This week, the class focused the topic on E-commerce. In layman term, it's 'Doing business on the Internet'.
Doing business on the Internet was never a foreign thing to me.
In 2007, I started out a small business online in Blogger selling my handmade accessories. It was hard to advertise as there weren't much tools to use.
The only thing that I can announce the launch of my shop was using tagboard ( a little message box at the side of the blog ).
It was hard at first, trying to get people to know my products and to accept payment for them ( there wasn't iBanking at that time ). So transactions were all done via meet-ups and ATM transfers.
D: I got scammed for a few times when handling via meet up as I made my product but the person chose to MIA.
On the other hand, I was a frequent customer online too. Bought stuffs from girls all over Singapore.
I could still remember one time that I got cheated of $50 in a participated pre-order. In the end after much threatened from the various victims, the owner succumbed and return us all our cash as we have her bank account number. (Seriously, stupid or what)
But now, things are different! There's iBanking, Paypal and the 'shopping cart' method easily available in html for all blogshops.
There are not much Blogshops around anymore. Instead, everyone is moving on to the dotcom domains and to the much sophisticated 'Online Shop' interface.
One of the online shops that I frequent often is MODPARADE.COM
It is one of the successful blogshop-to-online shop in Singapore. I followed them when they are at modparade.livejournal till now where they even own a retail shop at Haji Lane.
Like what we've learnt in class. In the online store, there's no rental fee, perhaps the monthly domain subscription, but that's a fraction of their total profit. And their products are cheap, about $26 onwards.
Invoices, delivery order are all recorded via emailing. And you'll get the item within days.
But on the other hand, their retail shop products are much more expensive. Ranging from $50 to $89.... a bit risky no? Unless you have the cash to spare, it is worth it as it always 'fashion over comfort'. In the case, the comfort of your wallet. haha.
I've visited places like EBAY, YAHOO AUCTIONS, GMARKET and ETSY as well. It is using a multi box interface ( I don't know the actual name for it) but it's different from the shopping cart experience.
You could be a seller as well. Just set up an account and you are ready to go. As a customer, all you need is to search for what you want under the category and purchase through the user!
This is the interface of gmarket korea. Singapore's version is exactly the same in English (:
Despite the disadvantages like delivery time and products QC and all. I'll still support online shops as most of them provides quirky and interesting things all the time :)
How about you? Do you online shop often?
P.S. Our group is doing E-Biz: Marketing as well! ;D
Online shopping is certainly gaining popularity. But well, conservative and 'kia-si' people like myself still prefer physically walking into the shops to check out the products. Other than purchasing goods, I really appreciate the iBanking services we get to enjoy today. Payment is so much easier! Take air ticket purchase or holiday deals for example. It's so convenient that it sometimes encourage people to travel more often.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE SHOPPING ONLINE! haha! i think Modparade's clothes like quite hard to wear out haha!maybe not my type.. abit over hehe:D but in any case online websites are a good source of shopping for purchases, because you can actually do it at the comfort for your home and visit as many websites as compared to actually going to many shop fronts. that aside, i really don't know how to shop Korean Gmarket! like super difficult to read the korean words,scared later order wrongly cos sometimes they do not have the serial no.: (
ReplyDeleteI love the internet when it comes to online shopping! A wide variety of the different fashion styles can be delivered right before your eyes with a mere click, rather than to troll the shops for clothes.
ReplyDeleteWhats more, easy product and price comparisons can be done through online shopping, as products sold online tend to have more detailed descriptions.
Although it may be argued that shopping online lacks the "customer service" feel which is possible in traditional retail shops, but honestly, who bothers about that in this day and age anymore? (:
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HELLO! I love this blogpost because it is all about blogshops (HAHA) and also because I frequent blogshops to the point that it is severely threatening my wallet and depleting excessive amounts of money from my bank accounts.
ReplyDeleteI love the internet for its convenience and accessibility. Guess what? I can even shop online using my mobile phone. So as and when I feel like shopping, I just do it (that is not good for a shopaholic like me). But then again, what happens to the issue of anonymity? Because the products we see in retail stores we can try them on and really decide in the shop, whereas for products available on blogshops, we have to trust our instincts when all we can view are pictures on their websites. Right?
Omg, I want to blogshop now already.
(www.amandavelencia.blogspot.com)