I feel store purchase is a much better option. Though it might cost you a little more you will be able to properly check the product instead of ending up buying one with a defect.

Online shopping is a better & smart choice, however we can see the product in showroom first, experience it & then buy online! That would be the best way to buy one. Online cost is less as there is no storage cost which is included in selling price.

Buying online saves time and money but there is always the risk of buying products which are different from what you ordered.  But many online stores maintain the return policy. 

But with store purchase, one can always check the products personally before buying them

It depends on to what extent you can trust a retailer, be it online or local offline shop. For me personally., my experience buying such stuff online than a local shop has been more positive and so for the last two years I have bought most stuff online from amazon including a very expensive camera. When you decide to buy online, make sure you stick to a reputable, reliable website and do some research about the price. Also stay away from retailers who offer seemingly extremely low prices than normal because they are the ones who can dupe you.

I prefer online especially the gadgets like phones, tablets, storage devices and cards as they offer good deals and provide proper guarantee. Now they have even started buy back and no question asked replacement schemes in warranty/guarantee period.   

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

It depends on to what extent you can trust a retailer, be it online or local offline shop. For me personally., my experience buying such stuff online than a local shop has been more positive and so for the last two years I have bought most stuff online from amazon including a very expensive camera. When you decide to buy online, make sure you stick to a reputable, reliable website and do some research about the price. Also stay away from retailers who offer seemingly extremely low prices than normal because they are the ones who can dupe you.

Sometimes even the reputable websites can make mistake. Once I had order a green kurta from Myntra and they sent me orange coloured with same print. But since it was lovely i didn't return it back. I had a similar experience at Amazon. Apart from these ones, my other online shopping experience had been quite positive so far.

jabeen wrote:

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

It depends on to what extent you can trust a retailer, be it online or local offline shop. For me personally., my experience buying such stuff online than a local shop has been more positive and so for the last two years I have bought most stuff online from amazon including a very expensive camera. When you decide to buy online, make sure you stick to a reputable, reliable website and do some research about the price. Also stay away from retailers who offer seemingly extremely low prices than normal because they are the ones who can dupe you.

Sometimes even the reputable websites can make mistake. Once I had order a green kurta from Myntra and they sent me orange coloured with same print. But since it was lovely i didn't return it back. I had a similar experience at Amazon. Apart from these ones, my other online shopping experience had been quite positive so far.

Yes Jabeen, some times such things are bound to happen. I was also sent a bag in wrong colour once from Amazon, but the returns policy was quite good so the bag was picked up from home the very next day and the money reimbursed immediately. Since the people working in such reputed retailers are humans, errors are bound to happen occasionally, but at least the customer service is far better and the customer getting duped is a rare incident. But I have read about customers getting blocks of bricks in place of expensive phones from sites like shopclues, snapdeal etc.

I agree with you as I got one wrong colored bag from Flipkart only day before yesterday and sent it back. I got all my money back in my account without deducting  single rupee in any account. I have no complaints so far from any of the sites I am dealing with.

It is important to see the review rating of the seller before buying, but generally Amazon, flipkart are very reliable. We should avoid any unknown sites to avoid loss of money. Also it is better to prefer cash on delivery in unknown sites or otherwise purchase from known websites only. Incase of low price attraction think whether such a huge discount can be offered at all? I think these small things help a lot. I have trouble in purchasing Shoes, Clothes from online as I am confused how to select the right size. I dont prefer things that have size & need to fit to me at all. Till now I haven't purchased any like Watch, Shoes, Clothes from online.