Online Shopping in the Philippines

Online shopping is now becoming a popular trend among young and old shoppers here in the Philippines. It has made shopping more convenient and easy. This new shopping channel allows every shopper to directly buy goods or services over the internet and have them all delivered right at your doorstep. It saves up time, money, and effort. You don't need to go out and mix yourself with the crowd of shoppers. Basically, all you need is a valid mode of payment, a shipping address, and of course, an internet connection to complete a transaction. One can easily access numerous shopping sites, big and small, on the internet. Among them are the giant shopping sites like Alibaba, Aliexpress, Amazon, and eBay. Locally, we have the Lazada, Zalora, and many others.

Based on my personal observation, online shopping is more favorable among individual with a higher level of education and to high-earning individual. In spite of the convenience of online shopping, the risk of being a victim to a fraudulent transaction is always there. Being vigilant and choosing a highly-trusted shopping sites may lessen or even avoid the risk of being victimized. The risk it involved is likely the reason why it is not favorable among other shoppers. We can't blame them because we hear and see all these things happening every day. For an average earner like me, I can't afford to throw out my hard-earned money just as easy as that.

Not everyone in the Philippines owns a bank card to make online payment. There are several payment options that anyone can avail. Most local shoppers, I believe, still prefer a COD (Cash on Delivery) as a mode of payment even if they have bank cards. Upon checkout, choose the COD term on purchased items. The payment made upon receipt of the ordered items, This is a great idea among Filipinos to avoid online scammers, but Cash on Delivery as a mode of payment is not possible if you shop abroad. Online payments require a bank card.
Shopping from abroad is undeniably being a way cheaper and very inviting because, in most cases, they offer free shipping. I asked my friends how is it like shopping abroad. They just laugh and told me to forget that idea or get frustrated later. All I know later is that once the shipped item/s passes into the hands of a customs officer your dilemma starts to roll in. It is already a common knowledge among Filipinos the corrupt practices in the customs bureau. Certainly, I believe there are men and women of integrity and honesty in the bureau. Maybe just a few bad eggs trying to pull down the image of the bureau. Instead, I went ahead and start to shop at eBay and just hoping that everything will go smoothly in the hands of a good customs officer. I used to shop at eBay while I was in the United Kingdom and all transactions went well, hassle-free. The next shopping stop is the famous Aliexpress. I was searching both shopping sites for fine silver jewelry and some party balloons intended for the entire family. I made a total purchased of 30 pieces of silver jewelries and 200 pieces of uninflated latex balloons, all from different sellers. The payment made through PayPal and Alipay. Transaction went well and the shipping done on the next day. Standard shipping took almost a month, as promised by the sellers. All my packages delivered at my doorstep with no problem. I think this is the 6th time now. As of this writing, I am expecting my 7th package any day next week.

You may wonder how I did it. I have some ideas to share, and I hope it will also work with you. One important thing, the ideas here are just mine and my clear intention is to share my shopping experience.

1. Focus on buying few, small item/s from one seller.
2. Don't buy all items in one seller if you intend to purchase in large quantity. I spread all my items to other sellers. A cargo forwarder can assist you in consolidating, and in customs clearance for bulky items in commercial quantities.
3. Look for other sellers who has the same items for the remaining quantity, or on the same seller provided that placing another purchase few days or a week from the last one. This is to make sure the package will not come out bulky or heavy.
4. Don't be hesitant to contact the seller beforehand. Not everyone is nice and accommodating.
5. Mentioned all your concerns to the seller like the packaging of the item, labeling ,and price adjustment.