Imagine if you visit a shop, and the shopkeeper demands you to wear a certain type of clothes in order to enjoy a particular sale it has to offer on its products. What would you do? Would you comply to the demand? The reason for the dress code is the ease you may feel while shopping. This is something what an App-only model is. Myntra, an online fashion e-tailer, went app only last year when some of the “brilliant” analysts and senior management calculated the mobile as the future and the App is the only path for great customer experience which would culminate into great revenue. I mean, seriously!?!
What’s the News about Myntra?
Myntra’s App only strategy has failed completely (harsh words but true) and the relaunch of the desktop site will serve as the final nail in the coffin to the strategy which has costed not less that millions of dollars of potential revenue in the past year. According to Myntra, Desktop site will be relaunched on 1st June, 2016.
According to Myntra’s CEO Mr.Ananth Narayanan :
” The premises of going on an app only strategy were based on mobiles being personal devices that enable a tailored experience unlike desktops and that mobiles are the future of computing devices. At Myntra, we’ve always believed in taking bold calls and pushing innovation forward. We tried to do this last year because we thought we can offer consumers a much better experience on the mobile. While that is still true that the mobile experience is far superior to the web, we have recognized that some consumers still want the option to shop on the web and we are humble enough to listen to our customers. ”
Relaunch or Launch?
It is actually a relaunch because Myntra once had a mobile site and a Desktop site which was shut down in March 2015 and in May 2015 respectively, in an attempt to dominate mobile app-commerce. Myntra has set a target of generating annualized gross sales of $1 billion by March 2017; currently, its annualized gross sales are $500-600 million. Gross sales exclude discounts and product returns. For instance, in the year ended 31 March 2015, Myntra’s actual revenue was Rs.758 crore while its annualized gross sales were $350-400 million at that time. Losses for that year at the Bengaluru-based firm tripled to Rs.1,126.60 crore, according to the documents filed with the Registrar of Companies.
With inputs from Livemint
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