Thursday, March 28, 2019

2019/03/27: Tips for Online Shopping Rush

I have to admit that

I am kinda addicted to the game

i mean yeah since last Single’s Day Sale

followed by 12.12 and

the very recent Lazada Birthday Sale

which is finishing in less than 30 minutes

*

i am done anyway

phone’s locked because

I have zero screen time left

thanks to the long wait due to

heavy traffic yesterday

*

as of 22:42

I have placed 9 orders in total

and cleared the pre-loaded balance in

my e-wallet which I thought

I could never finish this time round

*

let’s see

last night at 12am

there was some hiccups

with the payment system

probably due to heavy traffic

so I couldn’t check out items

until 1am+

that kinda explained why

i ran out of screen time today

*

one of my orders got canceled

but the rest managed to go through

they did compensate me with

a RM20 promo code for the order

in fact I was trying to use a RM40 code

in that particular order

but anyway this compensated code

doesn’t require minimum purchase

*

preparation at different stages

(1) one week before the sale

the KIV stage

deals are announced

vouchers are issued

just add to cart

so that you can see if

this is a low stock item

*

(2) one day before the sale

the bullet loading stage

list down the items

you are really buying

with a table to show

minimum order

for free shipping

for voucher or promo code

*

most importantly

get your payment method(s) ready

reload your e-wallet

get your card(s) ready

try to utilize cashback/rebate

for e-wallet / specific card / bank

in fact there are plenty

might as well list them down

along with your items

*

(3) the sale night

count down stage

kick items which are not really important

out of the cart first

place them in wish list

*

by not important, i mean

those which are not in hot demand

or low in stock

which requires instant check out

once the clock hits 12 am

*

and this is also when

you make up your mind

if you have two similar items

in your cart

when time comes

you seriously don’t have the time

to do eeny, meeny, miny, moe

*

(4) 12am-2am

the sale (war) starts

will be facing problems like

- heavy traffic

– stock running low

- order cancellation

so you don’t expect

all of your orders will get through

from past experience

*

the traffic will kinda die

after 1am

that was when I managed to

pay last night

*

my strategy is

for popular items I really want to buy

in spite of the bad traffic

check out first

and you will eventually get to pay

later when the traffic gets better

*

it’s almost like

buying a hot item in supermarket

having the item in your trolley

means you have at least

get it secured

*

of course don’t do it

for every single item

that you haven’t made up your mind

while people out there are

fighting for limited stocks

*

(5) early morning on sale day

the “redemption” stage

of course

being an early bird

does pay because

there might be pending orders

you didn’t get to

follow up last night

*

so this is your second chance

after many orders like yours

have been cancelled

i.e. unpaid stocks are being released

to re-apply voucher or coupon

for a smooth check-out

*

e.g. surprisingly

at 7:40 am which i considered late

i managed to check out

the same cart of Uniliver goods

i didn’t manage to pay

with the same 50 MYR promo code

for minimum purchase of 150 MYR

*

(6) throughout the sale day

of course this is when

you clear your less prioritized items

look out for special promo released

throughout the day

*

e.g.

i checked out two Switch games

when they release the last round promo code

that was when the last bullet in my e-wallet

was drenched and I even had to reload more

so I got 45 MYR off for two games

*

and I received a 20 MYR

unique voucher code via SMS

for my unpaid order last night

which I used on an Aztec clay mask

that I keep in view

in case need to top up items

in order to apply certain voucher/code

*

well thanks to this voucher

I also paid for a New Balance order

which I thought I will never do

because I got kinda mad

after so many failed attempts to pay

*

hey it seemed that

the order was left unpaid

for more than 12 hours already

but they never did cancel it

so i guess this is a smart strategy

to lure buyers to proceed to re-pay

for items which are not in high demand

so basically I am done

*

flash deals

on top of promo codes

they do drop flash deals

for very limited quantity

from time to time

so do look out

*

I had actually KIV-ed

a Toshiba harddisk

but it was released at 2pm

when I was busy working

and by the time

I managed to check after 3pm

it was already sold out

*

(7) budgeting

last but not least

ask the usual questions like:

how to best utilize the promos?

are you over buying?

are you over spending?

is it something you (really) need?

*

none of these are impulse purchase

i guess

although i was tempted to

those items were secretly buried

in my wishlist, not cart

to avoid this from happening

e.g. a Marshall speaker

or at least a Harman/Kardon

*

i seriously know nothing

about audio quality

except the fact that

it looks kinda cool to have one

in my tiny little personal space

*

in total

let’s see I have spent 1.2k MYR

but the list of items I get is

pretty amazing

- household items from RB

- Herschel bags X 2

- household items from Uniliver

- Nestle Milo X 4 (yes!) 

- stackable shoes boxes 

- New Balance 331

- Switch games x 2

- Aztec clay mask

*

at the end of the day

i can’t believe how

they are taking money away from me

yet i feel kinda proud of myself

for the so-called mission accomplished

*

should i actually publish this post

then I will face more competition

next time round ><

*