Team-BHP - Amazon vs Flipkart - Which do you prefer & why?

In the US I'm a big fan of eBay. For most of the regular items, local shops are very competitive. For the online long tail, eBay is good. Amazon tried to do both and ends up like neither. In India, I prefer Amazon, but Flipkart had two horses in the race, and killed eBay just to improve it's own brand, and ended up pushing all the sellers to Amazon

Reminds me of the story is how coke inherited thums up, and was about to kill it when it realized that Pepsi would benefit from it more than coke. So thums up stayed. Unfortunately Flipkart management is far less sensible, and would rather score an own goal for the sake of publicity (remember it's mobile only website phase)

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Originally Posted by Aditya_Bhp (Post 4678266)

I use HDFC Smartbuy. It enables me to compare the prices of the same product on Amazon, Flipkart and other retailers. Also, I get a 10x rewards point boost for purchasing the item through this channel, that’s easily a saving of 15% on top of the discounts by Amazon and Flipkart.

Thanks for the info. I haven't explored this option though I have the HDFC card. I was reading the T&C and see that my card is not eligible for the reward points, but only cash back. But again, the cashback is credited only to the PayZapp wallet. Do you have any info on the cashback option?

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Originally Posted by bejoy (Post 4688824)

Payzapp cashback can be used anywhere. Payzapp issues a virtual debit card, and we can spend the cashback through that on any e-commerce website. I use it mainly for recharging my phone. Don't expect cashback to be a lot, it has an upper limit, and the returns cannot be compared to a proper credit card, but still you get something back.lol:

Having been buying loads of stuff on Amazon after being a prime member since 3 years.
Over last 10 days, I purchased about 7 items. Delivery was showing 3-4 days. After tracking, it used to show that the seller has shipped it and it has arrived at the Navi Mumbai Amazon hub. The very next day it was sent to Mumbai Amazon hub. This happened for all the products. After going to Mumbai hub it would lye there and in the tracking section, I was informed to wait for further 3-5 days. So I called up Amazon services and informed them of the same and still waiting for a satisfactory answer. Has anyone faced similar issues, particularly in Navi Mumbai.

I have been very happy overall with Amazon, completely stopped using Flipkart and Snapdeal.

Of late, the only thing if I have to nitpick is that they sometimes message out a day earlier than estimated delivery date saying the package is arriving early and will be delivered. However, by end of day they message out again saying package couldn't be delivered and make it look like customer wasn't available! I now use the feedback link to inform that I wasn't contacted for package delivery.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bejoy (Post 4688824)

Yes this works brilliantly.
At this moment, purchasing for example an Apple Phone or Watch or similar product on HDFC SmartBuy effectively ensures that you get the same price more or less, as what it would have cost, had you bought it in America or Dubai or Australia. The reason is the discounts and the 10X reward points gain which evens things out for the buyer.

I have been using Flipkart from its initial days when its strong point was books. You used to get heavy discounts on books, which were delivered very quickly. Flipkart invested heavily in its logistics and I always trusted its deliveries, and till now have never faced any issue with it.
Amazon, initially, was very slow in its deliveries. Then it introduced Prime program and offered One-day deliveries etc, which really competed with Flipkart in quick deliveries. But if you were a non-Prime member and not willing to shell extra Rs.50 or Rs.100, then had to wait for 3-4 days for the deliveries. Now being Prime member, I get quick deliveries.
But if you are a non-Prime member on Amazon or non-Plus member on Flipkart, I would trust Flipkart for faster deliveries.

Another issue is of fake or non-genuine products. My friends have got non-genuine products from Amazon's own seller Cloudtail and since then I doubt their sellers. Have never faced any such issue with Flipkart's own sellers till now.

Still use Flipkart to order any books as they are most of the times cheaper there. Otherwise, compare and buy.

I tried ordering something recently on Flipkart, and I just couldn't log in. It gave me multiple problems with the OTP not working. I finally ordered it on Amazon for a bit more money, but they offered 2 day delivery as opposed to 4 days with Flipkart

I prefer Amazon for the large variety of items they have for sale and usually, they are slightly cheaper as well.

However, Flipkart's site is much better organised. On Amazon, many a times, you won't find something if you take the filter route and start filtering by various categories, but you may find the same if you search for that item directly in the search bar. This doesn't happen with Flipkart.

I would choose Amazon as ultimately it is the product variety which matters but the Flipkart's site is much much easier to navigate.

I have seen a couple of posts stating that they prefer Amazon's website/UI? Could they explain why? I mean, for me, the Flipkart's website is so well laid out whereas Amazon's is just not very polished. Am I missing something? Am I not using the Amazon's site in the right way?

From what I have experienced Flipkart works better in my current city, Jabalpur than it did in Mumbai. Amazon was way better there. But CS is still Amazon's forte. Amazon takes too long to deliver here where as Flipkart is usually over night thanks to their warehouse at Indore.

I use both. Flipkart was often better sometimes due to its pay later program albeit slow delivery. But lately, they have stopped making payments to the pay later account through credit cards and that is one dampener. Just for example the benefit of Pay Later was that - you buy on 1st Jan using pay later, pay the dues using credit card on 1st Feb and make the final payment on 20th march (credit card due date)

Else I use both, compare the price, compare the delivery time and then hit 'add to cart'!

So in this lockdown the tables have turned. I was an Amazon loyalist and using Pantry for all groceries. In the last 1 month, I have placed only 1 order on Amazon pantry with great difficulty and 3 orders on Flipkart with ease.

Amazon has lesser inventory, delayed delivery and bugs which results in items showing in stock but when checking out goes out of stock.

Flipkart delivers within 2 days and has a lot more items on sale. Moreover their own brand of grains/pulses/dry fruits is better than Amazon and the packing is the best I have seen vs what u see in stores.

Flipkart also has done a smart thing by tying up with Uber drivers to give them business and deliver the stuff. More feet on ground to deliver and quick ramp up. Wide reach in no time. Cost maybe more but at these unprecedented times, it's worth the additional money.

The worse has been Big Basket with delayed delivery and prices of many things higher than both Flipkart and Amazon. BB is making money.

I used to shop from flipkart earlier. But from a year or two most of the items are not deliverable at my location Srinagar Kashmir. Hence switched to Amazon and it has been a treat to shop. Things get delivered quickly and returns are hassle free.
For clothes i still use myntra. For electronics etc Amazon