A topped apple cart

Spring is long gone, the blossoms having promised to return the year around, but the buzz was loud and clear; the bees were busy yet. The apples have come in from Shimla, the ‘Red Delicious’ is crisp, the season is truly on! The Big Billion Day sale occupied a lot of people. The excitement was palpable! Like the Harrods sale, the queues were waiting not for the doors to open, but the domain. Seasons change and so must the way commodities are sold, bought and perceived. New economic ethics will rise and new strategies and practices will come to dominate.

Like little Dennis, Flipkart has Mr. Wilson worried. But lucky for Dennis, Martha Wilson likes her Indian home grown apples – they have the right amount of tart for the jams that she will bottle this monsoon. But the neighbourhood market has just begun a comic strip of marketing antics – kidnappers watch out!

It is interesting to see the manufacturers affronted by the fact that the lowered prices took away their elite positioning in the market. It is intriguing that they did not assume to think of their products as the choicest candies offered at Halloween, or the golden carrots dangled, or even a healthy olive branch.

Online shopping offers the many products that you can view and access from home, without having to step out of the porch. Seniors can calmly shop without the discomfort of travel, which may be an impediment after a certain age. Online shopping offers a very relaxed shopping environment for the mature age-group. The Big Billion Day , thus, may have added that sense of excitement and zing to an otherwise alienated shopping experience, not to mention the fun of doing the same things as all those young people out there.

Online shopping, a modern concept, affords comfort, which could cause reckless purchases, but an oniomanic will still opt that over a traditional retailing road. It’s all about marketing strategy, the vending style and offers. One point multi-brand and product retailing simplifies purchases. It has spawned the use of technology, and increased the comparability of products and price options. This places the consumer on the right pedestal, finally.

However, these online shopping portals have to find their share of attention, and they will uncover ways to do that. So, while shopping online is an activity done within personal spaces and removed from others, The Big Billion Day, helped share the shopping experience and exhilaration across all ages and state of mobility.

Technology and social change is never a bad thing. It all depends on how individuals use them and to what ends it serves the purpose. So the apple cart wasn’t tipped, it was topped with surprise euphoric pricing!