Online Shopping: The Wave of the Future?

I love to go shopping. Part of the thrill other than the final purchase of course, is how it tickles all five senses. For clothes, shoes and bags, it’s seeing all the different colors and styles, trying them on, seeing how they look on you, how the material feels against your skin. For gadgets, it’s tinkering with it, turning it over in your hand, inspecting it with a careful eye. But with the advent of the internet and the surge in popularity of this new way of shopping, I still preferred to shop the traditional way.

But since we moved out of Manila, where malls sprout up faster than you can say “SM”, we have had to deal with very limited shopping options.

It was actually my hubby who encouraged me to try out online shopping. He had tried it himself a few years back when he worked on a military service facility on a remote island. After work, while waiting for me to go online to chat, he would just surf the net and see what's out there. Since the credit card is the main transaction mode, he made sure to research on reputable online shops. His favorites were tgw.com (the golf warehouse) where he bought golf clubs and jr.com for gadgets. He was so amazed at the ease of his shopping experience and surprised at the affordable prices that he even bought electronics and eyewear and re-sold them to his colleagues for a profit.

I had only shopped online through a friend's online store called nuiclothing.com. Her site is patterned after many international online shops, where at the click of a button you can see the color of the top you want, inspect it up close by zooming on the product and even see how the back looks. Recently, I bought athletic shoes from JC Penney and was even able to view every angle of it, from top to bottom. My favorite though is amazon.com mainly because the shipping cost to Marshall Islands is a steal at just $7.93.

Of course buying online does have one setback, delayed gratification. Hehe! After purchasing what you shopped for, you have to wait at the most 2 weeks, depending on where you live, to get your items. But there's no need to worry that your items get lost in transit. Most big online shops have a tracking system where you can check when your stuff were shipped and the estimated arrival to your place. If ever you are not satisfied with your purchase there is almost always a 30-day moneyback guarantee. Great huh?

Online shopping right now hasn't really caught on as much in mainstream Philippines, but with the escalating gas prices, more people are opting to stay home or at least stay close to home and forego the usual Sunday trip to the mall. Shopping online may just be the thing to whet your shopping appetite.