With the growth of online-commerce in India, there are many businesses that have been built to cater to that explosive growth. With growing demand, there have been more startups emerging in the space of Customer Support, Last Mile Delivery/Logistics, Automation [e.g. Grey Orange Robotics]. This article in Economic Times points out that e-commerce firms are the new drivers for the BPO industry & with more startups emerging in that space, this number would surely see an upward-trend !!!
Along with Coupon & Deal websites, massive growth has been observed in the “Price Comparison” space. Now consumers are not only interested in deals but before they purchase a product, they want to “compare prices” across different e-commerce websites. This is also gives a Human Feel to shopping 🙂
Traditionally, comparing prices of any commodity would take many hours. A person would need to either call several retailers or drive from one retail store to another; however those days are gone. In simple terms, all the user has to do is choose the best “Aggregator Site” which would compare prices for multiple product categories & aggregating best e-commerce websites like Flikpart, Jabong, FirstCry etc.
Benefits of using Price Comparison Engine
Save extra money
Some studies have concluded that online-shopper can save thousands of rupees a year by using price comparison site. Just like in retail stores, higher the price of any commodity; greater is the discount. Same principle also applies to the online-world considering that there is now cut-throat competition in the e-commerce segment.
Simple to use
When using price comparison engine, a person has to enter either the name of the product or the brand, (s)he is looking out for & within few seconds, the engine would give the price comparison results.
Online-Offline comparison
As there are many price-comparison websites, it becomes essentially important to choose the right one. Each price-comparison engine depending on their revenue & operating model, would either focus on “Online” or “Offline” stores. However, if there is a price comparison engine which combines the beauty of both the world’s, it would be a boon to the customers !!!
One of the categories that has gained significant traction is “buying of mobile phones” online. As more & more companies are giving preference to “online-only” model for saving costs, buying mobile-phone online would definitely result in good savings 🙂
While scouting for price-comparison websites, we came across a site YouTellMe & we were very impressed by the search results, ease of use, breezy & simple UI etc. One of the categories which is on the rise is “Mobile Phones” and as an end-consumer you can get the best deal as we get the Mobile Phones price list in India
If you are looking for some great deals & want to save some extra bucks [for buying at the right price :)], do give YouTellMe a shot !!!
With the increase of online frauds in India, it becomes necessary that “Shopper becomes Smart” & along with discounts also checks the authenticity of the e-commerce website. Some of the smart shopping tips are:
- Shop from “known” websites e.g. Flipkart, Jabong, Shopclues, High5Store etc.
- Ensure that “Digital Payment” happens over secure [SSL] channel
- Ensure “not to save” the Credit Card is not saved. Since, no matter how renowned, the website is; better to keep CC information to yourself !!!
- Compare prices of “existing products” on price-comparison engines
- Get additional discounts on products by grabbing coupons from coupon/deal websites
- Untrusted app stores will continue to be a major source of mobile malware. Traffic to these stores will be driven by “malvertising,” which has grown quickly on mobile platforms [Source – McAfee]
With more & more online startups [specifically e-commerce, deals etc.] focusing on “mobile-first approach”, it becomes very essential for the consumers to identify the “potentially harmful” apps.
Some highlights of the “McAfee Labs Threats report” are below:
Mobile Malware
McAfee Labs reported that mobile malware samples grew 14 percent during the fourth quarter of 2014, with Asia and Africa registering the highest infection rates. Much of the activity being attributed to the AirPush ad network.
Potentially Unwanted Programs
In Q4, McAfee Labs detected PUPs on 91 million systems each day. McAfee Labs sees PUPs becoming more and more aggressive, posing as legitimate apps while performing unauthorized actions such as displaying un-intended ads, modifying browser settings, or collecting user and system data.
Total Malware
McAfee Labs now detects 387 new samples of malware every minute, or more than six every second.
The full McAfee Labs Threats Report: February 2015 can be downloaded from here
We hope that these tips would help make our reader’s online “shopping experience” more joyful & also ensure that they stay away from “vulnerable mobile apps”.
If you want to share any tips, please leave them in the comments section !!!