ONLINE SHOPPING – indulgence of the modern Indian consumer
“Arre wo J.K. Rowling ki nayi kitab dekhi ‘The Casual Vacancy’?” says Mr. X to Ms. A. Pat comes the reply
Khareed bhi li, Flipkart se!”
“Yaar; Ded ghante mein show hai aur upar se yeh traffic! Tickets milengi kya?” inquires Ms. T with Mr. K.
“Don’t worry, bookmyshow hai na!”
“Dude! I just went for an awesome trip to Malaysia. You should have come man!” said Mr. N to Mr. V. “
The rates were too costly yaar, kaun padega in travel agents ke jhamele mein?” replied Mr. V.
“Arre, tune makemytrip ke bare mein nahi suna?”
In India, the emerging trend that follows social networking is online shopping, be it for accessories, shoes, clothes, music, movies, gadgets or even books. The target audience is not just the youth any more! It has diversified and is the easiest means of purchasing for the working middle aged class.
You have a lot more variety, different shapes and sizes (clothes & shoes), rare and classic books, brand new gadgets (iphones, ipads, digi-cams) and a lot more options to select from. Not only are you provided with information of features/ user reviews, but also discounted cheaper rates (as compared to the market price), definitely an attractive bonus point!
Many people find it extremely convenient to order goods online. A husband, for example, wants to buy his wife a Gucci bag for their anniversary but is a little embarrassed to walk into a ladies store and choose, (he only knows her favorite brand; is absolutely clueless about the varieties). Simple solution- open jabong.com for example, select your product, check out the prices, take your pick, and click to order.
With the policy of “What you see, is what you get”, online shopping is meticulously capturing various aspects of the markets and proving to be quite a terror to the small business retailers and customized malls. People research various products online (especially cell phones and cameras), compare their prices on various websites and only then will they go and personally buy it from the cheapest and nearest outlet. This is how smart the Indian consumer has become!
Online shopping has tremendously enhanced the ease booking of tickets online (railways, bus, flight and even movies) makemytrip.com offers exciting tourist destinations and equally exciting accommodation & travel deals; cleartrip.com offers comparative prices for travelling and helps you in online bookings for cheap flights, bookmyshow.com gives you tickets along with the detailed schedule of events and movies happening. Boutiques have a personalized website to showcase their collections, brands have their respective galleries to display their stock, even food outlets, and various restaurants have began providing the service of ordering food and reserving tables online. The reach of almighty INTERNET!
Modes of delivery vary. Payments online via net banking are turning out to be much more safer for the consumers. And yet, if you still are hesitant to give away your credit card details or bank account number, no issues, select the C.O.D : ‘cash-on-delivery’ option; and you can pay for what you have ordered AFTER you receive the delivery. How cool is that?!
A personal secret – What I usually do (with context to novels. I’m a book freak) is that whenever I visit a bookstore, I make a wish list of all the books that I want to read, go home and check them out on flipkart.com (my favorite) This checking out is normally followed with placing an order and my cash option has always been C.O.D.!
What’s more exciting is that some of these websites (my personal experience has only been with jabong.com so far) also provide you with the policy of returning and refunding if the product ordered isn’t satisfying! (my mom ordered a smaller size kurti for me and not only was it exchanged, but the price was refunded as well)
With all such readily available facilities at the mere click of a mouse, what else can a consumer want for?
So, are you one of the modern Indian consumers yet?