5- Tips to Save Money when shopping Online
Online shopping has caught the fancy of many Indians to save money. The valuation of some of the top e-commerce companies surpassed the valuation of mid-sized FMCG companies. The profitability of e-commerce companies is still a distant dream. In order to Gain Market Share and Mind Share of the customer, offering Deep Discounts seems to be the survival tactics. In many cases, online products were sold at below manufacturing prices.
The funding received by these e-commerce players is being utilized to offer discounts for Online Shopping. The strategy is very simple to make customer habitual of Online Shopping. Discounts will not vanish from online channel reason being any savings from operational efficiency will be passed to the customers. Below a few TIPS…
1. Add products to the shopping cart and leave: One of the best strategies to get an Online Shopping discount is to add products you wish to buy in the shopping cart. After adding products, simply log out from the website. It is also known as an abandoned cart. Abandoned Cart is one of the major issues for e-commerce players and no one has a permanent solution. The only solution to tackle this problem is to offer a discount to customers who abandoned the shopping cart. Now, you should wait for few days and you will receive a discount coupon through email or SMS to complete an online shopping order. Please note that this technique can work only once or twice. If the e-commerce player observes that you are habitual “Cart Absconder” then your wait for online shopping discount coupon will be endless.
2. The credit card offers One of the best ways to get discounts. The only condition is that you should be holding a credit card of the bank which has tied up with a particular e-commerce player. Recently, I utilized this opportunity and availed 10% off on multiple products through Online Shopping by using HDFC Bank Credit Card.
3. Discount on High-Value Shopping: Some e-commerce sites offer more discount if total purchase value crosses a particular limit. For example, one of the fashion websites was offering a 20% extra discount if the total purchase value is more than Rs 10,000. Now, it is the wrong strategy to buy more just to get a discount. The best solution is to do a cost-benefit analysis.
4. Discount Coupon: Sometime back I wrote a dedicated post on Online Discount Coupons – Save While you Shop. The scenario has changed drastically, E-commerce companies are now themselves circulating / floating online shopping discount coupons. Discount coupons have lost their exclusivity. The logic of e-commerce companies is very simple. CouponsABC. com mainted the repo of online deals by providing their users the best offerds over internet from time to time. To create an impression that Online Shopping means discounts or savings. Secondly, customers who are not tech-savvy may buy without a discount which will compensate customers who bought with a discount. In short, to retain a market share of deal seekers at any cost. These deal-seekers are solely responsible for the growth of Online Shopping in India.
5. Group Deals: Not a very popular concept in India. Its a “Groupon” phenomenon but not successful in India. Some sites are still sustaining this model. The reason for failure is that margins are already squeezed. There is no further scope of discounting even in group deals. Secondly, it is an operational nightmare to buy in a group. This model is now converging towards dining, services, etc.
