Black Friday is arguably the best time to shop in a year. It falls on the day following Thanksgiving, an occasion that’s quite popular in the United States of America. However, it’s not celebrated in India and as a result, Black Friday sale has always been a far-fetched dream for us Indians. Well, that’s not the case this time around, as Amazon India kickstarted the Black Friday sale in their global store earlier today. Amazon’s global store basically lets you shop products that are actually listed on Amazon US, where you end up paying import fees and shipping charges over the product’s actual cost.
Well, I was all excited for the sale and as soon as Amazon started the sale at 12 AM, I immediately started browsing the global store for some great discounts on PC peripherals and smartphone accessories. A few minutes into the search, I realized that something was not quite right. I’m a regular visitor of Amazon’s US website even if they don’t have any sale, because some electronic gadgets are actually cheaper there compared to the Indian store, even after adding import fees and shipping charges. I expected those products to get even cheaper due to the Black Friday sale, but it actually got more expensive.
Let’s start with something that’s as simple as a USB flash drive. As you can see above, this 32 GB Sandisk flash drive costs Rs. 720 on Amazon India and they’ve added a delivery charge of Rs. 149 along with it. Usually, the delivery is free on Amazon India if the order value is above Rs. 499, but I’m assuming this charge is only because it’s a third-party seller, so I won’t blame Amazon about that. Leave that aside, and check Amazon global store’s pricing for the same flash drive. Adding up the import fees deposit, delivery charge to the product’s price will result in a total price of Rs. 969. However, if you purchase it on Amazon India, you’ll have to pay just Rs. 869.
A difference of Rs. 100 is a big difference for a product that costs under a thousand bucks. In addition to this, you’ll have to wait for two-three weeks to get the product delivered to your doorstep if you were to purchase from the global store, whereas in Amazon India, you’ll always get it in under a week’s time.
Now, let’s move on to something as expensive as the GeForce GTX 1080 from Zotac. On the left of the picture shown above, you’re looking at a Zotac GTX 1080 Amp Edition on Amazon’s global store which costs Rs. 59,640 including the delivery charge. On the right, we’ve got an even better Zotac GTX 1080 Amp Extreme edition on Amazon India, which is actually supposed to cost more, priced at Rs. 58,399 without any delivery charge. Plus, you get the product in three to four days as opposed to a waiting time of nearly three weeks on the global store.
Seriously Amazon, what are you guys even thinking? Showcasing a huge “Black Friday sale” banner on Amazon India’s home page just to sell your products at a price that’s more expensive than the official price tag is completely absurd.
At this point, I think any Indian customer will be better off shopping on Amazon India, despite the fact that there isn’t any sale going on there, because I’m pretty sure you won’t be happy with the “Black Friday deals” that are listed on the global store. Well, if you still want to check out some actual Black Friday deals, you can head over to Amazon’s US website directly and check for sellers who ship internationally, rather than browsing through the global store, which has a limited set of products. So, what do you guys think about this business move from Amazon? Do share your opinions in the comments section down below.
