Are you the kind of person who is not satisfied with the discount that most online shopping portals offerIJ Do you want to make a comparison on the product that you are buyingIJ And, do you want all this information at a single clickIJ Well, you are in luck. There are many portals — dealsupto.com, flipit.com/in, couponation.com, coupondunia.com, desidime.com, cazback.com — that not only offer a discount on the discount, there are coupon codes, the best of the best deals and forums where one can talk about the product to influence your purchase decision.
“From saving precious time and browsing through special coupon lists or categories for a more tailored search, to benefiting from exclusive coupons and member-only codes with the added advantage of creating your own personalised profile of favourite shops, there are a lot of advantages that these websites offer. Shoppers can also start to receive a list of the most popular coupons in their inbox,” Joanna Jaoudie, country manager & spokesperson for Flipit India says. Jaoudie who is the chief content editor for flipit India, a Netherlands-based company tells you that their portal also writes about how people can save money on and offline.
“These communities, where people can talk about the deals that are on offer, can discuss about a product before buying are some of the things that buyers look for over and above a discount percentage,” Mehul Jobanputra CEO and co-founder of desidime.com, tells you, adding that in the last three years they have generated approximately Rs 250 crore business for all big and small online shopping websites.
With over 900 e-commerce sites in the country, a lot of research goes into ensuring that there are benefits for all the players involved — the end user, the shopping website and the portal that offers these services. In most cases, these go-between portals end up with a 10 per cent share in the revenue.“There is no fixed percentage where revenue sharing is concerned with the shopping website. While some may end up paying 10 per cent, others pay anything between two to five per cent when it comes to electronic gadgets. Considering that this industry is witnessing a growth rate of around 30 per cent annually, we will see many more of such portals that offer promotions,” Shibi Sajo, co-founder of dealsupto.com explains.
For small to medium sized merchants who may not have many visitors, discount portals help to increase traction.
While there may not be much difference in the promotion codes that an online shopping website has to offer and the code that these portals display, it is the other services like the cheapest deals, offering multiple shops before making a purchasing decision is what makes up in terms of advantages. “Browsing directly on each merchant’s site is time consuming. The difference is in finding useful information for all deals and coupons under one roof,” Jobanputra says.
The reason why most people have not heard of such discount sitesIJ “A few years back not many had heard of online shopping websites. But today, flipkart, snapdeal, etc are household names. Similarly, the discount portals need time to grow. Also funding could be a problem. Spending large sums on advertising for many may not make for a sound business decision,” Sajo says.