Flipkart Rethinks Its App-Only Strategy; Re-Launches Mobile Site

Flipkart, that planned to put a hold on its app-only strategy, has re-launched its mobile site by the name ‘Flipkart Lite’.

With this move, Flipkart will no longer force its users to download and install its app; they will however be redirected to its new mobile web app.

Flipkart, which came under fire for going app-only and forcing its users to install its app, seems to have finally realised its mistake. Peeyush Ranjan, engineering head at Flipkart, while recently talking about the merits of native apps, also accepted that apps “also have their weaknesses”. “You have to download them and you have to keep updating,” he stated.

Mobile engineering team at Flipkart discovered that with right set of capabilities in a browser, a mobile web app can be as performant as a native app.

The company is trying to discover ways through which it can build a powerful and technically advanced web app while working to further evolve low-level APIs based on the feedback from developers.

The site is aiming to provide features like offline browsing, storing previous search results on the browse page & last few visited product pages, introducing push notifications and other such features for its mobile site.

In its blog, Flipkart has explained how it managed to create this immersive, engaging and high-performance app.

“Over the coming weeks, we plan to roll out more detailed posts that deep-dive into the technical architectures, patterns and most importantly the lessons learned,” the blog stated.

Re-launching its mobile site and not forcing its customers to download and install its app seems like a wise move from Flipkart. What do you think? Will this move help Flipkart gain back its customer base? Please do share your views in our comment section.