The Online Shopping fiesta that makes a family go crazy

I don’t know if you have noticed but the frequency of doorbell ringing has increased several times these days. Every time a family member rushes to open the door a courier guy is standing from one of the online shopping companies waiting to deliver a parcel. In our childhood days there used to be only a postman who would probably come once to our house to drop a letter and that also in a non-intrusive manner in a letterbox. Getting a parcel wrapped in cotton cloth with a waxed post-office seal was rare.

Times have changed and a lot of online shopping companies have mushroomed across the country. Some sell groceries while some sell cosmetics. There are e-commerce companies that have made our life much easier. You can order your daily grocery, bread, butter, eggs that get delivered to the doorstep the next very morning. On the other hand, we have online shopping companies that make you indulge in shopping and people end up buying more than what they need.

Every member of the family has a different shopping requirement. Mom shops for groceries in the morning hours but during her free time, she surfs for a nice saree or a handbag. The daughter believes in surfing for cosmetics and the latest outfit. The son is checking out the latest iPhone -13 model and if it is available on EMI’s. Dad is busy exploring the latest model of a bicycle as cycling is a part of his New Year’s resolution.

Online shopping has made mom’s life much easier

The pandemic and the lockdown have been a big challenge for every housewife. Thanks to the online shopping apps, things have become much easier for every mom at home. She could now order fresh vegetables and her daily grocery requirement with a single click on the app. The days of a missing rajma or chole or chai ki patti are over. The moms of yesterday who were not so comfortable with technology now can be seen placing an order on the app and paying through UPI.

Some companies are promising delivery in 10 minutes. On the other hand, there are companies where you can order your daily bread, butter, eggs, milk, etc. by 11 pm to be delivered early morning the next day. My spouse finds this company very useful as she can place a late-night order for a missing item from the kitchen shelf.

But the problem starts with a late-night order. After placing the order my spouse decides to do a little bit of surfing on social media. After all, this is the best time to surf a little. The husband is sleeping and the rest of the family members have also retired for the day. Suddenly she is flooded with pictures of the latest handbags, western tops, trousers, and stilettoes that she had checked a day earlier on a couple of e-commerce platforms. The irresistible pictures of her favorite item make her hook to the phone past midnight.

The next day morning she was sleeping way past her regular get-up time. In days of omicron, I checked with her if she was feeling ok and she replied that she slept late as the online shopping mania kept her awake.

When delivery by an online shopping goes wrong

Mom had placed an order for bread and eggs. 3 eggs out of a dozen are broken. All hell breaks loose. The entire family is summoned. The son takes pictures of the broken eggs. The daughter uploads the picture on the online shopping app along with a complaint. But mom’s soul is still not at peace. She gets busy in the kitchen with her daily chores throwing around her tantrums. The husband who is reading his daily newspaper with a cup of tea is immune to the entire commotion. Within an hour the customer service team of the online shopping app reverts. The money for the broken eggs is credited into the account. A similar story unfolds when a particular item goes missing from the ordered list.

This is the smartness of an Indian housewife who will not tolerate any wastage and let a penny go to waste. I think the corporates have to learn this art when it comes to saving costs by reducing wastage.

The daughter’s shenanigans with the online shopping app

One of the reasons, why the online shopping companies are still in red is that the cost of delivery followed by a return pick-up is high, especially in a certain category of goods. This increases the logistic cost of the online shopping companies. Part of the blame can be attributed to the youngsters.

My daughter like all girls is fond of cosmetics, clothing, footwear. She spends a considerable amount of time surfing and checking the latest styles. The best part is that all these online shopping portals somehow are tracking your buying habits. The moment you surf a particular site, your social media site will be flooded with pictures of the latest designs. The most tempting bait is the discount sales that catch the attention of my daughter and most of the time she falls for the trap.

A couple of days after placing the order the doorbell rings at least 3-4 times a day. Surprisingly every family member except my daughter opens the door to receive the courier packet. My son who is the youngest in the family ends up receiving most of the packets and this irks him a lot.

The daughter is extremely pleased to receive all the orders and soon begins the trial round. The success ratio of all the dresses getting approved is only 60%. It means out of 5 pieces that she ordered 2 will get exchanged. And there goes the profitability of the online shopping companies. The next day the doorbell rings again and this time the pick-up guy has turned up to collect the return.

The food delivery guys running around to satisfy the hunger pangs

If you step out of your house during lunch or dinner time you will see the food-delivery guys wearing red or orange-colored, branded t-shirts running all around in the neighbourhood. Some are on a two-wheeler while some are on bicycles carrying a huge thermal storage box on their carrier. The online ordering of food has now become part and parcel of our life, especially since lockdowns.

The biggest challenge that a family faces while ordering food online is what kind of food to have? Chinese, Mughlai, Continental, Fast-food, South Indian – the options are galore. But it is here the problem starts. The more the option the more the confusion. Getting a consensus on what to have is as difficult as getting a consensus amongst the western countries on how to tackle Russia.

The menu creates a chaos

The son is keen on tacos while the daughter loves the hakka noodles with chili-chicken. Dad loves his tandoori roti and butter chicken. It’s only mom who is compatible with all and mostly sides with the youngest one. It takes an hour to decide what to have? The family settles for Chinese and here begins the second round of hurdles i.e., deciding the menu. Ultimately going by the restaurant’s specialty the order is placed on the online shopping app.

But the going is not always smooth. Once in a while, the restaurant misses a particular dish and the entire family gets busy trying to retrieve the missing item either by calling the restaurant or speaking to the customer service team. Once the refund confirmation arrives, the family settles down to enjoy the meal minus the missing dish.

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