Online shopping is a lazy girl’s best friend. Actually come to think of it, it is also a working girl’s, a busy girl’s..well I guess every kinda girl’s best friend 😛
Like everyone I know shopping online is still a hit and miss situation for me. At times it goes perfect, and I wonder what did everyone do before we could shop online. At other times however, everything that can possibly go wrong with an order, does. Wrong size, broken product, a completely different product from what I ordered, or even something that looks poles apart from how it looked on the website. You name it, I’ve faced it. Such are the perils of online shopping. But what everyone agrees on I think is that the advantages of shopping from a thousand different stores from the convenience of your home is unbeatable. Therefore, online shopping and me are still BFFs, though it doesn’t do much for my credit card.
We thought it would be useful to combine our most frequently used online stores and do a post on it. Each of us have had different experiences with these stores, and it might help you out if you wanted to try one of them for yourself. So here goes!
Also, a little trick about online shopping. I usually google ‘discount deals’ for the brands I want to find discount codes for. More often than not, I am thrilled with even a measly 10% off. Now we have websites like Couponzguru for discount codes, offers and deals in India. We’ve linked these codes where we could find them for the websites mentioned.
Forever21:
Let me start by saying I love Forever21. Here is some of the stuff I bought from there recently. I love the clothes, and their pricing is very affordable hence less guilt for any crazy shopping sprees you might have there. I’ve been eyeing this plaid flannel coat for awhile now.
The F21 online store makes me very happy. Their merchandize is the same as what they have in the stores, and its easier to find the size you want online. Especially for the shoes. There wasn’t a store in Bangalore until recently, and so I have used the website extensively. They always ship their orders on time, it reaches on time and so far I have had no issues with the packaging. As in, nothing has come damaged or anything like that. The only downside is that they have a minimum requirement of INR 2500 for free shipping, otherwise you need to pay a shipping of INR 300 within India. Which is slightly annoying but I can deal with that since other sites more or less charge the same amount to ship to India. There is no Cash on Delivery in case you were wondering.
I have a love hate relationship with Amazon. I honestly would not be able to count the number of things I’ve ordered from this website, but at least 10% of those things I’ve had to return. I love the fact that I can shop for literally everything in the world on Amazon, but I hate that they don’t take responsibility for the shipping of some of the things at times. The vendor ships the product , and sometimes it arrives damaged. Hopefully these headphones I’ve ordered arrive in one peice.
I bought my IPhone from Amazon, which I was quite nervous about, but it arrived in pristine condition. On the other hand some cutlery and home décor stuff I ordered all arrived cracked and broken! The return process though is quite simple and fast. So that’s something. I usually get books, cat food, candles, some makeup and home décor stuff from Amazon. The sales are really good, and it helps that you can compare the prices from different vendors for the same product.
This was by far the most harrowing and annoying online shopping experience I’ve ever had. I ordered 3 pairs of shoes from this website. On the site they tell you that it will take 7 to 21 days for delivery so I guess I should not be annoyed that they were delivered almost a month later. However what followed was just ridiculous. All 3 shoes were in the wrong size, so when I tried to figure out how to return them I realized they have no customer service contact numbers, only an email and in addition they have a ‘no returns’ policy, only exchange.
So I sent them a mail stating that I needed to exchange the shoes. They did not reply for 2 weeks. I went on their Facebook page and asked them what the process for returns was and then someone contacted me and said the return process would be initiated and someone would come to collect the shoes, then they would ship the correct sizes. The shoes were collected another 10 days later, but the correct sizes arrived 2 months later! And this was after I sent them a minimum of 20 emails asking for updates. So finally almost 3 and half months from my initial order, I received the correct mechanize.
Just out of curiosity I went online to check the reviews for this website and was shocked to discover hundreds of similar complaints, and some of them even saying that they never really got their stuff and the company didn’t even refund their money. Crazy right?! Never again! So always do a quick search before trying out a new website, might save you a lot of time and money 🙂
eBay:
I haven’t really bought a lot of stuff from eBay, but so far I have had a decent experience with the website. I once ordered a couple of phone cases that never really arrived, but they sent me a mail saying they had gone out of stock so I guess that was okay. I get the feeling that the eBay India is not as great as it is for other countries. I’ve never tried bidding on anything so far, so I’m not really sure how that works. Anisha however is a pro at it and has bought and sold a bunch of stuff from the UK eBay including these Zara shoes that she couldn’t find in her size anywhere else.
Flipkart
To be truthful I’ve mostly bought books from this site, and then moved on to a phone for my mother, speakers for myself and a friend. The last thing I bought from Flipkart was a book called Sharp Objects (by the same author as Gone Girl), a gift for my mother who is in Kolkata. (This reminds me she has clearly forgotten to inform me whether she has received it yet :/)
If you go to the site you will realize the variety of things that can be bought under one online roof.
My next favourite is Koovs. It is obvious I love them! Clothes, shoes, bags , watches, jewellery – they have it all. Not just that they have have variety, they truly do keep a good stock, things that I would wear and wish other people also would. In my last shoot for MTV Roadies you will notice a lot of Koovs product on the celebrities of the show. They house there own brands along with quite a few other well known ones.
Jabong is quite useful – especially because it stocks some brands not otherwise available in India – Dorothy Perkins, New Look, Miss Selfridges and River Island. So if you like any of these brands, this is a good way to get hold of them in India. Of course, the variety and choices are not as much but I do think Jabong manages to do quite well with its stocking. I also like the fact they seem to have free delivery and ‘cash on delivery’ options.
I came across this site quite recently. They too have free delivery and a ‘cash on delivery’ option – which always gives a positive vibe about an online store. I liked their jumpsuits but did not see anything else I particularly liked. I recommend you to have a look and check it out in case you do end up seeing anything you like.
Of all the online shopping websites I have checked out, I do think website-wise Myntra is one of the best with their layout and ease of access. Although I didn’t like the dresses I saw – except these two. This maxi is perfect for summer and the black makes it easier for a floral phobe like me.
I can totally imagine wearing this polka dotted dress to brunch!
Hope you liked our little compilation of the online shopping websites we frequent. We all put our heads together for this one. If you have some cool websites you shop from, do let us know! We’d love to check them out.
The images for the items shown belong to and are from the brands and websites to which links have been provided.
This original post contains a sponsored link.
– Anisha, Bidisha, Satarupa
Ragib Nizam says
Particularly, Without online shopping a coutry has no growth.
Sheena Rustomji says
Indeed. Online shopping is must