Why app-only strategy may not work as expected in India!

A few days ago a major fashion e-tailer shunned its much hyped and appreciated app-only platform to re-enter into the website foray. It was not very long ago that the decision was lauded by Digital Pandits and technology enthusiasts as a ‘bold’ and ‘decisive’ move. I was not impressed and had a strong feeling that this approach will not see the light of the day. It took little time for the markets and the consumers to prove it wrong.

A few reasons cited by analysts as to why the app-only approach will succeed included better technology, customer proximity, availability of customer insights, mobile as the future, customer loyalty etc. etc.

Not to forget that success of a strategy depends on end customer and is seldom hidden in data crunching efforts or corner offices of company headquarters!

My article points of a few cardinal errors (perhaps assumptions) which were made by the e-retailer. These should be taken in to consideration by every technology leader in a customer-facing business while choosing to go for such a paradigm.

Maturity of the market

There cannot be a mismatch between the levels of technological know-how of the end users and digital leaders of the organization. In this particular case, Indian markets are not yet matured to handle m-commerce transactions. Take an example of our parents- they have the savviest of phones and gadgets which their sons/daughters have provided or recommended. But when it comes to buying things on a mobile, they are skeptical. Even regular smartphone users are vary of transacting online. It has been only a few years that the e-commerce boom has struck India, and you cannot immediately introduce another new paradigm in an app-only form.

Let the boom settle down, let app based transactions become a common practice and then you are ready to go app-only. If you run faster than your market, you will run alone!

Telecom and Internet

For me, one major reason for an app-only strategy to succeed is Mobile Internet. Despite burgeoning numbers and fancy statistics of Internet penetration and usage in India, one must not forget that QoS parameters such as Availability, Consistency, Delay etc. play a major role, along with the internet speed. I still do not get proper Vodafone connectivity in my house in a major society in Gurgaon. I still get a 2G speed in my office from a provider who has launched 4G services. Will I ever complete a transaction in 2G- Never. I will never risk a mobile transaction over a not-so-fast and secure network. The e-tailer needs to study all app-only transactions they initiated and explore how many failed due to network issues and how many succeeded because the internet provider was a fixed line/Wi-Fi provider!

Office Office! Shopping at Work

I have seen a lot of people browsing through e-commerce websites from their work places. We can easily see that many transactions in the e-commerce space happen from work areas. A few of the reasons include time, free internet and social reasons such as herd mentality and peer pressure.  Knowing that most users will prefer shopping, when at work, online from a desktop rather than from a mobile from your own internet plan, an app-only strategy straightaway discounts the shop-from-work audience!

Variety, Variability Visibility & Veracity!  

Remember the famous Aur Dikhao, Aur Dikhao jingle of a successful e-commerce company?
If you study buying behavior of an average Indian shopper in a physical market, you would find the buyer searching for options available, looking for the best price, consulting his peers and then making a buy decision! The same is replicated on a digital marketplace! I would first google for the product I want to buy, look into a few options available and then decide on buying a product. If I call this buying pattern an exploratory buy (versus say an impulsive buy) then most fashion related buys would be explorative! Unless you fall into a very niche segment of a brand-conscious and price not-so-conscious buyer who knows exactly what he/she needs to buy!

Is App really the future?

This point is presented by the budding digital guru in me! An app is an excellent way to reach out to your audience and gauge the acceptability of your idea, but do you see app-based services seeing a long term future? We are already over –burdened by the number of apps available to us! Name any app based service and you would find a plethora of apps to cater to it competing for a download! I do not see a very long future for apps. Consolidation of app-based services or even disruption into a much open and less restrictive technology is the future!

With this I would give all credits to the product strategy team of the e-tailer for taking a bold and brazen decision. This is an excellent case which reminds us that business no longer drives technology but the time has come that technology will drive business decisions!

 

Product Strategy- getting it right!