[Consumer Speak] How do I decide where to buy from?

Online shopping is the new way we get our daily dose of retail therapy! I mean, every single person I know is already smitten with shopping online. I absolutely love shopping online as well – right from clothes, to accessories to shoes or makeup, I love to buy everything online! But how do I decide which ecommerce platform is best for what I want to buy? Here’s a roundup of what helps me decide:

Friends’ Recommendations:

This is an aspect that is extremely important. I always ask my friends for suggestions about what to buy where. Like say, if I’m new to a city or I want to shop for something specific like party shoes, I ask around and take advice from my friends. This is because I don’t want to waste my time hunting high and low for something without knowing which online store I can find it in.

Another reason is that my friends or family can tell me about any special discounts or deals that they know are available in any specific shops.  For example, I would always shop for stilettoes at a popular online brand store- but a friend once suggested that I should shop another online store instead, where the same shoes are sold without the brand sticker for half the price! Ever since then, I always frequent this particular online store, which I would otherwise have never done.

That’s why I take my friends’ advice very seriously when it comes to shopping!

Good deals:

I don’t like the guilty feeling of spending all my money on shopping, even though ironically I would end up doing that. That’s why I like to buy products that are being sold in discount combos or with some special offer, because that convinces me that the purchase was worth it. Often, I intend to buy just one product but end up buying a whole range of them just because it was on offer!

The best example of this is when I wanted to buy some cosmetics from an online store of a certain brand. I initially wanted to purchase just a cosmetic cream- but for that particular season the store was offering an extra 20% discount on my bill if I would buy any four products instead. That immediately convinced me and I quickly purchased a lipstick and some other creams as well, just to avail of this offer!

I’m sure all good deals convince a hesitant shopper to go through with the purchase, even though he/ she is a little unsure initially.

Variety available:

When I’m shopping for something, I like to browse through several products before deciding what to buy. This helps me make the best choice and also increases the chances that I find what I’m looking for. For example, if I want to buy a necklace to match a red dress, I will not purchase the very first red necklace that I see at an online marketplace. I will want to see different pieces in the same colour or maybe even a contrasting colour until I make my final choice. I will also want to consider different prices before I buy the necklace because I want to feel assured that I am making a good decision.

The same applies for any other purchase I want to make. It’s true; variety is the spice of an online shopper’s life!

Past experience:

This is crucial to my decision about where to shop from. If I have had even one bad experience when shopping on a particular website or in a particular store, I will never again risk going there again. I had once purchased a dress from an ecommerce platform, which turned out to be a completely wrong size when I received it.

The returns process was a complete hassle, which involved me packaging the dress again and sending it off through a private courier company to the ecommerce website. Besides costing me more money to return it (though I got some credits back into my shopping account that was only later), I also wasted nearly a month in getting the whole issue sorted. Would I ever want to whimper about buying just one dress for a month? The answer is clear- I would never buy clothes from that shopping website again- only bags or jewellery which can never be the wrong size anyway.

Even though an ecommerce website or an online store has a great rating, its general reputation can only introduce me to shopping there. When it comes to being loyal to a store, I only decide by my own experience with that store or website.

Sale advertisements:

When I’m on my way home from work, I must admit something. The huge sale posters and ads do get my attention. If they look attractive enough, they can even convince me to visit a particular online store or mall to check out the products on offer. Often, I would not even have shopped in certain malls was it not for their eyeball-grabbing flex ads that were literally staring at me with eager hope.

When it comes to online shopping, I decide to shop online if the mailer that a certain online marketplace sends me, has good enough offers on display. This is my weakest spot as a shopper, I must admit. When I check my inbox, I inadvertently end up checking all the promotional offer emails from ecommerce companies and even if I didn’t want to buy a particular product, I do end up buying it because it is on sale and just a click away from possession!

Online shopping is so popular with everyone, but there are many reasons why shoppers choose a particular online store or marketplace. Though it may seem trivial, taking care of these small aspects can actually make or break an online shopping portal. My favourite online shopping destination would be the ecommerce platform that ticks all the above boxes!