When Should you buy products from flipcart, ebay.in etc?

eShopping started in USA and is very much catching up in India as well. Its very additive as you get products on your finger tips. But recently I have observed a strange phenomenon on online shopping  portals in India.


Generally the business model on online shopping portals is that the manufacturers directly sell products to the consumers and the middle men like retailers and whole sellers are eliminated and the customers really benefit from it as the price comes down by at least 10 % to 15 %.

But now a days I observed especially in electronic goods category that the prices on the ePortals are infact more than what you can get in normal stores. Part of the reason is the freeshipping compnonets as it costs them anywhere from Rs50 to Rs500 to ship these products at your home. Also the depreciating rupee is also one of the reasons for the prices.

These costs are pre added in the cost of the products and sold to customers on the name of free home delivery. I was searching for a Nikon 70 - 300 lens for my DSLR and found the price to be around Rs 9200 on flipcart. I purchased the same lens for Rs 9000 from a store.

I am not saying its a huge difference but considering the business model I feel the cost difference should have been at least by Rs 500 to Rs 700 minimum including the shipping costs which was missing. It makes me wonder why the prices have been raised so much on these portals may be they already have addicted huge number of people that their business is flourishing.

But it should be a win win for Seller as well as buyer which does not seem to be the case now a days. I would recommend you to simply do some basic research on whatever products you are buying on physical stores first.

I even bargained with the camera store guys buy saying its available in flipacart for Rs 9200 reduce the price further but at that time Rupee was at 54 to a 1 $ so he had good reason to convince me. He even said that the price was nearly Rs 8000 couple of months back and at that time as well the prices on flipcart were same as Rs 9200.

I am in no way saying stop buying from these eShopping sites but yes definitely buy them only when.

1. Price difference is around 10 to 15% from market price.
2. Or the item is not available in market at all which is rare but possible.
3. Always pay cash on delivery some of my friends got their products delivered after a month from starcj.com (rare but can happen)
4. You should feel like a winner when you are buying from such websites a feeling of getting best deal should be there.

I am sure getting a good deal from local market is a difficult task but if you want to really save some huge money you have to earn in (money saved is money earned right).