Online discounts on designer wear may be hard to resist, but it’s important to check the e-tailer’s returns policy before buying an unfamiliar brand.
Weekends are officially the worst days to enter a mall, what with all the crowds, and queues for trial rooms and billing. It’s just so much more convenient to log in to an online store. Even better are the discounts you get for designer wear. With the fashion week recently concluded, if you’re looking to add part of a designer’s collection to your wardrobe, the easiest way to get hold of it is via the internet. Some e-retailers have tie-ups with budding, and sometimes even established designers. It’s these up-to-70% discounts that tempt most people to buy.
But, as many buyers are realising, shopping online isn’t always hassle-free. Especially if you have to wait months for delivery of the perfume, T-shirt or shoes you had ordered. Sidharth Pakrashi, a 32-year-old banker, bought a T-shirt from e-retailer FashionAndYou.com a few months back. But when he received the courier, it was the wrong size. Given that the T-shirt cost a few hundred rupees, it wasn’t worth his while to pay courier charges to send it back and wait for the exchange. Instead, he decided to wear it as a casual T-shirt to sleep in. Disappointed, he stopped shopping online.
When cosmetics, home decor and accessories bought from e-retailers fall below your expectations, you can find some other use for them. But it pinches when designer clothes and branded shoes, which tend to be priced higher, don’t deliver on the promises made by the website. That’s probably why most online shoppers are extra cautious when it comes to buying clothes and shoes online. For the right fit, and to see how the colour looks on you, you have to be able to try it.
“The world over, people buy electronics, books and apparel online, in that order,” says Mukesh Bhansal, CEO of e-retailing website Myntra.com. “Most people buy popular brands. If experimenting with a new brand, they first check whether the exchange/return policy is a relaxed one.” He adds that Myntra gets about 2,000 orders a day for clothes and footwear. With a 3-day delivery guarantee and 30-day exchange policy, the website sees only a few complaints, he says.
Lubna Mohsin, 22, a Mumbai-based PR professional, says she only buys brands that she knows. “Especially with foreign brands that don’t have standard sizes, it’s risky. When I can try it on, it’s worth spending Rs3-4,000 on a dress. Online, I only buy if there’s a great discount and I know my size,” says Lubna. She recently bought two ASOS dresses off the net, which turned out to be a great deal, she says.
While the size might be right, the fit also matters. That’s where shopping online for clothes and footwear gets tricky. Shreya Sinha, 21, bought a pair of boots online. “I’d bought the same brand before. But the boots were too loose,” she says, adding that she called customer care and they sent someone with a replacement pair. She prefers buying a brand that has outlets in malls where she can go in and check her size. “But the shops in malls don’t have the same designs, so it’s a risk.”
Figures suggest that e-retailing is a growing market in India — estimated to be over Rs600 crore. But complaints on online consumer fora suggest that people are still wary of buying expensive products online. This explains why well-known clothing brands are the first to get ‘sold out’ on most websites. For the rest, until e-tailers work on their exchange policy, we stil have to queue up at the mall.
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