Now deliver more with less| Switch to tech-savvy Mobile applications

There are many technology solutions around the globe that are providing Android/iOS Mobile Applications to help you get an instant access to everything you need on the go, making it easier to view sales data, process orders, manage inventory, warehouses and returns.

With such innovations, one can give power to their employees (Warehouse Manager, Sales Manager, Returns Manager, Picker and Packer) to perform and manage all business activities effortlessly from anywhere to drive higher productivity, efficiency and collaboration.

With access to such apps, the E-commerce sellers, Retailers, Manufacturers, Store owners etc. get an exposure to comprehensive Dashboards across multiple channels, complete order processing, inventory management and various advanced warehouse management features.

Here’s the list of what the businesses (Retail, Manufacturing and E-commerce sectors) are seeking from such E-commerce focused Mobile Applications Providers:

Complete order processing through a single screen

For effortless business operations, complete order processing must be available readily within a single screen! Features to view and manage the pending orders, failed orders, SLA breached orders and unverified orders across multiple marketplaces & carts.

Easy and Quick Returns Management

Easy scanning and integration capabilities with the handheld devices to help the Return managers manage returns easily. Update the shelf code and return reason while completing returns to capture complete information about returns.

All Product/Listing/Order Details On The Go

Check your listing statuses whether linked or unlinked and Product details of all your configured channels.

Comprehensive Business Analytics via Dashboards

Dynamic dashboards having the current status of sales, inventory, pending shipments, revenue and Top Performing channels, categories and products.

Complete inventory management

Automate manual processes and now edit inventory count for various items directly from your App. Make your inventory management system just a click away to increase availability and avoid stockouts!

Advanced Warehouse Management Features

Manage your warehouse operations like FIFO, Cycle count, etc. with ease using your handheld device.

• Fulfill through Barcode Scanning
  Scan items during Picking to Mark Found/Not Found through Handheld
• Inventory audit through Cycle Count
  Scan and complete inventory audit using the Mobile app based handheld device
• Quickly Inward Inventory
  Scan and inward inventory the Gatepass item via handled

Enhanced User Experience

User friendly interfaces and navigation makes it easier to view the customer data and access/share files with the teammates.

“Replace the traditional logbook with easy to handle Mobile Application to make your job easier.”

Wondering where would you find all these features? Here we introduce Unicommerce Mobile App, an app specially designed for the needs of Manufacturers, Wholesalers, Distributors, Retail Chains and Individual Store owners to save their operations cost and efforts with end to end paperless management of all E-commerce & Warehouse operations!

The Unicommerce mobile app ensures easy processing of multichannel orders to provide businesses and inventory managers with real-time visibility into inventory levels and eliminates human errors

Download the app and see what you can achieve when you run your business from your phone!

The post Mobile applications | Revolutionizing the e-commerce supply chain industry appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Unicommerce can play a vital role in simplifying data generation and synchronisation across all the SCM stages and help excellent management of businesses.

The data should be measurable and assured of accuracy, actuality and reliability to be able to make a difference to the efficiency of the operations.

The manual data update has some significant drawbacks. Such as,

• Erroneous input of data
• Duplication
• The omission of information as it needs to be updated with all other software.
• Delay in data recording

The 4 pillars of effective operations management are

• Data generation
• Data retrieval
• Data synchronisation
• Data Analysis

The above catalysts backed with exact, timely and dependable data, fuel the supply chain functions to reach optimum efficiency. Unicommerce’s automated software platforms provide seamless assistance in data handling.

Data Generation

Uniware captures data from 40+ marketplaces, orders from various channels, warehouse, online and offline stores, vendors and logistics companies about sales, pending orders and deliveries, goods movement, stock availability etc.

Data Retrieval

What is equally important with generated data is its systematic presentation. A single window data display presents every detail regarding each product category and channel for the quick and easy data view.

Data Synchronisation

The data is synchronised across all the software platforms in real-time. You can get up-to-date information about anything related to your operations on your finger-tip by just a click. Accurate and actual data reflects the present market scenario, stock levels across all the channels (online and offline), and thereby helps in planning and strategising of inventory levels and order fulfilment process.

Data Analysis

Analysing and deriving key contributors and correctors become s hassle-free as the systems generate accurate data in an easy-to-understand format. The businesses can review daily, weekly and monthly reports within seconds or at any given time.

Summary

The centralised and automated software platforms project actual data in real-time, ruling out the foggy details on sales figures and stock levels from manually updated systems. The centralised management improves productivity and profits margins.

A quantifiable data help measure the efficacy of end-to-end operations across all the functions. Integration of information on all levels speeds up the customer deliveries and raise productiveness of administration of supply chain process while utilising the tangible and intangible resources optimally. The data helps the businesses to have a robust management framework to meet the business challenges and opportunities adequately.

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The introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST) will mark a significant move in the field of tax reforms in India. By amalgamating major Central and State taxes into a single tax class, it would abolish double taxation in a simpler way and object the creation of a common national market. GST will replace all indirect taxes levied on goods and services by the Central and state governments.

As GST would be applicable on “supply” of goods or services as against the present concept of tax on the manufacture of goods, sale of goods and provision of services, same will lead to many benefits not only for the consumers in terms of a reduction in the overall tax burden on goods, which is currently estimated to be around 25%-30% but also it will mark significant leads in Trade.

GST will be categorized in two components with State and Centre as separate stakeholders. Components of Dual GST:

Out of 7 Union Territories*, UTGST is applied on only 5 of them, however, SGST can be applied in Union Territories such as New Delhi and Puducherry, since both have their individual legislatures, and can be considered as “States” as per GST process.

E-commerce organizations (Sellers & Marketplaces) are looking forward to the implementation of GST expecting high clarity, and dismissal of state specific rules and multiple Taxes.

*List Of 5 Union Territories considered under GST:

1. Andaman and Nicobar
2. Lakshadweep
3. Dadra and Nagar Haveli
4. Daman and Diu
5. Chandigarh

Sellers and Marketplaces have to meet basic requirements to run business post GST implementation.

Know more about: Plug ‘N’ Play Accounting System Integration

Below are the mandatory requirement from Sellers and marketplaces which will be implemented in Uniware to help sellers in smooth and issue free order processing from 1^st July, 2017:

1- GST Number/ Registration:

All sellers mandatorily require to register under GST. So now even e-commerce sellers whose aggregate turnover does not exceed the threshold limit for registration will still have to compulsorily register to sell online. 

Key Points for Registration:

• If a seller has business with same PAN in different states is now expected to register separately for each of the States where he has a business operation.
• If a seller has two business verticals in a state, he/she may obtain a separate registration for each business vertical.
• If seller has two different businesses with two TIN numbers in the same state, he can have common GST registration for both.

As per this mandatory requirement, seller has to update GST No. in Facility, Billing Party, Customer and vendor for order processing from 1^st July in Uniware. Validation of GSTIN will be done using state code & PAN rules which will be already stored in backend to validate the GSTIN filled by the supplier.

2- HSN Number:

HSN Code stands for Harmonized System Nomenclature. HSN number is mainly used for classifying goods to compute Value Added Tax in India. Now, same classification code (HSN) is adopted for classifying Goods and Service Tax for GST as well.

Under GST, the HSN code would be utilized by a taxable individual for classification of goods , but the format of HSN code will be based on the taxpayer’s turnover. When preparing Tax Invoice for GST, the HSN number must be mentioned on GST Tax invoice and also to be declared while filing the GST returns.

To mention HSN codes for the products will also become mandatory for sellers in Uniware as well. Same information will be saved under item type (products) created in Uniware.

3- Issue of Tax Invoice Under GST: 

Every registered person is required to issue a tax invoice at the time of supply of taxable goods/services and the invoice shall contain following particulars:-

Supply of Goods/Services

1. Description of goods/services;
2. Quantity of goods;
3. Value of goods/services;
4. Tax charged on Value of goods/services; and
5. Such other particulars as may be prescribed.

Further the invoice shall be prepared in triplicate, in case of supply of goods and duplicate in case of supply of services. Uniware will provide all above required changes and number of invoices as per supply of goods through its portal.

Below mentioned is the detailed information for the way of issuing Invoice after GST is implemented, which will be provided by Uniware as well. Invoices generated through Uniware will also have the prescribed format as described above.

Note:  Fetching of Marketplace Invoices:

Unicommerce would not only provide GST ready invoice templates for both B2B and B2C transactions, but also overhaul the architecture to fetch invoices from marketplaces, instead of pushing the invoices to marketplaces, wherever required. For example, Unicommerce is moving to the new version of APIs in case of Flipkart to be able to fetch their invoices, as well as pass on the HSN code to the marketplace etc. to comply with the GST regime.

4- Credit Note:

 Credit note will be reflected in the monthly return in which such notes have been issued.

When a Credit note should be issued:

When a registered dealer issues a tax invoice and in these invoices the tax amount is greater than the tax return filed for that period, seller has to issue credit note to the partner business owner containing such particulars as may be prescribed.

In Uniware as well, credit notes will be provided for Sale Order, Inter-state Gatepass and purchase order returns in the prescribed format set by Government bodies.

For returns filing post July 1, 2017 credit note is required only if GST was applied on the corresponding invoice.

5- Return filing Process Under GST:

 Monthly billing will constitute filing of all below mentioned forms on prescribed dates:

• Form GSTR-1: Upload all invoice-wise details of supplies to registered taxable persons and aggregate value of supplies to unregistered persons made through the e-commerce platform must be provided. (By 10th).
• Form GSTR-2A: The aggregate amount of tax collected by e-commerce operators (Tax collected at Source or TCS)** in the previous month will be auto populated, based on Form GSTR-8*** filed by the e-commerce operators. (On 11th).
• Form GSTR-2: The details of tax collected by the e-commerce operator can be accepted or modified in Form GSTR-2 (On 15th).
• Form GST ITC-1: Any discrepancy in supplies furnished with supplies reported by the e-commerce operator is made available to a supplier. The discrepancy must be rectified in the return for the month in which it is communicated.If not rectified and the value of supplies furnished by the operator is more than the value furnished by the supplier, the differential amount along with interest will be added to the tax liability of the supplier for the succeeding month.(On 21st).

**tax collected by e-commerce operators (Marketplaces) – Every e-commerce operator should collect tax @ 2% of net value of taxable supplies, out of payments to suppliers (sellers) supplying goods or services through their portals.

***GSTR-8– Form GSTR-8 will be filed by every e-Commerce operator (marketplace), who is required to collect tax at source (TCS) under GST electronically through the https://www.gst.gov.in/.

 6- Compensation Cess-

A new cess with the name “GST Compensation Cess” for first 5 years on some specified items will be implemented which will be credited to the GST Compensation Fund. The need for this cess rise to compensate the manufacturing states, as GST is a destination cum consumption based tax, so in order to compensate states from this kind of probable loss this will be implemented along with CGST, SGST and IGST.

Refer below link to know the Compensation Cess rates defined by government as defined in Central Board of Excise and Customs: CBEC-Compensation Cess

Uniware will reflect this cess as on the Invoices as well.

7-Tax Calculation as per consumption of Goods supplied by Supplier Under GST:

Refer below table reflecting the tax to be calculated as per location of supplier and place of Supply, we have tried to cover all possible conditions containing all the calculations:

Note: Go Live date for these changes will be (Jul 1, 2017) in Uniware and if prepaid order is received on Jun 30 invoice is printed on Jul 1, GST will not be applied in this scenario. However, if same order will be COD, then GST will be applied.

8- Impact of GST on Warehouse Management Processes:

GST regime will not only affect the e-commerce operators and the sellers but will also have important effects on warehousing management processes.

As per current tax regime, there is no uniformity and ease in tax implementation across various warehouse management, logistics and supply chain management processes. Effect of taxation at every step of these processes majorly affect the utilization of available resources. In present scenario, the location of warehouse is generally chosen to evade the taxes and reduce the logistics costs.

With GST, warehousing processes will also become uniform with the introduction of common market for Goods and services, breaking the state barriers and borders. This will lead to reduction in number of warehouses, and more organized warehouses enhancing the overall efficiency.

Unicommecre’s warehouse management system, Uniware is also ready to handle all warehouse processes such as inbound, outbound etc. as per new GST rules. All such changes will reflect in intra state/ interstate transfer documents, such as Gatepass.

To sum up, the below table describes the compliance requirements for GST regime and how Uniware will help the sellers in incorporating the changes at their end:

Conclusion:

Taxation on e-commerce transactions in the current regime is confusing as different states have different levies of tax and there is no clarity on Taxes levied on goods and services. The GST regime will now bring uniformity in the taxation process for e-commerce platforms and sellers.

• Seamless availability of input credit will result in reduced cost of operations for suppliers such as warehousing, logistics, marketplace commission, etc. as they will now be able to take the credit of tax paid on inputs, which was until now adding up to their cost.
• Unified common national market in India for the goods and services, regardless of whether they are sold at physical stores or online. GST will bring greater access to the customers across the nation for sellers.
• Prevent cascading of taxes as Input Tax Credit will be available on goods and services at every stage of supply.
• Simplified and automated procedures for various processes such as registration, returns, refunds, tax payments, etc.

As a supplier, it is important to plan for the GST regime. Awareness of the compliance requirements under GST like registration for GST number, documentation, filing of returns etc., planning and preparation for entering into GST module of taxation will ensure that suppliers can capitalize on the new era of e-commerce in India.

Discover Unicommerce’s Success Story with Leading Brands –

• Mamaearth Attained 99.99% Order Fulfillment Rate
• Dhani Healthcare Streamlined Operations Across 166 Facilities
• Urban Company Achieved 8X Growth in Sales Volume
• Plum Goodness Streamlined Inventory Operations with 69% Growth Rate in Sales
• Marico Achieved 100% Growth in Sales
• Bulbul Simplified Selling Across 200+ Vendors
• Chumbak Lifestyle Boost Sales Across 58+ Retail Stores
• TCNS Achieved 9X Growth in Sales
• Hamilton Housewares Attained 96%+ Pick Accuracy Rate
• Vidiwell Health Achieved 230% Sales Order Growth

The post Comprehensive Guide To GST Readiness For E-commerce Sellers in India appeared first on unicommerce.com.

The seller meet was organized in Hyderabad on 3rd September, 2016, which was another grand success for Unicommerce after its Pune event, earlier this year.

The main objective of the event was to discuss issues faced by sellers in online selling, and how Unicommerce is helping to solve those issues, especially through launch of some new features like Payment Reconciliation and collaboration with quality listing partners.

The Seller Meet took place at The Golkonda Hotel in Hyderabad, where a good mix of sellers including those starting just now and sellers already selling on multiple marketplaces took part. It was a 3 hour interactive session, where the audience discussed in depth about the challenges they are facing and were very happy with the solutions they got from the Unicommerce team conducting the event.

The event also featured some of the existing customers of Unicommerce who spoke very highly about the product and support provided by the entire Unicommerce team.

The session came to an end with high tea arrangements for the sellers, which served as a good networking opportunity for sellers.

The post Unicommerce Organized a Grand e-Commerce Seller Meet in Hyderabad appeared first on unicommerce.com.

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India, August 29, 2016: Lendingkart Group has announced a strategic partnership with Unicommerce, the Delhi-based multichannel order fulfillment platform. The partnership will enable Unicommerce’s consumer base to get access to collateral-free working capital loans through Lendingkart Group’s NBFC within 72 hours of application at a discounted rate. Both players make an ideal synergistic match as they have been closely involved with SME merchants and understand the immense potential that lies untapped in this segment due to inadequate financial support.

The tie-up between Lendingkart Group and Unicommerce is aimed to provide working capital loans to Unicommerce retailers. The technology-backed Lendingkart Group’s NBFC enables loan disbursement process that comprises minimal paperwork and offers collateral-free loans to online retailers within 72 hours. It assesses the creditworthiness of a candidate through API scrutiny and online data scraping to ensure credibility rather than conventional methods that promote red-tapism. The swift assessment process takes a few hours and NBFC ensures that loan amount reaches the borrower within 2-3 days of the loan application. Unicommerce retailers will be offered discounted working capital loans enabling them to increase their inventory, pay for their liabilities and scale up their businesses.

At the announcement, Harshvardhan Lunia, Co-Founder and CEO, Lendingkart Technologies, said, “There are massive growth prospects for Indian retailers within the rapidly changing retail scenario of the country. Businesses often register losses and face challenges related to cash flows owing to their capital deficits. The tie-up with Unicommerce will help the Group to eliminate such challenges for its customer base and will moreover, enable retailers to increase their efficiency, scalability, and profitability with quick and easy working capital loans.”

Ankit Pruthi, CEO, Unicommerce said, “We understand that working capital finance is one of the key needs of SMEs in growing their business, and we believe that this partnership with Lendingkart Group will further boost our customers’ business. We are already helping the SMEs to improve their online sales through our product, and with this partnership, we are hoping to provide more avenues for growth to our customers.”

Lendingkart has developed technology tools, to provide lending solutions to lenders, which utilizes a unique mix of Big Data analytics, decision science, and other proxies to derive credit comfort and assess the creditworthiness of small business owners. Most of the credit risk analysis at the Group’s NBFC, is done digitally so that loans can be disbursed within 72 hours from the time of application.

About Lendingkart Group
Lendingkart Technologies is a fin-tech startup in the working capital space. It has developed technology tools based on big data analytics that facilitates lenders to evaluate borrowers’ credit worthiness. Aadri Infin Limited, a Lendingkart Group Company, is a non-deposit taking NBFC, offering small business loans for SMEs in India. The NBFC aims to transform small business lending by providing easy access to credit for SMEs. The NBFC uses technology and analytics tools, analyzing thousands of data points from various data sources to assess the creditworthiness of small businesses rapidly and accurately. Lendingkart Group aims to make working capital finance available at the fingertips of entrepreneurs, so that they can focus on business instead of worrying about the gaps in their cash-flows. We are currently based in Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Mumbai, but have a service reach across India. To know more, please visit http://lendingkart.com/

About Unicommerce
The SaaS based multichannel order fulfillment platform allows ecommerce merchants selling on multiple marketplaces like Snapdeal, Amazon, Jabong, Flipkart, eBay and so on, to manage their entire inventory and order fulfillment process through one single platform. In a short span of time, Unicommerce has built a strong customer base of 10,000+ sellers in more than 220 cities including big brands such as Monte Carlo, Swiss Military, Classic Polo, House of Anita Dongre, Reliance, Mahindra Retail, Carat Lane, Raymond etc. Ecommerce sellers love this product, as it helps them grow their sales, reduce costs and improve their seller ratings. For further information about the company or the product, please visit https://unicommerce.com/

Economic Times: Lendingkart Group Partners with Unicommerce to Facilitate Easy Loans to its SME Customers

Business Standard: Lendingkart Group Partners with Unicommerce to Facilitate Easy Loans to its SME Customers

The post Lendingkart Group Partners with Unicommerce to Facilitate Easy Loans to its SME Customers appeared first on unicommerce.com.

On 18th of June, 2016, Unicommerce organized an Ecommerce Sellers’ Meet in Pune. The purpose of the event was to educate ecommerce sellers about how Unicommerce can help make online selling easy for them. Unicommerce not only ensures that the sellers have more time to focus on their core business operations, but also reduces their day to day hassles of order processing and inventory management.

The event started with a presentation providing an overview and key features of Unicommerce, followed by an interactive discussion with the sellers. They discussed clearly about the issues they faced on daily basis and were satisfied with the responses they got from the team.

Besides, there was a special segment in the event where our existing customers shared their experiences with Unicommerce. Most of them stressed on the necessity of having Unicommerce for hassle free online selling, saying that one can trust the product with their eyes closed.

Although initially the event was scheduled for 2 hours, we extended it to another 1 hour due to the overwhelming response from the sellers. Everybody was intrigued by the information shared in the event. And a lot of them requested the team to organize more such events in Pune in the near future.

The event came to an end with high tea arrangements for the sellers, which served as a good networking opportunity for them. We must say that it’s been a great experience for us. We look forward to reaching out the dynamic online seller community across India. For further details on the same, please watch out this space.

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Hi everyone, I am Satya Singh from Satya Shoes. I am selling online from last two years. And it’s been one year I am doing with Unicommerce. And I would say that it’s a wonderful stuff to increase your business multiples.

I am a seller from Agra and I am doing footwear business from last 20 years. I used have a manufacturing house, but from last 3 years I am doing it online. And the best way to get online is through Unicommerce. You can start your business with no inventory.

Earlier I used to sell around 60-100 pairs of shoes on an average. But after Unicommerce, the best part is that of inventory management. I don’t have to block the inventories for different different channels.

So I can even sell a single pair of shoes across all two or three or four or five market places without blocking my money or inventory. So the best part is the inventory only that I can manage inventory without any hassle and also the order management of Unicommerce is perfect.

It’s been year now, and my business has been increased 5 times. My average selling been has reached to around 500 pairs. And I would say that it’s only due to Unicommerce due to which I am able to manage the orders and each and everything.

Thanks to Unicommerce. Specially, the team is very much dedicated. You can call the support team any time, they ready to help us out at any stage, at any issue. I got training to my staff and to me also, which was easy and hassle free.

The post Seller Success Story 2 #SellmorewithUnicommerce appeared first on unicommerce.com.

The recent incidents of misuse of CCTVs in big brand showrooms have made us worried about the safety and security of woman in India.

Last month, a girl in a Van Heusen showroom in Southeast Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar, found a mobile camera in video recording mode inside the trial room. That was quite shocking to us.

That’s just one incident.

A few days later, another similar incident happened with our HRD Minister Smriti Irani in a popular Apparel store in Goa while she was on a family Trip. She spotted a camera allegedly recording the insides of the dressing room. She immediately informed the local police about it and subsequently an offence had been registered.

And the preliminary investigations reveal that – the camera was installed four months ago and recorded people from the waist up. However, the latest updates on the incident come up with something new.

Management said the installation was without their knowledge. Now question is – how is it possible?

In this scenario, I feel, e-commerce has emerged as a safer option.

First of all, she gets to try her apparels at her own place, whenever she wants. Home is the safest place where she doesn’t have to worry about any spy camera while trying out the new outfit.

These days almost all brands are available online. She can either buy apparels from the brand’s own online portal or go for popular ecommerce sites like amazon, flipkart, snapdeal, Jabong etc. where she will find them all. In case, she orders a dress and its fitting is not according to her expectations, she can always return it within 30 days of her purchase.

Secondly, She can always give her feedback in Review section depending on her shopping experience or quality of the products she received.

Whatever problem she faces small or big, she can make a noise about it she buys her outfit from. Sellers always take seriously this kind of noise from customers.

In many physical shops if you don’t like something, sometimes the only option you have is to leave the shop. You cannot really ‘change’ or ‘make them change’ anything. But with Review facility in ecommerce, its completely different scenario. In a way, Ecommerce has empowered the end customer.

The post Dear Smriti Irani, That’s Why I Prefer Ecommerce! appeared first on unicommerce.com.

Unicommerce – the Delhi based Tech Product Company, which takes care of every aspect of back-end of e-commerce, co-sponsored the India’s largest e-commerce conference “Techcircle Ecommerce Forum 2015” held in Mumbai on 26th February.

It was an annual summit where all the top ecommerce entrepreneurs, mentors and investors were present. The summit hosted 300+ delegates including ecommerce enablers, investment bankers, service providers, marquee investors and mentors.

Techcircle Ecommerce Forum is one of the most significant ecommerce conferences across the nation. It provides enormous opportunities for ecommerce aspirants to get a quick update on ecommerce industry of India, learn from industry experts, meet & network with like-minded people.

On being asked why Unicommerce chose to sponsor this event, Manish Gupta- Co-founder of Unicommerce said, “Since Unicommerce is literally shaping the Indian e-commerce from Technology perspective. We felt we should encourage such event, which bring all relevant people on same platform.”
The event was full of activities. There were discussions & debates on the prospects for the Indian e-commerce space and way forward where industry veterans like Sanjay Sethi – CEO & Co-Founder of Shopclues, Sundeep Malhotra – Founder & CEO of HomeShop 18, Avnish Bajaj – MD, Matrix Partners, Prashanth Prakash – Partner, Accel Partners, Yashish Dahiya – CEO & Co-Founder of PolicyBazaar, Ambareesh Murthy – Founder & CEO, of Pepperfry and many others participated.
Besides, the Exhibition & Stall facility by Techcircle Forum allowed the ecommerce participants to present their products to prospective investors, product pitch to the investors and so on.

Unicommerce had its stall in the exhibition where Md. Shafee and Kalaivanan Mariappa from its Mumbai branch were present and attended the visitors.

The post Unicommerce Co-sponsored the India’s Largest E-commerce Conference by Techcircle appeared first on unicommerce.com.

India is progressing but the Indian buyer’s mentality is essentially still old school. Not much progress there. I too belonged exactly to this frame until some time back.

Earlier whenever I thought that I’d pick something online, I’d visit some forums and then drop the idea altogether. Never thought – I would buy my new phone online

I’d love to walk you through some of my concerns while purchasing online –

What if old items were passed on as new?

This was one of my most grounded fears. Now I must say that this was also the most baseless.

Reputed online stores go length and beyond to give the best of all products to their customers. They offer a guarantee on their products. Also they don’t just mention informally. There are proper disclaimers that clearly state the status of the offered products. And nowadays, online sellers are going far and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction. They are enhancing their efficiency with order management software to retain and attract customers.  

Some stores do offer used products too. But you’d find it clearly mentioned in the product page.

Whom will I chase if I need a replacement?

You could need a replacement for several reasons. Either the product may not be good or it may be different from what you expected. With physical stores, you know whom to reach out to if you need a replacement.

However, on ecommerce marketplaces, several retailers offer their products. I was afraid that if I picked a random seller from that platform and they shipped a rather damaged phone to me, how will I ever get a replacement?.

This again is not a problem at all. You can file your complaints through the central platform itself.

Each sale is ultimately the responsibility of the online platform. They validate the entire process.

If you have spent some time in the customer support section of such platforms like Amazon and Ebay, you’ll see that they are available for contacting almost through all means. Be it through the phone, email or live chat, they are there to hear if you have any problems at all.

You’ll be amazed to find them to be even more responsive than your traditional retail outlets.

What if I am credited the bill, but I never receive my purchase?

This again didn’t look like a problem once I started exploring the options in online buying. Cash On Delivery safeguards you against all chances of frauds. Pay once you have your goods delivered to you. You get the COD option for almost all major products. Online tailors are approaching the number of good logistics partners. Moreover, smart sellers use supply chain management software which allows them to track the order status as well as delivery so that the customers can receive their orders at the earliest.

How can I wait for so long?

First, you don’t have to wait forever.

Second, you save days of research by looking up online. All online platforms give you the means of comparing your final shortlisted options. You can compare them side by side and take your decision.

In fact, they suggest phones based on the models that you were initially searching for. In my case, I dropped the model that I intended to buy initially. I picked from one of the suggested models.

Besides, leading online stores are prompt with the delivery and tell you exactly when to expect your parcel. Also, they deliver sooner than they promise.

How could I buy – without physically seeing it?

This is entirely a subject of preference. Some people are indeed very particular about this. I too, was. But then I had repeatedly been hearing my friends yapping about how great their online shopping experiences had been. I didn’t want to feel left out (read: outdated).

There’s no texture really to feel about a phone. The product pages are made pretty explicit to cover even such details. Whether a product has a plastic body or a metallic one, you can find very articulated information over the product page.

All the details that you would need to make your purchase decisions are presented to you in the products specs.

There are several images too along with the dimensions.

The most useful of all are the user reviews, stuck right at the end of each product page. Learning from the existing users is one of the best ways of knowing what to expect from your purchase.

You’ll be amazed to see your buying decisions get influenced by these.

What if the Warranty goes void?

Each brand has its list of official vendors. Official vendors are the retailers or retailers that are authorized by the brand to sell its products.

Companies often offer exactly the same warranty to both its online and offline vendors.

A customer has to be careful to buy a product only from a registered vendor. Sellers often certify when they are officially affiliated with a brand.

I verified this while buying my phone. I strongly suggest that you must also always verify if you are indeed buying from the authorized sellers.

How do I trust if, right products will reach me

 Such concerns are only based upon the inherent hesitation to buy online. Online buyers get complete access to raise their voices in the support forums.

It’s really not possible to sell substandard stuff online. There are extensive review boards. You can check them to see that consumers can report their problems and they can do so at a mega-scale.

Such exposure makes cases of fraud or duping almost impossible.

An Indian purchasing cycle can never really be complete without some bargaining.

But online stores already offer products at highly discounted rates. You don’t have to budge any stubborn seller to get a discount that you are entitled to. 

Imagine shipping in a product for far less than what you would have traditionally spent. That too, without bargaining.

Just in case, this discount is bugging you, understand that online stores can afford such heavy discounts as they do business on a very big scale.

They operate very similar to your traditional wholesale market. You save a great deal on the same product if you buy from a wholesale store. What you must remember is that you get exactly the same quality but for a lesser price. 

Just like the case of an online store, you get exactly the same quality but at a discounted rate.

Guidelines to buy online –

• Look for your product
• See which online stores are selling it
• Scan through the suggested products – there may be some interesting stuff there
• Finalize
• Look for the vendors selling it
• Screen out the official vendors from this list
• Check their reviews
• Compare prices and ORDER

That’s all that has to be done. Watch your product get delivered to your doorstep.

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