I notice an interesting trend in TV ads by e-commerce brands in India. Some of them do not have any kind of PC interface at all in the TVCs – they have completely shifted to mobile interface (via app, not via mobile browser either).
Of course, TVCs by Flipkart and Quikr have also been specifically about their mobile apps, more than being about the overall brand in itself. But, from the TVCs I have seen recently (say, in the past 4-5 months), on TV (not heard about it from others and saw on YouTube!), there seems to be an interesting split. Half of them don’t even have a mobile app or a message around the mobile access possibility of their service, while the other half don’t have any visual cue of the service being a ‘website’ in the traditional, PC sense!
Sample these recent TVCs.
Nothing PC about it – only mobile!
OLX
Quikr
RedBus
A sub-set of the above – talking specifically about the app
Quikr
Flipkart
No mention of anything-mobile at all – PC UI all the way!
Snapdeal
Amazon
Myntra
Cartrade
Lenskart
Fabfurnish
No mention of the way to access the website – just the URL and overall brand benefits
Jabong
Monster
Is there anything one can derive from these?
Does the increase in (still lesser) TVCs featuring completely mobile interfaces signify increasing internet access via smartphones, compared to PC? Interestingly, only Quikr is showing a tablet-based access, while every other mobile-based UI TVCs show just a mobile (usually a large one). Is it an evolution in marketing the category, from, ‘Buy from the internet via our website – here’s how’ to ‘Buy from the internet via our app, on your mobile – here’s how’?
TVCs from brands that do not feature the mobile version or app, do they have a good mobile version or app at all? Is that the reason why they do not feature the mobile UI? Or, do they have numbers to justify that a majority of their TG still accesses them (their site) via a PC?
Contrarily, there’s an old JustDial (traditionaly a phone-call service!) TVC featuring Amitabh Bachchan that has him asking (well, prodding!) viewers to type just dial dot com on their phone… not on their PC browsers.
Some numbers, in connection.
Facebook recently announced that it has reached 100 million users in India. It also added that 84% of that 100 million access Facebook via mobile phones (36% of that 84%, from a feature-phone!).
IAMAI’s recent projection claims that by June 2014, 60% of India’s internet users will be doing so from a mobile device.
Some more questions, on the back of those numbers.
Globally, I don’t recall seeing any specific focus in TVCs of e-commerce ads between showing a PC UI or a mobile UI (either app or via mobile browser). Even the latest non-baby E-Trade TVC does not show any UI at all – just focuses on the product message. So, would Indian e-commerce brands too peak in 2014 showcasing one UI over the other and then completely drop it, instead focusing on the ‘what’ and less on the ‘how’? Would that mean that buying via the internet is finally a ‘given thing’ and there is no need for category creation or category education (for e-commerce) anymore?
That would put e-commerce brands on the same plank as mainstream retailers and equivalents, with the former merely not having physical presence where people can shop from.
Given the untapped potential of internet penetration in India, that may not happen that soon and there is still a long way to go before we abandon category-education, I’d assume. But the TVCs above perhaps seem to indicate that there is a start to not focus on the ‘how’ part and instead focus only on the ‘what’ and ‘why’. So, instead of displaying physical locations to buy a product (or even a phone number), you just display a URL (which is the norm even for offline retailers, incidentally!).
A related question that is less about the UI shown in TVCs – how useful are apps, for what is primarily a ‘shop’? An app’s full potential is perhaps when it does ‘things’ to people’s phones when appropriate. Or that’s what traditionally how app traction can be measured – more usage of the app. A shop’s app is primarily a point of purchase. Of course, it is convenient to not search or type the shop’s URL to buy anything, but in the absence of a predictable and simple phone-bound payment system (still paying with cards, netbanking or cash on delivery, just the UI is different – this will change is the mobile phone is ‘linked’ to a bank account or a card eventually, however) in India, how useful is the app or the investment to build one?
Also, with the advent of HTML5 and hybrid apps, here’s some projection on what’s the trend in traction. The point is, if the app (native or hybrid app) doesn’t do anything using my phone’s features or other signs like location or social media platform sign-ins (privacy alerts, of course, apply), then I’d assume it to be a dumb app, not a smart one. I’m sure e-commerce brand app teams are thinking of this, however.
Seen more e-commerce brand ads that fall in or beyond what’s explored above? What do you think of this trend of moving from PC UI to mobile UI in TVCs?