But ask most youthful, professional Nepali women if they shop for fashion or accessories on the Internet and you´ll likely be met with blank stares.[BREAK]
“The product is too limited. There´s less options,” they´ll say, comparing it to the choice of Nepal´s heaving, bargain-basement marketplaces.
“And they´re just so expensive,” they´ll note of global superpowers like Topshop and ASOS - sites that, while delivering to Nepal, haven´t significantly touched the market.
Other cited drawbacks of online shopping include not being able to try on products before buying, lack of local clothing like sari, fears of being swindled and the cost of shipment.
Yet these are hurdles that have been overcome in other markets. In Australia, for instance, e-commerce is set for a net worth of AUS$37.7 billion by 2013, with fashion the largest growth category.
So what´s holding back the bulk of Nepal´s fashion lovers?
Anju Rai, co-owner of female fashion website, Fmirror.Com, says it´s mostly hampered by the “the mindset of people”.
“Customers still prefer to get back home with loaded bags in their hands even when they can order them with just a click of a mouse,” says Rai.
Pink-hued and mostly selling dresses imported from Hong Kong and London, FMirror was one of the very first locally-based fashion e-stores when it launched in late 2010.
Two years later, FMirror´s still a big fish in a very small pond, with just a handful of local fashion sites operating today in Nepal.
Development issues are a factor. Most local women simply don´t have the Internet accessibility or the money.
For instance, a pair of shoes on UK´s low-end Topshop costs over Rs 11,000. Even a day dress on FMirror can cost a whole week´s wage.
And then there´s the issue of payment. Most Nepalese shoppers (except expats) don´t have the credit cards required by international shopping sites.
Online payment systems, such as eSewa, are one new way to get around this. FMirror´s solution is less complex. It allows cash on delivery.
Ruchi Shrestha, owner of fashion site, That´s It, also employs a policy of cash on delivery, but says there´s still the hurdle of delivery for sites to battle.
To overcome Nepal´s notorious postal service and street address problems, six-month-old That´s It has its drivers fix a set time and place with customers prior to delivery.
But this isn´t hassle free. Sometimes customers aren´t there when a driver arrives for delivery. “This has been quite problematic on our side,” says Shrestha.
FMirror´s Rai has also had her fair share of interesting deliveries. Once she was chased by a customer´s dog. Another time a shopper invited her to smoke marijuana with them.
Despite these logistical hurdles, both Rai and Shrestha say they´re hopeful the local market will overcome its hesitation and shop increasingly for clothing online.
Their unique approach may give them an advantage over international sites. For now these are limited to expats or those wishing to use third-party sites, like Harilo.Com.
Rai says FMirror´s sales were just “okay” at first, but have grown significantly in two years. “We are tremendously encouraged by how customers are responding,” she says.
So far it has gathered 1500 unique shoppers - some repeat visitors - mostly young, Nepalis and based in Kathmandu. But some are also from outside the city and up to 64-years-old.
She says new site visitors are still quite wary about the site being credible and that its products are genuine. Many are filled with numerous questions.
“We are patient and we know that this still is a new avenue of business execution and we are always positive about it,” she says.
That´s It is also seeing growth from its humble beginnings of 30 to 50 hits a day in its first month of operation, says Shrestha.
“[It´s] gradually changing with the younger generation´s growing use of social media like Facebook, which actually has been a great promotional platform for That´s It,” she says.
“If we are able to portray the convenience and the ease with which they can shop [online], in a proper way, then that can be one of the growth factors in this industry.”
Shrestha may be onto something. Just this month the Nepal Telecommunications Authority found Nepal´s internet users have almost doubled in one year to 5 million. And that could well translate to more customers for fledgling e-commerce sites in Nepal in the future.
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