Myntra to reportedly shut its website on May 1

Online fashion retailer Myntra will shut its website on May 1 and will become a mobile app-based retailer, according to reports.

Times of India citing sources close to the matter reveals that Myntra is expected to shut down its website in favour of moving all operations to its mobile app. The move is attributed to the increase in Internet usage via smartphones in India. Myntra gets about 80% of its traffic and 70% of sales through its mobile app. Flipkart also draws 60 percent of its sales through the mobile app.

According to reports, the company expects Myntra sales number through its mobile app to reach 90% by the end of the year. And if this experiment is successful then Flipkart may also follow suite. Flipkart had acquired fashion retailer Myntra last year for $300 million.

Flipkart, Myntra along with other leading Indian ecommerce players like Snapdeal, Infibeam have been pushing offers exclusively on their apps with the aim of getting more consumers on to the platform. According to reports, online retailers have seen an increase in mobile traffic from less than 5% an year ago to 50-60% now.

India is expected to have 213 million mobile internet users by June 2015, according to a report by IAMAI. By 2018 this number is expected to increase to 500 million by 2018. The rise in number is driven by increase in number of budget devices and low cost internet plans. A recent Morgan Stanley report has highlighted that online shopper penetration in India will increase from 9% in 2013 to 36% in 2020 driven by mobile users.