When the concept of online shopping entered the Indian market a decade or so ago, there were serious doubts about its success, considering the mindset of shoppers who had thus far relied on ‘touching’ and ‘feeling’ the product before making a purchase. However, high discount rates and numerous cashback offers were able to attract the youth slowly and steadily toward buying products online.

Reportedly, Online shopping in India is expected to touch a whopping $111 billion by the end of 2024. This figure, in itself, is a proof that online shopping has become a significant part of every urban Indian, especially post the COVID-19 pandemic. The reach of the Indian e-commerce market is slowly tapping into the rural areas as well.

In this post, we will take a look at the best online shopping sites in India that cover a number of specific niche such as clothing and apparel, electronics, groceries, cookware and kitchenware, furniture, books, etc. Before proceeding straight to the list, let us first look at a few aspects where online shopping beats offline shopping.

Online Shopping vs Offline Shopping

There are many benefits of choosing online shopping over its traditional counterpart. A few of them have been discussed in detail for better understanding:

Safer post the COVID-19 pandemic

Why go out and become vulnerable to catching pathogens such as life-threatening viruses, when you can shop right from the comfort and safety of your home. Most of the online shopping sites make sure that their packing and delivery executives have their hands sanitized every time a product is packed or delivered, thereby ensuring a high level of safety.

Better Price

You get a plethora of offers online, ranging from discounts and cashback to ‘buy now, pay later’ and additional perks on using debit/credit cards from specific banks. This ensures that customers can get the most out of their time and money with just a few taps on their phone or computers.

Shop at any time you feel like

Offline stores have a fixed time of opening up and shutting down. In fact, some of them are closed on Sundays, when most of the people find time to step out, because of their busy work schedule. However, time is not an issue when it comes to online shopping. You can buy a product whenever you feel like, even if it’s 2 a.m. or 6 a.m!

Easy to search and compare products

Online shopping brings with it an added advantage of searching for or comparing products with similar items before deciding to make a purchase. This freedom of comparing things in detail before buying provides great freedom to the customers, especially when they are buying expensive items such as flagship phones, electronic items — such as laptops, TVs, refrigerators, A.C — furniture, etc.

Say goodbye to queues

Queues are often frustrating as the waiting time is quite high, especially in busy supermarkets and grocery stores. Thanks to online shopping, we can add as many products as we like in our cart and checkout without spending even a second in any queue.

10 Best Online Shopping Sites in India

Now since we have taken a good look at the pros of online shopping over its walk-in counterpart, let’s list down the ten best online shopping sites in India.

#1 Amazon

We couldn’t think of any other online shopping portal for the #1 spot, besides Amazon, which came to India in the year 2013. Besides quality, amazing offers, discounts and cashback, Amazon India boasts the highest number of sellers among its competitors and a great customer support too.

Its festive season sale that goes by the name The Great Indian festival makes record number of sales each year. The best part, however, is that you find everything — from a needle, to a car —  listed at quite competitive prices on Amazon India.

Pros and Cons

+ Wide variety of products
+ Well-priced, good offers
+ Reliable delivery timeline
+ Good value ‘lightning deals’

– A better website and app interface is needed
– A little sluggish chat support

#2 Flipkart

The Battle for the #1 spot on our list was quite fierce between Amazon and Flipkart, which the former won by a close margin. As a result, Flipkart has been positioned #2 on our list. In terms of offers and pricing, Flipkart, too, isn’t far behind. However, there is some scope of improvement in terms of the deliveries of products during the Big Billion Days sale.

Flipkart’s loyalty program named Flipkart Plus and its concept of SuperCoins is indeed unique in itself, pushing people to shop more to reap the benefits. The SuperCoins can be utilized to become a plus member – these members receive free delivery on each order, regardless of the order amount. Futhermore, the SuperCoins can be redeemed to avail exclusive membership/discount coupons for other brand outlets.

Pros and Cons

+ Great user interface
+ Good offers during the big billion days
+ Fast mobile website

– Sluggish delivery during the big billion day sales
– Numerous reports of blocking customer accounts for repeated return/replace requests
– The validity of SuperCoins should be more than 1 year
– Seller on-boarding could be made easier

#3 Myntra

When it comes to fashion, Flipkart owned Myntra is enjoying quite a massive share of the apparel and accessories category. The company further cemented its position when it acquired rival Jabong in 2016. The portal is not just favourite among online shoppers but also amongst its employees as well, as only recently the company announced its “unlimited wellness leaves” policy for its workforce.

Pros and Cons

+ Good customer support
+ Great offers
+ Prompt return and replacement

– Images may not give a clear idea as to the real look of the apparels.

#4 Paytm Mall

Paytm has an online shopping ‘mall’ as well, but only a few enthusiasts use it regularly. The portal provides a diverse range of products at economical prices but offers no threat to giants Flipkart and Amazon. If the product that you are looking to buy is listed at the lowest price at Paytm Mall then you should go for it. Otherwise, we recommend sticking to the first 3 online shopping sites on our list.

Pros and Cons

+ Affordable pricing
+ Good client support

– Not many sellers on-board
– Less variety

#5 HealthKart

HealthKart is your one-stop portal to buy weight & muscle gain supplements and 100% pure and genuine herbal products from renowned brands. In fact, HealthKart has launched its own products as well, including multivitamins, fish oil, biotin, vegetarian-source derived omega-3 capsules, whey protein, etc. Notably, the company has as many as 95 stores across 37 cities.

Pros and Cons

+ Wide variety of protein supplements
+ Herbal supplements of leading brands available

– Need quick expansion of physical stores for better brand reach
– Aggressive marketing strategies required

#6 Nykaa

Launched in 2012, Nykaa has quickly made a name for itself as India’s largest omni-channel wellness & beauty destination with millions of happy customers. The online shopping site boasts more than 1200 brands in categories such as skin care, hair care, personal care, makeup, fashion, footwear, luxury, wellness supplements, and many more.

Pros and Cons

+ Diverse range of products
+ 100% genuine brands

– Customer service could be better
– Quicker deliveries expected

#7 Ajio

When it comes to the latest and freshest fashion trends for men, women and kids, look no further than Ajio. Besides exclusive international labels, Ajio has its-own clothing brand, which designs and manufactures apparels that Indians like the most.

Pros and Cons

+ Exclusive brands
+ Simple website interface

– Customer care needs to be better
– Costly products

#8 The Souled Store

If you are looking for trendy, informal stuff in both clothing and accessories, the souled store is sure to blow away your ‘soul’. The portal has enough variety of funky clothing that will sync well with the present generation’s mindset for good looks.

The company is the licensed partner for official WWE merchandise sale in India. The pricing too is decent for the quality promised and is indeed worth a try, in case you haven’t made any purchase so far.

Pros and Cons

+ Ideal for casual clothing
+ Good website interface
+ Official WWE merchandise partner

– Better marketing strategies needed
– Delivery time could be enhanced

#9 Bewakoof

Bewakoof is the hindi term for the word ‘stupid’. However, you won’t be called one if you shop from this one-of-a-kind website! Best known for its printed t-shirts, hoodies and shorts, this online shopping portal is slowly and steadily expanding its catalogue with more clothing options for both men and women.

Pros and Cons

+ Clothes made for today’s youth
+ Pocket-friendly pricing

– Product quality could be better
– More focus on customer retention needed

#10 Snapdeal

Putting Snapdeal at the end of our list was no-brainer for us. The e-commerce market share of snapdeal fell rapidly until 2018. However, certain reports now suggest that snapdeal turned profitable in late 2018, after selling its mobile wallet services, Freecharge, for a whopping $60 million to axis bank. These days, Snapdeal doesn’t invest much in marketing and has once failed a merger attempt with rival Flipkart.

Pros and Cons

+ Decent pricing

– Poor support
– Only a handful of sellers listed

The Bottom Line

We are pretty sure that you regularly (or occasionally) shop from the top 3 online shopping sites listed above. However, we recommend trying out the other names on the list as well. The Souled Store and Ajio for example are quality online stores, but since they do not spend too high on marketing, their reach remains limited to a particular audience.

The craze for online shopping has been growing rapidly with time; and in the post-coronavirus world, it has indeed become a comfort for people who want to avoid catching the virus by visiting offline stores.