Online Shopping Sites in India - Best Places for Online Shopping in India

After the mobile revolution in the first decade of the 21st Century, a new revolution is underway in the second: that of online retail or online shopping in India. What started as a trickle has turned into a downpour and there are new shopping sites springing up on a regular basis. The online or connected consumer is spoilt for choice. These online shopping sites are able to compete with conventional physical stores owing to 4 factors: the convenience of shopping from home, great discounts offered, wide variety to choose from and easy payment options like cash-n-delivery.

But not all online shopping sites in India offer the same shopping experience. Some are outstanding, some are great, some are okay, while few simply cannot be trusted with your money. So which are the top online shopping sites in India? Let's find out.

Flipkart.com was founded in 2007 by two engineers, Sachin and Binny Bansal who met at the company they worked for: Amazon and for which they derived the idea of a online shopping portal based on Amazon's core belief- great customer experience and support. With a short span of 4 years Flipkart has become the top shopping site in India with more than 30 thousand products shipped everyday. According to Sachin Bansal, Flipkart is making daily sales of Rs 2.5 crores! So what makes Flipkart the best online shopping site in India?

• Great customer support

Customer support is not really the USP of India's businesses so Flipkart comes as a refreshing change. With 24X7 phone and email support all your queries get answered instantly. If your purchase is damaged in transit or faulty (which happens very rarely) Flipkart replaces it without any additional charge, no questions asked.

• Free and Fast shipping across India

This is for me the best par about shopping at Flipkart. Purchase anything above Rs 100 and get it delivered for free, even in Andaman and Nicobar! The average delivery time is 3 days which is praiseworthy as the items are shipped from multiple locations across India. What's more the packaging of the item is of high quality too. This ensures the product reaches your doorsteps in good condition.

• Pay cash on delivery

About 60 percent of the purchases on Flipkart are using the cash-on-delivery option. This ensures that the vast majority of Indians who are reluctant to use debit or credit cards online and don't have any online banking experience can opt for the traditional payment method of pay as you get. According to Sachin Bansal cash-on-delivery share in the total purchases is expected to increase further in the coming years.

• Great discounts

Another advantage of online shopping at Flipkart is the discounts offered on virtually all categories and items. No doubt, books are the hottest selling category on Flipkart but apart from books customers also shop for mobiles, games, LCD's etc. In fact the categories under which different products are sold are constantly rising and in a short while Flipkart aims to be a one stop destination for all our needs, similar to the big daddy of online shopping: Amazon.

If you compare prices across shopping portals, Flipkart invariably offers the lowest prices and cash-back offers on most products. This again reinforces its position as the best online shopping site in India.

Globally, Ebay is the second biggest shopping portal after Amazon in terms of sales and the same is true of ebay in India. But it's not just about sales, for online shoppers eBay offers the biggest product category to choose from and its unique auction model ensures that the smartest shoppers get the lowest prices on a wide variety of items.

• Choose from multiple vendors

At eBay, you're not stuck with a single franchise unlike other shopping portals where you don't know who the actual vendor is. On eBay different vendors set up their shop and compete in an open manner to offer the best deals. Customers can select the top rated sellers who also offer the best deals.

• Product quality is guaranteed

eBay sets very high standards to be able to sell there. A seller rating of below 95 is unacceptable and sellers have to close shop if their customer satisfaction (positive feedback) falls below 95. This ensures that sellers offer only the best quality products and customer service to buyers.

Where eBay needs to improve is ensuring that vendors offer manufacturer warranty and not dealer warranty, specially on fragile products like LCDs and computers.

If you're into footwear (who isn't) then bestylish is the place to be. It proclaims itself as the best place for branded footwear and the claim seems to be true. It offers a wide range of footwear for men and women from number of different brands like Fila, Adidas, Nike, Senorita and many more.

• Free delivery on most items

Bestylish offers free delivery on most footwear featured on its online shopping site. Apart from free delivery they also have a 28 days free returns policy so if the footwear didn't meet your requirements or imagination you can ask for a return right away, for free. This is important as footwear is something which we like to wear and experience for comfort and style before buying so a free returns policy surely helps.

• Multiple sizes to choose from

You can select from multiple footwear sizes and if you're not sure which size will fit best there's a handy size table listing Indian, US and European sizes for men, women and kids. This should help you get started.

What's more bestylish also features the occasional sales including clearance sales like you would find in physical shops. Time to be stylish?

Yes, you might have already seen their ads on TV innumerable times. The online shopping experience is just as exciting. No wonder HomeShop18 is another great place for online shopping in India.

• Wide variety to choose from

From books, cameras, appliances to toys, jewelry and apparel, HomeShop18 features numerous products under different categories. What I particularly like about this shopping portal is their easy-to-navigate layout. The best sellers under different categories are well laid out along with hot sellers like cameras, laptops and appliances.

• Watch the demo before buying

This feature is what makes HomeShop18 stand out from the crowd of online shopping sites in India. There are useful 30 secs -2 min videos on many items like jewelry, appliances etc so you can see how the product works or looks in reality before you click the buy button. It couldn't get easier than this.

Of course HomeShop18 has the usual free delivery and returns policy expected of the top online shopping portals.

True to its name Fashion and You redefines online fashion shopping in India. Although primarily targeted at Women, it has something for men's fashion as well. Fashion and You requires a quick registration before you can start shopping and rest assured you won't mind the minor inconvenience of initial registration.

From designer wear, fashionable accessories, kids items, home and living stuff Fashion and You truly has a wide variety if products to shop from. They also have online sales going on at any given time and you can grab some great online deals here.

As far as their delivery time is concerned they have an option of regular and express shipping. Items purchased under the Express Shipping is delivered 2-7 days from date of order whereas the regular items can take anywhere between 2 to 3 weeks.

So if you don't mind the somewhat long delivery time Fashion and You is a really good destination for Women and Men's fashion online.

If you love taking pictures, Zoomin is the place to be at. It sells everything related to photos - cameras, photo prints and frames, photo mugs, calendars and collage prints.

• Price match guarantee

Zoomin offers an unique price match guarantee on cameras. If you can find the same camera at a lower price elsewhere, it promises to return the difference in price if notified within 7 days. If they can't match the price they will give a Flipbook, completely free!

• Customize your purchase

This online shopping store also gives you the option of adding your images on coffee mugs and design custom photo prints and collages. Let the artist in you emerge. This is also an excellent way to gift custom designed mugs and photo products to your near and dear ones.

LetsBuy is similar to Flipkart in customer satisfaction and shopping experience. That's something as Flipkart has set a very high bar for other shopping sites in India. But unlike most other shopping portals that sell books and other items, Letsbuy started out exclusively as an online seller of electronics.

But over time it has diversified into toys, watches, games, and sports and expanding further. On comparing prices on LetsBuy with other online shopping sites, you will realize that these guys offer lower prices than other portals on many products like high end mobiles. All this makes LetsBuy an attractive shopping portal.

Just as its name suggests Yebhi offers an endless shopping experience to its visitors. And how does it achieve this? Simply by overwhelming us with so many categories and products to choose from, and this isn't so bad after all!

• 30 Days money back guarantee

Now this is something I would like other online retailers in India to offer - a no frills money back guarantee. Of course, some shopping portals offer free replacements but not money back guarantee. As long as the item is unused you can return it within 30 days and get a refund. Simple?

• Wide range of products to choose from

Coming to the original theme of endless shopping, Yebhi features so many products under categories like shoes, clothing, lifestyle, electronics, mobiles, home and kitchen, and lingerie. Phew, that's something! And the sub-categories under these should be seen to be believed. That's why it's called endless shopping. Now I get it.

People looking for a one stop shop for buying their toddlers stuff will find BabyOye really useful. From clothes to different types of baby care products babyoye has something for parents of all little angels. But babyoye is not just limited to babies, it has something for mommies also like mommy clothes, lingerie, fitness courses and more. With 24X7 phone support and free shipping anywhere in India, BabyOye is the place to be if you have any young 'un in your home.

The above list is not exhaustive but indicative only featuring the best places to shop online in India. But there are many more shopping portals like Infibeam.com, Crossword.in (for books), CaratLane.com (Jewelry), Indiaplaza.com, Fetise.com (Men's fashion), FutureBazaar.com , Myntra.com etc. In fact, the list is endless.

You can get an idea of things to come with the rapid growth of online shopping sites in India. Maybe the day is not too far away when online portals will leave their physical cousins behind. And with the rumored entry of Amazon in India, the online shopping experience is set to get more exciting for all of us. Do you have more sites to add to this list of online shopping sites in India. Share in the comments below!