List Of Recommended Direct Seller/Websites (Better than amazon/flipkart)

lockhrt999

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Coming from anti competitive experiences of marketplaces like Amazon/Flipkart, we should have a list of direct sellers or websites (non-marketplaces) who are specialized into their niche and provide very good service. Please list, discuss or critic direct sellers/websites you know.

Buying from sellers directly has a few advantages,​

  • You usually get better price/discount compared to marketplaces. That's because they don't need to pay high fees to marketplaces.
  • They have search engine super optimised for their niche. It becomes very easy to find stuff you are looking for (even if you don't know what's the product called).
  • Their supply chain is optimised for their products.
  • Sellers have better understanding of packing the their own products.
  • You can bargain on the phone. You can ask sellers for their recommendations or request to customize product/quantity.
  • Much better and detailed product listing pages than marketplaces.
  • When you call them for help, they don't BS you with generic lines like 'sorry for inconvenience / unfortunately can't help / thanks for being patient'
  • All of them give you GST invoices on request which may save you some money.

There could be some disadvantages too,​

  • You may not get 'No Question Asked' returns, something which is natural to most marketplaces.
  • You may not get random deep discounts at odd times like marketplaces. Prices don't fluctuate.
  • Small chance of getting duped.
  • Shipping/support could be slow on weekends.
  • Less or no reviews.

I'll start by listing some of the sellers/websites I like,

mdcomputers.in - Computer hardware​

  • Very old player in computer hardware domain. I have purchased from them even before their website had digital payment options.
  • Good communication on phone. I remember successfully haggling with them on the phone.

dubaria.shop - Printer accessories​

  • Extensive options for printer consumables. Here, you find parts for your printer which you don't even know exist.
  • Great prices and quality of products better than average local or marketplace counterpart.
  • Excellent shipping. Things are reliably getting delivered within 18 hours (for me).

vitacost.com - Health supplements​

  • Awesome and big catalogue of supplements. Much better option if you are buying in bulk and don't want to risk on low quality indian brands.
  • Sales are real here.
  • Shipping is $10 for India. And most of the times, you can expect ~40% import duties. Still it's cheaper than buying same brands from indian marketplaces.

medplusmart.com - Meds​

  • The best search engine for Indian Pharmaceuticals.
  • I don't order a lot from here. I mostly use it to fulfill my fetish of researching on medications and supplements.

toolbuy.com - Hardware & power tools​

  • Awesome website for hardware and power tools. Good collection.
  • This website is very informative and everything is placed hierarchically.
  • You may think you know everything about screwdrivers but then you visit this website and you realize you know nothing about screwdrivers.
  • Found it very recently, haven't ordered from it yet. Many international brands present here and prices are very competitive.

alton.co.in - Sanitary Ware​

  • They are on amazon, flipkart but I have purchased from them directly too.
  • Found quality on par with Jaquar but prices are much lower.
  • Phone customer care is awesome. I had a small query but a very friendly punjabi guy painstakingly explained all small things, gave realistic expectations of the products. He also hinted me a future sale which saved me some money.
 
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I use pcpricetracker.in to get a quick look at prices across various retailers.
But don’t trust all retailers there. Ex- Has listings from compify, but compify doesn’t have good reviews(r/indiangaming)

Another way to find trusted retailers is to go to brand website and go to where to buy list.
Ex- For AMD

Prime md vedant other etc are mentioned here. Can do the same for gpu, ram, case, cooler etc brand website.

Personally, have used onlyssd.com (part of primeabgb) quite some time back. Quick delivery, no experience with customer support.
 
I've got excellent service from https://www.theitdepot.com/, bought stuff online from them from around 2006-7. Advantages :

1. They rarely have crap. Sometimes when I am out of touch with the market, I no more know which are good brands and which are bad. Searching for the brands available with theitdepot helps, most of the times I've later found that those brands are well respected in the industry.

2. They also sold slightly niche stuff like Xeons, Toshiba hard drives when other online stores were not selling those.

3. Sometimes cheaper than Amazon / Flipkart, though with heavy stuff they need to charge a lot for delivery as their delivery network is nowhere near as big.

4. They had physical stores in Chennai for a long time, so Chennai people might weigh in on their local credibility.

One disadvantage though : I use a particular email address only for theitdepot. And after using their service, I started getting lots of spam on that email address. Selling customers' data is cheap tactics, though it could be the fault of a rogue employee or the courier service they are using.
 
I've got excellent service from https://www.theitdepot.com/, bought stuff online from them from around 2006-7. Advantages :

1. They rarely have crap. Sometimes when I am out of touch with the market, I no more know which are good brands and which are bad. Searching for the brands available with theitdepot helps, most of the times I've later found that those brands are well respected in the industry.

2. They also sold slightly niche stuff like Xeons, Toshiba hard drives when other online stores were not selling those.

3. Sometimes cheaper than Amazon / Flipkart, though with heavy stuff they need to charge a lot for delivery as their delivery network is nowhere near as big.

4. They had physical stores in Chennai for a long time, so Chennai people might weigh in on their local credibility.

One disadvantage though : I use a particular email address only for theitdepot. And after using their service, I started getting lots of spam on that email address. Selling customers' data is cheap tactics, though it could be the fault of a rogue employee or the courier service they are using.
theitdepot is nowhere near what they were when they had offline stores. i found them to be on the costlier side. they have scaled down a lot

I have made purchases these sites in the past. provided good service
https://primeabgb.com
https://www.overclockerszone.com/ - For deepcool stuff
https://hardwire.in/ (this site was good few years back not sure about now)
 
Only dealt with primeabgb and theitwares. Prime as always great exp. while itwares the guy Rahul has attitude issues and hence he had to leave Te over his behavior following massive complaints back then. Unsure if he still runs the place.
Such an awesome place to order from back in the ebay days.
It stills ships to India at good rates minus zero shipping duties..
 
Little slow in shipping outside Chennai but their response is good.
 
for Rpi, the official site is recommended. They list the sites for approved ressellers of each component and well priced.


Allo is an Make in India intiative with major R&D center in India. It is priced well considering its international pricing. Below are non verified resellers. Someone can reconfirm.

 
Only dealt with primeabgb and theitwares. Prime as always great exp. while itwares the guy Rahul has attitude issues and hence he had to leave Te over his behavior following massive complaints back then. Unsure if he still runs the place.

It stills ships to India at good rates minus zero shipping duties..
Primeabgb is becoming somewhat of a miser these days but vedantcomupters are good
Too good I should say
Because I bought from both above dealers in 2019 and got bad response from primeabgb when I asked them about redeeming a game code when I bought my Ryzen 5 3600 from as they said I am not eligible for a game as 3600 isn't in the eligible list at all though it was. Since I didn't want to argue I left it there.
 

 
Thanks. I'm not much into audio stuff but this website/business is anal. They have done more than just throwing an ugly shopify theme with bunch of products. I'm fan of such businesses who have precisely documented their products. Shows they are passionate and a great place to learn for budding audiophiles.

Just dropped them an email appreciating the business.
 
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This awesome list guys . Thanks everyone who is added up to the list .
Good initiative. Maybe the mods can make this sticky once it's grown.
I have had good experience with them for PC related stuff
friend of mine found this site good with pricing .Can someone vouch for this site ?
 
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