Online shopping has become insanely popular in the present day. It is cheaper compared to buying items from retail stores in malls. Who doesn’t like things getting delivered to their place at the touch of a button? Not anyone I know and eCommerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart know that too and have created a big market for online shopping by providing excellent services and quality to capitalise on the growing needs of consumers.

There are a lot of online shopping alternatives on the internet today.  Most of these online marketplaces have connected buyers and sellers in a very efficient manner. Businesses can add their products online to these marketplaces, and they take care of all the logistics so its excellent for both customers and sellers.

While Amazon arguably remains the biggest player in the online marketplace industry, in this article, we will be talking about eCommerce websites like Amazon in India so that you can have a better variety of products before you choose to buy something online.

Flipkart 

Flipkart was the first eCommerce website in India. Sachin (an ex-Amazon employee) and Binny Bansal started this website in 2007. The main reason for Flipkart’s success in Indian markets was its cash on delivery feature. This attracted a lot of Indian customers who weren’t sure about making online transactions citing security concerns. Wallmart bought a significant stake in Flipkart in 2018.

Flipkart has come a long way since it started. It reported sales worth $6.1 billion in 2019. This goes to show that Flipkart is doing a lot of things right. The company has come up with premium offerings like Flipkart plus, which provides free and fast delivery, early access to sales and priority customer support. It has also come up with a concept of super coins — in-market virtual currency rewards system — which provides two coins for every Rs 100 spent on Flipkart. These coins can be used to buy premium versions of YouTube, Hotstar and Gaana. One can also use these coins to order food online from dominos or get a Flipkart premium membership, among several other deals.

Click here to visit Flipkart.

Also read: How to cancel your Amazon order?

eBay

eBay and Flipkart are both online marketplaces but are very different from one another. eBay is not a retail marketplace as products do not have a fixed price, but one has to make bids to buy a particular product. So the products price on eBay depends on the bids it gets and not on the amount set by the seller

eBay has about 25 million active buyers so whatever you want to buy you will probably find on eBay. Although an American marketplace but they ship their products to India as well.

Click here to visit eBay.

Shoppers stop

If you were a shopaholic a decade ago, you probably are in love with Shoppers Stop, which gained its clientage with the hundreds of brick and mortar stores countrywide and with the launch of their online website and apps, that popularity has converted to online sales as well.

Shoppers Stop launched an app for online shopping in 2016, which gained a lot of popularity due to its excellent user interface and a great variety of products. It also has products from Crosswords on offer, which is one of the best places to buy books with great discounts.

Click here to visit Shoppers Stop.

Also read: What is Poshmark? History and business model explained

Snapdeal 

Snapdeal is another eCommerce website with Indian roots. Due to stiff competition from Amazon and Flipkart in the online shopping business, Snapdeal had major sales issues. Even with all this, there are always a few products on Snapdeal which are cheaper than other online platforms.

Click here to visit Snapdeal.

Paytm mall

Paytm started as an online payment gateway, but it offers a ton of services other than online payments — paying your electricity bill, cable bill, train tickets, bus tickets Paytm has it all. Paytm also started the Paytm mall on its app on where you can buy anything from mobile covers to bikes. It offers a lot of discounts, and one should check the price of a product at Paytm mall before buying it from any other marketplace to ensure you get the best deal

Click here to visit Paytm mall.

Also read: 3 things to keep in mind while buying Refurbished devices

Aliexpress

If you are looking to buy cheap electronic products, Aliexpress is the place for you. It is a Chinese marketplace, and it ships products to India. Being a Chinese marketplace, you will find a lot of sellers selling bulk electronics at affordable prices. It also has a lot of products which are not available elsewhere.

Click here to visit Aliexpress.

Tatacliq

Tatacliq is a luxury market place owned by Tata. It was launched in 2016 and had a partnership with Adobe. The website has an excellent user interface, and one can feel the aura of luxury products as soon as one opens the website. Being a luxury marketplace, it sells jewellery online as well.

Click here to visit Tatacliq.

Here’s hoping this list of the best Amazon shopping alternatives in India was useful for you. If you’re using any other site like Amazon that isn’t mentioned above and you feel can be considered as a better alternative, please let us know in the comments below.

Also read: Top 7 Tumblr alternatives