Best Online Deals

Best Online Deals

In a country like Sri Lanka, where disposable income is limited, the word ‘discount’ creates a huge buzz. In recent times we have found many start-ups of daily deal companies. This is a really good thing one might say, because the ordinary Sri Lankan will find helpful, whatever type of slashing on prices offered. Daily Deals websites are where customer are offered quite a big discount on a certain product and customers are able to purchase them online until they are finally sold out. This is not an online auction of any sort and hence biddings are not involved.

We have many daily deals sites in Sri Lanka, each having its own pros and cons. Some of the most popular ones are: , and . From what information I gathered, is the market leader with more than 92% market share in the Daily Deals sector. Therefore we shall be further analyzing ‘ approach and the products they have on offer.

The site at first glance seems very pretty and neatly laid out. It consists of six sections. Named: Daily Deals, Store, Events, Travel, Cakes & Flowers and the all new ‘For our UK fans’. The Daily Deals section features deals that are running on a daily basis from merchants across the island. The idea is basically, products are on offer at a discounted rate, and these products will not be limited to a certain category but will vary be from categories such as: Clothing, Electronics, Restaurants, etc. Mostly FMCG’s. Products displayed here will offer a discount of at least 40%.

The Events section of the website features event tickets which are offered at a discounted rate. The distinct part is that this section is only related to event tickets and discounts will vary from event to event. The travel section will feature deals that are related to travel. These include deals from hotels, safari’s, travel packages and absolutely anything related to travel. This section will only hold deals related to travel and discounts will vary from package to package.

The store section can be considered as a completely separate website. It physically appears as such too. This section has a whole list of categories ranging from Electronics to Baby Products. The virtual shopping basket in this section functions only for itself and does not include vouchers selected at other sections of the site. This ‘Store’ can be very handy because Sri Lanka does not have a reputable online store that makes online shopping so easy, this maybe Sri Lanka’s next BIG thing. It just gets better because they offer free delivery for most products island wide. A recently included section is the ‘For UK Fans’ section. This section does not have many deals since it’s quite new but I think it’s aimed at UK citizens living in Sri Lanka and will contain deals that suit.

Overall, in the Sri Lankan daily deals sphere, seems like the only website that was worth a deep look at. The others have a lot of work to do, in terms of deals and mainly site functionality. An interesting fact is that many daily deal companies have been unsuccessful and have had to abort operations. So, that proves that survival in this industry is not easy. In the end, whichever website we choose, it would be best to check on the website and verify the seller’s reputation before getting any deal. That should protect you from getting scammed.

Sri Lanka is moving forward after a decade long war, one can expect the digital divide gap to decrease and many innovative businesses to emerge.