Online battles for my wallet

India is pretty hot most of the year and going to shopping centres is a tedious affair with long queues and traffic jams. And if you are not too careful, one of those two wheelers cutting in from the wrong side could brush your vehicle, and then the whole shopping trips turns into a stressful affair.

So I was quite thrilled with the arrival of the online shopping boom a couple of years ago. I could now check out all details of whatever gadget I wanted from the comfort of my living room, compare with similar products, read reviews by actual customers, and have it delivered home.

In the early days of online shopping in India, Flipkart was my go-to shop. Credit card hacking was a worry, so my first cellphone was bought online using Flipkart’s then innovative Cash-on-Delivery (COD) feature. But Indian banks soon enforced two factor verification for credit via an OTP to your mobile. After that, I started using my credit card online, taking care to keep my credit limit low, so as to limit my loss in case it was hacked.

Then Amazon arrived on the scene. The reviews were more helpful as you could link up to customers on the amazon.com site if there weren’t no reviews on the Indian site. So I started splitting my custom between the two depending on who was offering the better deal on whatever I wanted.

At this point, Amazon got serious about India, pumping in around $5 billion, setting up their own distribution centes, launching Amazon Prime at a price of around ₹500/year ($7.50), and so on.

Now they seem to be going after their chief competitor, Flipkart.

Take the Big Sale business. A couple of times in a year, Flipkart and Amazon have this big sales where they cut prices and sell in billions. The latest one happened with Flipkart announcing its Big Sale 10 from May 14 to May 18.

Showing its predatory instincts, Amazon moved in surprisingly quickly to steal Flipkart’s thunder by launching its own Great Indian Sale from May 11 to May 14. It was aggressive marketing warfare at its best, though I’m sure Amazon had planned for this. Basically the goal was any customer with money to spend should spend it through Amazon, and not through Flipkart.

I was one of those customers, albeit an accidental one.

A bit of background will help. My wife has been using an iPhone 4 for the long time (it belongs to the organisation she works for). She likes the compact size, isn’t very techy, and dislikes spending on gadgets. Also iPhones are expensive which makes it a hard sell with my wife. She has resolutely refused to get herself a new iPhone, saying she would get a low priced Android if need be. And it did seem that the time had come, as her iPhone 4 is now crashing regularly.

Anyway, a friend called up to say his Android was dead, and asked me to recommend a good one in the budget of ₹13000 ($200). Now Android phones come in hundreds of models and brands with such a variety of features. However it’s hard to get one phone that has everything you want so I suggested the hot selling Redmi Note 4 or the Honor 6X.

While checking the market, I was again struck by how the Android scene is so unlike that of Apple which has just three models to choose from. Sadly, iPhones in India cost more than anywhere else in the world (due to taxes).

Out of curiosity, I went and checked out the iPhone’s price anyway. And was stunned to find Flipkart offering the iPhone SE for ₹21000 ($325). I checked the price on apple.com and it was $399. It seemed unbelievable!

India which launched the entry level iPhone 7 for nearly $950 in India, was pricing this same iPhone SE for ₹28000 ($450) just a while ago. It’s now selling below US Apple Store prices.

I looked closely for a catch. That’s when I noticed that the one being sold in India was a 16GB model. I didn’t know Apple still made 16GB iPhone SE models.

What an anticlimax!

16GB is too little for a device which does not allow OTG connections with your USB pendrive. As I quit Flipkart, I casually checked Amazon to see their price.

And what do you know? They had the same ₹21000 ($325) offer, but for the 32GB iPhone SE.

Flipkart VS Apple VS Amazon

Suddenly my wife’s objection about iPhones being too expensive was no longer valid. All I needed to see was if I could reduce the price some more.

Can I get an exchange offer for my old Android? (It needs to go as it doesn’t have VoLTE and I’m missing calls too often.) Amazon has an exchange offer but it’s not available where I stay.

Flipkart’s exchange offer is. I find I can get ₹3200 off. But I can always sell the Android, and possibly get more than ₹3200.

What else? How about cash back offers?

Flipkart has tied up with HDFC bank to give a 10% cashback (max ₹1500), while Amazon has linked up with Citibank bank to to give a 15% cashback (max ₹2000).

Amazon wins on higher storage and higher cashback. I didn’t have either of the credit cards, but my brother-in-law had a Citibank card.

Less than 48 hours later, Amazon delivers the 32GB, iPhone SE in Rose Gold at a cost of ₹19000 ($295). My kid has claimed dibs (whatever that means) to surprise her mother with it.

The next day Flipkart had another ‘fail.’ In my investigations on Flipkart, I had noticed that the Google Pixel was going to be selling for ₹35000 ($545) at the Big 10 Sale as against its original price of ₹57000 ($890). I knew a friend who was interested in it, and informed him about it. I also told him to check out the 30% discount for paying via Flipkart’s online wallet, Phone Pe.

Misleading ads: Google Pixel isn’t selling at ₹34999 while the 30% cashback has a limit of ₹300 in small type.

My friend was all kicked about the deal initially. Then he checked the small type below the price, and called back to say the ₹34999 price included an exchange price of ₹9000 for an old mobile.

This exchange value is decided by Flipkart. An Mi4i Android gets ₹3200 while an iPhone 6S Plus gets ₹12000, which means if you want to get the Google Pixel for ₹34999, you have to trade in a premium phone like the iPhone 6S.

As for the 30% cashback for buying via Flipkart’s wallet, it has a maximum limit of ₹300.

Suddenly Flipkart’s whole offer began to stink.

And the stink rubbed off on Flipkart, who came across as a smooth selling salesman out to con me.

I know Amazon has a bad rep for exploiting its employees, but in contrast to Flipkart, Amazon comes out smelling like roses.

So it’s no surprise that Amazon won the battle for my wallet.