Why do you need Online Shopping Guide
Our site is being optimization related, so why not optimize the buyer’s experience with Online Shopping Guide. Ever wondered what is the best and “painless” way to find an item and make an order on either Amazon, Aliexpress or Ebay? Or how to receive your item fast and not being tricked by any low-quality sellers?
Consider buying overseas
First, you need to understand if at all there is a need for you to buy an item overseas. Check prices and quality with your local stores first, before conducting a search in one of the international online stores. Maybe the item you want to buy will cost less (or the same) in your local store and you can get them straight away, without waiting for it to ship. Or maybe the warranty execution and returns are much easier. Even if the price is a little higher in your local store, still consider if you want to wait for the shipping and how convenient for you is the warranty. Off course, if the item you need isn’t available anywhere at your location – there is not much you can do.
Seller rating as the sign of quality
Something you must always consider in any site that provides you with online shopping experience is the seller rating. Off course, logically if a seller has a rating of 100% doesn’t mean all the items he has are quality items, but it is so statistically speaking. No seller wants to have lower rating because of low quality items. If many items will break or become unusable because of the quality, he will get lower ratings. Any seller with high rating is working hard in order to maintain it. Think of it as you will need to pay for marketing your brand. If you have higher ratings you will have more people that will buy from you (without paying for the marketing).
There is a problem though – you probably will need to refund without question in case of problems (higher ratings are “the marketing” and you pay for it by providing high quality service). Simple as that. So, basically higher ratings mean better service. Better service means better packaging of the items and faster shipping. Also, if there are some problems in delivery or with the item itself, sellers with high rating will resolve the issue fast and effective in order to maintain their rating.
Optimal Browser usage while Searching for items
Some items search tip for any site. After you conducted a search and you see the results – open an item that you liked in a new tab. Don’t close the results page. It will be much easier for you to navigate back and compare between items (if needed).
Comments and Reviews
Always check the comments section and answers for the questions that people ask (there might be important information or findings by the shoppers). Doesn’t matter if the rating is high or not. If the only negative responses are for some low consideration topics, like “I got the item 2 days later then the promised date”, so this is fine, but if you see that people talking there about some flaws in the product and it is more than 1 person complaining – in most cases this is true. Beware.
I Got some high rated item from Amazon (2 of some cups with a closing) and after a week found that they both leak. Apparently, some flaw in production which was fixed a month after I purchased the item and it took some time to receive a fix rubber for the closing (which is inconvenient). Of course, after that went to the item page again to read the comments. Found out people were complaining that these cups leak. The comments were available for the time of the purchase, so if I was looking at them, I wouldn’t purchase the specific item and would purchase another from the same category.
TrackChecker Mobile – Package Tracking Application
I’m using the “TrackChecker Mobile” (by Denis Kormilin aka MetalFan) application on android (Last time I checked there was no version for iOS – probably Apple users have something else). This is very convenient when you have like 20 packages that are on the way. You just input the tracking number, select the carrier and each time the tracking is updated – you get a notification. Most of the times I get the update that it got to the post office much earlier than they send me a notification.
Online Shopping Guide for specific sites
This Online Shopping Guide was intended to use with collaboration of more specific Guides of the three main sites that I use, probably they’re the most popular. You can check all our comprehensive guides to make a better shopping experience for your: Amazon Shopping Guide, Aliexpress Shopping Guide, Ebay Shopping Guide.
There are many other sites available, like: Asos, Banggood, Gearbest. I don’t use them much, so can’t say anything about the reliability, but I see that some use them quite frequently. Try to order couple of small things from there, see how it goes (if you want to try them out).