Chiconomical

As you all know from my lack of new posts, I haven’t had the time to blog lately (well, even breathe on some days, but more on that later!). However, when I came across BlogAdda’s new #ShopQuikr campaign, I thought it was just the thing I needed to give myself a few new goodies and give myself the kick on the behind I needed to start that blogging thing again. So I signed up, and a couple of days later I got the brilliant “You’ve been shortlisted mail.” A quick round of questions later (I signed up rather late so was wondering if it was over already), I was all set to start shopping.

Online shopping has always been a bit of hit and miss for me. When I told my friend I was going to shop on Quikr, well, the reaction I got was NOT encouraging. “That second-hand junk site? Why don’t you just go shop on some reputed online store” and also variants, “Quikr’s a scam girl!”. Yes, sure, that’s a great way to inspire me. Oh well, inspite of the reservations I had, I decided to jump right in on the same day.

So what’s Quikr? In their own words, Quikr is India’s no.1 online classifieds platform, a place where people can connect with each other to buy or sell goods and services. Launched in 2008 with the vision for buyers and sellers to “meet online, transact offline”, they now have over 4.2 million listings! (Phew! I’m going to have to troll through a MILLION listings?!?) Headquartered in Mumbai, Quikr operates from 940 cities across India and is accessed by more than 30 million unique users and 26 million brand new customers per month. They have over 13 categories and 170 sub-categories, with the most popular being mobile phones and electronics, real estate, cars and bikes. Well, these specs were definitely helpful in buiding up my (quite low) confidence about shopping here. Read the entire description right from the horse’s mouth here.

Right. Down to my experience now.  For all the people out there, let me tell you about the interface you come across when you logon to Quikr. First off, you’re asked if you want to view the new Quikr ad with the cute sofa saying “Buyer and Seller ka Perfect Matchmaker” (I skipped straight to the site coz I was excited to start shopping!) and then select your city. After this, it shows you all its major list headings and the world’s your oyster, well, the world of sellers and buyers anyway.

This was the first page landed on in my epic shopping trip!

Somehow I knew I wanted to buy myself a pair of heels or a bag and I started looking through the Fashion Accessories section right away. I don’t have a lot of faith in dealers selling things online (I feel there’s a higher possibility of scam) so I checked the “Individual seller” filter. However, a lot of dealers don't follow the rules and post using this individual buyers adspace aswell. After scrolling through endless ads about “genuine” leather boots, and genuine forever 21 heels (erm, they DO NOT cost 6k people!) and so on, I came across an ad for Aldo wedges in good condition, in my size!! I jumped with joy and found another listing by the same seller for a pair of Kenneth Cole heels too. However, by this time, it was about 1.30 in the night so I decided to wait till morning to text and speak to the seller. BIG MISTAKE! The next morning, the listing was gone and my awesome outfit dreams featuring all of them broke into little pieces! LESSON 1: Don’t wait to talk to the seller if you really want something! It might disappear by the time you get around to speaking to them!!

With my imaginary outfits at my feet, I decided to go find myself some new clothes. A girl can never have too many clothes right? So off I went to the Home and Lifestyle-Clothing Garments page. Well, turns out, searching for clothes I like on Quikr is like getting into the Virar Train and finding breathing space. (Sorry for the very Mumbai reference folks!). I trolled through about 40+ pages of “Zara Salwar Suits”, “Hot Imported Sarees”, “New Trendy Kurtis” and so on (I will find something was my mantra here), till I came across a simple ad saying someone was having a major wardrobe cleanse. I immediately send this person a text and turns out, it was a genuine seller (Just a girl looks for new reasons to shop you know :P). I asked her if anything was available and she promptly sent me a few pictures of the stuff she was selling. It looked a little big in the pictures so I asked her for her dress size and Hallelujah! She was the same size as me. I instantly loved the sunglasses she was selling and decided to buy all of them (well, one of them was immediately claimed by my friend), alongwith a clutch. My clutch is in shambles but I simply haven’t found a new one to replace it in my price range. I also asked her when I could meet her to collect the items. We decided on a common place and time for the next day. A quick ride after Uni to the place in Bandra (she works there), and I was the proud owner of three new pair of shades, a clutch, three tops and a jumpsuit. All for 1600! The girl I met was a really sweet and told me she might be selling more things once she clears another section of her closet. Ohh be still my beating heart! I told her I’d be really interested in buying other things (she does have fabulous taste!) if she manages to send me pictures by the weekend.

Next I realized it would be cool to use this opportunity to own a few Game of Thrones books (Home and Lifestyle – Books and Magazines to the rescue!). I’ve been dragged out of about 3 stores by my dear friend in the last few months as he was tasked with keeping me from spending money and I kept lusting after the Game of thrones Box Set. A quick search on Quikr gave me a Game of Thrones Box Set listing for 1000! Oh, I was dancing again, except in my head this time (ahem, public place, ahem). I called the lady selling it, and she crushed all the dancing fairies in my head by telling me its already sold out. Damn! Unlucky again. LESSON 2: Things listed may not always be available as the seller may not have gotten around to taking off the listing just yet.

This is the point where I had a friend recommend I get myself earphones as I needed those. Within the next few minutes, I was online again, looking through listings of earphones and came across an unopened apple earphones set. Bingo! Well, I asked a friend to speak to the guy (I’m usually extremely awkward on the phone) and a place was set for buying them. New, unused earphones for 1500. My friend met the person selling these, and guess what, they were boxed and in mint condition! Yes, I was feeling rather happy.

My brand new bargain pair of apple earphones! Oh yea! It was unused, unopened, UNbelievable!!

This left 1900 to go, and I asked a good friend if he wanted anything. Since he was nice enough to lend me his earphones the last time I needed them, I figured it was only fair I buy him some new ones since he lost his old ones(ahem, it wasn't me, ahem). So again we went about (a quick search using their search panel and I landed here), looking for a pair of earphones for him. After finding a fabulous unused pair that we liked, (sadly it was sold about a day ago) being disappointed (I think this was my fourth time or so hearing the “its sold out” reply) my friend finally had the bright idea to search for accessories for my phone. A few hundred ads selling Redmi 1s (that's the phone he uses FYI) for exorbitant prices later, jackpot! We found a packed pair of unused headphones. This person was selling close to where I stay, so we set up a time for the exchange. However, there was a bit of a mix-up and I was unable to collect the headphones that day. The next day, after a crazy long day at Uni which ended after about 14 hours, I met the seller at a railway station on my way home, and got them! Yay! He was a really sweet guy who did NOT complain about me changing the time on him about 4 times in the day. 

The new earphones I bought for my friend! He is featured in the pictures below with my (his) new sunglasses!

Me posing proudly with both the headphones! :P

Finally I had 700 left and by this time I was despairing as I couldn't find anything that fit the budget that liked too. Well, turns out God of shopping decided I’d had enough misses on Quikr and the girl who was clearing her wardrobe sent me new pictures! Well, another quick trip to meet her later, I’d spent ALL of my balance money, on some more tops! (She's still selling people! You can see her ad on Quikr here). Yes, this could be the fashion blogger in me being totally mental, but that really is how simple it was to get half a dozen new clothes courtesy Quikr!! Some of these do need to to be altered, but all of them are in good condition. Now, onto the pictures of me and all my new buys!

All of these were bought on the my second buying trip from the first seller, but as they need to be altered so I couldn't post proper outfit pictures! So on the bed pictures it is!

Onto the stuff that did fit me though, here's a look at how I've already put a lot of my new buys to good use!

The new shirt I got! A girl can never have too many chambray shirts!

Again the two earphones, PS: I'm wearing a jumpsuit I bought from the first seller! Its absolutely gorgeous!

A pair of cateye sunnies! And this new jumpsuit is fast becoming a favorite!

And another pair of sunnies. With my new clutch too! Can you see how happy I am?!

The many moods of my boy when he takes selfies for the blog so I can show the new sunglasses here! (Also bought from the first seller)

And finally, two of my new tops, the one I'm holding needs to be altered just like the ones before, but its such a gorgeous print, I didn't think a "on the bed" picture did it justice!

Overall, I had a fairly good experience while shopping here. I would definitely recommend having a look on Quikr before you go on to buy something next time. Its worth the time spent going through their various listing when you find something you like(At a bargain price if you're lucky!). All the items I purchased were checked before buying. Most of the co-ordination happened via texts or phonecalls and the actual buying was surprisingly simple. I love how I got a bargain deal without using a middleman or a shopkeeper. It really felt like I was street shopping online, except I did most of it hanging around in my PJs and over the phone. All I can say is, it really is true that Quikr is “Buyer and Seller ka Perfect Matchmaker!”

TIPS WHILE SHOPPING ON QUIKR