The first basic thing that my business teacher taught me about market was that it can flip at anytime. Today you are the boss, tomorrow someone else can be the boss. The top position never stays loyal to you or for that matter anyone you reaches there. It is easy to get at the top position, but it is quite difficult to stay there.
Flipkart went through the same fate. Amazon in India outshines Flipkart’s glory by surpassing it as the most downloaded mobile app on Apple and Google app stores during the first quarter of this year which is a big milestone for the US based company that is aiming to become the No. 1 platform for e-commerce transactions in India.
The following data of the past 28 days from SimilarWeb, a web and app analytics firm, puts ‘Amazon’ ahead of India’s own successful start-up company ‘Flipkart’ in app downloads, indicating that the former has been able to sustain the momentum even in the second and third quarters.
Also according to another app data tracker Annie App, Amazon is indeed way more ahead than Flipkart in terms of ranking.
On Google Play Store, Amazon is placed at 11th Spot whereas Flipkart is struggling at 16th Spot, although recovering from the 17th position from Tuesday.
During the month of February, the two e-commerce giants were very close to each other in terms of monthly traffic. Amazon has 170 Million page views as compared to Flipkart’s 128 Million page views. But after the month of February, this pattern seems to have widened over the course of duration where currently Amazon has 184 Million Page views and Flipkart has just 114 Million page views which has further worsened.
We should also note that the bounce rate of Flipkart (33.35%) is more than Amazon which indeed help us know that more people are going back to shop on other websites, whereas Amazon’s bounce rate (31.37%) is comparatively low.
Also people are spending more time on Amazon website (7:15 Minutes) and are looking for more products (8 Pages per visit) as compared to Flipkart website where people are spending less time (6:39 Minutes) and are looking for less product (7 Pages per visit).
Now if we keenly observe the source of traffic, we will get to know the reason behind the fall in the Flipkart’s glory.
- Since the direct traffic of Flipkart is 44% which is more than Amazon, so that basically means that Flipkart is able to hold its strong traditional customer base however, they are not able to gain more customer.
- Amazon having more referral percentage does proves that they have been spending a lot money on media and promotions.
- With Amazon spending their money on media and promotions, do prompt people to search for that particular product or app which indeed shows its results in the increase of Search Percentage.
- Self promotion is also a new way too push yourself for more audience reach, which is why, Amazon’s traffic source via Mails are more than Flipkart’s.
In an interview, Harish HV, partner at audit firm Grant Thornton said, “While Flipkart has reduced its sale events and advertisements on media, Amazon continues to spend money on media and naturally tends to get more people to download the app. The Amazon app quality is also better since it is a global technology platform. Indications are that Amazon might be very close to Flipkart or already ahead in sales,”
Well, this is certainly a big blow for the Indian E Commerce company FLIPKART and they are looking forward to tackle this problem by launching ‘F-ASSURED’ scheme to take on Amazon Prime. Under F-Assured scheme, a customer will get products that Flipkart promises which will undergo six different quality checks, a better return policy and same or next-day free delivery.
Well I hope that with this scheme Flipkart is able to turn the tables around, AGAIN ! !