Saturday, August 23, 2008
Review: eBay
(Each aspect is graded on a scale of 5 thumbs up)
Let's start off with a brief introduction of our main character here.
eBay.com was founded in 1995 in USA and was soon popularised to be The World's Online Marketplace® it is today, with individualised domains in 29 other countries. Despite the lack of a physical presence unlike the conventional business setup, it is an extremely powerful platform for the sale of goods and services offered by the individual or small businesses on a local, national and international basis.
I'm eager for some retail therapy, so what's there at eBay? Looking to find that special outfit for an upcoming ball, secondhand PSPs or intricately crafted gingerbreadman cookie cutters
for christmas? You are bound to find something that suits your needs here at eBay.com. With
more than 50 item categories and even more subcategories under each, you can be sure that you are in for some major shopping online. Truth be told, eBay.com is intended for the
smart shopper - one who has something to purchase in mind, even if all you have is just a fuzzy imagination of each. Nothing in mind? Well you can move on to what I term as "virtual window shopping". Just clicking and browsing random item listings that catches your eye and most importantly, your pocket remains unharmed!
Variety/Range:
Wherever do I start from? So many things to see and I haven't got all day!All you have to do is type in your keyword in the search field and let the eBay search engine do its job. The individual items are listed on the return pages in a systematic manner, with a thumbnail of the stock image at one corner to allow buyers to scan thr
ough the listings. eBay's
minimalistic layout also serves to bring the focus to the products and save on page-loading time. Don't see what you are looking for or there are simply too many returns? Narrow down your searching scope with the advanced search, or simply change the keywords. eBay offers additional help by including a list of keywords which is related to yours.
User-friendliness:
Hmm I see a dress that I like. Oh wait there are so many of the same dress offered by different sellers.One much-appreciated feature of eBay is the
transparency in which the listings and transactions are handled in its domain. Prices are listed clearly alongside the items in the search results and this offers the buyer a
quick comparison. This is when the buyer will have to rack his/her brains in rationalising which offers the b
est bargain in terms of time and cost, which is dependent on factors such as the current bid price, the number of bids placed thus far, how long more till the end of the auction and also the reliability of the seller.
If a certain product listing seems lacking in its description, the buyer also has the option of emailing the seller to request for the details.
Typically, products in eBay are sold off in the
auction manner, whereby the highest bid wins at the end of the listing. For those who are more interested in fast and fuss-free transactions, eBay has also created an
express section whereby you can buy the items without the need to place a bid. All in all, shopping on eBay is easy as the consumer will have to take the initiative to contact the seller for more information on the product and think through before making the decision to purchase.
Great opportunity to apply our smart shopping techniques, don't you think?
Is my dress going to fly over to me in a plane or travel by sea?Most sellers featured on eBay.com are based in USA, with a handful of them located in other parts of the world, if they choose to let their listings b
e featured in the main site and not just the subsidiary eBay sites for their countries. Even though the freight costs may not be listed in the item description, most sellers are more than happy to ship their goods to overseas customers (still earning moolah anyway!). USA sellers rely heavily on the
United States Postal Services to send out
international mail, so it will be good to drop by usps.com and familiarise yourself with the international postal costs as well as the mail transit durations.
Postal cost is dependent on weight of the goods and the speedier the service, the more expensive it's gonna be. Be sure to ask for a quote on the shipping cost before placing your bid! Just to safeguard yourself against dodgy sellers who try to bank on unsuspecting consumers.
Airmail is loadsssss faster than seamail, anyhow, and takes between 5-9 days for transit (not too shabby for something that comes from the other end of the world!). International Express mail is the fastest at 2-3 days. Seamail, though the cheapest option available, can take up to 3 months which virtually kills off the excitement in waiting for your purchase.
How am I going to pay for my goods? For anyone of us in Singapore, buying anything on eBay.com will mean trading on an international level. Credit card payment is definitely the way to go. Before you start worrying about exposing yourself to online frauds, the good news is that eBay has partnered up with an equally user-friendly payment company,
Paypal, which allows making payment online to be as easy as ABC. Your eBay account will be tied in to your paypal account, such that you can make payment right after you've won a listing. Paypal enables ease of payment using credit cards and the website is equipped with
verisign security encryption that serves to reassure that your credit card and bank account details remain confidential.
Besides credit card payment, Paypal is also a multi-dimensional transaction centre. You will be able to link your bank account to your paypal account and from there, transfer funds to anyone with an email address. These days, technology flies like there's no tomorrow and thus, Paypal has also explored the possibility of making payment via your mobile phone and even Skype.
Certain sellers are also flexible with other modes of payments such as Western Union or wired bank transfer, though these 2 modes go hand in hand with a higher level of risk.
I've received my dress and the hems are fraying! What can I do? The seller obviously didn't state the condition of the dress!Looking to seek some form of redress? You'd better pray that payment was made via paypal! Unfortunately, eBay.com doesn't offer any form of insurance program
. However, if you paid for your item using PayPal, you are covered by the
PayPal Buyer Protection program as long as the
eligibility requirements are met and coverage is up to either $200 or $20000. In short,
eBay+paypal makes a powerful and formidable combination that offers absolute protection to consumers. As quoted off the eBay's help page,
"eligibility for buyer protection services is determined by the payment method that you use and the eBay country site where the item was purchased". If your payment was not made via paypal, you can also look into eBay's
Buyer Protection Programs to seek compensation. You can expect
fast response from eBay or Paypal, with most of the replies coming in within a day.
If the problem with the item purchased is not too serious and you don't see a need in a third party intervention, you may first approach the seller for some form of solution. Certain established eBay merchants (check their positive feedback count!) have a standard return and exchange policy in place and they do honour their words. It is also important to keep in mind that the consumer has a part to play when making a conscious decision in buying anything, so be sure to check your doubts with the seller before committing to buy.
Other useful features of eBayMy eBay: This is where the eBay user, be it seller or buyer, manages one's own purchases and listings. Items that one is interested in but still hesitating to place a bid on can be added to a watchlist, where one can then monitor the progress of the listing.
Feedback system: Upon receiving the goods, the buyer can rate (positive/negative) the seller and leave a short comment on his/her buying experience.
Help page: The extensiveness of eBay's help page is astounding. It's basically a dummy's guide to anything and everything on eBay, and works just like any websearch engine!
The eBay Community: Unable to find the answer to your question? Want to stay in the loop about the most recent trends and happenings on ebay? This is the place to be. Active members and the staff of eBay will put up announcements and discussions in this friendly neighbourhood hub where they can share their interests and hobbies with the rest of the world. The equivalent of your friendly neighbourhood police post, there are also frequent updates on the latest fraudulous or suspicious activities (bound to have some black sheep out there...) at eBay, so you can be more cautious in your online shopping.
ConclusioneBay.com is definitely one very reliable platform for one to online-shop at, with a grounded set of user policy and the various buyer protection schemes that are in place.
Every single transaction at eBay is recognised as a legal contract. The online shopper can look forward to a safe and secure online shopping experience here. The trust that online shoppers have in eBay is pretty apparent, judging from the high degree of transactions that take place each day.
Personal recommendation: I've personally bought some stuff off eBay and most sellers were friendly and efficient in the transactions. I like eBay for the excitement and immense satisfaction whenever I win an auction (the bidding gets increasingly aggressive towards the end!). On top of that, this is where I get my good bargains from most of the time. My best buy so far is this Topshop dungaree which I bought off eBay-UK at around S$30 (inclusive of shipping) and my friend purchased the same at the local Topshop sale for over S$50 :D (She was quite mad about the price difference when she found out.) Nowadays I turn to eBay whenever a certain item has gone out of stock in the retail outlets and my OCD drives me to hunt it down and own it. The odd times at which some auctions end can be too much to bear sometimes.
Labels: eBay, Online-shopping, Review
by
Ms Lim HM @
1:47 PM -
0 comments
for christmas? You are bound to find something that suits your needs here at eBay.com. With more than 50 item categories and even more subcategories under each, you can be sure that you are in for some major shopping online. Truth be told, eBay.com is intended for the smart shopper - one who has something to purchase in mind, even if all you have is just a fuzzy imagination of each. Nothing in mind? Well you can move on to what I term as "virtual window shopping". Just clicking and browsing random item listings that catches your eye and most importantly, your pocket remains unharmed!
ough the listings. eBay's minimalistic layout also serves to bring the focus to the products and save on page-loading time. Don't see what you are looking for or there are simply too many returns? Narrow down your searching scope with the advanced search, or simply change the keywords. eBay offers additional help by including a list of keywords which is related to yours.
est bargain in terms of time and cost, which is dependent on factors such as the current bid price, the number of bids placed thus far, how long more till the end of the auction and also the reliability of the seller. If a certain product listing seems lacking in its description, the buyer also has the option of emailing the seller to request for the details.
e featured in the main site and not just the subsidiary eBay sites for their countries. Even though the freight costs may not be listed in the item description, most sellers are more than happy to ship their goods to overseas customers (still earning moolah anyway!). USA sellers rely heavily on the United States Postal Services to send out international mail, so it will be good to drop by usps.com and familiarise yourself with the international postal costs as well as the mail transit durations. Postal cost is dependent on weight of the goods and the speedier the service, the more expensive it's gonna be. Be sure to ask for a quote on the shipping cost before placing your bid! Just to safeguard yourself against dodgy sellers who try to bank on unsuspecting consumers.