Best Tips How to Save Money While Shopping Online in India

Online shopping in India is increasing, and people like me prefer to order things online rather than going to shop and purchase it. Specially, utilities that doesn’t need physical inspection, they are lot easier to buy online now.With so many Indian e-commerce websites coming in, and specially if you are a brand conscious shopper, you will find amazing deals online. At the same time shopping online have it’s own advnatges and disadvantages. If you are an impulsive buyer, you might end up shopping un-ncessarily.

Online shopping seems to be gaining momentum by the day. New and new e-commerce sites are going live each day and we are flooded with social media ads, newspaper ads, TV commercials and more with a new .com or .in selling things you get in the stores. First there were only durables like clothes, electronics, and now even onions and potatoes and fruits are available online thanks to sites like LocalBanya.com. Even seasonal fruits like mangoes are available to bought online without stepping a foot out of your home with sites like GreenCart.in. While this suits all perfectly given the hectic work life we ‘Humans’ live today, how can one be sure if the prices are best? Also where there is competition, there are offers to lure consumers towards them. This means you can get some best online deals in India when shopping online and can save money on online shopping.

Almost all online shopping sites publish coupon codes which enable you to get discount on your purchases at respective sites. You just need to search for the coupon codes online and find the best coupon code suiting your needs and offering maximum possible discount. Once you have the coupon code, use/apply it during your order or payment to get the specified discount. There are a lot of sites in India which list down coupon codes of online shopping sites in India. You can just search for the term 'online shopping site name + coupons' in the search engine to see the coupon codes.

There are number of shopping sites in India and anyone can have a quick look of products before shopping or buying. Other option is to visit comparison sites like Junglee.com, which show aggregate prices from many online sites and make it easier to compare prices.

Once you have zeroed in on the site with the best price and then selected the seller offering the best price within that website, you need to check for free shipping as well. Most of the sites offer free shipping and incase some do not, then make sure that the shipping is not too much that renders the low price useless. For example a website may be selling a product for Rs. 1000 with free shipping and someone else offering it for Rs. 800 but with Rs. 300 shipping so it works out to be Rs. 1100 so you are losing out. So make sure the shipping charges are within range.

A relatively new concept in India, cash-back offers let a consumer earn rebate for purchases made through a website. Cashkaro.com is the leading name in this segment in India, and it works with over 350 online retailers. The process is simple - register for a free Cashkaro.com account and go to an e-commerce retailer site by clicking on the website link on Cashkaro.com to make a purchase. For every successful transaction, the retailer pays commission to Cashkaro.com. In turn, Cashkaro gives you back a certain amount. Once you have over Rs 250 in your account, Cashkaro transfers the money to your bank account via NEFT or a cheque.

Sites like eBay.in, Myntra.com, Jabong.com, HomeShop18.com, Flipkart.com and others have separate pages on social networks. Because million of people are using social network. So they can announce some special offer via social media. In India most of the Online Shopping sites are active on social network. The most popular social network like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., For getting their latest update like or follow your Online Shopping Sites on the social web.

You are either a huge fan of these deal sites or are sick of them already. These websites make shopping online a lot of fun. You can get huge discounts on designer clothes or even buy a half price gift voucher card to be used at your favorite coffee shops. You might have only heard of Snapdeal and Groupon, but there are many other deal sites too that offer similar deals in India.If you are looking for something specific and its not available on the popular websites do not hesitate to look for other deal sites. A lot of smaller sites are just as good as the big ones.There are even some websites that aggregate all the deals from major daily deal websites and you can use them to skip the clutter and focus on saving more.

Even though almost 60 percent of educated Indians check the Internet before making a purchase, it’s hard for them to ignore their local shopping chains. Local chains have been around for a long time and have already established a rock-solid reputation for reliability, security and warranties. But websites like Shoutmeloud urge you to do just that and much more. In fact, they recommend first trying out as many offline stores as possible to get an idea of retail rates. For example, if you want to buy a flat-screen TV, it’s a good idea to check as many local retailers and shopping centers as possible to understand what the ticket price is locally. Using this information, website Labnol recommends going online and comparing rates, features and deals. This may seem like too much work but in the end, consumers can spot the huge price discrepancy between online shopping and retail sales. Since online websites do not have to deal with local VAT, taxes, warehousing, premise rentals, staff salaries, local electricity and delivery bills, they can afford to give customers substantial discounts on their goods. This sort of research also gives the consumer an edge in the form of discount and deal information.

For example If you find a interesting Camera and want to buy that at the first shot don’t buy it at one go. Chances are that you might get a good deal during festive season or during only shopping festivals.

News reports in the WSJ and USA Today suggest that certain shopping sites, especially those in the travel category, may alter prices based on your geo-location and by looking at your previous browsing history through cookies. I am not sure if Indian shopping sites use “dynamic pricing” but the incognito (or private) mode in your browser will prevent the site from connecting the dots and they’ll treat you as a new customer.

I hope by following these methods you can surely save your pocket money while shopping online. Share your thoughts in comments ! And this post is written with the contribution of vouchersky. Check it out too!