Bangalore, September 12 2014: On one hand, Indian ecommerce outfits are lapping up international venture funding, and of course, channelizing some of their funds to make their mobile shopping application initiatives more and more exciting for us. But platforms and operators are not far behind. To offer even more choice to smartphone users, app stores now have their own fashion & lifestyle offerings, giving stiff competition to third party B2C companies.
BlackBerry recently launched a suite of retail shopping apps, available on its app store – BlackBerry World. Besides offering apps to shop through the inventory of worldwide biggies eBay and Amazon, BlackBerry also allows its users to go sift through the Flipkart Store Browser.
Interestingly, BlackBerry World also features an app for a stand alone fashion retailer – the Spanish giant Zara, whose products in India are sold through Reliance Brands. An ideal fit, we must say, going by how the profile of BlackBerry users and Zara’s own customer demographics. A price tag of Rs. 50  may seem a small price to update ourselves on Zara’s latest trends and designs, but again, we wonder why it couldn’t be free, if BlackBerry hopes to capture the fashion retail customer market in this country.