Shopping, yes, we women love it. But getting your ass out of the house with a child, or even without the child is a big issue. At-least for me it is. Malls in Hyderabad are not children friendly, no diaper changing tables, no feeding chairs, nothing. It’s almost like the malls want the moms to stay at home or get out sans child.

In my case, I live in the dear old city, everything is FAR away, and my daughter loves shopping but half way through our ride she’s exhausted and wants to get out of the car, and by the time you reach your shopping destination you have a cranky little person with you. I have had my very frustrating days, I like to get my daughter used to a certain lifestyle, so that she knows how to act and react in public. So far it has worked, but when it comes to shopping for myself, I prefer the peace of my mind, and the luxury to look around before buying anything.

In comes the online shopping to rescue my sadness. I have tried a couple of websites for various products, not just for myself but my daughter and husband. Recently I’ve been on a shopping fit. I am treating myself to holiday, and also returning myself for all the hard-work I put in last academic year of both my Sunday school and volunteer work at Focus High School. Lets start shall we?

1. Shoppers stop– This was my first online purchase, and it was a bag from FCUK. And since I was an amateur I opted for COD. They do a good job. Since then I haven’t made a purchase but have my wishlist filled with items. I browse through the website pretty regularly.

What I like: There’s a lot of variety on this website. Especially in the household category.

2. Flipkart– This is my holy grail for books. I’ve bought a tablet and other electronic items too. But hands down Flipkart has the best selection of books, even crosswords online website doesn’t have the books that Flipkart does. From fiction to non-fiction, to reference you name it and they have it. I’ve bought books for my daughter from flipkart and many of my psychology text books. Also shopped for stationery like files and notebooks from here. They have brands that are otherwise not available here in Hyderabad. I purchased a fun notebook for myself, and a present for a lovely friend from there. Will do a post on that later.

What I like: They have offers, and the notification, tracking of order and website is very organised. It makes it super reliable. Ive tried COD and pre-paid with Flipkart and have been more than satisfied. The packaging is very safe and prices are good.

My issue: Because Flipkart is mainly the portal that brings together various sellers, you are very much likely to receive each product on your order separately. Secondly, if the sellers are different the shipping charges are based on each seller not your whole order. So basically you may end up paying more, and have the deliveries going on for weeks, this can be annoying if you’re not at the shipping address all the time, it may also bug the person collecting the order at home. It psychologically makes you feel you shopped for more than you did. It can get border line annoying.

3. Purplle– Beautuy haven. I have shopped more than a couple of times and it’s my go to website to search for products not found in stores here. There are many brands that are affordable and do a great job, but just haven’t reached the Hyderabadi or even Indian market yet. Loving purplle for that. The website is very user friendly.

What I like: The enormous variety and constant offers. The packaging is sturdy and you have both prepaid and COD options. However I have always opted for the former.

My issue: Tracking your order. You have no information regarding the delivery time in the product description. Not only that after you’ve paid for the order you will not know when you will receive it, their order modification option is crappy, and updates are a joke. They recently added a little more direction on their website for tracing order but it’s still not satisfactory. Shipping the same order separately is just annoying. When I place an order for a few products the excitement is to get ALL of them together. That’s what gets me excited. the quantity.

What I like- I am a youtube junkie, so if I hear a beauty guru talk about a product and I know it’s a never heard brand in India I simply log on to purplle they will most probably have it. Their cart is very manageable and easy to check products on and delete them. I enjoy the shopping part because of the variety, even though more would always be appreciated.

Refer my new post on hating Purplle.

4. Jabong– I placed my first order with Jabong a week or two ago. And while I like the range of the products they provide I mainly liked the prices as compared to purplle. I only made cosmetics purchase a post on that coming soon. But they didn’t have one of my orders and it was constant sms alerts and emails regarding the issue. I wasn’t happy. The whole excitement of shopping just goes away.

My issue: The Javas service was crappy, the delivery guys spoke like animals and weren’t professional. My order got broken down into 4 pieces when I only ordered for 5 items. That’s annoying.

What I like: Compared to purplle for my recent purchase Ive noticed better prices and products. I was looking for a specific product and couldn’t find it at purplle. So had to shift the whole order to jabong just to get it together from one website. They recently added the Dorothy Perkins brand to their website which I am crazy exited about.

5. Mango–  This brand has the most lovely on trend products. And since the GVK One store has stopped stalking a lot of the accessories I was very exited to make a purchase from here. The website is inspirational to browse through.

My issue: No COD or Debit card payments, only credit card payments are accepted. That’s a BIG issue. And delivery charges are only exempted on a purchase of 6500 or above. That’s not a small amount. I can imagine young college girls saving up money to buy from Mango, they should lower it to improve sales.

What I like- well the products, the way they are packaged and sent, it’s all impressive. The sales on the website are insane!! I actually recommend to wait till sales but act fast as soon as they’re on, because those things fly off! Mango sales are the best.

6. Snapdeal– My husband had made an electronic purchase from here and well that’s about it. Not much to say, i was satisfied, it was a COD purchase and everything arrived safely and on time. I haven’t ever browsed through the website myself but do plan to.

7. Bigbasket– Basically delivering groceries to your door. In old city you definitely need this. Esepcially since the humble more store near my place got shut down, this has been a life saver.

My issue: I have always opted for COD with bigbasket, because it’s grocery, and there are major chances of a screw-up because these people deliver massive amounts of groceries to people in their trucks. And once and only once they had missed one of the items on the list and didn’t take the payment for it. So I was glad that I hadn’t paid in advance. I recommend COD for bigbasket unless someone else is going to receive the order. I also highly recommend going through the delivery religiously, the delivery guys are human they may miss something, but you don’t want messed up groceries!.

What I like- It’s got a decent variety. I really like the option of poultry and meat that is halaal, very important. Also the delivery charges are only Rs.50, very practical for the genre of products. You can select your time slots which is a very wise option to have especially if everyone at home works.

There are other websites that I have my eyes on like forever new, Zara, fab furnish, babyoye, etc. for various reasons and products.

I will be putting up a post on a collective haul, the stuff I’ve been purchasing over a couple of months but have been lazy to post right away. Also I am waiting on delivery on some orders.

What are your go-to online shopping stops?