Thursday 21 January 2016

Impact of E commerce on Indian Consumers

Few years back when e commerce was not so popular in India people use to shop in traditional ways , super stores and shops , then came the era of Shopping malls where one can get variety of products under one roof . It became very popular specially in metro's and big cities then slowly it reached small towns as well.
It has its own charm , shopping every thing under one roof , starting from grocery products to apparels , skincare , footwear , even electronics and furniture available at one place .
I had also  shopped from various famous shopping malls like Big Bazar , Spencer's , Hyper City etc .
Shopping there at week ends was a routine .
Then came Online shopping in India . Like many others I was too hesitant initially thinking of various factors like quality of products , payment options , return and refund issues etc. But I always wanted to try as I love trying new things and products .When one of my relative told me that he  has been shopping from online store like myntra.com  , and its good , I gained some courage and thought of giving it a try .
myntra.com was the first online store from where I had started doing online shopping.
My first order was worth Rs 500 , some skin care products , when my order was fulfilled  within 2 days  , I was happy and I got a good discount on  those products which was difficult to get else where .
Then it was apparels , my ethnic wears and my kids apparels , I got a good discount on those products by using discount coupons and vouchers .
My overall experience with myntra.com was excellent , products were of good quality , return and exchange was easy , every order was delivered with in 2-3 days .
This was a pleasant experience and I started enjoying it , trying new stores one by one .
Then I learned about various deal and coupon sites like freekamaal.com and Indiafreestuff.com , the sites where one can know about discounts and promotion on various online stores , using which consumer can save lot of money .
All this happened some three years back and at that point of time when my kids were too young and shopping with them was bit difficult for me , this online shopping was a boon for me .
Placing order from home and getting products with in few days .
And after trying apparels , footwear ,  books and other stuff I wanted to shop online for grocery products as its the basic requirement of every house hold .
Then I found BigBasket.com the online grocery shop , after my first order I was satisfied with their service . It was much needed for me as going to a grocery shop or super store every weekend with small kids and carrying so much of stuff was difficult .
So like me many other people have been benefitted with online shopping .
People have a hectic schedule these days , busy with their professional and personal lives ,
online shopping  helps to shop almost every thing from home using various payment options like cash on delivery , net banking , payment via credit or debit cards .

From my experience of online shopping I would like to share few things :

1. Do not shop from unknown and new stores of which one has no idea .
2.Shop from reputed online stores like amazon.in , myntra.com , flipkart.com etc.
3.Its better to opt for Cash on Delivery as when we receive the product at that time we can pay by cash , if pre payment is done and the online store is not good one has to keep on tracking their order .
4.Before placing order  do read the review of sites, stores or products on internet .
5.Before placing order make sure that return and refund is easy on that store , this could be done by calling at their customer service and getting details of return and refund policy .
\6. One can check at deal and coupon sites so that one can know about latest deals and discounts and save their money while shopping on these online stores.
7.There  are many Cash Back sites like CashKaro.com which gives a good percentage as cashback if one shops via their site.Its very easy as one need not do any thing extra , just on any online store as they do but via their site , I have used cashAkro.com and got good amount as cash back which was credited to my bank account.

E commerce has given lots of options and choices to Indian Consumers where Consumer is the King .
One can choose from various stores , avail good discounts , get products delivered at their home .
Shopping habits has changed a lot because of e commerce as more and more people are now going for it thus giving a tough competition to local stores and shops .
One needs to be a Smart Shopper , shopping from both online stores and  local stores where one finds good products at good discounts .


This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can  apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.
 

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