12 Advantages of Online Shopping You Should Know [Update 2019]

Thinking of buying things online? Great. But why should you buy online? Is there any benefit? Well there are several, read this quick article to know more about the awesome way of shopping.

Advantages of Online Shopping – Quick Read Up

1) You can get quick suggestions about a product from your friends.

2) You don’t have to go out, you shop at home, you save time. Perfect!

3) You can avail No cost EMIs.

4) Extended warranty secures your product for longer time and saves maintenance cost.

5) ‘Buy back guarantee’ ensures a good ‘product exchange amount’.

6) You get knowledge about different products.

7) You can get unique products that makes life easier.

8) Online shopping is available 24*7

9) You get huge variety of products

10) Competitive price – Ultimately you get product for cheaper price.

11) Additional ‘helpful product’ suggestions

12) Doorstep delivery


Benefits of Online Shopping in India – Detailed Read Up

Some years ago you had to go outside in the market to buy things like clothes, shoes, computer, mobile phones etc. But then online shopping came into the picture and became the most famous method to buy things without leaving the house.

Nowadays, it has become quite a fashion to shop online. Companies like Amazon, Flipkart, NNNow, Jabong, Myntra have become giant eCommerce firms. Their earnings are in the billions and they are running like a horse to compete with each other.

advantages-of-online-shopping-blog

Thus, this competition among industry leaders has created many opportunities for customers. These days it is very easy to find things that you want to buy, and for that you don’t even have to go outside. All you need is to start your laptop/computer or Smartphone and search for the desired shopping items.

On top of that, you can buy things at a cheaper price. Isn’t this an amazing way of shopping that actually saves your money? Sure it is.

Hence, millions of people are buying things online, this trend shows that it is a convenient way to make a purchase.

You too can get the benefits of online shopping, but before that let’s review some great advantages of buying things online.

1) Get suggestions from friends

facebook chat shopping suggestion

With offline shopping you can bring a friend along to help you choose a good piece of clothing (or any other product), but what if he/she is not available? Will you bring along someone who has a bad taste with fashion? I don’t think so.

With online shopping, you can share products that you like or want to buy with your friends and get their opinion quickly.

You don’t have to sit together with them, you just choose a product, share the link with them & when they are free, they can tell you whether they like the product or not.

See, it is very simple.

Questions People Ask:

Is online shopping better than offline?

Yes, considering the advantages of online shopping, we can definitely say online shopping is a better way of purchasing things compared to offline.

However, some things are still good to buy offline such as fruits, vegetables, precious jewellery and some other things that are not available online such as bikes, cars etc.

You can keep a balance between your online purchase and offline purchase. With clothes, electronics, groceries, furniture you get very good deals online. So, you can buy them online.

Some things that are not easily available online, you buy them offline. After all, local vendors need money for their family too.

2) Online Shopping Saves Time

time-save

There is an old saying “Time is money”, I say “Time is more important than money”. In the 21st century, what people don’t have is “time”.

You can find thousands of people saying that they do not have time and we all know that shopping is a time consuming process.

Besides, people have to face long queues at shopping stores, traffic jams and many other problems to reach at the store.

But online shopping saves their precious time as they don’t have to leave their house. This is one of the biggest advantages of online shopping.

3) No Cost EMIs

Imagine having the product at your house before even paying the full price. Great, right. Alright, you can do it by availing EMI option.

Now, imagine enjoying the product before paying the full price + No EMI interest. Awesome, right.

That is one big advantage of online shopping these days. Many online shopping portals provide No Cost EMIs that allows you to enjoy the product on monthly installments with no interest at all.

Most bank charge upto 12% interest on monthly installment, with No Cost EMI options you can save that money.

Now, 12% interest rate may seem mediocre to some of you but if you buy an expensive product like home theater, 4K LED TV of Rs. 60,000 or 70,000 then 12% interest rate would seem huge.

With no cost EMI option you can eliminate that interest amount immediately.

Note: I know No Cost EMI has a catch. Shopping websites already include the interest amount in the original price of the product but even then getting products on EMIs is a convenient and pocket friendly way of shopping.

4) Extended Warranty on Expensive Products

Online portals provides extended warranty on a wide range of products. This additional warranty protects your expensive device for a longer period of time.

Let’s say, you buy a DSLR camera that comes with 3 years of warranty, if you purchase additional warranty of 2 years then you can secure your device for 5 years by paying a little extra.

The charges for extended warranty (insurance) is moderate at most of the online shopping websites but you should check for this before placing the order.

Online Shopping Myths:

1) Online website deliver low quality products.

It is not completely true, it may partially be true, cheap websites can deliver lower quality things. To avoid please read my other article about safe shopping. However, reputed shopping websites like Flipkart, Amazon, TataCliQ, Myntra, NNNow delivers high quality products. In case, if you are not happy with quality, you can always get a refund or replacement.

2) Delivery time is too long.

This is a lie. Big shopping websites delivers fast. In metro cities and 2nd tier cities, products get delivered within 2-3 days. Even in 3 tier cities products get delivered within 5-7 days. There are exception as usual, but that is rare.

3) Websites take up the money & don’t deliver the product

Not true, trusted websites always deliver the product, if they have accepted the payment. If the product is out of stock, they will return the money back into your account. However, you can always select the cash on delivery (COD) option while making a purchase. That way, you pay when you have the product in your hands.

4) Online payment is not secure.

Another lie. Trusted shopping portals use highly secure payment gateway that keeps your money transaction safe and secure. According to RBI, customer has zero liability if the fraud transaction takes place and you inform the bank within 3 days. Read more here.

5) Hidden charges are applied at check-out

Most eCommerce websites don’t do that. They show the actual prices upfront. Although, some sites like Myntra charge service tax at the time of check-out, seriously I hate that. But anyways, with a good knowledge of online shopping you can choose the product carefully and avoid hidden charges.

5) Buy Back Guarantee for products

Just like us Deals Freaks, there are mobile freaks out there in India. They buy a new smartphone every 3 months or 6 months.

Some people are mobile experts, they get phones from company for review but most of the new experts have to purchase the phone. So, they have to buy lots of phones/tablets frequently, for them it is quite an investment.

With buy back guarantee option you can get the assurance of getting a good amount of money when you exchange your phone with a new one.

6) You Get Knowledge of Different Products

There was a time when I had little knowledge about different products available in the market. With the rise of online shopping I got to know about many products and what are they called.

Similarly, you can also get a good knowledge about various types of products such as gardening tools, furniture, mobile phones, phablets, tablets, LED TVs and much more when you browse online shopping portals.

This knowledge helps you make the good purchase decisions. If you know about a product you can buy the right size, color and brand, right!

7) Unique Products Deals

Sometimes, you see various unique product listing on shopping websites. Those products are not available in local market. These distinctive products can make your life easy. Here is how?

Check out these products and you will know.

– A mini office toolkit, all in one package: Product 1

– Mini coffee maker only for you: Product 2

– Don’t have a selfie flash in your phone, Here is one for you: Product 3 

– Tired of sucking the corn, here is a small solution: Product 4

I am sure you understand the value of these unique products. These products looks little, cost little but helps big.

8) 24*7 Availability of Online Stores

24 hours open

It is rare to find offline stores that run for 24 hours a day, but online shopping websites are open 24/7, which allows you buy things anytime you want.

In India, we still face a slow internet problem, thus many people (like college going boys and girls or freelancers) consider it convenient to surf internet at night.

Hence, they can make online purchase even at night as all shopping websites run all the time. Therefore, it can be said that the availability of online shopping stores provide you the liberty to buy things at your own convenience.

9) Huge Variety of products

consumer products

At online shopping portals you get a wide range of products with lots of color, style and price variations. In offline shopping that facility is not easily available.

Also, at a shopping store you have to wait for the guy (salesman) to show you the products while in online shopping you don’t have to wait for anyone, you can browse as many products as you want.

Pro tip: I know sometimes, a vast variety can confuse you. It can make you unsure about what you exactly want. But if you think a little before shopping, then you can avoid this dilemma.

Just think specifically what you want and then make the use of online shopping tools like filters. Yes, filters like color, size, occasion, fabric etc are a great tool that helps you select the right product.

10) Competitive Price – Your benefit

competitive price

This is one of the best advantages of online purchasing. India is a market where people like to buy things at heavy discounts and online shopping websites easily offer the huge discount customers expect.

If you analyze then you would find a major difference between prices offered by online shopping stores and offline shopping stores.

Companies like NNNow, Myntra, Jabong, Amazon, Flipkart, Club Factory, Shein provides great discounts on their websites regularly.

When there is a festival sale, discount bracket gets wider and you can save upto 80% on your shopping list. Interesting, isn’t it?

Besides, several banks tie up with these ecommerce companies & provide additional cashback and instant discount deals. This brings good results for the consumers as they can save more money by using bank’s debit/credit cards and internet banking.

bank-offers-

Popular banks like HDFC, ICICI, SBI, Citi bank, Yes Bank regularly participate in festive sale offers provided by Flipkart, Amazon and other shopping sites. Thus, you get a great chance to save maximum money on your monthly shopping or quarterly shopping.

11) Additional Product Suggestions

beneficial-suggestions-online-shopping

At online stores you get many suggestions regarding your purchase. For example, if you want to buy a pair of Reebok shoes then shopping websites will suggest which accessories (like bag, sunglasses, bracelet etc) would look good with shoes. Depending on the suggestion you can also buy the accessory to make your look complete.

If you are buying a LED TV then shopping websites will suggest which speakers would go better with your LED television. It may also suggest you cable plan, wi-fi casting device and some other gadgets.

So, for every shopping product shopping websites provides additional product suggestions. This extra piece of advice saves your time and energy as you don’t have to think about purchase additional things separately

12) Doorstep delivery

doorstep delivery

Online shopping stores provide door step delivery that means you do not have to leave the house for buying nor you have to leave the house to pick your purchased item.

All you have to do is open the door when the delivery guys bring your item, pick it up, say thanks to the delivery guys and close the door.

Now you must be wondering why I should say “thank you” to the delivery guy, first it is a good way to pass genuine affection, second the delivery guy works really hard to safely deliver your items.

In 2015, Flipkart team at Mumbai did a very good job while facing a lot of challenges due to the heavy rain. That example shows that we should appreciate the hard work delivery guys do.

Read our Awesome Buying Guides, Select the Right Product

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Conclusion

Online shopping is continuously growing tremendously and it will continue to grow. Competitive prize, convenience, saving of time and money makes it a better way to do shopping.

Besides, getting the knowledge of these FREE online shopping tips will make your buying experience more satisfactory because then you will realize that you have made a good deal.

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