Recently, a lot of online shops have been popping left and right all around the internet.. specifically in the Philippines. A few years ago, there weren’t many of them, and only a handful of shops were able to last and still manage to operate until today.
What I’ve noticed is that, these online shops, back then, sold a variety of items like Asian fashion apparel, DVDs, gadgets.. among others that I don’t really remember because I only bought stuff that I mentioned, haha. Back then, it also seemed easy to open, operate, manage, and control an online store compared to now. Perhaps the number of people who were aware of online shopping and e-commerce were smaller than the number of people now.
Now, the number of online shops just in the Philippines alone probably multiplied twice, thrice, or more! And the customers? Probably ten-fold. Who wouldn’t resist trying to purchase an item online if the price is way (depending on the store) lower than the mall price, right? Personally, I prefer buying from online stores than in malls for certain items, but that’s for another post. Haha.
One of my not-so-recent-finds for a “major” (I say this because it’s not a subdomain-hosted kind of shop) online shop is Lazada Philippines. My first impression of it is that it reminded me a lot of a certain online marketplace that’s known worldwide. Ignoring that fact, I continued to browse on the items they have.
Lazada primarily caught my attention from local tech review sites. The site somehow is always mentioned as the ‘first’ to release information about certain local phones going on-sale. So out of curiosity, I clicked the link and found myself browsing page after page in their website for hours.
What set them apart, for me, is that they also sell appliances. Maybe its just me but I haven’t come across a local online market that sells appliances, toys, home and living products, traveling essentials, AND the usual items you’ll find at online stores such as clothes, shoes, make-up, gadgets (cameras, phones, computers), etc. Definitely a first time to see local appliances sold at a local “online mall”.
Anyway, I compiled some items that got my interest while I was browsing around. Thought I’d share it with you all.
Note: I am really in need of these items right now, lol. See, I am even settling for a budget phone as opposed to the usual iPhone (also, Goodbye Apple!! Hahaha).
- Xenon 22″ Full HD LED TV
- Hanabishi Electric Stove
- Starmobile Crystal (I want this in black though, haha)
- Hug DVD Player (What a weird brand name, don’t you think?)
- Imarflex Profesisonal Hair Dryer
One of these days I think I will place an order for one of these items on my list just to see if they are good w/ handling orders as well as the delivery of it. And maybe choose the COD option too. 🙂
I’ve researched around and read that they’re not too efficient w/ the deliveries, but what got me unsure about the whole thing is that they don’t do combined shipping. I guess I could be a little lenient about that because they’re still new and getting to know how things work around. But I hope they consider doing that in the future. It shouldn’t even a considerable option, actually, it should be an available option from the start. The good thing is that they try to make up for their mistakes. At least there’s effort in their part.
Other than that, I think Lazada Philippines has potential if they listen to the feedback of their customers and do better and try to meet the demands as much as possible. Oh and if they can put more items in their inventory especially in the Books, Music, and Movies section that would be great, too. I thought I’d find something interesting in that section but it’s full of.. mainstream titles. 😛
I’ve ordered from Lazada last year. Got a phone, and got it like after 2 days as soon as I made the payment. So seamless. They’re a bit more expensive than other online stores though..
I always go for COD, too! It’s easy plus, you can be sure that you won’t lose any money if ever your order won’t arrive. (But I’m not saying that there’s a history of bad COD transactions with Lazada or any other online store! Disclaimer! haha)