Online rakhis fly off the shelf

Cyber savvy women no longer shop for rakhis and their brothers no longer trudge to shops for rakhi gifts these days. Sisters just log on to 'rakhiforyou' and 'flipcart' and choose the rakhi, which is delivered to their brothers, along with 'tika', 'chandan' and sweets. Likewise, brothers select gifts online and have them delivered to their sisters, gift-wrapped.

It does not matter whether the sibling is in Aurangabad or Australia. "I have three brothers in Bangalore, Delhi and Bihar. I have used the medium of 'flipkart' for sending them rakhi,"

said Bhagyashree Thakur from Santa Cruz. The websites not only give the sisters the shape, size, colour and zoomed-in visual of the rakhi, they can also send across greeting cards and gifts. Some interesting offers by the websites were rakhi with ‘kaju katli’, rakhi with traditional ‘mini thali’, ‘rasgulla’ with rakhi, rakhi with roses and ‘sonepapri’. All these were available with a special offer of delivery the same day. The price is Rs 399 onwards. The sale on these websites was so brisk that in a few days before the festival the rakhis had gone out of stock. Brothers were seen ‘googling’ gifts like watches, vouchers, gadgets, dresses and books for their sisters. "It is such an exciting medium. I have sent my sisters two vouchers. She will get these vouchers on rakhi and that too properly gift-wrapped. I did not even had to do any leg work for making her happy," said Akshay Naval from Yaari Road. Many office goers also purchase their favourite rakhis online. "I did not get enough time to purchase rakhi from the market. So I have ordered a box full from ‘rakhigiftsindia’. It has made my work easier," said Ketki Verma, an advertising professional. Youngsters feel that buying rakhi online has saved them time and legwork. "It has made everything easy and the element of surprise is much more," said Ketki.