The concept of online shopping has revolutionized the way how market trades and shopping were happened before. Around 2.14 Billion humans on the earth will shop online, which is a huge 27.2% of the world’s population and this is enormous growth from 1.35 Billion human shopping online in 2015.

The trend of online shopping in Pakistan has increased massively in the recent years. In the year 2020, 19% of the Pakistani population bought at least one thing online. With an experience of seven plus years, I am here to provide you an ultimate guide online how you can shop online in Pakistan without being looted.

Let’s dive in.

Guide to online shopping in Pakistan

For a safe and secure shopping experience, you should keep following things in mind before placing the order and after receiving the products:

• Website Reliability
• Product Details
• Product Reviews
• Seller Rating
• Return Policy
• Compare Prices
• Shipping Cost
• Scams and Frauds

Website Reliability

Before placing on order on any platform, you should make sure the website you are placing order on is authentic or not. You should always check the online reviews for the website on which you are going to place your first order. It is always recommended shopping on reputable websites. Always make sure that you are not on a clone website, for that you should always check the lock icon in the browser window.

A list of the trusted websites is provided below, which you should check if you are planning for online shopping. You can also purchase from the official retailers of brands that are selling. While buying from Facebook or Instagram, you should always check the reviews and recommendations of the buyers who had already purchased the product from that particular seller.

Product Details

After choosing the right platform, you can search the product on that website or app. After selecting the product that you want, you should read the product details and description thoroughly. Always check the expiry date of the product, if the product you are ordering tends to expire.

You should always read the product ingredients if you are ordering something eatable so that you can figure out if some ingredient is present in the product that you do not like. Similarly, you can get information about the quality of the material used in the production of that product. For instance, if you are ordering some clothing item, make sure that the quality of the fabric is the same as you want.

Product Reviews

After sorting out the products of your interest and reading the details of the product, you should always head over to the review section of the website. In the review section, you will get an idea of whether the quality of the product is the same as the seller described or the seller is displaying the wrong description and trying to scam the people.

If the reviews of the products contradict the product description, you should leave that product and check some other seller is offering the same product. If yes, then you should read the description and the reviews of the product to get check if the listed product is legit or not.

Seller Rating

Some websites allow multiple sellers to list their products and sell them to the buyers who are looking for that products. On such websites, you should always check the ratings of the individual users who are selling their products. You should always place an order if the seller has at least 70% or more positive feedback from the users who purchased their products.

If the seller rating is less than 70%, then chances are the seller is selling either low-quality or fake products to their customers. Always pay special attention to the reviews of these sellers, and always give preference to the reviews that include images. Sometimes the seller places fake orders for their own products and then leaves fake reviews.

Return Policy

The most important thing to keep in mind while doing online shopping is to check the return policy of the marketplace as well as the individual sellers. The return policy of the marketplace indicates under which circumstances you can return the product, and sometimes the seller also determines if the product is returnable or not.

Some online shopping platforms allow the users to change the product if their mind changes after receiving the product, while some websites do not allow returns due to a change of mind. So it can be very helpful to read the return policy or at least to check about returns on the product page.

Compare Prices

One of the most important perks of Online shopping is that you can compare the prices of the products you are interested in. Price comparison is something that boosted this method of shopping above the ground. Millions of the products are just a click away.

If you are on a website that allows multiple sellers to list their products online, like Daraz, you can always compare the prices by simply searching the product in the search bar. After searching the product, you will see a larger number of sellers selling the same thing at different prices. You can select the product according to your budget by following the steps mentioned above.

Shipping Charges

The thing that can make your online shopping good and worst is the shipping charges for the product that you are going to purchase. Sometimes paying charges worth and some the shipping charges are just waste of money. If you are purchasing some product of price Rs. 50, paying a shipping charges of Rs. 250 is worthless. So always make sure that you check the cost of shipping while selecting the product.

Some websites offer free shipping and some charges to deliver their products to their customer. If you are planning to do clothes online shopping then chances are that you can get a free shipping from the brand’s website if they are offering. Most of the brands and websites offer free shipping during the sales season.

Scams and Frauds in Online Shopping in Pakistan

While the entire ecosystem of Online Shopping has changed the approach of the people for shopping their day to day essentials, changed their shopping behavior forever and took the comfort to another level. At the same time, chances for scams and frauds have increased. These scams happened due to unawareness of the buyers purchasing products online.

But don’t worry, if you read our entire guide for online shopping, then you will be able to shop online safely without being a victim of scam or online fraud. But we have few other suggestions for you so that you can have good experience of your first purchase online.

• Always shop on reputable sites
• Avoid ordering on the sites that have no return policy
• Avoid ordering from local Facebook sellers as most of the time they will scam you
• If you are ordering something online first time, always choose Cash on delivery
• Always avoid OLX, if you are a beginner as you may be scammed there
• Always make a video of unboxing the product, so that if anything goes wrong you have a video as an evidence.
• Never ever purchase Mobiles and other expensive products from a person or website that is not trusted
• choose one of the trusted platform that we have tried and tested for you, a list is given below

Best Sites for Online Shopping in Pakistan (Tried and tested)

We have tried and test the most reliable website to shop online in Pakistan, so you do not have to worry about the frauds that happens to almost every single who starts the journey of online shopping. We have gathered a list of 4 most secure and best websites that are 100% safe and secure, from where you can kick start the drive of your online shopping.

• Daraz.pk
• Telemart.pk
• homeshopping.pk
• saamaan.pk

Daraz

Daraz is giant of ecommerce for online shopping in Pakistan. It is the most advanced platform with the best support and policies. Daraz has easy return policy, so you can purchase the products that you want without fear of any fraud.

You should always follow the above guidelines so that you can have a safe experience of your online shopping, But if any seller sends you the wrong product, you can always return with their easy return policy. Daraz also offer free shipping in the campaigns and also offer discounts on prepayment.

Telemart

The second best platform to shop online in Pakistan is none other than telemart. They also have huge product range like daraz. They have a process of delivery where they first receive products from the seller, verify that the product the seller is sending is the same as he displayed on their platform. Furthermore, they also offer easy returns for the products.

HomeShopping.pk

Homeshopping.pk is also a reliable platform that you can trust. If you do not find your product on Daraz, you can also have a look on this site.

Saamaan.pk

When it comes to tech products and gadgets, saamaan.pk is a definitive store to check out. They offer tech products at a reasonable price with easy returns. They recommend to record video while opening the parcel. If any mishap happens and you did not record the video, you can be in trouble, so be aware!

So which platform you will choose to place your first order online? We, at Modernage answer each and every question asked in the comments, so If you have any queries, or you want to know about any specific platform you can ask in the comments below.