Online Shopping: Tips & Tricks

There are quite a few tips and “How To’s” we could write about – We chose a selected few with one goal in mind: To expose you to different media and services the internet has to offer:

• PayPal – PayPal is a service that enables you to pay, send money, and accept payments. It is one of the safest, easiest, ways to transfer money internationally especially to countries where the sold goods may be of questionable quality, e.g. let’s say you want a Tag Heuer, like the one I purchased online and wrote about previously – assuming you get a fake or of sub par quality, you can either:
  1. Contact the seller directly and try to resolve it between the two of you.
  2. Report the seller to eBay, who will mediate between you and the seller: PayPal will require a proof of your claim, such as that the item arrived malfunctioned or fake (a photo).
  So the bottom line is – if you’re using PayPal, you’re covered on most purchases done via its’ services.
  Opening an account on PayPal is a pretty easy process – your credentials + payment method, which\could be verified.
  eBay – to be able to place an order on this online platform, you must have a PayPal account, which you would have to link (correlate) to your eBay account, as simple as that!
  A few things to know about eBay:
  * 2 modes of placing an order: placing a bid in an auction or “buy now”.
  * when searching for an item there are two things to remember:
  > Set to display the results according to price + shipping charges (upper right – marked in blue), as the shipping would sometimes exceed the cost of the item itself.
  > Notice the “condition” option (bottom left – marked in blue), as it varies between New, New With Tags (“NWT”), New Without Tags (“NWOT”), and pre-owned (=used).
  > Sellers are rated by 1-5 stars, on 4 categories () – a feedback that would be visible to anyone which is why most sellers are cautious and would prefer to refund you partially or completely (depending on the seller and the item), than risking a bad feedback >>
  
  Side note: eBay and PayPal are now separate companies, which means they are no longer part of the same group of companies.
• Amazon – another good option of online shopping website, which quite similar in nature to eBay, though probably doesn’t offer as wide of a range of products.
  > Another 2 differentiators between Amazon and eBay: Amazon usually sells items of known brands + mainly focuses on clothing, electronics and books.
• AliExpress – For those of you who have never used AliExpress, it is a Chinese online platform that really does sell anything and everything: Apparel & accessories, electronics, home & garden, jewelry and watches, toys, automotive, events’ related items and the list goes on.
  Though I personally am NOT a big fan of this platform, it does offer a unique selling proposition: You can see other buyers using that specific product, as advertised on the listing – a HUGE benefit for those of us who like to buy items from China, which differs tremendously in sizes from Europe\North America.
  It’s done as a part of the reviewing process (post purchase), and you can leave a photo of the product “as received”, or as I’d refer to it: in the real world.
  > Two issues I’ve faced: Low quality of items and extremely late delivery (1.5-2 months, which is insane!)
• Dealextreme – a useful website for those who are looking for gadgets and electronic devices.
  Much like AliExpress – it’s mostly of unknown brands, or replicate existing brands, offered for a very low price.
• AliBaba –
• Zappos – Probably one of our favorite online retailers for clothes, shoes and accessories (watches, handbags, sunglasses and more); You can search the website by categories or by brands, as shown in the photo below >>
  The unique selling proposition of this website is that it offers free one business-day shipping and exclusive customer service phone number for VIP customers, free return up to 1 year AND a special offer for non-VIP customers using the app – free one business day shipping! For more information, refer to this link.

And here’s a tip for all of you who are new to online shopping: When you see something that you like in the store, search for the model number it on eBay (eBay also has an app for your smartphone) – you’ll discover this may very well save you between 33-50%!Stay tuned \ follow us to get updated!  🙂

Shahar Marhum, Founder