After moving to Mahalakshmi Layout with her family, a few months ago, Lakshmi Teeka, 32, found that there weren't too many grocery stores in her neighbourhood. At supermarkets, she had to wait in line to pay the bill and checkout. Her friends introduced her to Town Essentials (towness.com), an online grocery shopping website that takes orders online and delivers groceries home. "I could do shopping at 12 am in the night and didn't have to wait in line anymore. The prices too are on par with wholesale prices so I began to order all my groceries including vegetables and fruits this way," says Lakshmi.

Browsing groceries is just a click away as several online websites have begun offering home-delivery of groceries. Town Essentials and At My Doorsteps are two such websites that deliver in the city. The virtual shops sell everything from cereals to spices and dairy to instant mixes.

Grocery shopping is now takes only a few clicks. Screenshot of Atmydoorsteps.com. Pic: Citizen Matters.

E-tailing (a portmanteau of electronic and retail) is not a new phenomenon. In 1999, K Vaitheeswaran started India's first online departmental store, Indiaplaza, in Bangalore and in 2002 took the operations offline and opened a grocery store near Koramangla. The company was eventually acquired by Aditya Birla Group in 2006 and re-branded as More chain of grocery outlets.

Ordering online on most websites is fairly simple. After registering on the website (you need to enter basic details and the address you want the products to be shipped to), one can browse through the product list and add the products to the cart. The items on the cart can then be reviewed after which the order can be confirmed. Payment can be made online through debit/credit cards or through cash-on-delivery. Deliveries are usually made in less than one day of the order being placed.

In case of dissatisfaction with the products, At My Doorsteps provides a credit note for the value of the product, which is returned. This can be redeemed on another purchase. While, Town Essentials refunds the cost of the product returned. The returns are picked up from the customer at their convenience.

Priyadarshini Shetty, 26, another customer of Town Essentials and a recent law graduate from USA began looking for online grocery shopping websites after her return in September this year. "I had become used to ordering online when I was abroad. I tried it once and liked it enough to order regularly," says Priyadarhsini, a resident of 2nd Stage RMV extension. "I don't have to wait in lines or be restricted to shopping only during business hours," she says, adding that this way, she does not have to worry about finding parking spaces while grocery shopping.

Amita Rao,  a Human Resources professional, in her thirties, living in Jayanagar echoes a similar opinion. Three months ago, she began shopping for groceries from At My Doorsteps. "It is a personal shopping experience without the hassle of going to a store. Since the quality of the products was good and they call you to confirm that you are at home before they deliver which is good," says Amita.

Priyadarshini points out that the online method does have a few drawbacks. "It can be a problem when I am having guests over and need to cook something quickly," she says. Lakshmi agrees. "It has to be a planned shopping. Impromptu shopping is not possible this way as delivery takes time," says Lakshmi.

Yogaraj Mudalgi is Associate Staff Journalist at Citizen Matters.

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