Recently I needed a book that was difficult to find. I called up all the bookstores I knew and no one seemed to have it. For some strange reason, although I am used to ordering books and other stuff from Amazon and other US sites I had no idea that we had similar sites in India.
Since I had no choice, I did a web search. And found a pretty interesting looking website Infibeam.
http://www.infibeam.com/
And the book I desperately needed was available. I was thrilled. Immediately I added it to my shopping cart and tried to pay. Oops. The payment gateway wasn't working. It said try later. I tried 5 times in the next 2 days. No luck. The website had a cool functionality of 24 x 7 support. I called and was disappointed. The numbers didn't seem to work.
The next morning whilst driving to a meeting with my colleague Claudian, I mentioned this to him. He told me that he had read about a site called Flipkart, which a friend too had used and had mentioned that it was pretty good. I was sceptical. I told him, the book I wanted was probably not available. Neverthless, I decided to check it out.
The site like Infibeam, was pretty cool. And had the book I wanted. What's more it was offering a 20% discount. And free shipping. So far, all good. And once again, I clicked "Add to Cart" and proceeded to order. The transaction went off without a hitch. What's more their SMS confirming the transaction was faster than that from my credit card informing me about the payment. Step 1 done.
http://www.flipkart.com/
The site said I should expect the book in 3 -4 business days. Surprise, surprise. I received it in 2 days on a Saturday. And the package was really well packed. In a plastic, bubble wrap and a cardboard box. The e-mails were all also on cue. After ordering, after shipping, tracking number ...
All of this happened in the last 2 weeks. And in just the last week, I have already ordered 5 books, and have experienced the exact awesome service every time.I think Flipkart has what it takes. And is on its way to becoming the Indian Amazon. Yet another instance of, you don't have to be the first, just very good at what you do.
You can read more about the Flipkart story at:
http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/the-making-of-flipkart-story
Since I had no choice, I did a web search. And found a pretty interesting looking website Infibeam.
http://www.infibeam.com/
And the book I desperately needed was available. I was thrilled. Immediately I added it to my shopping cart and tried to pay. Oops. The payment gateway wasn't working. It said try later. I tried 5 times in the next 2 days. No luck. The website had a cool functionality of 24 x 7 support. I called and was disappointed. The numbers didn't seem to work.
The next morning whilst driving to a meeting with my colleague Claudian, I mentioned this to him. He told me that he had read about a site called Flipkart, which a friend too had used and had mentioned that it was pretty good. I was sceptical. I told him, the book I wanted was probably not available. Neverthless, I decided to check it out.
The site like Infibeam, was pretty cool. And had the book I wanted. What's more it was offering a 20% discount. And free shipping. So far, all good. And once again, I clicked "Add to Cart" and proceeded to order. The transaction went off without a hitch. What's more their SMS confirming the transaction was faster than that from my credit card informing me about the payment. Step 1 done.
http://www.flipkart.com/
The site said I should expect the book in 3 -4 business days. Surprise, surprise. I received it in 2 days on a Saturday. And the package was really well packed. In a plastic, bubble wrap and a cardboard box. The e-mails were all also on cue. After ordering, after shipping, tracking number ...
All of this happened in the last 2 weeks. And in just the last week, I have already ordered 5 books, and have experienced the exact awesome service every time.I think Flipkart has what it takes. And is on its way to becoming the Indian Amazon. Yet another instance of, you don't have to be the first, just very good at what you do.
You can read more about the Flipkart story at:
http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/the-making-of-flipkart-story
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