My experiences with online shopping

Flipkart was the website from which I did my first online shopping. That was the time before Flipkart diversified into multi-retail brands. That was the time when it trades only books and there were no shipping charges for any purchased amount. And how happy I was to know that the books I want to read are just a click away. Until my last shopping, I have purchased only books from flipkart. They have a super-fast delivery and at several instances I received my order in less than 48 hours itself.

Few days back I ordered a pair of Enroute sandals from them. They were on 50% sale in the website while in other websites they were available on full price no discount. The color I wanted was the nude shade of the item but the only available colors that were showed in the website were Black and Brown. I decided to pick brown. After 2 days, to my amazement I received my order. I know a customer should be enraged when one receive not what one ordered. But I did a happy dance in my mind because instead of Brown that I ordered they had sent me the nude one which I wanted and was not displayed in their website. Happy lucky me. But on a serious note, this is a mistake on Flipkart part but wth the customer is happy.

Jabong is one of the websites which I like to surf. I find it very user-friendly to browse and have made a few purchases with them and happy with their delivery and quality.

FashionandYou is another destination that I am subscribed to and I have bought shoes and kurti from them. The deliverytook longer than a week. But this was in the year of 2012. May be they have now improved in delivery timeperiod.

Nykaa was the website I hopped in through my random internet surfing. This website deals with beauty products from reputed  national and international brands. I was in love with their website. They have this big sale going on and I ordered 8 items from them. While I have been spoiled by Flipkart, Jabong and others with their speedy delivery the delivery of these items took a long time in comparision. My first batch of 6 items arrived after 5 days and one item was defective. I clicked its photo and sent a mail to the Nykaa team of the problem. The second batch of remaining items arrive some 6 days later as their excuse was that the ordered items were out of stock in their inventory. The defective item was yet not replaced. I dropped another mail to them. And while I was thinking that they are not going to replace the defective piece, they surprised me by sending the replacement within 3 days. All the items were despatched from Mumbai. And being a new entrant they may not have stores in other major cities, that may be a reason for the delay in orders but all’s well that ends well.. But well, they look promising as beauty products only website. 

All-in-all I find online shopping is very good and addictive at the same time. Here without venturing outside the comfort of your home, one can shop without getting dropped. Also the availability of discount coupons make online shopping attractive. I have a few colleagues who have brought items like Masalas online. So online shopping is the way to go for people who are short of time to hop malls and stores.

One of the things that I avoid while making purchase online is not paying shipping-charges. I like when my items are free-shipped. Even if the shipping charges are minsicule like Rs. 20-30, I avoid buying items or try to club more items on my order list so that I could get free-shipping. Weird, yes.

But at the same time, there are a few precautions one has to take when going for online shopping. Following are the some which Itake while shopping online:

1)      I try to make purchases mostly from renowned websites.

2)      I trust those sites which have “Cash-on-delivery” option. This feature gives me this fake assurance that my money is not on stake.

3)      When not sure of your size, don’t buy. There are many sites which have free-replacement policy and do replace your items within 1-2 days if your size is available, but why take risk. If I am planning to purchase some specific item like dress, jeans, shoes etc of a specific brand online because I am being offered some good discount and I am not sure of their size, fitting, I try to get to the real-store of that brand and get a size check. Cheap, yes I am.

4)      Almost all of the websites have facebook pages. So if there is some new site you want to buy something from, just take a look at their facebook pages as well. The reviews and feedback from users there will give an glimpse of their services.

Disclaimer: Though it look like a paid post for online shopping, this is not. These are just the vanity of my views on online shopping that I chose to write about in my Blogathon 2014 journey of everyday posting the month January.