With a full day job @ office and being a mommy keeps me on my toes 24/7. Shortage of time has led me to be an avid fan of optimal usage of resources. Since I live in the IT capital of India, work in an IT company and married to an internet junkie, I have always been familiar with internet shopping. However being the lazy bum I am, and having a full time accomplice who takes care of mundane and important things like bill payment, grocery, banking, etc, I never bothered myself with internet shopping. I could definitely see the convenience and time saved when loads of groceries used to arrive at the doorstep, or when stuff for my darling daughter used to be delivered from time to time, courtesy Mr. H's online shopping spree. In my opinion, packaged things which do not require stuff to be "experienced" or "felt" were the right things to be bought online. For everything else, while I was aware there were multiple options available, I was not sure if it made sense to buy online. So even for urgent shopping I would make time-consuming trips to the mall.
To Mr. H dismay, my online endeavors were primarily restricted to social media excursions and my venture in writing (this blog). So when I got an invite from Jabong to do a site review, I was pleasantly surprised. And I said to myself, why not! I conveyed back to them that my review will purely be based on my experience which was never a problem for Jabong!
Also, Mr. H did have a previous experience with Jabong in their infancy days which was certainly an interesting one (what he bought could not be delivered, but Jabong compensated for that very well with Jabong coupon code and an apology gift - but that story is for some other day).
Anyways, so name Jabong was not unfamiliar to me with this previous experience and their catchy ads. So here was the first step in the process staring at me -
"What to buy"
When I accepted the review request, I thought I would pick a piece of clothing randomly and see how it goes. With this intent when I visited Jabong, boy I was in for a surprise. Jabong homepage is unassuming. Simple menu navigation with well defined categories, but without all that jazz which will dazzle your eyes. While my intent was to look for a top for myself, I could not resist every women's temptation to have a glance at their shoe collection. :)
"Navigation"
Good sub-menus made it easy to navigate and I liked their feature of saving items (which works even without logging). The perpetual scroll which avoids having to click on page links was also a good experience. What I particularly liked was how the site was organized in helping the user pick a thing s/he likes.
"Offerings"
After a good amount of time spent in lusting over many shoes, an amused Mr. H brought me back to senses by asking if I decided what to buy. Well I said, yes and no. Yes that I liked many options, but no, my shoe browsing had made me thirsty to explore other offerings - apparel, jewellery and accessories.
"Performance"
Next hour was spent in browsing, filtering and checking their cloths collection. I liked that product page had category bread crumbs to help me jump back to any parent category. The reviews, size chart, shipping info - all were in the right place. However, I felt that they still needed to improve their video buffering and availability of video for all the products. I like the idea, but video was slow to load and was not available on all products. Further, it launched at full volume which was not good as I was browsing while my daughter was sleeping in the same room! I tried 2 videos, both did not run properly the first time. Also I felt that site was more responsive when I was scrolling down to see more products, but the individual product page was relatively slow to load.
Realizing (like he always does) that I will not be able to make up my mind, Mr H suggested me why don't I buy something for our daughter. I instantly jumped at the idea and decided to buy a top or two for her. He also suggested me to choose few daily wear items rather than 1 costly dress as it will be easier to compare with other similar stuff we buy from other stores.
"Shopping"
So here I went to kids clothing category. With easy navigation and handy sorting feature, I was able to pick few items. I showed them to Mr. H and we made our final choices. Stock alert that one of our item was low on stock with only 1 piece helped us to choose rather quickly :) Adding to cart was super easy. What I liked even more that I was not required to create an account to place the order. Standard address and payment steps put me through no surprise and my order was placed.
"Wait"
I ordered late in the night, and can you beat it - the order was shipped by morning! It arrived in due time with nice packaging. Here is the pic of packet -
And here are the items we ordered.
Exactly as in the online catalog! Needless to say, I loved these and cannot wait to try them on my daughter.
"Notifications"
I must admire the professional way Jabong notifies its customers via emails as well as SMS. I liked instant SMS confirmation for my order. They even sent me an email after the delivery for any question or feedback I had.
"Summary"
I liked my overall experience of shopping at Jabong. They have vast collection of various items and anyone can find something or the other which they would like. It offers more variety than visiting a mall, all in the comfort of home. Added convenience of prompt delivery and benefits like reward points and coupons make the overall experience fulfilling. While I think they should make their site more responsive and some performance especially around video playback can be improved, still their choice of simple layout and menu is good aid in navigation. Navigation assists in your moving around, without being in the way. And yes, now I think you can buy everything including apparel and shoes too online!
Since I am posting this on Father's Day, it is appropriate that I do mention about their Father's Day Gifts collection. Watches, apparel, bags, sun-glasses, perfumes, wallets - these are just some of the vast collection on sale for Father's Day!
I guess I will definitely come back to Jabong for my next online shopping spree, how about you!
To Mr. H dismay, my online endeavors were primarily restricted to social media excursions and my venture in writing (this blog). So when I got an invite from Jabong to do a site review, I was pleasantly surprised. And I said to myself, why not! I conveyed back to them that my review will purely be based on my experience which was never a problem for Jabong!
Also, Mr. H did have a previous experience with Jabong in their infancy days which was certainly an interesting one (what he bought could not be delivered, but Jabong compensated for that very well with Jabong coupon code and an apology gift - but that story is for some other day).
Anyways, so name Jabong was not unfamiliar to me with this previous experience and their catchy ads. So here was the first step in the process staring at me -
"What to buy"
When I accepted the review request, I thought I would pick a piece of clothing randomly and see how it goes. With this intent when I visited Jabong, boy I was in for a surprise. Jabong homepage is unassuming. Simple menu navigation with well defined categories, but without all that jazz which will dazzle your eyes. While my intent was to look for a top for myself, I could not resist every women's temptation to have a glance at their shoe collection. :)
"Navigation"
Good sub-menus made it easy to navigate and I liked their feature of saving items (which works even without logging). The perpetual scroll which avoids having to click on page links was also a good experience. What I particularly liked was how the site was organized in helping the user pick a thing s/he likes.
"Offerings"
After a good amount of time spent in lusting over many shoes, an amused Mr. H brought me back to senses by asking if I decided what to buy. Well I said, yes and no. Yes that I liked many options, but no, my shoe browsing had made me thirsty to explore other offerings - apparel, jewellery and accessories.
"Performance"
Next hour was spent in browsing, filtering and checking their cloths collection. I liked that product page had category bread crumbs to help me jump back to any parent category. The reviews, size chart, shipping info - all were in the right place. However, I felt that they still needed to improve their video buffering and availability of video for all the products. I like the idea, but video was slow to load and was not available on all products. Further, it launched at full volume which was not good as I was browsing while my daughter was sleeping in the same room! I tried 2 videos, both did not run properly the first time. Also I felt that site was more responsive when I was scrolling down to see more products, but the individual product page was relatively slow to load.
Realizing (like he always does) that I will not be able to make up my mind, Mr H suggested me why don't I buy something for our daughter. I instantly jumped at the idea and decided to buy a top or two for her. He also suggested me to choose few daily wear items rather than 1 costly dress as it will be easier to compare with other similar stuff we buy from other stores.
"Shopping"
So here I went to kids clothing category. With easy navigation and handy sorting feature, I was able to pick few items. I showed them to Mr. H and we made our final choices. Stock alert that one of our item was low on stock with only 1 piece helped us to choose rather quickly :) Adding to cart was super easy. What I liked even more that I was not required to create an account to place the order. Standard address and payment steps put me through no surprise and my order was placed.
"Wait"
I ordered late in the night, and can you beat it - the order was shipped by morning! It arrived in due time with nice packaging. Here is the pic of packet -
And here are the items we ordered.
Exactly as in the online catalog! Needless to say, I loved these and cannot wait to try them on my daughter.
"Notifications"
I must admire the professional way Jabong notifies its customers via emails as well as SMS. I liked instant SMS confirmation for my order. They even sent me an email after the delivery for any question or feedback I had.
"Summary"
I liked my overall experience of shopping at Jabong. They have vast collection of various items and anyone can find something or the other which they would like. It offers more variety than visiting a mall, all in the comfort of home. Added convenience of prompt delivery and benefits like reward points and coupons make the overall experience fulfilling. While I think they should make their site more responsive and some performance especially around video playback can be improved, still their choice of simple layout and menu is good aid in navigation. Navigation assists in your moving around, without being in the way. And yes, now I think you can buy everything including apparel and shoes too online!
Since I am posting this on Father's Day, it is appropriate that I do mention about their Father's Day Gifts collection. Watches, apparel, bags, sun-glasses, perfumes, wallets - these are just some of the vast collection on sale for Father's Day!
I guess I will definitely come back to Jabong for my next online shopping spree, how about you!
In the interest of full disclosure, the shopping was sponsored, but the review is unbiased.
nice post, well written.. thanks for sharing the experience :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Neha :)
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