we can be done on the phone.
- Also the small screen of a smart phone will not let us browse through the thousands off options that these sites usually have.
- Also the filter option is not as wide and varied as it is in the desktop version. And spending so much time looking at such a small screen for just clothes or something is not only unnecessary its also unhealthy. Especially when you have a perfectly big computer right there and you can use it.
Why A Company Would Want to Do Away with the Desktop Site:
- I think they are only thinking of how they can decrease their own cost and labour. Since, if they only have the app to worry about, without the other versions, then they can put in all their resources and money in one place without worrying about the management of other sites too. And I get that, any company would want to reduce the cost of managing multiple sites, if they have to handle only one sphere. Its all about the saving.
But what they are not realizing is that maybe yeah, their app usage is bigger but that doesn’t negate that a lot of people still prefer using the desktop version to make the final payments and more.
This is something that I fear that might catch on with the other sites too and that they too might follow in Myntra’s footsteps. Flipkart, Myntra’s parent company has also close down their mobile website and well…the chances are pretty high that they too will follow the same path.
Already Myntra has received a lot of flak from the customers for this move of theirs and its not well received at all. And I worry that if Myntra and Flipkart don’t make some good decisions soon then they as well be losing a lot of their client base to other competitors.
Hope that Myntra re-opens its desktop site soon again and that other websites don’t follow the same path.
