Flipkart says more than 20 percent of its orders are via mobile phones

Country's leading e-commerce player Flipkart on Wednesday said it is receiving over 20 percent of its orders from mobile phones on the back of growing penetration of smartphone users who prefer buying merchandise through m-commerce mode.

"More than 20 percent of our orders are coming from mobile at present. And we see a lot of mobile users, who place orders, are from non-metro cities where we see a lot of potential for growth," company's Director (Mobile Marketing) Mausam Bhatt told reporters in Chandigarh.

Mobile users currently prefer to order mobile phones, tablets, cameras, footwear and apparels, he further said. "Increasing smartphone penetration and lower cost of devices has further contributed to growth of m-commerce," he added.

Quoting a report of Boston Consulting Group, Bhatt said at present 45 percent online consumers in India use only their mobile devices to access the Internet which is expected to increase to 60 percent over the next three years.

Sensing immense potential in m-commerce, Flipkart had launched its first Android-based mobile application in September last year to allow smartphone users to buy products online. It launched its iOS-based application in December.

"Through this app, users can check prices instantly using voice search and barcode scanning and can also share product information with friends easily through call, SMS, email, etc," he said, adding that the company would soon roll out Windows Phone-based mobile application.

He further said that easy payment options like cash on delivery available on Flipkart's mobile site, mobile shopping was now the preferred way to shop for a growing base of customers.

"In just last three months alone, we have seen more than 2.5 million downloads of our mobile application," he added.

Home-grown e-commerce major Flipkart has now plans to sell furniture, white goods including TV, refrigerators, washing machines through its website.

"We will soon introduce furniture, white goods as new product category," he said.

At present, Flipkart has 20 product categories with 14 million registered users and has one lakh shipments per day to over 150 cities.

He said the market size of e-commerce is expected to reach $76 billion by 2020. Last year, the e-commerce market stood at $1.6 billion.