You Do Not Need to Worry; Online Shopping Can Be Too Much Fun!
I have two friends, Tee and Bee. Tee is a devouring online shopper, who always seeks to find what she wants online.
Bee is a hesitant online shopper, who is concerned with the hustle it might get from online shopping.
While both are right, there are 5 things that both should be aware of before taking the card and shop unlimited.
1. Online shopping is not always cheaper than traditional physical shopping:
Yes, indeed, but wait a minute. It is not all about the monetary value.
You may find your things in physical shops but you need to consider travel cost, traffic hustle, time spent and effort exerted. These all have value as well.
2. The price you see on online stores may not be the final cost you pay:
Absolutely! Especially when the online store is located in another country. Sometimes shipping, customs, sales tax are added. Shopping form Amazon and eBay is a good example.
Therefore, comparing prices head to head with the physical store is not a fair game.
3. Some online stores and their products are cheaper than others:
I can’t blame you! But, make sure of the authenticity of the products that these sites offer. There are a lot of scammers over the internet, so you need to be mindful before you give your credit card details or buy things that might not be original.
Usually, big-name sites like Macy’s, Nordstrom, Sephora, and Nike are a safe bet. You may pay some extra, but you relieve yourself of the remorse feeling, which is the worse.
4. Not all third party sellers are the same:
You need to be aware that some big shopping marketplaces like Amazon, eBay, and Alibaba have third party sellers, i.e. sellers are independent but use these platforms to sell their products.
Although marketplaces like Amazon do their due diligence to counter any counterfeiting, some sellers offer unoriginal products at lower prices. Many reports refer to this issue. So if this goes unchecked by either the platform or you as a buyer, you have a high probability of being scammed, especially when the price is absurdly low.
5. I bought the item but I can’t return it:
What a pity! One of the most important factors to consider when shopping online is the return policy. In the end, you don’t want your shopping experience to turn into a nightmare as a result of a bad choice or receiving a damaged item.
Therefore, you need to distinguish between online stores and shipping services. Couriers or shippers like DHL, FedEx, or Aramex are only shipping providers and not responsible for mistakes caused by the seller.
One more thing, when you buy an item and you ship it through them, it is not their responsibility if you got the wrong item or did a bad choice.
How I can avoid these mistakes?
You do not need to be worried about these things because they are easy to be addressed.
The easiest way to look at these factors is to combine them into one formula. The total benefit should exceed total costs. In other words, do only look at how much cash you pay.
To simplify this matter, let us give an example. Do you remember my friends Tee and Bee?
When shopping online, Tee lays down all the cost attributes on the table; money, time, efforts, and most importantly regret feeling.
She wants new trendy Nike shoes that are hard to get in the local stores. Anyway, she finds it at an unbranded local store for $100. It looks a nice deal, but this is not the end of the story.
She goes online and finds what she wants, in 5 minutes, at Nike Store in the US for $120. However, she will pay an additional $60 shipping and another $70 customs and taxes, or God knows how much to pay, to get delivered to her place. This is a total cost of $250.
No, this is not a good deal by far.
But as we said earlier, Tee is a hardcore online shopper, so she knows that it is hard to believe that a local store offers a new model cheaper than the original brand seller’s offer.
So, she checks online and finds a service that can bring it from the original US store. This service is Tojarcom, where she only sends the link and everything else is handled by this service costing $180. This is a good deal
Now we get to Bee. For her, this is not right. She only has to look for these shoes in the local market. After a day searching, she got for it $100. Very smart deal.
But wait a minute. It is too good to be true. She paid $10 for transportation and lost a day off from her work to get these shoes. Moreover, after 2 weeks, the shoes start to wear off. OMG, it is not original. She wasted the whole thing, adding a big regret feeling that cannot be matched.
In the end, Tee wins. But it is not always the case. Whether you shop online or from the local market, you need to consider these factors.
The bottom line, if you are looking for quality, you need to buy from a trusted store. If you don’t care about quality, you need to put up with remorse.
In addition to all of that, you can still save your shipping costs to Jordan.
If you want to know more, check our blog on this matter.
Very easy formula!