Online Shopping Malaysia

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I hate shopping and I am an idiot where IT (information technology) is concerned. Now when I say IT, it means anything related to it, ESPECIALLY anything to do with online stuffs..... like online documentations, online forms, online transactions, you get what I mean, right?

So imagine my HORROR one day when I found out that I HAD to go online to MAKE some purchases! In this case, it was for academic books!

We needed quite a number of copies for our library, and most of them cannot be found in our book stores, of even if they can, they are priced much higher than when purchased online. The worst thing was, I had an extremely tight deadline to get the books, failing which, I will have my budget slashed. And there were so much problems that I heard with local customs, if we are indeed unlucky.

The only thing that I'd purchased online at that time (that was last year) were movie tickets, and that's only because I have a husband who is 1,000 times worse than me in anything IT. In case you would think that is good enough, did I mention that my first 2-3 initial movie ticket purchases were supervised and assisted by my colleague? And that was it..!!

Anyway, due to the tight deadline, I managed to pressure one of my team member to get the books online, and they were sent to a friend's address in Singapore. A lot of effort and time were invested in bringing the books back to Malaysia.

When the second round of purchase had to be made (after like a period of five months and yup it took me that long), I decided to take the plunge and do it myself. 

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Based on a friend's online shopping experience and encouragement, I gathered enough courage to start with the purchase of one book from Amazon.com just to test the water. The book was delivered to the college efficiently and smoothly. The next day after I received that book, I went online again and this time round, ordered six very expensive and good quality academic books amounting to RM 2,300. The good news is, they were all delivered to me without much hiccups or if there were, it was very well and professionally managed.

And you know what? Purchasing books on Amazon.com is like trading in forex, because the price that I have to pay today may be different from what I saw yesterday or last week, depending on the foreign exchange of Ringgit Malaysia against the US dollar. 

Subsequent to that, I actually tried online shopping, just for the experience. I won't say I am an expert in this area now, but here are some info, if anyone of you care to read. Yes, from someone who hates shopping, still.

Online Shopping for Books from Amazon.com

1. If you are purchasing books, be prepared to pay shipping fee. If they are shipped to Singapore, there is no shipping fee charged when the purchase exceeds certain amount. However, this rule does not apply to Malaysia, don't ask me why.

2. The delivery time for the item to be sent to Malaysia is always longer than that to Singapore.

3. Not all the items can be tracked for the purpose of monitoring the delivery status and stages. However, if the items are sent to a Singapore address, most of them can be tracked, how odd eh..?  :-/

Online Shopping in Malaysia in General

For some online shopping Malaysia tips, here are 3.

1. Make sure you buy from established and well known sites or brands

There are plenty of websites that offers fake branded stuffs. And since you can't check the quality by person, chances are, if you buy from unknown or unverified sites, you may get low quality items or fake branded stuffs for a very cheap or huge discounted price. 

Genuine products do not vary too much in price even if the discounts offered are

actually absorbed by the company of that website. 

2. Ensure you make price comparisons all the time if it is branded items

Always ensure that you know the item price sold by the company that produces it,

through their website. This way, you will know the price difference. Items that are on huge price discounts ought to be scrutinized thoroughly. You can try by buying an item first, to check out the quality before making a big purchase.

3. Check with friends who are online shopaholic

To know if certain website offers quality or genuine items, check with your online

shopaholic friends. They will be able to advise you what can be purchased and what

should be avoided in which sites. Trust me, they are your best advisor!

So be very careful, not all best deals are good and not all sites are bad.

Cheers and happy shopping!

--moon

Blog name - carrot head and apple mint