Reviews of some popular Online Shopping Websites in India April '13 - My Take - Random Wednesday

Hey all my dear readers! Let me welcome you all to my blog on this Random Wednesday at Blog de Toxifier! :D



I was thinking of updating my previous post on Online Shopping Website Comparison. But then I thought It'd be better to make new post with recent happenings and experiences.



So here for you all a "My Take" on the Online Shopping Websites in India. I used April '13 in this post to indicate that this one depends on my experiences upto that period. If I ever post again such a post, it will have a different month and perhaps year.



So let's start :D

eBay

My Rating: 2.5 out of 5
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A website I loved the most, but now hate the most, yes it is eBay a popular Online Shopping Website, not just in India but around the world. The prices and coupons make this website a great catch but would lure anyone who thinks it to be too trustworthy like I did.

I don't hate eBay as such, I have purchased many things from that website and my friends too have had a great experience. But when it comes to customer support one has to give it 0, yes ZERO stars out of 5?, out of 10? out 10000? out of infinity! It is the worst customer support I have seen in life. The details can be found my earlier post: eBay Scam. Not just me, a friend of mine too got lured by eBay. I was lucky to lose just 50 bucks, my friend's 11k got ruined after a Sony Experia U he purchased for his mom was found duplicate and eBay was of no help saying it is your fault you bought a duplicate product.

Just because of such a bad customer support, eBay I give you 2.5 star.

Let's break up this rating that I gave to eBay:

Layout	3/5
Speed of Website	4/5
Customer Support	0/5
Product Availability	3/5
Ease of Use	3/5

Later I read many reviews on Internet that confirmed that customer support is something where eBay sucks. So I guess my review, based on my experience is correct! :D Also I no longer buy from eBay since I don't trust it anymore.

Flipkart

My Rating: 4 out of 5
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The second one on my list is Flipkart, an Indian Shopping Website based in Bangalore, India.



Started with a bad experience, this is one website I now have a great experience with and now consider it to be my top priority. Whenever I need to buy something online I first search it on Flipkart! If you guys remember in my earlier post of comparison of online shopping websites, I mentioned about my bad experience with Flipkart. They changed my words now. They have proved themselves that yes they are the best choice for buying online in India.

Earlier whenever I had to see the highest price of the commodity on Internet I consulted Flipkart, now I can find the best and the most competitive price on FLipkart, they have improved a great deal. I bought my mobile through this website at a rate lower than what my "friend" offered me proving it to be the best price for sure. I have also bought watch, books, and computer supplies through Flipkart and would say their delivery is fast and packing is good too. I like this website. Greatly recommend it.

Reason for not giving 5/5 is my past experience of Hard Disk and RAM and bad customer support. Since I didn't contact the customer care after that in =any of the purchases, since I didn't need to :D, I won't comment on customer support this time for Flipkart. If they continue to be good now, I might consider a 5/5 in my next review perhaps! :)

Breakup of the rating for Flipkart:

Layout	4/5
Speed of Website	5/5
Customer Support	N/A -- Can't review -- Didn't require to contact them
Product Availability	4/5
Ease of Use	4/5
Price	4/5
Packing	4/5

Thus 4 out of 5 is my rating for Flipkart. :)





My friends too have had a great experience of buying from Flipkart. Many people on Internet say they were delivered quickly even at remote locations. So perhaps, my experience is rightly reviewed by me this time too! :D

HomeShop18

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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HomeShop18 was my favourite website to buy books online. The best prices, quick deliveries, no shipping charges, superb packing and always an option of Cash on Delivery made it my favourite website.

But alas! Since the new interface came in, I don't know what happened to this website. There was a great price hike(most of the things are most expensive on HomeShop18 now). If you apply any coupon, you lose the option of paying through Cash on Delivery. The old ATM-cum-Debit Cards can no longer be used on the payment portal of HomeShop18.

I don't know what happened to this website, but since I had a great experience in past I still give it a 3.5 star rating. I do consider price there before buying, but seriously no longer that readily as I used to earlier.

Breakup of the rating I gave to HomeShop18:

Layout	5/5
Speed of Website	3.5/5
Customer Support	N/A Didn't require to contact them
Product Availability	4/5
Ease of Use	3/5
Price	2/5
Packing	5/5

Though I am not sure since most of the reviews on Internet suggest that HomeShop18 has lost it's previous charm and now cancels orders, delays delvieries, has high prices, etc.

Myntra

My Rating: 4 out of 5
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My favourite destination to buy Fashion Online. Would you believe? I ordered my Adidas Blazon at 8:45 am and received them at 4:45 pm the same day? Yes! They have done the quickest delivery to me of all the Online Shopping Websites O have ever purchased with.

Still I didn't give them 5/5? Well, quick delivery is not just one thing to be considered dear. There are a lot of other things I have to consider before reviewing. The webiste looks good, but is a little slow. Next, it deals just in fashion but still lacks a lot of things I would have bought. For example, only a small collection of Mid Rise Jeans by good companies like Wrangler and Gas. The prices are okay, but become good after applying the coupons. Always supporting Cash on Delivery is the main plus point since it is better to pay cash than using Online Transactions which can be risky. Packing is something a big turn off since they pack in plastic bags without any good hard packing which most of the other websites do. If they improve packing, maybe I consider a better rating the next time! :)

I have bought 3 bags, and a pair of shoes so far from them. Only once had a bad experience , but the customer support was great and helped me. So I give it a 4/5(why not 5/5 I have already discussed).

Breakup of the rating I gave to Myntra:

Layout	5/5
Speed of Website	3.5/5
Customer Support	3.5/5
Product Availability	3.5/5
Ease of Use	5/5
Price	4/5
Packing	3/5

The average becomes approx. 4/5 so good to go, right? :)

Didn't checked my experience with any other reviews so cannot comment what other people feel for this website.

Infibeam

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5
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Infibeam is another Indian Website and is good. My experiences so far with this website have been good. The packaging of the products is awesome, is just superb. They pack the products so well that there should be no transit-or-handling damages to the product. I have bought Pen Drives, Cooling Pad, Chocolate Syrup, etc. from this website and the experience has been good so far.

Once I had to delay a shipment and contacted their customer support, it was good. So for all the good parts of Infibeam, I give you 4.5 out of 5 stars dear website! :)

Breakup of my rating for Infibeam:

Layout	4/5
Speed of Website	4/5
Customer Support	4.5/5
Product Availability	4/5
Ease of Use	5/5
Price	4.5/5
Packing	5/5

I didn't search for any reviews on Internet to confirm my experience with that of others. But my friends suggested me this website. They all have had good experiences with this website and say they deliver real quick and have the best prices. And I agree to that all! :D

SnapDeal

My Rating: 4 out of 5
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Though I have had a good experience with everything I bought from Snapdeal, still I gave them 4 not 5 or 4.5 stars? Reason is that I miss the old deals website that it no longer is! :/ It too became one of the shopping websites. But hey, the prices are real cool and delivery is quick and packing is good too.

I have bought earphones, shaving blades, body lotion, etc. from this website and all my experiences have been good so far. Once had to contact the customer support to delay my delivery since I wasn't home, it was good to contact them. No problems then why not 5/5? Because not everything is available. Things go out of stock, and remain out of stock, sometimes the prices are high, rather than being competitive. The minimum order for free delivery is also increased to 299 INR.

Still this is a good website and I always consider it whenever I buy online.

Breakup of the rating I gave to Snapdeal:

Layout	4/5
Speed of Website	4/5
Customer Support	5/5
Product Availability	3.5/5
Ease of Use	5/5
Price	4/5
Packing	4.5/5

I hope the websites won't have any problems with me reviewing them without their consent since these are honest reviews and they should appreciate that people would know about these websites and the websites can improve them if I pointed any flaw. Still if anyone finds any of these reviews bad, please don't sue me(LOL!). Just let me know if you belong to that company and I should remove any content.



I hope everyone who reads this post finds it useful. Please feel free to post your suggestions, comments and reviews in the comments. These reviews are honest and based on my own experiences. I wasn't paid to write them in case you think these are morphed. They are real 100% based on my own personal experience.
Good day all! :) And happy new month MAY! :)