Tips for Online Shopping

With the emerging use of e-commerce websites in India, people tend to buy products online. From clothes to home appliances, from grocery to eye wears, everything has an online destination. The e-commerce websites are also coping up with the requirement of their customers.

As buyers often prefer buying products only after viewing and trying them, ecommerce websites introduced the try before buy option. Buyers do not wish to disclose their debit or credit card information to any website, so online buying websites have the Cash-on-Delivery option. Buyers are most of the time unsure about a product before buying as they haven’t physically seen or touched the product. So ecommerce websites have return policy. Shipping duration is another issue faced by the customers. But the online shopping portals now offer next day delivery too.

And the list goes on.. The websites have tried solving every problem of buyers to introduce this online buying technology in India.

But.. Are you still doubtful about this approach of buying products online? Here are few tips for online shopping:

• Secured checkout page: Ensure the checkout page, payment gateway page or the page where you insert your credit card/bank account details are secured. This can check with the URL. The URL should start with “https://” and not “http://” - ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’. There should be a lock sign near the URL.


• Return policy: There are high chances of you returning a product when it arrives at your home. The reason could be anything – wrong size, wrongly delivered product, damaged product etc. So always check the return policy of the website before hitting the Buy button.


• Hunt for discounts: Ecommerce websites are known for discounts. No matter how hard it is, the least discount you will find is 5%. So do not skip the deals and coupons websites. There are websites which will even give you the lowest price for the product you require.


• Shipping charges: Almost every ecommerce websites now charge for shipping the product. To elemiate it you can go for bulk purchase. The minimum buying amount to waive off the shipping charges can be found on the FAQs page of the ecommerce website.


• Lookup for reviews of the website: Before buying the product, no matter how low the cost is, always check reviews of the website. Often, there are websites which do not deliver the products due to lack of inventory, poor management of orders etc. Any issue of the website will be visible easily with a few searches on the web.


• Keep a note of purchases: If you have bought multiple products through multiple online shopping portals and waiting for their delivery, do keep a record of them. So that even if the ecommerce website has neglected your purchase, you can remind them in case the product is not delivered within the specified period.


• Keep the bill and box safely: After we receive the delivery, we tend to tear the box and packing in an ill-mannered way! To minimize the losses, retain the box even after opening the package and safely remove the bill while tearing off the wraps.

Do drop your line in the comments below if you have opted for online shopping and things you do before and after your buy a product.

Happy shopping!