This festive season don’t just mall hop, try doing some serious site-hopping as well to bag the best deals. With alluring offers and marketing gimmicks of great discounts and tantalising offers you really need to cut through the hype to make the best use of online shopping sites. With Deepavali round the corner, there are bound to be discounts galore as online retail biggies look to make a killing as the entire nation goes on a shopping spree.
Meanwhile the site that offered the big billion sale and crashed by afternoon but kept sending mails late in the afternoon announcing that only ‘a few hours left’, has left some shoppers fuming and others cracking up. By early afternoon, Twitteratis were seen having a whale of a time. One tweet sure knew how to explain the impossible: ‘Even Rajnikanth couldn’t buy anything on Flipkart.’
Scientists, engineers, agriculturists, teachers, everyone joked alike.BeingIndian put up a poster which read ‘I smoke 2 packs ciggies a day. Lied to my gf that I smoke 4 packs. Today I told her I have reduced it to 2 packs. She is happy. I am Flipkart.’ This post went up on a page called Mad over Marketing (M.O.M) and the laughs were never ending.
Then there were picture posts of animal drawn carts with the animal hanging in the air, held aloft by an over loaded cart.
So now can we say ‘RIP big billion sale’ ? Maybe not yet. The sale scenario has shifted from malls to online and tele-shopping, with budding actors doing their best to show how it’s all your money's worth to buy that kundan set or the bed sheet pack of 6 for just Rs. 1000.
Online marketing is getting smarter than merely offering a pen drive on purchase of clothes for over Rs 650. They also lure with ‘we are missing you on this sale,’ or better still 'have you tried our bras from Germany?’ Some also claim to know what piece of furniture your house wants and it says, ‘your hunt for the perfect mirror/chest of drawers/TV cabinet/bar ends here.’
And when a sale is announced in the beginning of a month, can anyone resist?
This, despite problems in buying without actually checking what you buy. “I bought a set of four bed sheets from an online site that sells home needs and furniture. I am happy with the quality but the corners don't meet when you fold it. These are defective pieces packed with one good bed sheet. While the size and material isn't the problem, I am unhappy with the mismatched ends. When I cribbed, my husband turned around and rhymed off what I usually say–‘ itnea paise mein itna hi milega ’.
There is no end to the tales of impulsive buying, ‘I wear only cotton clothes but bought a georgette shirt because Limeroad was offering it for less.’
Retailers think they are smart but shoppers are no fools, especially those who do window shopping all day. Except that the window is on a computer or a laptop. Avid shopper Jewel Samson says, “Almost every other site has a difference in price. If one has the time he/she should browse and shop at leisure to get the best deal.”
To get the ‘cracker of a sale’ or free shopping you don’t need to end up junking your house. Deepavali is round the corner, so remember the cleaning involved and how clingy we tend to get during such a time.
Oh by the way Amazon is declaring their sale soon.
