The scenario of shopping has changed a lot since smartphone penetration started. Nepali online shopping culture and online shopping sites in Nepal started with the entrance of household broadband connection and it exploded with the rise of the use of smartphones and mobile internet. The reduction in the price of mobile data and the growth of delivery networks of various eCommerce companies have all resulted in this new market. Currently, there are many eCommerce stores catering to people’s needs. So we have compiled a list of the top 10 online shopping sites in Nepal using various parameters.
Online shopping trend in Nepal is increasing every day. Many people shop online these days because of the plethora of options and comfort. The options like cash on delivery (CoD), easy return, safer replacement, and refunds help increase the trust of the customers towards the service providers. Many people are shopping online these days because there are thousands of products that can be found online just with a search. Moreover, some people want to avoid offline or on-street shopping to avoid pollution, scorching sunlight, or drenching rain.
Whatever the reason is, people do shop online. Many Nepalese people just shop from Nepali websites or stores while some people also even shop from international sites. There are some international shopping websites that directly ship to Nepal and there are some package forwarding services that help us get products from international shopping sites to Nepal from sites that don’t directly ship outside their region. However, we do require international payment options such as a USD card. You can try these sites too, but now let us discuss online stores of Nepal.
Top 10 Online Shopping Sites in Nepal
In the discussion of the best online store in Nepal, we can’t say a single one is the best and only go-to spot. Every site has its pros and cons. Everyone has their own specialty. So we have made a list by considering a few factors such as their establishment, age, traffic, social media presence, news, and reviews on Google and social media. Brand reputation and establishment is also a major factor because we have seen many names come and go in a short amount of time. So if a company comes and leaves fast, people lose trust in the market.
10) Foodmandu
What’s the best way to start anything besides food? This is a list of online shopping sites in Nepal and we do have a list of sites for e-commerce but the food is definitely important. The culture of online food delivery and buying food using mobile is rising steadily. We Nepalese people now enjoy ordering mouth-watering snacks, sweets, and even midnight cravings through online services. Among all the service providers, Foodmandu is the leading company for buying food online in Nepal.
It was established in 2011 and they now have a huge network of partner restaurants. Foodmandu has a big delivery network with its riders and restaurants. The long time in the market has also created trust among people. Foodmandu is a name synonymous with online food delivery in Nepal. However, challengers like Pathao are also on the rise because they have the advantage of having many bikers and riders from the ride-sharing department.
9) HardwarePasal
We wanted to make a list of shopping sites that provide real solutions to people. So in our research, we found many shopping sites didn’t have updated information, or social media, or had some trust issues. So instead of following lists like other sites that have the same names everywhere. We tried to find some unique online stores for people. So we have HardwarePasal.com on the list because it is a very unique e-commerce store.
People who are in the construction industry, engineering sector, manufacturing sector, repair business, or people who are just homeowners need tools and materials every now and then. We can go to markets such as Teku but having a dedicated store for power tools and hardware is quite useful. Hardware Pasal has a ton of cutting tools, welding equipment, car accessories, bike accessories, bathroom fittings, chemicals, glue, safety equipment, and construction machinery. These products are not found on other online sites and usually require searching the physical market but Hardware Pasal has all of them in one place.
8) Oliz Store
There are many platforms for online shopping in Nepal. Some are just for clothes, while some are for food and some are for everything. Among all, Oliz Store is one of the oldest businesses which has a name in electronics and especially Apple Products. Oliz Store has been bringing many exclusive products in the past. They have physical shops where you can go, test and purchase as well. OlizStore has iPhones, Macbooks, iPads, Mac, Apple accessories, smartwatches, cameras, gimbals, drones, sound systems, and a plethora of gadgets. Oliz Store also offers EMI service where people can purchase many electronics at installment such as iPhones in EMI.
The name ‘Oliz Store’ comes from the name of Lokesh Oli who is the owner of the store. He is a tech enthusiast and runs a YouTube channel that mostly caters to EVs and gadgets. This is the reason why Oliz also sells EVs such as electric scooters and eBike.
7) SmartDoko
Many business houses own various digital platforms in Nepal. Similarly, the IMS group owns major stakes in SmartDoko. IMS group invested in SmartDoko in 2020 and since then they are the major stakeholder in the company. ‘Doko’ is a Nepali word for a basket made of Bamboo. It is a traditional basket to carry things in village such as grass, branches, wood, or rocks.
Smart Doko is a popular e-commerce or online shopping site in Nepal with a various range of products. They sell electronics, groceries, food items, clothes, apparel, toys, consumer electronics, home appliances, furniture, and many other products. So overall they are a full fledges online shopping destination.
6) Muncha
Muncha House is a very old popular name. It is one of the oldest departmental stores in Nepal. The brand is popular among all age groups and Muncha.com taking that legacy forward. Muncha.com has been online since the dawn of online shopping in Nepal. It has however remained reserved in most sense. Their USP is actually gifts and moreover gifts from relatives abroad. Muncha is basically an e-commerce platform where anyone can shop for products such as groceries, clothes, food, beverages, electronics, jewelry, furniture, appliances, and outdoor equipment.
These are the basic things that any shopping platform offers. However, Muncha.com has special options for gifts for festivals. Suppose you live outside the valley or outside the country and you want to send gifts or cakes to your loved ones. It can be your parents, children, or spouse. Muncha.com provides same-day delivery of delivery on specific dates such as your Anniversary, fathers day, Mother, day, and children’s birthday. This is special and makes our loved ones feel special too.
5) Gyapu
Gyapu started its journey in 2020 and it has gained a lot of popularity since then. It has a high rating in Google reviews, the android app has many downloads in Google Play Store and a lot of people also follow their social media profiles such as Instagram and Facebook. Overall Gyapu is a famous online marketplace that sells smartphones, electronics, CE items, pet food, alcohol, groceries, home appliances, TV, fitness items, clothes, beauty products watches, and fashion accessories.
In order to make shopping trustable and easier, Gyapu has a refund policy for wrong, defective, and damaged products. Refunds are made through cards, banks, or vouchers. The company has one new thing known as ‘G-cash’. It is a reward point provided that can’t be cashed out but can be redeemed as a discount during purchase.
4) Thulo
Among many online websites that come in the list of the best online shopping in Nepal, Thulo.com is a very old name. The company is more than a decade old and they sell products from a very wide category. Nepbay.com which used to be a popular shopping site in past is now merged with Thulo. Now, Thulo hosts products such as clothes, groceries, cooking essentials, personal care, fresh vegetables, grains, beverages, food items, electronics, books, home appliances, furniture, and sports accessories. So there are a lot of products offered in a variety of price segments.
The company website also clearly shows their buyer protection policy, shipping policy, return policy, refund policy, and cancelation policy. These are very important things and these services are some of the most crucial parts of the business that create trust. If a customer is satisfied during and after purchase, they are returning customers and that is what everyone wants.
3) Hamrobazar
If anyone thinks of the cheapest online shopping sites in Nepal, Hamrobazar is the first site that comes to mind. It is because Hamrobazar is a classified marketplace where people mostly list their items for sale free of cost. Hamrobazar is now an old and established company. In the past, people only used to list their used products. It used to be second-hand or even third-hand products. This is good because one man’s trash is another man’s treasure and reusing products is great for nature. Moreover, people save money while some recover their money.
These days besides used products, people and many shops also list new genuine products. They all are just taking benefit of the marketplace and demand. The search function shows all products and people can decide whether to buy old or new. So as there are both old and new products, Hamrobazar actually can have a lot of options.
The site does provide options but we have to be careful because it is a classified marketplace. The quality of the product, delivery, and refund is not guaranteed by Hamrobazar. If you buy a second-hand product, trust is more important. If you buy a new product from a shop or brand that has listed products in Hamrobazar, do talk with them and get assurance of return plus warranty. Moreover, take the bill and only purchase after being 100% sure.
2) Sastodeal
Sastodeal is a leading online shopping site in Nepal and it was established in 2011. They have a large number of partners, staff, delivery networks, following, and loyal customers. The company has products in almost all categories that anyone expects from an e-commerce platform. Sastodeal sells food items, FMCG, groceries, liquor, mobile phones, laptops, home appliances, CE products, TV, washing machine, books, clothes, footwear, fashion items, and accessories.
Sastodeal and Flipkart partnered in 2020 for selling products from Flipkart and Myntra in Nepal. So Sastodeal actually sells Myntra and Flipkart special products. This provides Sastodeal with a lot of clothing options. If we have to look for the best online clothing store in Nepal, it is Sastodeal because Myntra adds a lot of options. On top of that Sastodeal used to have a separate book-selling division named ‘Sastobook.com’. It is now merged, so the company has a special section for books as well. Thus for book lovers and clothes shoppers, Sastodeal provides great varieties.
1) Daraz
Daraz is the biggest online shopping site in Nepal. It is large by sales volume, traffic, revenue, backing, delivery network, sellers, and almost everything. This is because they are owned by Alibaba. Actually, in the past, there was Kaymu. Then in 2017, Kaymu merged with Daraz which was owned by Rocket Internet. After that Daraz was acquired by Alibaba. Now it is the biggest and among the best online store in Nepal. Actually, in reality, we can’t crown any company as Nepal’s best online shopping site because we hear about unsatisfied customers every now and then. However, the number of users, app downloads, reviews, and sales indirectly show people’s votes.
Daraz is massive and has a presence in countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. In Nepal, Daraz has a huge grip and they sell electronics, gadgets, PC, smartphones, tablets, home appliances, TV, fridge, AC, washing machine, motorcycles, scooters, clothes, watches, groceries, FMCG, juices, furniture, outdoor equipment, fitness equipment, makeup kits, fashion accessories, and so many other items.
The company regularly runs programs such as Daraz Dasahin offers, New Year offer, 11.11 sale, card discount, free shipping, coupons, and much more. Actually, if we track prices, use coupons, and use the correct credit card discounts during the sale season, we can save a lot of money and get things cheaper in Daraz.
Status of Online Shopping in Nepal and Issues
In Nepal, internet penetration is low and on top of that people aren’t used to online shopping. People are new to this concept and it takes a lot of training. Another issue is that the delivery network is very small and due to a lack of infrastructure, delivery on time is hard. Logistics and courier services are also not robust in Nepal.
People are also skeptical about product quality, scams, returns, and refunds. In reality, it is the truth because even popular companies don’t have good refund schemes or they are very bureaucratic. First people have to wait a lot to get their hands on the products. Sometimes they even face cancellation from the company. Then many people also complain about getting the wrong or faulty product. On top of that, people have to go to lengths if they have to apply for a return or refund. So, it all takes a lot of time and wastes a lot of time for customers.
Instead of all the hassle, people still prefer going to shops in cities, trying the product, checking physically, bargaining, and getting assurance from sellers. Physical stores even take returns if goods are faulty and it takes less time. It is an assurance to people because instead of faceless sellers, seller who faces customer each day remains more trusted. Moreover, people who have bargaining capacity do usually get better deals than online because sellers sometimes cut their margin to save a customer.
On the other hand, people have caught online stores increasing prices before a sale season to show higher prices with fake discounts. This causes a decrease in trust which deters people from shopping on the web. These are some issues that need to be addressed by the online shopping industry to bring people from offline to online.
How to get the best price of products while shopping online in Nepal?
First of all, do check various platforms. Check different sites and sellers. If possible do even check at the offline store and make calls to shops. Then only buy from the seller who gives you the best price and best after-sale service such as warranty and returns. Checking different sites and opening different tabs of apps can be hectic so there is an extension for that.
Pasaley: It is a browser extension developed by the Nepali company ‘Shake Nep’. Pasaley can be installed in browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It is a simple and lightweight extension that activates itself while opening online Nepali shopping sites. When you search or look for a product on one site, it shows the price of the same product on alternative sites. Pasaley also shows price history to check if the price was low or high at the previous time.
For example, if we search for earphones in Daraz and open one product, Psaley will show the price of the same product on sites such as Hamrobazar, Gyapu, and Sastodeal. It will also show price history as a graph and with numbers. It is useful because we can know if we are buying at discounted rates or inflated rates such as some sellers do in the sale season.
Social Media Shops
These days we have many online shop in Nepal. Mostly these are new-generation social media-based stores. Many of them are present on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. People showcase clothes, shoes, gadgets, and other products and deal personally through direct messages (DM). These are usually non-registered personal unregulated businesses. They do provide products but sometimes they can be scammers as well. In most cases, there storefronts are run by single people.
Usually, people get sample products from offline shops, wholesalers, China, or India. Digital store owners publish attractive pictures and videos with inflated prices. After a user like you reach out to them, they discuss the price and after getting confirmation, the digital store owner gets the product from the wholesaler and delivers it to you. It is not illegal because the social media creator is just taking benefit of demand and supplying goods at an agreed price. However, the digital store operator or owner who makes a profit by selling products needs to pay taxes to remain legitimate.
For us customers, we need to be careful because warranty, return, refund, and quality are major concerns. We shouldn’t compromise that because it is harder to get them in contact as we have heard a few stores blocking users after purchase. On top of that, a legal path can be tough and expensive. So be careful from the start.
