What College Taught Me About Online Shopping

I am not a pro at shopping online. My first online purchase was only last December. And it was a total failure. In fact, it is from that very first failure that this blog started. I failed and I wanted people to not follow my footsteps.

That sounded more serious than I thought. Perhaps, it was the cherub talking.

Anyway, back to me.

I was clueless when I first shopped online. I was always afraid of it. How do you make a transaction, an agreement, a commitment without seeing the face behind the page?

How can you trust someone, nay, something, so easily? And with your bank account at that?

Well, you don't. You shouldn't.

But what can I say, online shopping sometimes delivers (sometimes, for free). And at that moment when you have that plastic-covered parcel  filled with carefully curated products by the person who knows you the most. That moment when you manage to finally tear through that plastic wrapper. Amidst the mess and the bubble wrap. You'll realize that sometimes, it's worth it.

But that's the keyword for today, sometimes. Other times, you just go through a mess to see more mess wrapped in a cheap box. I hope someone told me that before.

These are some of the things that I hoped  knew before I click that checkout button.

1. If it's too good to be true, it might be because it isn't true.

 If you think what you are about to buy could be fake, stop. Stop right there. Read the next tip.

2. Research

Remember that research you did for school? All those sleepless nights? That skill you developed called googling and skimming? Use that in real life!

Type in all possible keyword combinations. Type in the site, or the product, or the site and the product. Add the word review. Replace that with the word good. Replace that with the word bad. Replace that with the word negative...  research everybody, it helps!

It's better to be thorough than to get a headache weeks later because you spend thousands on a defective item and couldn't reimburse your money properly.

3. Ask Questions!

Again this is something you learned from kindergarten , high schoo, college (hopefully). Ask questions! In case you can't find any reviews online, ask a public question on facebook. Not only will this open the possibility of you actually talking to that person you friended but you don't actually really know, you might actually have a friend who has experienced using the site firsthand.

I've read too much facebook posts about getting scammed and problematic transactions. People only sometimes post something when it has already happened. Not many people just post and ask around for advice. I get it, you're shy or you're afraid to be judged or this doesn't really go with the aesthetic of your facebook page. Well, you can delete it later. And if people judged you, well, thank them for spending their valuable time on you and get on with your life. If you're shy, on the other hand, well you just have to gage whether or not that one thousand peso tub of setting powder is worth it to woman up.

4. Blog it.

It's better to commend or discommend a product through writing a blog about it because you might actually help a human in the future. You never know who's the good the student who might be searching for the exact same keywords you decided to write about. There, you helped one person. Yay you, you decent human being.

5. Read the Fineprint.

Does the product come with a warranty? For how long? Can you return it and get your money back in case you don't want it or it doesn't fit? Do not just check I agree. You didn't go to school to doltishly agree to everything. We all know how teachers hate that.

6. Look for ways to get more of what you pay for.

You paid for that class, make sure you get the education you deserve. Read and then supplement your reading. Maximize your learning. Ask further questions!

Like:

Can I get more discount if I buy more? Can I get additional discount if I sign up or tweet about it or write a short review?

There are many ways to maximize online shopping. Some people miss this but you can save a lot of money if you just tinker around for a bit. Some sites give you a discount on your first purchase when you sign up or register and make your own account.

Signing up for an account will take you about 5 minutes but the perks are worth it. Sometimes, you can get points, freebies, additional discounts. Just make sure tobe super careful of accounts that require your visa account number. I generally stay away from that because I am a loser and an uber paranoid person. If they don't ask for your account number, they are most probably harmless. Just ignore the spam.

7. Remember that awesome slightly annoying confusing, absolutely necessary, thing called reference.

Look for a reference person. Okay I think I am stretching out this college reference thing to much. Look for a referer. They usually have a code that you can use to get an extra discount on top of your sign up discount.

A referral code is something that you get from someone who has an account on the same site. Ask around! Ask for people's referral code. This is really a win-win situation because not only do you get a discount, the person who supposedly referred you also gets a discount.

This is how you make lifelong friends.

Speaking of friendship, invite your friends! Invite your friends' friends. Online shopping is a party that anyone can get into. Tell people about that awesome site you used and tell them to use your code. Be discreet with this one though because when you post your referral code online, some sites actually deactivates your code so it renders useless.

8. Do not just blindly believe what you read aka be wary of sale items.

Just because it says that it's on sale doesn't mean it's actually on sale. Sometimes, you find the exact same product with different prices. Sometimes, that's because the site is updated. Or if it is something like ebay, then the independent sellers offer different prices based on their appraisal.

However in other cases, this is simply a trap. When you see that it is on sale, you think you save more thus igniting the idea of buying because you are saving. It definitely delivers a sense of success when you see that the other discounted product isn't nearly as cheap as the one you bought. Yes, you saved the tons of money today, congratulations!

Well, that ain't true. Chances are, it's all planted. Some prices are intentionally spiked so that when a consumer sees the same item for a cheaper price, they'll rush to buy it.

Of course, this is not usually the case and sometimes the independent sellers simply offers the item at different prices. Sometimes, a higher price means that the product is in better quality but sometimes there are sellers who are just in a hurry to sell their item. This one's tricky so be careful!

9. Use Shopback.

Oh, how I wish college has something equivalent to shopback.

I only discovered Shopback recently. It is a site that allows you to get rebates while you purchase from partner stores. So on top of the partner stores' promotions and discounts and free stuff, you get around 5 to 15% rebate. I am in no way affiliated to Shopback but I think that their site is absolutely awesome.

I'm not sure if there are other sites that offer the same thing shopback offers. And if you know a site like that, please do tell me.

To know more about Shopback, please visit their official facebook page SHOPBACK PHILIPPINES.

10. Free Shipping.

In online shopping, you can have whatever you bought delivered to your doorstep for free if you reach a minimum amount. If you do the math (and I know the math is hard but for the sake of online shopping, do it!), you can actually pay less if you just buy enough product to reach the shipping fee instead of paying for an additional 300 pesos or so.

Be careful with this, though. Some items are not covered by free shipping. Always check your total bill inclusive of the free shipping cost before you pay. If the shipping isn't free, check why this is so. Did you buy something discounted and is therefore not covered by the shipping? What you do then is add another regular item to reach the minimum shipping fee, then you're good to go.

Usually, it really isn't worth it to pay the shipping fee if you can just use that same money to buy another product.

However, there are some who don't offer free shipping. In that case, check how much the courier charges for what amount or weight and make sure you consider that weight when computing your total bill. It's like having excess baggage when getting on a plane. Unnecessarily annoyingly crazy expensive. Every gram matters!

Also, I heard that some people have to pay extra tax when they buy something online but I don't know how that works because I never tried buying something in a site that doesn't cover this pesky little thing called tax so I can't help you with that, I'm sorry. But do read if the site you are using pays for their products tax because you might have problems with customs later on (and it could be a very expensive problem).

11. Watch out for promotions.

Check facebook! Okay, this one you didn't need to learn from college.

Check the official facebook page of the site. See if they usually have promotions and wait for it. If you're not in a hurry to get a product, this will save you a lot of money. If the product you want had been on sale before, it most probably will go on sale again.

Also, check if the site has a pattern. When do they usually have the best promotions? What kind of promotions do they usually offer? Scour their page for their most amazing promotion and compare the other promotions to that. That is the promotion you should wait for. That is the #goal.

Of course, if you really need a product immediately, as in you are in a situation where you simply cannot live without it, go get it. It is sometimes better to follow your heart than be smart but remember that keyword, sometimes.

It's good to know when the best promotions are so you can get what you want (and more) at a lower price.


So those are my tips for shopping online. If you have more to add, please do comment below. That would help me (and maybe other people, but especially me) a lot. If you want to refer something to me, please do tell me a great site and how I can get the most of my money out of it. And if you need referrals from sites you know I like, I most probably have an account on it and will definitely love to refer you. Let us both enjoy some extra kaching, shall we?

I'm not exactly the smartest person to talk about saving. Multiple unplanned purchases proved that too many times. But I try to be smarter about it.

I hope this blog helps a lost soul somewhere, that is, after all, the reason why I blog. And if anyone wants to add something to this list, that would be very much appreciated.

Summer is almost ending! Keep swimming, everyone.

P.S. YES I NEEDED TO END THIS POST WITH KEEP SWIMMING OMG FINDING DORY IS ALMOST HERE.