Flipkart’s app-only move – lacking both empathy and common-sense

May I request you to bear with me while I describe something really stupid? Please?

So I walk into a shop. It’s big, brightly light and very inviting. I see tons of things I need, at great prices. I pick up a few things, mighty glad that I got them at this price and walk up to the billing counter.

It’s empty and the amiable billing guy gives me a beaming smile. I smile back at him and dump the stuff I picked.

He then says, “Hmmm, sorry Sir, I cannot bill them here”.

I’m flummoxed. “But why not?”, I ask him.

He says, “Sir, didn’t you notice the note in the shelves where you picked these products? It says that you cannot buy them in this store.”

“Wut?”, I blurt, using the internet-version of “What?”, which seems pretty apt for the situation.

He patiently explained to me, “Sir, we’re moving to another store in the next street. So, while you can see and feel the products here, you cannot buy them. You need to go to that store in the next street and bill them there”.

“So, you are not willing to sell me the products I physically searched for and picked in your store that is very much here – I’m sure I’m not imagining this store – and I’m willing to pay for them right now?”, I ask him with some finality and annoyance.

“Yes, that’s right”, he says, with equally solid finality in his tone, but instead of annoyance, he had the tone of a robot repeating instructions to a petulant child.

The above illustration is not a figment of my imagination. I was merely adding minimal imagination to how Flipkart is changing its website to fit this app-only move and is responding to people asking it questions on its app-move. Here you go.

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I had earlier written about Myntra’s app-only move communication lacking empathy. This move by Flipkart not only lacks empathy, but also lacks common sense.

Now, I completely (I truly do!) understand why Flipkart is moving app-only. Whenever we customers question this move or outrage on this move on social media, we get tons and tons (and tons) of reasons that are all thought-through from the perspective of Flipkart. I have written about that extensively in that earlier post on Myntra. The trouble is, people have started to merge benefits for Flipkart/Myntra with benefit for customers and confuse themselves. And it looks like Flipkart is riding on that confusion.

How else does one explain Flipkart telling a customer, “We direct users to download app to make your shopping experience with Flipkart much better” or “We?re moving products to app only to make sure that you can conveniently shop on the go anytime, anywhere”.

The obvious questions these responses evoke include,

1. Who moved shopping from a laptop into the ‘inconvenient’ box?
2. Who decided that shopping on the web (or mobile web) is not a better shopping experience?

Given how data-centric Flipkart is, I’m sure they have adequate data to prove (to themselves) that this move may not dent their future prospects much, and how mobile-first the Indian market is. I totally get that.

But.

But, when you are communicating with end consumers who are asking you a pointed question, you have a few options.

1. You can be direct and transparent. Like,

“We’re moving app-only shortly. We’ll transition all products to app soon. It helps us manage our store-front better in a platform that is most dominant in India, as per our data. We truly hope you’ll find the move beneficial in the long-run given that we’d be able to customize not only the store especially for you, but also our communication to you”.

That won’t fit in 140 characters, but you get the drift, I hope.

2. You can be obtuse and beat-around-the-bush. Like,

“The products you’ve mentioned are available on the app. Please download the app and continue to shop on Flipkart”.

3. You can forget that something called ‘common-sense’ exists and happily fly in cuckoo-land. Like,

“Hi! Shopping on the app is more convenient. It offers a much better shopping experience to you! Trust us! You can shop anytime, anywhere. Imagine, can you use the laptop in the loo? No, right? We thought so. So, we moved these products to the app so you can buy them even while you are in the loo. Wheeeeee!”.

Beyond the sarcasm, there’s a loophole (as if there’s a dearth of loopholes in this argument) in the ‘anytime, anywhere’ argument too. E-commerce deliveries, unless you are buying digital goods like mp3s or ebooks or movie downloads, are not instant. The transaction is instant, not the delivery. At least not till Amazon perfects drone delivery to the hilt. So, ‘anytime, anywhere shopping’ doesn’t really materialize.

You’re in the loo. You shop on the phone via Flipkart app. You pay for it on the app. And then… nothing happens. After a minute, nothing continues to happen (Sorry, Douglas Adams). Then you just flush, get out of the loo and continue with your droning life.

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