Flipkart introduces mobile website ‘Flipkart Lite’ after pushing its app-only strategy

We’ve heard about Flipkart and Myntra’s move to go app only for a long time now. Over the past year, the thought behind an app only strategy has been weighed both from a business as well as consumer’s point of view.

Mostly, it is agreed that a business needs to be where consumers are. This seems to have been evident with the app exclusive sales that have happened during the festive season. While Flipkart decided to go app only, its competitor Amazon went with a mixed strategy between its website as well as app.

Sure the app only strategy cannot completely be ridiculed as having no basis, considering that a significantly high percentage of users are transacting via smartphones. While we have posed these questions in the past when Myntra decided to shut its website, what did stand out is the fact that a business was pushing its way on to consumers rather than give consumers the option to choose which platform suits them the best.

It turns out, Flipkart and Google are working together to create a new mobile optimised website that would aid smartphone users to continue shopping on the ecommerce platform without having to install an application. Moreover, users on platforms other than Android, or iOS could also transact via a mobile browser.

It appears that through the whole controversy around its app only strategy, Flipkart had lost out on an opportunity to convey to its user base that it really cared for its customers and would go the extra mile to ensure that they could continue to shop on the platform of their choice where they were most comfortable.

According to Recode, the launch of the Flipkart mobile site is also a win for Google. The rise of mobile apps effectively means the whole shopping experience is beyond the purview of Google’s search and advertising business which generates the most significant percentage of its revenue.

The Recode piece quotes Peeyush Ranjan, VP of Engineering at Flipkart who said that apps have the advantages of a cleaner interface and the advantage to stay offline. He added that despite these advantages, one significant challenge is that most users access the service via low-end smartphones that aren’t updated regularly. In stark contrast, to stay updated on a browser, a user simply needs to hit Refresh!

What’s interesting is that the partnership between Flipkart and Google to create Flipkart Lite has begun after ex-Googler Ranjan took over as the VP of Engineering at Flipkart.

We believe this move is a positive step and indicates that sense has finally prevailed at Flipkart. For consumers, this also indicates that shopping won’t necessarily mean installing another app, but could be a matter of choice between an app or the good old browser.

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…Her own muse

She is wrapping up Memu , a thriller where she plays the lead protagonist. “I feel I’ve been in the industry long enough to rally a film around myself. Something like Arundhati has eased my nerves about that. Had I been offered such films early in my career, I would have given it a second thought,” Trisha adds. At a time when she’s getting to work with actors and directors, like Siddharth, Kamal Haasan, Ganesh Venkatraman, Ajith and Gautham Menon the second time around, the comfort level on the sets has taken a big leap, she reveals. “In a long career, this is bound to happen. The easy aspect is that you know each of their working styles and can adapt accordingly.”

Talking about Yennai Arindhaal, where she shed stereotypes by playing a divorcee, a mother and stepping into a relationship with an unmarried cop, she shares, “I turned down the film, for it was also a two-heroine project with my role being shorter. Over time though, the Gautham Menon factor convinced me enough on the portrayal. It’s only after a part like Hemanika that people realised I could come close to a certain Jessie ( Vinnaithaandi Varuvaya ). Looking back, I feel it would have been the biggest regret of my career, hadn’t I taken up the role,” she confesses.

1.  Has the way she’s handled success and failure changed over the years? “In my early days, probably, failure didn’t matter.
2.  Even the choices I took weren’t those templated ones. But now, it affects me inside. Before coming to the industry too, I knew how to handle my highs and lows. 
3. Regarding success though, I try to relish it supremely,” Trisha says. Given her following in both Tamil and Telugu, it’s timely that the actress has opened up to more bilinguals, helping her reduce the time-gap between each of her films in the industries. 
4. She feels there are advantages and disadvantages. “Positively, you get to do two films at once. On the flipside, it’s tedious to do the same shot yet again,” the actress opines.

Has she noticed any differences in Kamal Haasan from the time of Manmadha n Ambu toThoongavanam ? “His method, the way he conducts rehearsals, has remained the same. It’s perfect homework {script} when you know not only about your role in the movie, but are also provided with a wholesome view of the film and its atmosphere. 

• It’s more special for me this time, as I have a unique action block with him.
•  It was a good change to take on a hero,” she laughs. The film,
•  releasing for Deepavali, she adds, is an intelligent thriller, apt for today’s audience.

“The extremism and religious intolerance that was on the rise after Narendra Modi came to power in India received a setback as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a thumping defeat in the Bihar state assembly elections, The News International, reported under the front-page headline ’Modi’s BJP bites the dust in Bihar for its extremism’

It said that Mr. Modi had turned the Bihar poll into a test of his popularity, addressing dozens of rallies and promising voters billions of dollars for development in a poor state where two-thirds of the population does not have access to even electricity.

There’s a lot being written about her personal life, with her engagement being called off, and talk of relationships with co-stars. She is not worried. “In each of the cases, only I know what and why those things happened. There are presumptions when you don’t know the truth. If similar things were written about my contemporaries, maybe I’d have trusted them. It’s really alright,” Trisha signs off.

Kamal Haasan’s method, the way he conducts rehearsals, has remained the same. You are provided with a wholesome view of the film

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