Over the years, I get more and more people asking me where and how do I shop online.
And I always find it hard to explain. It's not that I don't want to share laaa but it's just almost impossible to tell them the way I buy stuff off websites in simple words lol. So today, I thought maybe it will save me times if I write a post on online shopping then next time I can show it to those who ask me this question again. HAHA
Nowadays my parcels just get bigger and bigger.I started doing this since 3 years ago. At first I was also worried like those who are new to online shopping. Will I get cheat? Can I really use my credit card? What if I paid and the seller ran away? What if these clothes don't suit me? Is it cheaper to buy online? How do I know if the pictures of the product are exactly the same as the real thing?
Well, I can tell you the answers for half of these questions need experience. And the rest of it? It depends on yourself.
You know there are risks of the clothes not fitting. You know sometimes the seller might be a pro photographer and when you get the product it looks like shit. But you chose to buy online right? Then you got to be careful of the websites/sellers you go to.
1. Check their ratings from the buyers. Higher ratings = better products.
2. Sometimes ratings is not enough, look at the way they communicate with the buyers. There are many sellers out there who only care about money and nothing about you.
3. Ask as many questions as you can if unsure.
4. Still can't believe them? Look for forums that discuss about sellers or the specific products you are looking for. You can get lots of info from forums.
And about your credit card, seller running away and getting overpriced stuff, you have to be really careful about it.
Don't know about you but I have never got cheated off the web. It's rather safe....
IF YOU ARE SMART ENOUGH.I mean... which idiot will buy from a seller that has no rating / negative ratings / no pictures of the product? And which moron will pay $100 for something that costs only $50? You do think before you buy RIGHT???
Don't know lah but those scams are really obvious. Just try to be rational all the time. Don't get tempted by really cheap stuff. If you think "WOW this clothes is super cheap!!! The official site lists it twice more expensive!!!" then it must be fake la. Aiyor do you know how great China is in reproduction nowadays?! And they reproduce everything massively.
So something that is supposed to be out of stock already should not appear on the web anymore and if you buy it then I got nothing to say about your brain la unless the seller is someone you can trust or it's second hand..
What about credit cards?
Well, you heard of eBay?
You know how many shops are listed in eBay?
Then do you know they hardly encourage buyers using credit cards?
These days... no one use credit card for online shopping liao... It's
PAYPAL PAYPAL PAYPAL!!!PAYPAL ROCKS!okay
NOT if the transaction involves currency conversion.
With Paypal, everything is safe. I have been using it for almost 4 years!! And nothing bad happen to me except that I need to pay bit more for foreign transaction la.
Only use your credit card on websites that can be trust or listed as safe by your credit card company. Also, for VISA, if the websites are safe, there will be a "Verified by VISA" logo then you can use your card without any doubts.
So now, credit card problem gone. What else?
Oh... Big question.
Where do you shop online?SIGH. feel like dividing this post into two parts...
I shop mainly from Japan and Taiwan. Sometimes bit of Korea and USA. I did UK and Europe before. Where else? Oh, Hong Kong too.
Then your next question must be WAAAAAAAA which website that has so many stuff from all over the world???!!!! TELL ME!!!
My answer?
WWW.
You: wth is that.
Me: World Wide Web.
:D
Sometimes I get more than one parcel in a day... My record is 5 in a week. The green box is from Taiwan, and the blue one is from Japan.You know.. I really have no idea how to tell you guys where I shop.
Basically I shop everywhere. I shop so much that now everything I wear is not from Australia. HAHAHA. My jeans can be from Singapore (Levi's Lady's la Australia sucks don't have!!), my bag is from Korean, my shoes is from Taiwan, my tops from Japan. You see.. how do I answer people when they ask me where I shop?
So now I am going to tell you how I find these websites.
First of all, the easiest way, is through
fashion blogs.
(Note: don't buy from blogshop ar the stuff are all from China/Taiwan. trust me lah all their clothes I have seen before from Taiwanese websites. And I have not bought anything off blogshop before... their price is way too high for the quality.)
Fashion blogs have a lot of information on the online shops. Normally these bloggers list out where they buy their stuff, though it might be only the brand but you can try finding its official online shop.
The blog can be in any languages. Doesn't matter as long as you can read them. I personally read more of the Taiwanese blogs (in fact I write one too XD) because I like the styles more. It depends on your preferences.
For Japanese style, you can find it on both English and Mandarin blogs. Eventually you will know more about where you can shop online.
Next, the most powerful tool ever (IMO),
JAPANESE FASHION MAGAZINES.
As mentioned, I shop mainly from Japan and Taiwan. Taiwan = blogs and Japan = magazines!
In Japan, they call online shopping "net shopping". Therefore online shop = net shop. Most of the popular huge brands that you see in the magazines have net shops. Almost stocks as much as the stores.
Can't get to Japan? SHOP ONLINE.
these are only one third of my Japanese magazines XD Don't worry if you can't read Japanese, some of the famous magazines are available in Mandarin. Anyway you don't really have to read them. Pictures tell everything.But be careful ar... I call these Japanese magazines the most powerful tool ever for a reason. It can burn all your money in one glance.
You look at the model (read: LENA FUJI) and you go "OMGOSH SO PRETTY!!! I NEED THAT DRESS!!!" then you look at the price and it's like $200 for a
plain dress (Yen is very expensive) but your eyes are still on the model then before you know, the dress is already on the way to your house.....
Bought the dress without realising your eyes are not as big as the model / your face is chubby / you are too short for that dress / your boobs not big enough laaaa /
WORST CASE EVER: YOU CAN'T FIT INTO THAT DRESS AND YOU CAN'T RESELL IT BECAUSE NO ONE WILL BUY IT. IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE FOR A PLAIN DRESS LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!So I repeat, BE CAREFUL AR.
(No I didn't buy something I cannot fit into, I bought something that is too big for me zzzzzzzz but I sold it ^____^)
Of course not all of the magazines feature expensive stuff. ViVi definitely has I-cannot-afford-clothes. I still like it. But my current favourite magazine is PopSister!!

You might heard of Popteen before. PopSister is the sister magazine of Popteen, it suits girls who are bit older in terms of age. It's more mature but still cute if compared to Popteen. Most of the past models from Popteen are now modeling in PopSister and I definitely prefer PopSister's models.
Popteen is dominated by kumiko = =And PopSister does feature more affordable clothes than ViVi. The price is like heaven and it's worn by the models!!!!!! So now don't need to be too careful when reading PopSister HAHAHA
Lastly, I am going to list down some of my favourite sites.
1.
Taiwan Yahoo Bidyou have to know Mandarin for this site. It's like eBay but very little sellers accept Paypal / credit cards. Need middle person if you want to buy from here. Quality is not that good.
2. Japan -
Earth Music & Ecologygot to love their styles. it's cheaper for Japan's goods and the quality is still very good.
3. Japan -
INGNIsome of their stuff can be cheaper or expensive. but quality is still very good.
4. Japan -
Allamandathis is a sister brand of INGNI and it's more expensive overall. however nice style :D
5. Japan -
LOWRY'S FARMi love their shoes. and all the stuff has pictures of the shopkeepers wearing them. this way you can imagine better wearing it on yourself compared to seeing mannequins wearing it.
6. Japan -
HEATHERsame as LOWRY'S FARM you get pictures of shopkeepers with the clothes/bags/shoes/hats. it's also under the same company.
7. Japan -
Dazzlin'expensive brand haha but I love it.
8. Japan -
Liz Lisathe models are cute and the things are not cheap. still, heart.
9. Japan -
Pageboycaucasian models and quite expensive.
10. Japan -
FLAG-Jget their boots during winter it's cheap and good.
11. Korea -
Cherry KOKOeveryone is crazy about this online shop! It's not a brand it's a shop that carries many apparels from different unknown factories. price is a bit higher than what you can find in other stores. the models are really pretty too.
Okay. This is what I can think of for the time being. See out off 11 of them 9 are Japanese brands HAHA and there are more but too expensive to list out I guess XD Actually all the things I bought from Japan have good quality. So you don't really have to worry about it. It's worth every cent of your money.
However, like the Taiwanese, these net shops don't accept credit cards too. And Japanese seldom send internationally. So you need middle person again. This normally costs 5-10% of your total purchase. I would say 10% is too much so try looking for lower cost ones.
Hope this post helps. I can't do more than this T____T Or maybe I can I am just too lazy to type hahaha.
If you need the contact details of my middle persons in Taiwan and Japan, you can leave a message and I will get back to you. They send everywhere as long as you have Paypal.
Thanks for reading HAHA and I guess I won't update until errrrrrrrrr I get bored XD
BAIBAI