NEW DELHI: Flipkart has redesigned its mobile app to simplify homepage navigation for customers from smaller towns, as well as to include a dedicated section for grocery shopping. The company, which is owned by Walmart, claims that the new design will allow customers to quickly access key shopping categories. The new design is now available on Android and will be available on iOS next month.
Shopping categories and features such as Cart and Notifications have been moved to the bottom of the screen as part of the redesign so users can access them quickly while scrolling through the app.
According to Bharath Ram, Product Head, Growth & Retention at Flipkart, the psychology behind placing important elements at the bottom bar is that it is very close to the thumb and allows people to easily navigate where they want.
The dedicated grocery shopping space is at the top of the homepage to ensure that more customers are aware of it and visit it more frequently. According to Ram, “putting grocery at the top keeps it at the top of customers’ minds.” They are now aware and will investigate. It is a critical category for Flipkart, and we are focused on it.”
Grocery is the fastest-growing e-commerce category, especially since the pandemic. Many grocery apps have gained popularity in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. To be sure, a Local Circles survey of 30,000 shoppers published in February found that 51% of those who bought groceries online came from tier 2, tier 3, or tier 4 households.
Flipkart is repurposing the space vacated by category with consumer-centric programs for tier 2 tier 3 consumers in the new layout to help customers from these cities find deals easily.
While the first 100 million customers came from metros and big cities, Ram predicts that the next 500 million will come from tier 3 cities and beyond. This increases the importance of e-commerce platforms providing a seamless navigation experience so that these customers can easily discover things.
Flipkart, according to Ram, has 150 million products in over 80 categories.
