The truth behind online sales

Call them flash sales, secret sales or private sales, they all mean one thing: deals that promise heavy discounts for a limited period of time. A concept that is extremely popular abroad, online flash sales have now found their way into India.

But how is an online flash sale different from a store sale that luxury brands and designers often hold? Vehbi Sinan Tunalioglu, CEO, Brandmile.com, an Indian flash sale portal, explains the difference: "While both processes help suppliers liquidate their excess inventory, our main difference (when compared with brick and mortar stores) is the reach that we provide as our customers can buy the merchandise from any part of the country."

But are these 'super-saver deals' as great as the online sellers make them sound? Let's take a look at what lies beneath.

The lure of discounts It's hard not to reach for your wallet instantly when you come across a deal promising a 50% discount. Such heavy discounts are par for online sellers, who even claim to offer up to 70% discounts. But it's tough to determine the genuineness of these. As most sceptical buyers will tell you, sellers often hike the mark-up price and then offer a heavy discount. For instance, a flash sale portal was offering a designer handbag from Coach on 23 February at a discounted rate of Rs 16,999, claiming the original shelf price as Rs 33,525.

Evidently, the rate has been slashed by about 50%. However, when cross-checked on the US retail website for Coach, the same bag was priced at $298 (Rs 14,602). Amazon too had a similar bag which it can ship to India for a total delivery charge of $47 (Rs 2,303). Obviously, your total expenditure would be Rs 16,905. So, would you actually end up saving money if you buy from the sale?

The tag of exclusivity
Indian luxury flash sale portals claim to offer exclusive memberships. However, this is just an illusion. You don't strictly need to be 'invited-in'. Anyone can become a member by registering directly on the portal and then inviting anybody they want. In fact, some websites reward you with credit points each time one of your referrals makes their first purchase on the portal. So, if 99labels.com boasts about four lakh registered users, it would make your 'exclusive access' seem like a pin in the haystack.

Another hitch is that though you'll get trendy designer wear, it's going to be, unfortunately, last season's trends. Most of these sites, such as Fetise.com, mention clearly that they sell previous seasons' garments which have not deteriorated in quality. Other sites, such as Exclusively.in, will offer products from up-and-coming designers like Namrata Joshipura, Anaikka, and Raakesh Agarvwal, who would like to liquidate their unsold and excess inventory through these sites. Abdul Halder, a Bangalore-based fashion designer, says, "Usually, the products offered on flash sale sites are from a designer's existing collection. They often include products that haven't been showcased previously but are included to widen the product range, and, to an extent, make the deal more viable economically." So, if you are coveting a designer dress for less, be prepared to compromise a bit on the 'current season's trends.'

There is no race
Flash sales cash in on the urgency factor. They last for a day or two, or a week at the maximum. The deals are available for a limited time, but, you must ignore the ticking clock before you buy. Says Naina Singh, a 30-year-old advertising executive: "I came across a so-called exclusive deal on a sale portal, which was offering a six-piece Giordano travel combo set for about Rs 7,000, for only three days. I was still trying to make up my mind when the deal got over. After almost a month, I saw the deal again on the same website. What's more, the same set was also being offered under my credit card reward point scheme."

Though most websites feature only a handful of deals at a time, they need to constantly bring out new deals every week. There's no guarantee that their inventory will be sold, which is why the old deals get repeated after some time.

Check whether the product being sold for a limited period is also available on other sites. For instance, at a perfume sale for four days on FashionandYou.com, a 100 ml bottle of Hugo Boss No. 6 eau de toilette was available for Rs 2,975, while the online retailer Perfume2order.com is offering the same product for Rs 2,790. The more interesting part: While the former claims the original price to be Rs 3,800, the latter says it's Rs 4,900. No wonder, buyers are wary of the claims made by most online sellers.

Should you go with the crowd?
Flash sales on a group deal site, such as Crazeal.com and Mydala.com offer discounts on restaurants, trips and events only if a certain minimum number of buyers opt for the deal. So, the first thing you need to check is whether the booking amount will be refunded to you if the deal is cancelled due to a lack of buyers. Some consumer forums have complaints lodged by buyers of how the travel vouchers they had bought from deal sites were not honoured by the hotel or tour organiser, which claimed that they had no vacancies.

This led to the vouchers expiring and a loss for the buyers. However, sale portals are taking measures to resolve these issues. Says Ankur Warikoo, CEO, Crazeal.com: "We have proactively taken steps to review our customer policy which has led to a 90% drop in complaints. For travel deals, the merchant contact is always visible and we have put in place a 100% refund policy on travel deals within 14 days of purchase."

So, check the fine print carefully before opting for a travel deal from any flash sale portal. For how long is the travel voucher valid? Is it inclusive of everything or only the room rate? Will you have to pay a penalty if you cancel after booking?

Flash sales work best for discerning shoppers who can trawl the Net or those who are well aware of the retail store prices. For the newbie who wants to indulge in retail therapy online, it might be better to visit lots of similar sites and compare the prices of the deals before zeroing in on one.

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Online, voters are still getting to know Santorum

On Super Tuesday, Yahoo! Search trends suggested that voters are still generally less familiar with Rick Santorum than with Mitt Romney. The top searches for Santorum still dealt with fairly basic topics, like "Rick Santorum on the issues," "Rick Santorum biography," and even "how much does Rick Santorum weigh?" Nearly half of Romney's top search terms, meanwhile, were about his wife. Searchers were also curious about Romney's wealth.

Overall, we saw about twice the total search volume for Romney as we did for Santorum, Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul.

You can have your election; we'll take a cute video

On Twitter, the hashtag "#song" appeared alongside Santorum's name, thanks to an original song in support of Santorum that sisters Camille and Haley Harris recorded with their large musical family and posted to YouTube (below). The song has yet to go viral. There is competing traffic from a song Rosie O'Donnell wrote attacking the candidate.

Palin and Ann Romney catch fire despite the primary distraction

When Sarah Palin spoke to CNN at the Alaska Caucus, mentions of the former vice presidential candidate spiked on Twitter, higher even than mentions of Newt Gingrich when he won Georgia.

We also still saw tremendous volume around Ann Romney's remark on Monday: "I don't even consider myself wealthy." Tweets on this topic were, of course, mostly negative.

Here are two tweets that capture the sentiment we saw circulating on the topic:

@clarkekant: "The Romneys make $56,000 a day, but Ann Romney doesn't consider herself wealthy. You poor thing! Would another tax cut help?"

@TheCanadaParty: "Ann Romney: "I don't even consider myself wealthy." We know you don't. That's the problem."

The biggest spike we saw in tweets on Super Tuesday was around Santorum's speech, which were also largely negative. (Let's face it: People turn to Twitter to complain about and insult candidates more than they do to lavish praise on them.)

In any case, Twitter may be over the GOP primary

The most important insight from Twitter may be this one, from the service itself:

GOP candidates by new followers (Twitter)

The chart shows the number of new Twitter followers received by the candidates each day. It's been slowly dropping as the contest drags on.

Thanks to the Yahoo! Labs Content Science team for raw data.

View the original article here

Online, voters are still getting to know Santorum

On Super Tuesday, Yahoo! Search trends suggested that voters are still generally less familiar with Rick Santorum than with Mitt Romney. The top searches for Santorum still dealt with fairly basic topics, like "Rick Santorum on the issues," "Rick Santorum biography," and even "how much does Rick Santorum weigh?" Nearly half of Romney's top search terms, meanwhile, were about his wife. Searchers were also curious about Romney's wealth.

Overall, we saw about twice the total search volume for Romney as we did for Santorum, Newt Gingrich, or Ron Paul.

You can have your election; we'll take a cute video

On Twitter, the hashtag "#song" appeared alongside Santorum's name, thanks to an original song in support of Santorum that sisters Camille and Haley Harris recorded with their large musical family and posted to YouTube (below). The song has yet to go viral. There is competing traffic from a song Rosie O'Donnell wrote attacking the candidate.

Palin and Ann Romney catch fire despite the primary distraction

When Sarah Palin spoke to CNN at the Alaska Caucus, mentions of the former vice presidential candidate spiked on Twitter, higher even than mentions of Newt Gingrich when he won Georgia.

We also still saw tremendous volume around Ann Romney's remark on Monday: "I don't even consider myself wealthy." Tweets on this topic were, of course, mostly negative.

Here are two tweets that capture the sentiment we saw circulating on the topic:

@clarkekant: "The Romneys make $56,000 a day, but Ann Romney doesn't consider herself wealthy. You poor thing! Would another tax cut help?"

@TheCanadaParty: "Ann Romney: "I don't even consider myself wealthy." We know you don't. That's the problem."

The biggest spike we saw in tweets on Super Tuesday was around Santorum's speech, which were also largely negative. (Let's face it: People turn to Twitter to complain about and insult candidates more than they do to lavish praise on them.)

In any case, Twitter may be over the GOP primary

The most important insight from Twitter may be this one, from the service itself:

GOP candidates by new followers (Twitter)

The chart shows the number of new Twitter followers received by the candidates each day. It's been slowly dropping as the contest drags on.

Thanks to the Yahoo! Labs Content Science team for raw data.

View the original article here

Obama seeks stronger online privacy protection for consumers

NEW YORK (AP) — The Obama administration is calling for stronger privacy protections for consumers as mobile gadgets, Internet services and other tools are able to do a better job of tracking what you do and where you go.

Administration officials outlined a proposed "Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights" on Thursday and urged technology companies, consumer groups and others to jointly craft new protections. Such guidelines would initially be voluntary for companies, but those that agree to abide by them could be subject to sanctions for any violations.

"As the Internet evolves, consumer trust is essential for the continued growth of the digital economy," President Barack Obama said in a statement. "That's why an online privacy Bill of Rights is so important. For businesses to succeed online, consumers must feel secure."

The effort comes as companies have found more sophisticated ways to collect and combine data on your interests and habits. Beginning next week, for instance, Google will start merging data it collects from email, video, social-networking and other services when you're signed in with a Google account.

The growing use of smartphones and tablet computers adds another dimension to the tracking. Location information can give service providers insights into where you spend your time and, if you have friends who use the same services, whom you tend to hang out with in person.

Data collection can help companies improve and personalize services. It can also help advertisers fine-tune messages and reach the people most likely to buy their products and services — often without consumers even realizing it.

That is why the administration is seeking more data protections for consumers in a report issued Thursday.

How strong the protections will be ultimately depends on what rules parties can reach consensus on. The administration favored a multi-stakeholder approach that has hints of self-regulation because legislation to enable traditional regulation would take time.

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission complained that software companies producing games and other mobile applications aren't telling parents what personal information is being collected from kids and how companies are using it. Depending on how the guidelines are crafted, companies could be required to more prominently disclose when they collect such things as location, call logs and lists of friends — not just from kids, but everyone.

The report is not intended to replace other efforts at offering privacy protections.

Leading companies in mobile computing agreed Wednesday to require that mobile applications seeking to collect personal information forewarn users before their services are installed. The guidelines came as part of an agreement with California's attorney general.

Separately, the FTC has recommended the creation of a "Do Not Track" tool to let consumers curb advertisers from studying their online activity to target ads. In announcing support for the administration's privacy safeguards, companies responsible for delivering nearly 90 percent of targeted advertisements also committed to adopting the Do Not Track technology when it is built into Web browsers, something expected this year.

Commerce Secretary John Bryson said in a briefing with reporters that the administration's proposal not only protects consumers but also gives businesses better guidance on how to meet consumer expectations.

The proposal expands on widely accepted Fair Information Practice Principles crafted in the 1970s, when the Internet was just an experimental network used primarily by researchers. Those existing guidelines say that consumers should be informed about any data collection and given the option to refuse. They should also be allowed to review and correct data about themselves. The principles also have provisions for security and enforcement.

Applying the principles to the Internet era, the administration said data collected in one context should not be used for another, while companies should specify any plans for deleting data or sharing information with outside parties. Companies also need to be mindful of the age and sophistication of consumers. Disclosures need to be presented when and where they are most useful for consumers.

The idea isn't to give people access to everything a company collects about them, but they should at least be able to review and correct any information that is used to make decisions.

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration plans to convene companies, privacy advocates, regulators and other parties in the common months to craft detailed guidelines that reflect those principles. Enforcement would be left to the FTC under existing laws.

The codes of conduct would be specific to particular types of companies. One might cover social networks, for instance, while another might deal with services on mobile gadgets. A company that offers social-networking features on phones might adopt both. New ones could emerge as technology evolves.

Although officials expect many companies will agree to the new codes, allowing them to use that commitment in marketing materials, the report also called on Congress to pass new laws to require remaining companies to adopt such guidelines. Until then, enforcement would be limited to companies that say they would abide by the codes but fail to do so.

Legislation also would be needed for the FTC to give protections to businesses that follow a checklist of good practices. Known as safe harbor, such protections would exempt companies from sanctions if they inadvertently break a code.

The report comes 14 months after the Commerce Department first proposed a privacy bill of rights. The issue was later elevated to the White House and won its endorsement with the release of Thursday's report.

The administration dropped a proposal in the original report to create a federal privacy office within the Commerce Department. Instead, the task of convening parties to craft guidelines is left to the existing NTIA.

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Online:

http://1.usa.gov/zp645t

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