Even as customers grumble, Indian ecommerce leader Flipkart moves closer to going app-only

Flipkart, India’s ecommerce behemoth, appears to have moved closer to going app-only. Several products on Flipkart’s website are now available exclusively through its app. The ‘app-only’ sticker started showing up about a month ago, but now it’s spreading like a rash across several product categories.

This comes months after fashion portal Myntra, which Flipkart acquired last year, went app-only, denying access through either a desktop or mobile browser. Since then, there’s been a perception that it’s only a matter of time before Flipkart follows suit. Now it has taken the next step to testing the waters on the app-only model.

There’s been a lot of negative reaction to Flipkart forcing consumers to download the Myntra app if they want to continue shopping on the fashion marketplace. And it appears they’re witnessing the same blowback on their latest decision.

One more from Flipkart, via @rajvj – chalo, at least they empathise, though no user choice on what is 'better'. pic.twitter.com/LPB1aBFNfZ

— Karthik Srinivasan (@beastoftraal) September 22, 2015

Flipkart's *App Only* move is the stupidest decision ever in the history of eCommerce.

— Mayur Agarwal (@mayurjango) September 22, 2015

Competitive advantage