Flipkart goes ‘Lite’, won’t go with app-only version

Flipkart, the 2007 startup e-commerce company that started with selling just books online has now become a giant in the market. From just 2 people working out of an office in Bangalore, now the company has thousands of employees marking the daily attendance registers. With the acquisition of Myntra.com, the shopping website decided to go with the app-only version and slowly kill the option of allowing users to shop from their desktop PCs. The idea was good for them as it involved big revenues, better customer support and also allows them to push ads, notifications and a lot more.

However, not all of India is completely connected to the mobile data and there are many that still don’t have the privilege of a smartphone.  So in order to cater to the user who is still using slower internet connections and some of those who are still reliant on the humble desktop PC, Flipkart has decided stay with the desktop version. However, there are many sales and offers that are available on the app only. This means, the desktop version is detecting that you are not using an app for shopping on Flipkart and will prompt you to download the app from the play/app store.

To make things simpler, Flipkart has released a Lite version for those who do not want to download and use the app. Simply head on to the mobile browser and hit the Flipkart website and the portal will start the mobile version (Lite) of Flipkart.com. It is fast and fluid, uses lesser data and can also work offline. You can see your recently viewed items even if there is no internet available.

At present, the Flipkart Lite version is only compatible with Chrome on Android phones since Flipkart has been working with Google to develop the website for the mobile devices. This move from Flipkart comes after Google has been making mobile-friendly websites more engaging. Flipkart is the first Indian website to collaborate with Google’s latest technologies for a faster loading mobile website.