Seven tips to make the most of pre-Diwali online sales

Nazim Khanmoneycontrol.comJust like Black Friday (following Thanksgiving) has turned into an event that unofficially kickstarts the Christmas shopping season in the US, the week prior to Dussehra here in India is fast developing into one that heralds the start of Diwali festive sales season.

Following from last year, most ecommerce website led by top firms Flipkart/Myntra (Big Billion Days -- October 13-17), Amazon (The Great Indian Festive Sale -- October 13-17) and Snapdeal (one-day electronics sale today) are launching flash sales this week. If last year is anything to go, one can expect e-tailers to go all out in terms of offering the most sizzling deals.

Here then are seven tips that will help you make the most of the flash sales.

Download the app

E-tailers are using the festive sales season to push their apps in a big way. So while Flipkart and Myntra's Big Billion Days sale will be held exclusively on the mobile app, Amazon is holding the last two days of its sale only on the app and will offer a 15-minute headstart to app users over website users on any deal. In such a case, it makes sense to download apps of at least the big players if you haven't already.

Prepare the wishlist

A lot of the deals that websites offer may be of blink-and-you-miss nature. To prepare for such a scenario, it is prudent that you prepare a wish-list of the products that you want the most. Most websites offer an option that allows customers to short-list products add them to a wish-list-like feature. Use it.

Install the extension

Both Chrome and Firefox browsers allow for installation of third-party extensions that offer specific features offered by the developer. Extensions developed by BuyHatke and CompareRaja allow users to compare prices of products across websites. A nifty feature of the BuyHatke exension creates a visual graphic, on the product page, of how its prices have ranged recently. That way, you will know if the website has jacked up its MRP only to offer a discount later.

Select your cards and save the details

Many websites offer card-specific cashbacks that will likely be advertised on both the homepage as well as product pages. Use those cards if you have them (but pay attention if any of the offers have an upper cashback limit). It also makes sense to utilize a feature that some websites have where you can save your card details beforehand. This will help you quickly process payments, entering only the password on the payments page.

Take the cashback

There are several websites such as GoPaisa and CashKaro, among others, that offer cashback with respect to particular sites over and above what the latter may offer. The process works like this: you sign up on the cashback website (GoPaisa or CashKaro) where the percentage amount of cashback for each e-tailer will be mentioned and save your bank details.

From the cashback website, you click a button that will take you to your desired website where you make your purchase as you would normally do. Since the cashback site referred you to the e-tailer's site, the former typically gets a referral bonus from the latter, part of which will be credited to your bank account after a few days.

Take the no-limit cashback

This is similar to the feature mentioned above, except that sites such as BuyHatke or online shopping community DesiDime run large cashback schemes (typically 12-15 percent of product value) from time to time where the cashback amount has no upper limit (thus, a 15 percent cashback on a Rs 50,000 product will amount to a Rs 7,500 discount). In this case, you will have to enter a specific coupon provided by the site while making a purchase and provide your purchase and bank details to the service offering the cashback option. They will then refund the amount after a specified period (usually 30-45 days).

Track the community

Despite making all efforts, you may miss the best steal deals that are being offered across websites. To prevent this, make it a habit to frequent online communities such as DesiDime, IndiaFreeStuff or FreeKaaMaal where online-shopping enthusiasts post the best deals they have come across (the most liked deal makes it to the top of the page).

Note: While this writer has tried out most of the services mentioned in the article, we cannot vouch for their success or say an online buyer will not have an adverse experience. Happy shopping.