Lifestyle Tips: Online Shopping

Hello there!

It's been long since I updated my blog. Been busy with online shopping for clothes, shoes, bags, accessories and my fav CRAFT ITEMS <3

Why choose online shopping?
1. PRICE
I swear, almost everything is cheap online, not matter what product you're looking for. Sales are EVERYWHERE, unlike offline shopping which only has sales on special occasions. The only thing we have to look out for is its authenticity, but this problem can be easily solved just by doing a bit of research on your part. Another tip is to compare and choose a product with the most review, or choose a more trustworthy seller, so as to increase the satisfactory with the quality of the product.

2. COMPARISON 
Online shopping often takes time as we need to compare the product across different sellers and websites. The product may look the same, but the quality of the product may be different, or that different seller provide different benefits. For example, my product is a simple black dress. Seller A may sell it at $5 and seller B may sell it at $18. Though they might put the same picture for the dress, we cannot judge a book by its cover. Dress material from seller A may be chiffon but B offers a much higher quality material. It all depends on how much you're willing to pay for the quality. Usually, the higher quality products cost more. Reviews are especially helpful when it comes to this as we can see the satisfactory level as well as photos posted to see how the product is like in real life.

3. CONVENIENCE
Enough said, we don't even need to step out of our house, what more can we ask for? The transport fee saved might even be enough to buy clothes/accessories.

4. DELIVERY
Most offer delivery STRAIGHT TO YOUR DOORSTEP. No more walking around with heavy bags and tired legs. On the flip side, there are chances that the parcel might be lost, so do opt for registered parcels that can be tracked, especially for international delivery. But of course, that will be more expensive. However, I feel that the total cost will still be cheaper than offline shopping.

So today I will be sharing with you guys my top 5 favorite online shopping sites that I frequently visit:

5. Amazon 
Amazon is the largest online shopping retailer in the US. I don't really buy things from here as the shipping to Singapore is expensive. But I do browse amazon sometimes and I bought their kindle paperwhite and occasionally a few eBooks.

4. Aliexpress
Aliexpress is owned by the Alibaba group. It is catered more for international consumers, especially those from Europe or Australia. Their products are really cheap and worth to buy. Sometimes they even offer free shipping!

3. Qoo10
Singapore's number 1 shopping site. I don't really buy from here unless there is a big sales going on. The reason is that I believe that their products are mostly ship from overseas. Wouldn't it be cheaper if I buy directly from overseas myself?

2. Carousell
Carousell is an amazing site if you don't mind secondhand products. Most may be secondhand but can still be relatively new. For example, a dress may be retailing at $28 but if worn once or twice, people will usually sell for less than half the price on carousell.

1. Taobao (International)
**Do make sure that you're on the international site as their local site do not offer overseas shipping.**
I CAN'T EVEN EXPRESS HOW AWESOME TAOBAO IS. I have never been so thankful that I can read Chinese in my whole entire life. Everything is SOOOOOOOOOOO CHEAP, and I mean DIRT CHEAP. I would buy from there at least once a month, and everytime I would spend over a $100 (including shipping) for at least 20 items. Their craft products are really really cheap too! But honestly speaking, you pay for what you get on taobao. Don't expect too much if you only paid $5 for a dress, vice versa.
A small tip for those who cannot read Chinese is to use the "translate to English" function (right click on mouse). Even though the translation is a little weird, but at least it offers a lot of help to those who can't read. As for shipping wise, they have a flat shipping rate of 39 RMB to Singapore and I usually get my order within 1-2 weeks.
However, if you're staying in Singapore and only buying a few items, it might be more worth it to use forwarding services. For example, 65daigou which charge based on weight. Their forwarding services are better and a little cheaper than the ones on taobao.

And have you heard of the 11.11 sales? OMG it's like the best thing that can happen in your life. It's an annual event that offers sales up to 90%?!?!? It actually just past a few days ago but I manage to buy and order my items at 12am. There are so many people ordering that you can't even order from 1am onward because the system is too busy. It is that popular, TRUST ME. I may do a separate post on that to show you guys my taobao haul, so STAY TUNE!

So what do you guys think? Share your thoughts and leave your comment down below. :)
P.s. Please pardon my English, it's not that good and I don't bother going through my post a thousand times just to check for mistakes.