I can’t remember exactly when I first experienced Online Shopping or what I purchased in that first transaction. It is definitely way back at 2006 and not in India. I bought something in UK when I was deputed there and I liked the concept.
Returning back in India, I found that there are very few online shop here and Indiaplaza was one of them. I don’t remember any other name than Indiaplazza.
Now in 2012, after 6 years I have gone through lot of online shops in India and purchased numerous things(actual requirement, impulsive buying) from e-Shops.
Here is a summary of those experiences with those e-Malls.
e-Bay: Largest Online shop in India in terms of Range and depth of products available. If something is not available in eBay then it is not available in Indian online market. Check the seller’s reputation
and feedback and definitely you will have a good experience.
For those products where you need the company’s warranty make sure that seller is sending a invoice with proper VAT deduction.
Paisapay protection is good and once I had a problem and got the refund directly from eBay.
Regularly they issues discount coupon so before buying anything please give a search for that.
Delivery depends on the seller. For the reputed sellers it is quick and good.
IndiaPlaza: Earlier I used to buy lot of stuffs from them. Always have good experience with them. Even they did returned pick-up from my home, sent missing items all in free of cost. Had large collection of books.
Look for discount code available in net. With online mobile recharge you will get.(freecharge etc)
Delivery is not that good but OK, no issues also.
Infibeam: Another very good site in terms of products and offers available. Book collection is really very good and my first choice is infibeam for book at least.
Discount coupon is very rarely available.
Delivery is good and mostly by well known couriers.
Once I had a problem and found that there customer care guys are not that efficient and lying. After lot of follow up they resolved the issue(good they have free phone otherwise my phone bill would be
more that the product price).
Flipkart: Another excellent e-shop in India. Started with simply books and now offering lot of goods. Very fast shipping for books. For electronics items shipping is very slow. Customer care is not bad but they did not refund me as cash refund in stead they refunded as store credit when the problem was at their end, they were out of stock. Never found any discount code in net. And price is not the cheapest
available in net but again a little bit higher price for the reliability and good experience.
Koovs: Recently bought few things and surprisingly found that service is really good. Price is cheap compared with other shops.
Discount coupons are easily available here and there.
Shipping is not that fast but OK. Contacted once customer care through email and found that not bad though response is little bit slow. Payback points can be used as payment method.
Timtara: Bought only one item from them. No issues but found that delivery is not that fast and price is unnecessarily hiked and then issuing discount coupon on the very first page.
Futurebazar: Overall good online shop but there is not that much benefit because products are available at the same price in Bigbazar, Pantaloons etc. Shipping is very slow and discount coupon are rarely available in net. Payback points can be used as payment so good site to
redeem payback points.
For any defective product you can drop it to the nearest Bigbazar or
Pantaloon shop.
Snapdeal: Purchased few of the daily discount deals. Mainly new shops/services have tie up with snap deal for promotion and not a single issue. As the coupon is delivered in mobile and email so no
problem with delivery.
Yebhi: One of my favorite for branded apparels. I bought lot of t-shirt, pants, Shoes and every time I found that it is good. Discount coupon are freely available in internet and never buy without having a
discount coupon otherwise you may land up ultimately paying more than double. Shopping anything with less than 40-50% discount coupon code on top of the tagged price is costly.
This is there pricing strategy and personally don’t like it. Otherwise it is very good. Delivery is fast and good.
Bagittoday(India Today Groups Online deals): Fraud service. Generally they sell duplicate branded
products with huge discount tag. Sometime deliver after few months to some of the lucky buyers and non delivery to the rest. Simply avoid whatever may be the deal.
Indiatimes/Rediff: Avoid.It is kind of ebay marketplace concept but without the buyer protection plan and proper feedback methodology. So you don’t know whether you are dealing with a fraud or not.
Babyoye: Used only once and definitely a good place to buy baby product like diapers etc where the price is less than the local market price. Delivery etc are good.
Letsbuy: Looks good but they don’t ship to West Bengal so no experience for me.
In General, I found that online shopping is growing in India in a rapid pace and maturing day by day. Competition is getting tougher and ultimately buyers are getting the benefit. All the new shopping sites are good, polished having competitive price, tie-up with large courier services and delivering the products in good qualities and shape. Till that point all the e-shops are good with slight here and there. Only concern is if there is any problem in the whole process say product is faulty, product lost, out of stock, replacement, return etc then these e-malls can NOT handled the situation in proper way. They mainly refused to believe the customer first and try to avoid and delay the whole process. Either do the refund in store credit or deny to accept the return and replacement. In this place they need to improve a lot.
In UK or USA I have found that not only they do refund/replacement promptly without a single query and sometimes give a token gift or extra refund for the inconvenient caused to the customer.
Anyway that will not be ever possible in India in near future and also we don’t have that much of disciplined mind set in both seller and buyer.