l was listening to the Nikhil Kamath podcast. One of the founders narrated a story that began with we didn’t have it easy as children and ended with education in Switzerland and Paris. As we have seen, lately, India has seen a lot of anger around privilege, where you come from and how you tell your story. With rising wealth inequality and 1% of people owning 50% of the wealth in the world’s most populous country, such anger will only rise. it’s time successful founders…Continue Reading “Entreprenuers, working on the origin story.”
The mighty Amazon had to shut down. The neighborhood guy could still open. This is an opportunity to rethink our approach towards digital, sustainability and running headlong into any one direction thinking that is progress. Let’s try and understand structures before we dismantle and build new ones. Corona will go but we need to build a more resilient systems. Time to rethink.
I had seen the site a few times, but I ordered from then when I saw a Tatacliq ad on Facebook. These were Redtape shoes for less than 1500 bucks. I thought it was misleading advertising but the site had more than a fair collection of shoes on discount. I ordered one. There is not much to talk about in terms of shopping experience, unless something is lacking. The cart and payment process on Tatacliq is pretty standard and you won’t notice it unless you…Continue Reading “My experience with online shopping: Tatacliq review”
This is one site that I have taken a long time to order from. The first time I did, it was a sad experience. I ordered a shoe of the brand Knotty Derby and it was the worst shoe of my life. The order came on time and all that but the formal shoes that looked so good the first time kind of melted away in less than 6 months. First came out the cloth or whatever it was, then the sole in parts and…Continue Reading “My experience with online shopping: Jabong”
Three months and waiting. Time they took to process the updated RC with CNG on it. Three months of hell, harassment and plain old govt office sort of ignoring. Booking a car with Orion Hynudai was a mistake and I will repent it every day. The only reason I booked with them was because of a loan salesman from my bank- HDFC. From the day the car was booked to the choice of color to getting the CNG fitted which took more than 2 weeks,…Continue Reading “Orion Hyundai Gurgaon – the biggest mistake you will ever make”
(image credit: NIFT Wall Graffiti from a competition by Asian Paints) Folk arts have been in the wine like dilemma for last few years. It has been so exalted and out there and the common man has lost connect. Much like a good bottle of wine, it is out of reach in our daily lives. So, it was good to hear of the Folk in Vogue endeavour where the brand works with artisans from varied Indian folk art spaces to help in revival our rich art…Continue Reading “Asian Paints Celebrates Women Achievers with Folk in Vogue”
What are you doing on a Sunday evening? Surely, something infinitely more interesting. I am writing about a razor. But wait till I finish before you declare me vain. By the way, this post is strictly for men. By now, it must be evident that I like cheap things. I am absolutely delighted when the cheap thing is good too. So, when I saw this certain firang razor spend the amount of money they did on digital ads, claiming the stars and the moon, I…Continue Reading “My experience with online shopping: Letsshave.com”
Recently, Myntra put an end to its app only experiment. It was an experiment. They were foolish if they thought it to be something else. To shop, we, the seller, will put a condition. You, the customer, must download the app. Remember those saree shops of yore? You want to buy a saree, you must take your shoes off and sit cross legged on the floor. Most of the customers did it. First, there was no choice, really. It was the trend with most of…Continue Reading “The app arrogance must end – Myntra Appwapsi”
I have bought deals from Groupon. Apart from one where the restaurant initially refused to honor the coupon after giving a reservation on phone, all others have gone really smoothly. But what about shopping? Does it make sense to shop from Groupon, do they even have the delivery network, why not buy from one of the established ecommerce sites instead? Price. Ecommerce companies hate it but customers in India have shown zero brand loyalty. Online shopping is decided by who offers cheapest rates and it…Continue Reading “My experience with online shopping: Groupon Review”
One part of blogging is taking reader feedback seriously. While I focused on restaurant and street food, many, including my family, kept asking me to research this and that. Thankfully, I knew guys at Philips after the review for the Saeco coffee maker. So, I could do justice to one request that I was getting across social media and personal conversations – the air fryer. Every appliance company seemed to have one and no one had any idea if they were any good. So, I…Continue Reading “Philips Air Fryer – how good is air frying?”
Don’t question my patriotism, but I don’t like tea. I could never appreciate the lack of a strong character in the drink and the saccharine tea that we get in our homes is enough to make a man hate all beverages. In fact, morning beverage was the first catastrophic disagreement of our married life. I could die from tea overdose and wife could not live without it. So, when I was offered the fantastic sounding Philips Saeco Intelia to try, we had a serious marital…Continue Reading “Philips Saeco Intelia HD8753/83 – Your In-house Barista”
I, generally, don’t respond to ads. But it’s not everyday that you see Ranbir Kapoor in an app ad. Why is that so interesting? My day job is in the app industry and it’s good to see someone can foot the ad bill. India is just opening up to the mobile market and I think better times will come once the market matures. Anyway, the Askme app is available only on Android currently. And, as you may know, I have a Nokia Lumia. I keep…Continue Reading “Askme App – Interesting road ahead”
I am currently working with a market research firm in the United States to do an assessment of the ecommerce market in India. They’ve asked me to administer a survey in which respondents outline their experiences on ecommerce sites like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Amazon in India. If you haven’t shopped on any of these sites, please don’t fill the survey out. The survey will take about 10-15 minutes to complete and I ask that you fill it out in honest detail. At the end of…Continue Reading “An Indian Ecommerce Survey”
Damn Facebook. It kept showing me products from Fabfurnish until I gave in. You may have read the Fabfurnish review by now. The ads have not stopped, but now new stores are added to the list every day. I didn’t know there are so many ecommerce sites in India. The latest one being Yepme. The ads were bombarded, and then a few friends bought from them too. So, came the sponsored posts. What got me to bite was their prices. Everything seemed to be below…Continue Reading “My experience with online shopping: YepMe Review”
UPDATED REVIEW – 10th FEBRUARY, 2017 I ordered a study table their last year which went well. Then I ordered a set of glasses and this sofa in January. They sent a wrong set of glasses, I returned it, they said they ran out of those glasses, I asked for refund, they refused a refund because they had the glasses back in stock, I said ok, they sent wrong glasses again, refused to pick up and after a month I got them to pick them…Continue Reading “My experience with online shopping: Fabfurnish Review”
Flipkart is now a marketplace. Just like Snapdeal. And, Infibeam. And, eBay. But is everything same as before? No. Quite a few things remain the same and a few others change when an ecommerce portal turns into a marketplace. You can see my earlier review of Flipkart, if you want to now why they were so good. First, now Flipkart does not control the products that will be sold on the website. So, each product does not go through the selection process that it earlier…Continue Reading “My experience with online shopping: Review of sellers on Flipkart”
Before taking up the marketing responsibilities for a dot com company, I used to be a professional writer. Writing corporate film scripts, radio spots, jingles, print ads, brochures and whatever else that an ad agency can be hired to do. Even before that I worked as an editor with a publishing company. So, I have been holding a pen in my hand for a long time, for one reason or another. I used to tell all new recruits that becoming a professional writer should never…Continue Reading “Great shoot, no one hurt”
I don’t remember how I stumbled on this one early year, but have been ordering from this store quite consistently. They have not given me a chance to complain, yet. Started in 2010, Zovi has been one of the silent runners among all the brand names. They launched a TVC campaign recently but I will say they have been doing quite well without burning too much of that fund money on marketing. Started in 2010 by Satish Mani, formerly senior vice-president at Cleartrip, Kavindra Mishra…Continue Reading “My experience with online shopping: Zovi”
All you can eat buffets are the holy cows in restaurant marketing. But what does it mean? All you can eat actually, emotionally and appealingly means all you want to eat. No one will stop you, no one will bill you extra for anything – you eat whatever and as much as you want to eat. But practically, you can’t eat as much as you want. You can only eat a little more than you generally do eat. So, you get the point. But we…Continue Reading “All you can eat buffet”
Six months back, I was a happy man as men with a clear purpose in their lives are. I had thought of doing a series on Indian e-commerce sites and had ordered from eight sites. Back then, it seemed like a good number and covered all major sites. Now, so many new and impressive portals have been launched that my sample looks miserable unrepresentative. However, I must finish what I started. Here is my next installment with reviews of Myntra and Zovi. First up, Myntra….Continue Reading “My experience with online shopping: Myntra Review”