If you are a reader of Times Group newspapers then you must have seen the Reader’s Offer section which is advertised almost daily on TOI papers. Sometimes you will see that the price they are offering is at much discount compared to others. So what is the deal ? Where is their profit model ? and how to select the best choice from all the options available ? I would be covering all of these, one at a time in next paragraph.
1. Deal: If you will look closely the most discounted items are the electronic ones and most of them are the old models. Electronic items get cheaper day by day and the price of the old model depreciates at much higher rate than the new ones. Why? Because everybody wants to have the latest gadgets and then to sell these old models is really a tough job. So companies reduce their price to clear their stock and here comes the sale deal at very attractive price.
2. TOI Profit Model: It’s very simple and primitive. As I explained earlier about the low price of items, TOI is one of the biggest brand of India and having their online shopping model also. So companies and TOI shopping comes across a deal where TOI advertise their product on their own papers and on selling they earn profit from product companies. Win Win situation for both of them, Product company clears their stock and TOI earns profit just by giving a platform to sell their products.
3. Buyer’s Guide: Now we are clear about the lower price and the business model of the Reader’s Offer, we are giving some simple and easy tips to follow because you are the one who brings success to this model.
- Never buy a product from any company which has no brand image. Say there are 2 phone models with same features, one from Nokia and other one from some ABC group. Nokia model is a bit costly, I would suggest to buy the Nokia one because you never know when electronics item will go crazy. So always go with the reputed ones.
- Once selected a product to buy, do some Google stuff to check how the product it. Are there so many complains about the product in so many forums ? This will make sure that product is worth buying or not. Most of the people fall for sale because they think they are getting best deal but that’s not true. Offers will always be lying around and as a intellectual buyer, you have to pick the best of them.
- Now you are confident about the product and willing to buy it. It will take few clicks only to buy the product, but what about the price ? Is it really cheap ? It’s very simple to find it out, just go to the local shops and check out the current price of the product. If you don’t want to go to shops, then simple search in Google will fetch you so many stores in your area, call them and check about the current price and you are done.
I hope all the above mentioned simple and easy tips will help you to become a smart buyer. I would love to hear your opinions also. If you have got some good deal and wants to share with others also, please comment and help the buyers community to make a right choice. 
You can check the latest offer at IndiaTimes Readers Offer.
