Online shopping is a blessing for people who don’t have all the time in the world to troll the malls and do lots of windowshopping. While I’m a shopaholic and love malls (even though it’s apparently wrong to admit that), recently I haven’t had as much time to get out and go shop as much as I’d like. So, I modified that saying... if I can’t go to the mall, I’ll have to bring the mall to me :) And that’s when online shopping stepped in to satiate my shopping needs - and all you men rolling your eyes, don’t pretend you don’t spend hours salivating over electronics in stores like Chroma and E-Zone! It’s the same thing, only different :)
I know a lot of people are apprehensive about online shopping, but it’s really a convenient, quick way to get what you need (or want). Just stay away from the shady sites, don’t use your credit card if that’s not something you’re not comfortable with (almost every site has a cash on delivery option), and you’ll be fine! The only drawback is not having that real-life experience, and not being able to try out the clothes you’re buying, but if you stick to brands that you generally buy, you don’t have to worry because you know what size works for you. So here’s my little guidebook for online shopping based on experiences over several months of mostly shopping online (thanks to my lovely job - and no, I don’t work for an online shopping company!):
Flipkart: This has to be the frontrunner in terms of service. I can’t get over how efficient Flipkart is... it’s literally like blink and your product is delivered. I place an order and the next day it’s delivered - always, unless the book is imported and it takes them a week or so to source it (in which case that’s specified in the item details). Customer service is super prompt and super helpful. Whenever I’ve sent a question, I’ve gotten a reply the same day. If I ever need a book or something in a hurry, I know Flipkart is the way to go. And with every book, they send these cute bookmarks with funny ’reasons to use a bookmark’ that always make me smile. They even have terrific cellphone, ipod, and computer accessories. I have some pretty headphones that everyone at work seems to crave and the cutest dragon pendrive that I found on flipkart. The only thing I wish they would change is their policy to not have a customer loyaty program!
Landmarkonthenet: My favorite bookstore (I mean the physical store at Infiniti mall) whose sales staff seems to know about the books and is able to make intelligent suggestions. Landmark doesn’t seem as commercial as Crossword (even though I’m hugely loyal to Shoppers Stop, which is under the same umbrella), and has a lot more variety in terms of obscure and old (and I don’t mean old as in used, I mean old as in written long, long ago) books and writers. So sometimes I use landmarkonthenet when I want to order books - when I’m not in a hurry because their delivery isn’t as fast as flipkart, but they have some amazing discounts and coupons (which flipkart usually doesn’t). While their delivery timelines could be better, they still do deliver and respond to queries about order status promptly. They once delivered a damaged book and when I mailed them about it, they sent a salesperson from one of their stores over with a replacement the next day. With service like that, it’s no wonder I keep going back.
Myntra: I’ve just recently started shopping on Mytnra and it’s basically as efficient as Flipkart. I’ve ordered leggings, slippers and other stuff from them in the last month and received everything I ordered within two days of placing the order. They even do this convenient thing where they send a text the morning that your order is out for delivery and their courier person calls and confirms that someone will be available to take the delivery about an hour before he shows up. That really makes the entire process seamless and ensure you never miss a delivery. They also have a no-questions-asked refund policy and send a return bag along with the order as a just-in-case, which I think is really cool. Thankfully, so far, I haven’t had to see just how ’no-
questions-asked’ the policy is, since everything they’ve sent me is exactly as expected.
Ebay: I’ve been a regular at ebay for years - they have some really good deals and unique products. The best thing about ebay is Paisapay, which ensures your money is credited only after your confirm that you’ve received what you ordered. And their resolution is very efficient too - I once ordered a laptop bag, which turned out to be just a backpack (no padded laptop compartment). I raised a complaint about the same and they had the amount I paid refunded to me after I couriered the product back to the seller. Also, they offered to reimburse me for the courier - I didn’t go through with it because I didn’t want the hassle of sending them my courier receipt. It’s just nice to know that they would do that. Another time, a seller sent me a Chinese knock-off of a clock, instead of the original brand I was expecting. This time, the seller himself agreed to refund my money on return of the clock - without requiring ebay’s intervention.
Yebhi: Shockingly bad service from YEBHI - they won’t send updates on the order status and they won’t reply to email inquiries. I had ordered a couple of things from them about a month ago and expected to receive the items within the specified timeline (five days), but actually got delivery about 20 days later - after I’d sent several mails to which I received no reply. Finally, I called their customer service, and after I expressed my disgust, they finally had the products delivered to me the same evening - after I gave them an earful about how they’d never survive with the service and delayed shipments they had. I’ll probably try them out one more time to see if there’s any improvement. And if not, I’ll stick to the more prompt sites.
Fashionandyou: I gave them several opportunities to prove themselves and they did, but in a negative way - they proved that they’re useless. They never deliver products on time - by the time I receive what I ordered, I have already forgotten that I’d ever ordered it. Their customer service is clueless and has no idea about the products listed on their site or even how to navigate the site. I learned this over a painful phone call when I made the mistake of calling their helpline. I had to teach the girl I spoke to how to navigate to the product I was talking about and she still couldn’t answer my questions - that’s 10 minutes of life I’m never getting back. Anyway, after several hits and misses (mostly misses), I’ve decided to steer cleer from this site.
99labels: Another useless site, they can never send a product without goofing up in some way. Once they sent me damaged jewelery... I was really swamped at work at the time and couldn’t follow-up with them about it within the exchange/return timeline. So I figured maybe it wasn’t totally their fault and gave them another shot - this time a component of my product was missing and when I sent a mail about it, they asked me to revert with an photo of the product and said that if their ’quality team’ determined it was ’defective’, I’d get store credit... um, no thanks! And the wrong size was sent to me as another item that was part of that same order. I figure three strikes and you’re out, so this is another site I’ve decided not to bother with again!