As online retail’s festive season sales get bigger and bolder and eye mobile commerce, it’s growth time for marketing firms that are in the business of digital advertising and app installs. Anurag Gupta, Founder and MD, DGM India, which drives sales for e-commerce firms, says marketing spends in this season are 3-4 times that of what the e-commerce firms would spend in other months, and that the number of e-commerce players who are advertising more aggressively has grown. “Our business also is growing proportionately. There are compelling propositions, greater number of transactions, and new users come in.” There is much debate over the move of online businesses to go app-only. Flipkart’s Big Billion Days Sale this year was an app-only affair. What is the outlook for these moves? Deven Dharmadasani, Co-founder, Seventynine, which is an in-app video advertising platform, says brands that launch apps, be they online retail companies or others such as wallet, music or grocery, are taking a very big risk as they think consumers are going to change their behaviour. The finding that people use the Internet more on their office computers is losing its validity. Brand-related activity is high on a mobile device, and studies have shown that it peaks early morning and late evening, before and after office hours. “Access is just one press of a button, simpler than typing a URL or search on a PC,” he says.

Siddharth Puri, CEO of Tyroo Technologies, which specialises in driving app installs and user engagement for major e-commerce players, says the app-only move is also about the quality of Internet speed.

For a lot of consumers, in non-metro towns and cities, Internet is better accessed – or solely – through mobile devices. The app-only move, from a marketer’s perspective, is an opportunity to create a relationship with the customer.

Dharmadasani draws parallels with the Amazon Prime business which, by, offering its subscribers special discounts and incentives, reduces the need for them to search for good deals elsewhere on the Internet, thus disrupting their consumer journey. Further, in an app-only world, information and deals are at the user’s fingertips, throughout. Bored with the movie you’re watching? Browse through your shopping app!

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