Flipkart, the leading online store from India has released a Windows Phone app last week amongst the burst of local applications from India. The app offers shopping for a wide variety of products across several categories including movies, music, games, mobiles, cameras, computers, and electronics.
On the face of it, the application looks nice and ordering a product takes only 3 steps. Sadly, like most e-commerce apps from India, the app doesn’t allow one to pay via credit/debit card or netbanking but only through cash on delivery. A lot of Flipkart customers won’t complain on this one though.
A regular visitor on Flipkart.com, however, would feel a little less equipped. Unless you are buying top products or new additions in each category, the absence of filters make searching through the depths of catalog a little tough. Also, several product categories available on the Web are missing in the app. Clearly, the sole purpose of the app is ordering a product seamlessly, and hence it does not feature user sign-in to make order history, wish-list, and other such account related information available. Heck, it doesn’t even save address information!
Using the app, I attempted ordering a DVD. Once the order is placed, you are notified of the order status being pending for confirmation. In about 45 minutes (on a Saturday), I got a call from Flipkart customer care informing me of the complete charges (Awkwardly, the app didn’t mention any shipping charges; the DVD I ordered was less than the threshold for free shipping) and taking a confirmation for the order. A mail after this call confirmed my order.
