Flipkart and Snapdeal are revising their marketing strategies to be more mobile-centirc
Major online retailers in India are beginning to aggressively promote their new mobile applications. Flipkart and Snapdeal, two of the largest online retailers in India, are beginning to focus their marketing efforts on the mobile space. A growing number of Indian consumers are gaining access to mobile devices and the Internet, which has lead to a surge in mobile commerce activity. Flipkart has opted to forgo participating in Google’s Great Online Shopping Festival in order to promote its new mobile shopping app. Snapdeal will be participating in the event, however, taking the opportunity to showcase its own shopping app.
Companies are offering special deals to consumers that make use of their mobile shopping apps
E-commerce companies throughout India are beginning to revise their customer acquisition strategies, making them more mobile-centric. These companies are offering consumers special deals if they install their mobile shopping applications on their devices. Both Flipkart and Snapdeal expect to create new loyal customers through their apps than through online search engines that regularly direct consumers to online retail sites.
Flipkart is spending more on the mobile space, focusing less on display advertising and search engines
Much of Flipkarts marketing expenditure has been focused on search engine and display advetising. Though the company has not released information concerning revisions being made to the amount of money it is spending in this way, Flipkart is beginning to focus more heavily on the mobile space. Installing a mobile app on a smartphone or tablet is often seen as an endorsement from consumers. Those installing these apps have shown that they are willing to use it to shop online and purchase products from a particular retailer.
Google may have to adapt to changes in retail customer acquisition
As e-commerce companies in India begin to revise their marketing strategies, Google may have to follow suit. The company relies heavily on its search engine and display advertising services to generate revenue, but if more companies are focusing on mobile app installations, Google may find it harder to produce revenue through its traditional strategies.
The service could go a long way in helping JD.com establish a stronger presence in mobile commerce. The company sees a great deal of promise in this sector, as mobile consumers have shown that they are willing to spend large amounts of money online. During China’s Singles Day, which is the retail equivalent of Black Friday in the United States, some $16.2 million in mobile payments were processed through sites built by JD.com’s new service. The service had a test launch in September of this year, during which small retailers were able to test its capabilities.