Goodbye, Flipkart - It Was Nice Knowing You. Review on Flipkart

Yes, as you have probably guessed, this review is triggered by Flipkart's decision to be a'Mobile App Only' platform with effect from September this year. The message is clear: Flipkart is no longer interested in website-user customers like me, regardless of how loyal I have been or how many books, CDs, DVDs, electronic appliances and IT gizmos I have purchased from them over the years. So it is time to say: Goodbye, Flipkart.

Let me explain my peeve in greater depth and detail so that readers and other reviewers will have a clearer idea of why I am parting ways with Flipkart.

I am what marketers call an "Involved Buyer". I select a product on Flipkart and I read the description, the specs, the user reviews - and then I go to other sites(like Mouthshut) for more information. In short, I read quite extensively, even if I am buying a pair of speakers priced at seven hundred odd bucks. And one can't do all this in-depth, text-heavy reading on a Mobile App. Not conveniently, at least.

I also like to see enlarged product images. If these aren't available on Flipkart, I go elsewhere - relying on a Google Images search to find and view what I want. Those piddly little images on Mobile Apps can conceal a lot and I'm just not interested in squinting at them.

What I have written so far constitutes a short, highly compressed description of my online buying behaviour and methodology - and I am not going to change or modify it because Flipkart wants to push me into a Mobile App corner.

I do understand that Flipkart probably has a hundred valid "business" reasons to justify their decision. Likewise, I have numerous "consumer" reasons for rejecting the Mobile App-centric offering.

Even in the midst of these chaotically changing times, I still like to believe that the Customer Is King - and as an extension of that belief, for me Flipkart is passe.