In a trend that indicates a transition of the e-commerce industry from mobile site to mobile app, online marketplace Snapdeal on Thursday said it is generating half its sales through the app.
According to Snapdeal, nearly 45% of transactions on mobile in last three months came through its app, launched in May 2012, while the mobile site accounted for the rest.
India has seen its mobile internet consumers grow in numbers in last few years. According to the Internet And Mobile Association of India, Internet user base in the country is projected to touch 243 million by June 2014, from 190 million at the end of June, 2013, a year-on-year growth of 28%.
Snapdeal has also witnessed high customer retention on mobile, with one-fifth of all app users opening the app everyday, it said.
?We have seen a higher conversion on mobiles. People are using the app with a higher intent to buy. It has more to do with the fact that mobile is not a great tool for browsing. You already know what to look for and then use mobile internet,? Snapdeal CEO Kunal Bahl told FE, adding the app accounted for only 5% of its business a year ago.
According to the company, the mobile app users also tend to place bigger orders compared with the mobile site. Most of the customers bought fashion and home-related products, given the impulsive buying patterns for such products.
According to Snapdeal, Android as an operating system is more popular, accounting for three-fourth of the sales, while iOS accounts for the rest.
