CJNEWS INDIA: Legal Issues Of Online Shopping In India

CJNEWS INDIA: Legal Issues Of Online Shopping In India: E-commerce players in India are still not adhering to e-commerce laws and regulations of India .  According to business structuring of e...

Comparison shopping websites in India

As an online shopper the goal is simple, to get the product at the most economical way. Price comparison websites help you do just that. Now there are many shopping websites in India which offer you to compare prices from different online sites as well as offline stores. The list has 15 sites, first you'll find a summary of these sites then direct links to the sites. So here is an inclusive list of shopping comparison websites:-

CompareIndia.com - This is one of the most famous shopping comparison site for India. The site has a backing of Network 18 group which can be seen by the site design and the professional look and feel. You can compare products from electronics, kitchen appliances to office equipment etc. The site also gives you an option to locate a dealer in your city for a particular product. It has tag based searches, price drop section where you can see what product prices dropped. You can setup an alert for a particular product's price drop as well.

ShopMania.in - This is one of the biggest online shopping comparison sites network. It covers almost 16 countries including India. I think Shopmania.in covers the most online stores for the price comparison in India. It includes sites such as GadgetsGuru, CafeGadgets, Univercell and many more to give the widest range of prices for the products. One good thing about ShopMania is that it allows any merchant to create its own online store for free.

TolMol.com - The site started as a shopping comparison but looks like has diverted its focus to job search as well. It is a startup by Avake Technology, a california based company which was founded by Ramna Sharma and Anuj Kanish. The site has pretty standard features for the comparison, ratings, comments etc. It also carries tag based searches and has categories such as electronics, books, gifts, autos etc. for your online comparison.

PricesBolo.com - This is a bangalore online shopping comparison site. This site covers bangalore, Chennai and Madurai. I like this site. It has nice user interface. You first select the city then category/product. It gives you an option to choose the price range that you are looking for and it will list all the available products from different vendors. Pricesbolo.com is a product of Emmosys Technologies Pvt. Ltd. PricesBolo has an additional advantage for merchants as merchants can list their product and prices, view consumer interests, read reviews and view hot selling brands/products for their marketing strategies. PricesBolo.com uses latest web technologies like AJAX but it lacks in design. I wasn't impressed with the design of the site. I think they can do better with it.

NaapTol.com is the latest entrant in Indian online shopping comparison sites. Site gives you price comparison between different stores (online and offline) and it also gives you an option to compare the products like CompareIndia.com. Taking Offline stores into consideration is a good concept as Indian's mostly buy stuff from a physical location rather than online. PricesBolo.com also has offline store prices listed in their comparison.

OxyShopping.com - This is another shopping comparison site for India but when I search for it in Google, I got this warning message saying that "This site may harm your computer". So looks like there is something going on with OxyShopping.com. I didn't take chance to visit the site so I can't write much about this site.

MySmartPrice.com is one of the best online price comparison engine which let you find the best price of products in Mobiles, Books, Cameras, Electronics, Computers, Appliances and Personal Care products, available across various popular online shopping websites like FlipKart, Infibeam, HomeShop18 etc. in India. MySmartPrice also provides the user with Deals and Coupons making the online shopping more rewarding.

PriceDekho.com you can compare prices of Mobiles, Cameras, Tvs, Laptops, home appliances, books etc. amongst different eCommerce sites or vendors.It gives you an unique option to put a price alert on any product, so that when the price drops to that value, you will be notified by an email.

DiscountPandit.com is a hyperlocal search engine helping users find the best prices on products and the best deals in their neighbourhood. Their algorithm indexes deals from a wide range of sources- daily deal sites, group buying sites, deal aggregators, ecommerce sites, etc.

Above are sites that I know as of now, make a right PICK. If you know any other site I might have missed, please drop me a comment and will include it.

Online Auction and Classifieds Websites in India

Online auction and classifieds websites are popular place for buying and selling goods. Almost everything you could possibly think of is for sale, whether you want to sell or buy goods. Register yourself and then away you go. Prices can be much cheaper on auction and classifieds websites. These sites can often get "past history" of users to assess sincerity and trading of sellers and buyers. There is one disadvantage of action sites sometimes vendors may not be willing to bear transport charges. In some cases vendors registered with these sites aren't official sellers, so risk is higher.

Below are few Indian based auction and classified websites:

ebay - Ebay is one of the most popular site and most trusted for buying.

Craigslist India - Available for 16 states in the Indian sub-continent, Craigslist is the basic form of online classifieds you can observe. A simple registration is necessary after which you can access and post the list and take part in forum discussions. The first benefit of Craigslist is that it has city specific pages, so you can raise to register your city and do a face-to-face deal with interested buyers.

OLX - Olx is an India-specific classifieds site much on the lines of Craigslist. After a simple registration, a quick profile needs to be created with name and location details. Once done with the profile, a listing can be posted for sale on the site. Olx allows not just city-specific listings, but also area-specific listings to be made. Just select the category, sub category, title, price and add a description.

Moreover, the listing can be posted in various Indian and international languages as well. Other than attaching photos, Olx also allows embedding videos in the listings from YouTube, republishing the listing every week for one month and gives you notification via mail when a comment is made on the listing. The Olx team then reviews the listing before it appears on the site.

Quikr - Is also an classified you can come here to find an apartment to live in, sell your old car, bike ,music system, laptop or furniture to buy and sell, find a tuition class or get a break as a model or actor, join a salsa class, get an audience for a local event, buy any item that you might want or have to offer and make new friends while doing all of the above.

Team bhp  – This is an Automotive Community in India. Very popular. You can buy and sell almost anything here. Cars, Bikes and Gadgets.

Anyway Pick is yours if I am missing on some good website do let me know in comments. Happy shopping!  

Travel sites that help you save money, time and effort: India

E-retailing has made travelling easy for you. Earlier, it involved lot of stress to plan a trip for holiday or work, where one had to take the pains for checking availability & making bookings by standing in long queues for travel tickets & hotel stay. Plus, with so much availability in the market, it was also difficult to compare prices & quotes and make a wise decision. Advent of online bookings made through travel websites, the whole scenario has changed now travel planning is no more stressful and one can spend less time searching for tickets and more time on planning your holiday or work travelling and it is available 24X7. Following are most popular travel related websites in India:-

Online portals

Rank	Website	Domain
1	Make My Trip	www.makemytrip.com
2	Yatra	www.yatra.com
3	Cleartrip	www.cleartrip.com
4	Via	www.viaworld.in
5	AZDreams - India	www.azdreams.co.in
6	Travelocity.co.in	www.travelocity.co.in
7	Expedia.co.in	www.expedia.co.in
8	ezeego1	www.ezeego1.co.in
9	Ixigo.com	www.ixigo.com
10	Travel Guru	www.travelguru.com

Destinations and Accommodation

Rank	Website	Domain
1	Tripadvisor India	www.tripadvisor.in
2	Maps Of India	www.mapsofindia.com
3	WhereInCity	www.whereincity.com
4	MustSeeIndia.com	www.mustseeindia.com
5	HolidayIQ	www.holidayiq.com
6	TripAdvisor	www.tripadvisor.com
7	Club Mahindra Holidays	www.clubmahindra.com
8	I Love India	www.iloveindia.com
9	India Mike	www.indiamike.com
10	Booking.com	www.booking.com

Airlines

Rank	Website	Domain
1	indiGo	www.goindigo.in
2	SpiceJet	www.spicejet.com
3	Jet Airways	www.jetairways.com
4	AirIndia	www.airindia.com
5	Kingfisher Airlines	www.flykingfisher.com
6	Air India Express	www.airindiaexpress.in
7	Tiger Airways	www.tigerairways.com
8	Emirates	www.emirates.com
9	GoAir	www.goair.in
10	AirAsia	www.airasia.com

 For Railway

1	INDIAN RAILWAYS	http://www.indianrail.gov.in/
2	IRCTC's Online Passenger Reservation	https://www.irctc.co.in/

NB: Data courtesy of Experian Hitwise

Children shopping online

Shopping for kids is not easy. Sometimes you buy clothes which do not fit the child and sometimes what you want for your child is not available in stores around you. Anyhow, e-retailing has lot to offer over usual shopping of going to the stores and selecting the items to buy for your kid. These online portals have so much kids stuff that you wont feel that bad staying at home and shopping for your little ones. Let’s glance over online children shopping portals in India and see how they can help you in buying stuff for your kids.

A wide-ranging Choice for Kids’ stuff

On an online portal, several specialized companies in kids segment display their collection. You have the choice of exploring the complete range over various portals, without wasting time and energy same is difficult in in-stores. The items are available with the hallmark of quality along with trust factor. In fact, the online shopping portals offer the option of exchange to assure satisfaction to the customers.

One always gets the newest collection

At online stores, sellers always ensure that only the latest collection is displayed. And this does not mean that only the looks attract the buyers to buy that, but the quality of the product is also ensured by online portals.

Chance to avail the deals or offers

While shopping online for your child, one gets so many options to choose from the colors size, designs, style, and make another benefit is of availing discounts is also there. Online stores manage to give discounts to its customers, as they do not have to spend upon expenses like maintaining stores, and taking care of the electricity, water, staff, rent, and other things. So, the online sellers manage to offer various deals, offers and discount on the shopping.

Following are best online kids shopping portals where moms can get best deals and huge variety:

Babyoye

Firstcry

Hoopos

Hushbabies

Allschoolstuff

I believe all of the above will be of great use to you and if there are any kids websites you would like me to add please do share your comments.

Why to buy mobile phones online?

Now days Mobile phones are your connection to the world and they have become more than a means
of communication and stay in touch. Buying a wrong Mobile phone can cost you stress and can make your everyday life difficult. Rise in e-retailing has overtaken the buying happening online for all the electronics in India. The industry that has affected or we can say influenced is communication devices like mobile phones are sold more online than any products. There is lots of competition between online mobile deals sites to attract buyers with various crazy mobile phone deals and this is where consumer's jackpot is hiding. When you buy in-shop you have to rely on salesperson to get you best deal but in online world every e-retailing website is getting you some benefit. You only need to have patience to go through all those deals and mobile features. Below I have compiled a list of five tips to ensure you why online mobile shopping is best:

1) Shop in person, but buy online. Always go to a store to check out phone keypads, screens and speakers. But check Mobile phones' Web sites and independent retailers like flipkart.com, infibeam.com, gadgetsguru.in , indiaplaza.com, naaptol.com & yebhi.com for online deals once you've settled on a product.

2) You can not check out the product of all the mobile companies except few which are available in store but in online shopping you choose from plenty of options available to buy mobile phones with variety of deals from different mobile phones vendors online

3) At home you can check the details of the products on websites. This gives you good idea about the mobile phone features and offers on different mobile phones same is not possible in in-store shopping

4) You can compare the features and price of multiple mobile phones to make up your mind.

5) Buying online get the deals on latest mobile phones normally local stores do not offer in process to make more profit.

Suggestions are mine but PICK is your's.Shopping online will not only allow to save your valuable time, but it also saves your hard earned money too by giving lots of offers, discounts etc.

Fix the risk of shopping online

With everyday technology advances shopping online has become a risky deal especially when you are buying from lesser known e-retailer for a lucrative deal or offer. Its not technology which will cause risk but people who want to earn free money by using latest technology to swindle. Below are few tips which will definitely make your shopping online safe and if you follow them ardently it will fix your risk of shopping online:

1) Know your e-retailer
Shop online on a trusted site rather then shopping with search engine.Beware of fake site using misspelling of known and reputed e-retailers. Yes the offer on these sites are enticing and that's how they trick you into giving your information.

2) Don't save your Information
Some times e-retailers ask you to save your information on their websites for speedy shopping in future. Its definitely faster and easier but its risky as there might be a data breach in company and your information is put at risk.

3)Always shop online on encrypted websites
Never ever, ever buy anything online that doesn't have SSL (secure sockets layer) encryption installed—at the very least. You'll know if the site has SSL because the URL for the site will start with HTTPS:// (instead of just HTTP://). An icon of a locked padlock will appear, typically in the status bar at the bottom of your web browser, or right next to the URL in the address bar. It depends on your browser. Never, ever give anyone your credit card over email. Ever.

4)Buy from Seller directly
Sometimes swindlers use e-coupons to get your attention. They will email you an enticing offer coupon with the hyper link which will be redeemed at seller site which will be similar to well established e-retailer and their they will ask you to disclose your information. Its always better to redeem offer coupons by opening seller sites directly rather then clicking on the e-coupon.

5) Avoid shared computers for shopping online.
This seems like a no-brainer, but if you’re using a shared machine, always log out of the store website and clear your browser’s page cache, cookies, and history when you are finished ordering something, or the next guy who sits down at the PC you were using might just have himself a little shopping spree on your dime.

Hope you will follow above mention points while shopping online and save yourself from swindlers. Happy online shopping.