Go online! E-stores a shopping haven for college-goers

Craving for branded crop tops, skirts, dresses, tops, jumpsuits, shirts, shoes, bags, accessories and more to spruce up your wardrobe for college, but have limited pocket money? Online fashion stores are turning out to be a haven for youngsters, who log on for best bargains.

Portals like Jabong, Myntra, Fashionara, ShopClues, Koovs, FabAlley and LimeRoad, among a string of others, keep offering heavy discounts and luring offers, helping students to stock up their closets with trendy clothes at a lesser price.

"As a student, you more often than not live on a limited budget, and shopping online brings you convenience of choice, affordability, door step delivery and easy returns process. The college-going crowd is always on a lookout for what's trendy and fashionable and these style edits definitely help make a quicker and smarter decision," Praveen Sinha, managing director and co-founder, Jabong.com, told IANS.

It's not the fashion-conscious ladies who are logging on. According to a survey by Myntra, around 40 percent of clients are female, while 60 percent are male shoppers, with a majority of shoppers between 18 and 26 years of age. These are a mix of college students and first-time job-goers.

"College life is probably one of the most important chapters in one's life. Other than dreaming big and working for it, it is also the best time to show off one's style," Carlton D'souza, stylist, Myntra, told IANS.

For years, college-going students have thronged local flea markets to get their hands on best deals -- be it Delhi's Sarojini Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Karol Bagh, Janpath, Paharganj, Sadar Bazar and Chandni Chowk, or Mumbai's Fashion Street, Linking Road, Hill Road, Lokhandwala and Colaba Causeway. But with the surge of e-commerce, these online portals seem to have taken over brick and mortar stores.

Shopclues.com's associate director Animesh Kumar considers the college-going crowd as an "important part" of their target market. So, the platform tries to come up with "interesting properties" to appeal to them.

"Since we understand this target group well, we also keep updating our inventory with brands and products that they would find relevant. Some of these products include graphic t-shirts and casual dresses," Kumar told IANS.

Major e-tailers have also come up with mobile applications to help their customers to shop with ease, and on the move. These dedicated apps offer discounts on a regular basis -- mostly weekends -- thus helping youngsters in buying branded clothes at a relatively cheaper price.

To cater to tastes of all people, there are items for less than Rs.50 to even Rs.5,000 and more -- including national and international designer-wear. Some platforms offering designer clothes may have higher priced offerings, but there's always a good deal.

For Latika Sharma, 19, online is the way to go to satiate her shopping craving.

"There are no queues for trying on clothes, no bumping into people, no waiting at the billing counter, and you can take your time or save what you want for a later purchase if you don't have immediate cash in hand... what more do we want for convenience," Sharma said.

Another student, Siddharth Gupta, an engineering student, said he loves e-stores for the variety of styles and brands they offer. "It's as good as a multi-brand store, and you don't even always have to wait for the seasonal sales as every day or weekend, there's some offer or the other."

(Durga Chakravarty can be contacted at durga.c@ians.in)