Netting deals

The onslaught of daily discount websites poses a grave threat to your weak willpower, writes Divyanshu Dutta Roy

In the last two months, I have gone from a normal young guy to the male equivalent of Rebecca Bloomwood from Confessions of a Shopaholic. Why? Because suddenly I have discovered the Dubai Airport of online shopping.

Even in India, daily deals and group shopping websites are not exactly just off the boat. They have been here, offering discounts on things (with an annoying bias towards spa, beautification and grooming packages) and hoping to grow up to be as big as Groupon for some time now.

But I was among the herd who had never really used one. Reasons irrelevant, I just hadn’t — like millions of my digital distrust-bearing countrymen. But then, I did one day. Predictably, it was a 50 per cent off coupon for a food joint. A momo parlour to be precise.

It was on SnapDeal.com, among the few websites, who were showing commercials on TV thus proving their legitimacy, so for the fifth time that day, I thought ‘what the heck, I am hungry’. And I bought the coupon, got the SMS, showed it the guy at the momo shop, and slept happy that night. And since that day, the newest activity to tag along on my list of important morning activities are to scan these sites — some seven of them — to see if there’s something other than massages, facials and full body checkups.

And about five times a week, I find myself being redirected to my bank’s e-banking website, grimacing at the depleting balance, pledging to control myself tomorrow, and then either heading out to some place to eat or checking shipment details on my latest gadget acquisition.

There are at least more than 20 legit daily deals websites operating in India. But then again, not all of them offer something that would remotely interest everyday people. So I have shortlisted about seven, and here they are:

It is probably the largest daily deals website in India, with more than five million users every month. They operate in a lot of cities and are the main culprits behind my clothes getting tighter.

Now owned by Groupon, the world’s largest group buying website, SoSasta poses handsome competition to SnapDeal.

Backed by one of the most deep-rooted online players in India, Rediff Deal Ho Jaye operates in a large number of cities, has one of the nicest sites among the herd and works well.

This site offers discount coupons from other websites, and several brands and retailers.

Besides this, sites like Taggle.com, Mydala.com, Dealsandyou.com offer discounts on everything from phones to English speaking classes. — IBNS