Myntra will re-launch its app next month in a new version which it claims will be more social and emulate a mall shopping experience on mobile devices. The new app, called Myntra V2 (short for version 2), will be social in nature and display a different app to each user based upon their previous app visits, likes on Facebook and other social media plugins such as Google+.
Chief Technology and Product Officer Shamik Sharma stated, “People don’t like to shop in a deserted mall; we are trying to emulate a social shopping experience online. Every Myntra user will see a different version of the app based on their likes.” The 300-member Myntra tech team will evolve Flipkart’s already built features such as image search and chat plugin Ping into newer features to suit fashion shopping for its users. In the current Myntra app, users can build their own looks and share it with others. The new Myntra app will remain of the same size, which is less than 10 MB, with its native features.
The Flipkart-owned online fashion retailer is aiming to double the gross merchandise value of goods sold by it to $1 Bn in 2016. Myntra which shut its website and moved to an app-only platform in May this year, now witnesses almost 90% of its traffic from Android and the rest from devices based upon iOS and Windows. The fashion etailer states it has seen about 20 million downloads of its app in India.
Myntra’s move to re-launch its app comes at a time when both parent Flipkart and competitor Snapdeal have already launched social shopping features in their apps. Flipkart introduced the new chat feature Ping for its mobile users in August this year, enabling buyers to share their buys, images, wishlists with their phonebook contacts and create groups just like in WhatsApp. In July, rival Snapdeal had re-launched Shoppo, an app only marketplace that allows buyers and sellers to interact with each other via inbuilt chat app.
Many other startups are also making their apps more social to increase customer engagement. Recently, travel portal MakeMyTrip announced the launch of its rail booking services in five languages besides English available on the android platform.
Myntra is also employing Artificial Intelligence and big data analytics to forecast fashion trends, a move that will significantly shorten the fashion production life cycle. All these efforts come as the etailer aims to become profitable in the next 18 months.
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