Don’t miss the ride! Online buying and selling is getting momentum in the Philippines. eCommerce will become HUGE! There is lots of opportunities for the enterprising one.
This is a copied post from one of my old blogs. Lol yes I had a WordPress blog and a Blogspot blog before I got my domain ‘Penfires.com’. Oh yah, I just remembered I have an old Angelfire blog way back 2001. Viva!
I’ve edited the post below slightly, using synonyms to some words. The reason is that although the original post is completely written by me, Google might not like it that it’s a duplicate copy of what I’ve previously published. And for a blogger, duplicate content is a no – no! Don’t want to displease Google if you know what I mean. hehe
I’ve already transferred all of my WordPress posts when I first started Penfires but not my Blogspot posts. (I have no plan of transferring my angelfire blog, reasons you can read Here.). I’m transferring one of the blogpost today, and that’s this article.
I never thought that “online” will be a world I’ll venture and embrace. My income for the past year and a half comes completely from online gigs, projects and opportunities. And it’s been rewarding so far. Nope I’m not rich by any measure but I’m thankful that my online income streams are paying for our bills, afford me some luxury and the funds to travel and discover the best destinations in the Philippines. Most importantly, my online income helps to pay for my brother’s college tuition. Yey, he is now on 4th year, just one more year. \o/.
I always love it when I get a notification of payment received in Paypal nyahaha. Anyhow, before I became a freelancer, my introduction to the best of what online can offer was by way of online transactions. Here’s the story….
I have just become a big fan of online transaction, after my 2nd time to successfully book flights to and from my hometown Cebu; it was a natural progression that I try to buy something online.
My first online search with the intention to buy was for a camera as I am planning to go to Sagada this summer and my old camera’s lens was a goner after a Corregidor Trip. My old Canon Powershot series cam was damaged due to my irresponsible use in a very hot and humid environment. When I asked the Canon service center for a repair quotation, it was so expensive that I figure it’s better to buy a brand new cam. And that’s the start of me embracing the power of eCommerce.
I visited numerous e-commerce sites, my favorites are www.sulit.com.ph, www.ebay.com.ph and www.multiply.com. I was feeling great about being able to do price comparison from different online businesses. But cross-referencing between sites stretched my patience blame my “reliable” smart bro prepaid plugin. Mannn the connection was sooo slow (so much for their claim of 2 Mbps lol).
I was website hopping one after another, checking that, checking this. The awesome thing is most online businesses offers brand new products at a huge discount versus their in-store and mall counterparts! Although, please know that not all online businesses give warranty other than what is called personal warranty.
That’s another thing, never heard of the term ‘Personal Warranty’ until I was deep in my search mission for my new camera. I immediately compared it to the ancient time of the barter trade wherein the string that binds buyer and seller alike is Trust!
Trust that the ‘meet-ups’ between buyers and sellers will push thru. Trust that the seller represents the products correctly; trust that the buyers have the means to pay. Trust that if ever the product malfunction while on personal warranty, the vendor / seller will see to the product repair etc.
But (here’s a big “but”) you must be picky in choosing whom to do business with because just like in any trading place or markets, there are people who are out to con unsuspecting consumers.
Here’s my tips, do background checks on the online store and the seller. A way to check is to browse through the feedback of their previous costumers. Sometimes the ecommerce portal (like eBay) has an official affirmation of the seller’s status (in eBay ‘powersellers’ are people who have made numerous completed transactions). A good record typically gives buyers greater confidence on the seller.
Back to my long awaited new camera, after a very long deliberation and evaluation of the available online offers, I finally decided on a seller and I contacted him. His post in sulit.com was very attractive and it leads me to cross check to his multiply store. It really amazes me how widespread is online businesses on multiply.com in the Philippines.
The online ad for Spunky, my camera bought through a Sulit.com seller
Blurred pics :/ Coz I can’t download the original screenshot image from Photobucket.
Anyhow, so I contacted the Sulit seller DB Gadgets and requested if we can have a meet-up the following day. I was that excited to get my new camera!
Ordinarily, a vendor will ask for‘goodwill’ money to be deposited to his bank account or via services like Western Union, Cebuana Lhuiller etc before the actual meet-ups. This is intended for the seller’s protection that his time and effort in agreeing to meet the buyer will not go to waste. A deposit is believed to dissuade a buyer from cancelling the meet-up.
Maybe because the vendor I contacted realized that I’m good at my word and very eager. I actually bombarded him with texts, ym pm, comments on his ad posting, private messages on his site hehehe, he granted my request of foregoing the ‘deposit’. Yey!
Online businesses must be pretty rewarding in this day and age, because instead of the vendor himself, I met with his staff. And by the staff’s counting, she is meeting 5 other people the same day. And these people bought bigger ticket items compared to what I purchased. I wonder how the government is regulating e-commerce. On positive note these online businesses create jobs; an example is the staff and gets more money moving in our economy (I hope).
So the next day I’m an owner of a brand new camera! Yey! It’s a Sony Digital Camera H20. I can’t wait to take pictures in Sagada! If you check my Sagada posts, you’ll know Spunky the camera was put to awesome use hehehe
Anyhow, that’s how I became an official online buyer!
The next step is becoming a seller. \o/
The second I made my intention to my former company that I am purchasing my service car, it was firmly planted on my mind that I will be selling my car online once I got it. I opted to utilize the free ad posting services of the website www.sulit.com.ph, and mannnn was I pretty pleased with the result!
After just 10 minutes of posting my ad online, the posting was not even completed because I don’t know how to attach the car pics to my posted ad and I was still in the middle of editing my post on Sulit, I got lots of calls and sms about the car I was selling.
Sulit.com.ph free ad posting, deluge of buyers contacting me within 10 minutes of posting, yey!
I discovered most online car shoppers are pretty serious bunch. As a seller, I have to pick the best offer. To cut the long story short, just after three hours of posting my online advertisement for my “Car for Sale”, I met the buyer in SLEX Caltex Northbound and sealed the deal on the spot. Just like that hehehe.
By the way if you are selling big ticket items like cars, dslr, jewelries etc, it’s best to require the buyer to either pay in cash or through a Manager’s Check. Do not accept personal checks for your peace of mind and security.
On the buyers side, if you are buying expensive items, best to request for meet-up on a safe place with an online seller like malls. I met the vendor’s staff in Mall of Asia. 🙂 I would discourage direct deposits unless you have done an extensive research plus the seller has good reputation and feedback.
Bye bye Ethan! Car sold via Sulit in a flash! Lol
It was an awesome deal! And the contracted price was higher than what was offered by the buy and sell car shop I brought my car to previously. It’s also higher than the offer of my landlord’s friend. So I’m pretty please 🙂
Anyway, I’m thinking now what online transaction to aim for next, bidding perhaps?
Fast forward to 2012….
I’ve booked lots of airline tickets online for myself and family. I’m also an avid fan of group buying sites like Groupon, Ensogo and Metrodeal and I do buy when there are sulit deals especially on travel and food. I’ve won in a bidding for a laptop via ebay.com.ph. Had two online stores in Sulit.com.ph – one was for a Cebu danggit shop, the other was for Liliw slippers. Both are defunct now as I am concentrating on other online opportunities. But now that I am interested in Hot Wheels die cast cars, I’ve again turn to online websites to hunt for rare cars and new die cast models.
Will I get tired of checking online stores and buying online deals? Probably not. 🙂
What’s your online transactions story? Did you experience scams and like that? Or were your online transaction experiences as rewarding as mine? Please leave a comment and share your experiences whether it’s good or bad. We all will learn from each other.
Go for convenience, buy things online!
Share your thoughts: