Use FlipKart to compare prices!

FlipKart.com is India's leading online shopping retailer. They deliver a variety of goods - mainly books and electronics, but now expanding to other categories - to addresses in India. Delivery is often free. They also deliver to border towns like Jaigaon. Prices are usually below MRP. Various forms of payment are accepted, including debit and credit cards, as well as online payment using Indian bank accounts. In some locations they even accept cash-on-delivery (COD), and by cash they mean INR, not BTN.... By the way, Jaigaon is currently not one of the COD locations.


I have found FlipKart to be very useful when comparing  prices. Here's an example. I recently got an email from one of the computer vendors in Thimphu, which contain prices of Acer laptops. I looked up these laptops on FlipKart. The specs are nearly identical. Here's a table comparing the prices on Flipkart and the local vendor's price:

Model	Thimphu (Local vendor)	Jaigaon (FlipKart.com)	Difference
Acer Aspire AS5733	29,100	24,851	4249 (15%)
Acer Aspire E1-431	27,965	22,017	5948 (22%)

If I remember correctly, there's no tax on IT equipment coming from India. Why the huge difference? Your guess is as good as mine.