Is Buying Branded Products directly from their Official Website, Cost-effective and Reliable?

When you decide to shop online, a question may arise in your mind that should I buy from the official site or from online marketplace sites, for reasons like trustworthiness and savings. Well, if you want to buy branded products online, these are the possible two options:

1. Buy from the brand’s official website.
2. Buy from online marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Tata Cliq, etc.

Firstly, compare the cost of the product on the official site and on marketplaces. Here, cost means after deducting all the discount and/or cashback amount i.e. finally how much you will pay after savings. If the cost on the official site is lower or fractionally higher then without any doubt, you should buy from there itself, but if vice-versa then you need to explore something more and go for marketplaces.

1. Whether the product is taken care of by Amazon, Flipkart, etc or not?: On the product page if you find “Fulfilled by Amazon” means that the product is stored at Amazon’s warehouse and the entire shipping process will be carried out by Amazon. This means that the product has gone through Amazon’s quality checks so you are assured of a genuine and new product. Similarly, for Flipkart it is “Flipkart Assured”.
2. Check the Users Ratings & Reviews: On the product page you will find ratings & reviews of people who have bought and used the product which you are willing to buy. They also post product images which help in checking the original look. If the average rating is above 4 star and user count is high, you can say that the seller is genuine and trustworthy. Flipkart, Amazon, etc does not allow fake/biased reviews and ratings so you don’t need to worry about that. Moreover, you can see “Verified Purchase” written beside the user’s name in Amazon which means that Amazon has done quality checks on this user.
3. Check the Seller: You need to check the seller which can determine the quality of product that you will receive. If the seller is the brand or marketplace itself then no need to worry. For others, you need to check the seller ratings. If the seller is on the marketplace for a long time and has more than 3.5 stars of average rating from many users then it's safe. For instance, Cloudtail India is one of the best sellers on Amazon with over 1.8M+ user ratings.
4. Other Advantages: When you buy a “Flipkart assured” or “fulfilled by Amazon” product, the return policy is good i.e. you will have enough days to return(if required), the delivery process is executed by Amazon itself so you get safe & faster shipping, and Amazon provides the complete customer support for the product.

1. Authenticity: Brands will never want to let down their own name so will always deliver genuine and seal packed products.
2. Reliability: If you find some issue with the product, you can directly contact the brand instead of going via 3rd parties.
3. Promotional Offers: Brand sites provide great discounts and/or cashback since it helps in growing their own site and saves their money from commission to retailers.
4. Exact Warranty: We found a branded product on Shopclues which gave 6 months warranty while on its official website it said 1 yr warranty.
5. Shop More Save More: Brands have loyalty programs where they offer good discounts, freebies, giveaways, and gift cards frequently so that you don’t leave them.
6. New User Coupons: Brands welcome their new customers with good discounts so getting a new user coupon from DesiDime is easy and gives you great rewards.
7. Clearance Sale: Many brands have a store clearance sale where products are liquidated at better discounts. You can visit DesiDime for updates regarding this.
8. New Products: You will find exclusive and new products at the brand's site. Also, if you are an existing customer of the brand you can save big on new products via the new user coupons.

It is possible that more people will shop from the brand’s official sites in the years to come, but it is a huge task for brands to satisfy their customers from all angles. The below table includes some brand sites and online marketplace sites which are competing in terms of offers, discounts, and quality.

You can try the Deal Alert feature of DesiDime to get your required fresh deal directly in your inbox from official stores as well as marketplaces. You need to input product keywords and the store names. Whenever your deal arrives, it is sent to you via email, sms, or app notification. For instance, if you want to buy a Boat bluetooth headset, you need to input keywords like boat bluetooth earphone, boat wireless earphone, boat bluetooth headset, etc. In store names, you need to select Boat(official website), Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, etc. That’s it. Now, when a deal saying “Boat wireless bluetooth headphones at just 899” arrives, you can check the stores and grab the deal accordingly.

Buy directly from the brand's site or from marketplaces, DesiDime has deals and coupons for every source so that you keep saving every time. What do you prefer? Do share your views via the comments box below.