I started selling online a few months after giving birth to my third child year 2009. I used Facebook and Sulit. By the following year I initiated buying simple stuff like clothing and shoes for myself. Months went by and I was already hooked! Selling, buying, selling, buying, buying, buying.. Hahaha! I usually buy my personal paraphernalia online, at least 60-70% of my clothes, shoes and bags. I even purchase some of our small kitchen appliances from an online shopping mall. Let me write in here three reasons why I kinda go for this shopping method instead of going to a physical store:
1. Convenience. I don't have to go outside the house, less the hours spent in taking a bath, dressing up and all which I sometimes dislike. There'd be days I'd jump into the car hair uncombed. And there'd also be unlucky days when I can't locate my one and only pink Springmaid comb making our driver run to a nearest store to buy an alternative brush for my pitiful hair. So much for that hair, because I stay most of the time at home, in my husband's office and on the road, I do not have the luxury of staying inside a shopping center particularly if it'll be my personal things I'll be selecting. When online, when I see an item, I'll check, I'll ask for details from the seller or read the given info, if I like, then confirm. That's it.
Okay. Wait. As many as the sellers and buyers flocking the world wide web today, I am fully aware that there are fakes, bogus and scams. I only transact with sellers whom I know and trust. I am a 'repeating' customer. I do not hop from one seller/shop to another. This also applies when I shop in a physical store. I am one of those who always carry a shoppers' loyalty card or whatever they call it. Hehe.
2. Spending Less. When I shop online I do not have to bring a wallet or cash. And when I say I only have 1,000 php for today for buying a pair of sandals, a pair of trousers and a shirt, then I have to stick with it. It's because, I am the kind of woman who brings all of my belongings when I go out. Meaning, I have with me our ATM cards and my one-month's allowance plus the amount intended for food and house necessities. Honestly, I can't resist buying when I'm surrounded with so good things. I only think about an item twice. Ending, I'd be paying for unnecessary finds. I guess I should be thinking more than thrice - to a hundred. I do not have that kind of extended patience when shopping because the day would soon be over so what I see, I get. Unlike when I face my computer, browsing a thing to a thing, stuff to a different stuff to more, I'd have the time to compare and think, now this, more than twenty times.
3. I Make Friends. True. Because I am a 'repeating' customer, the sellers become my virtual friends. I get to know them. Not only them but even their families, their spouses, kids, love life. Because when I transact with people, one of my interests is to make a connection, not just in terms of money or business but to make a bridge more on personal. Mostly, that makes me come back to that shop, to the seller, because of the person.
Well, my online shopping mantra only applies when I buy things for myself as what I've written above. When it comes to my husband and our kiddos, I don't have a choice but to spend a day inside my favorite shopping mall, will make another post for it though.
